Better Than You Think

They were the words that changed everything.
“You’re better than you think you are.”
“You can do more than you think you can.”

Here I am in the photo, bloodied, bruised and battered after my last top 10 finish in the Exmoor 50k ultra race, and I must have said these words to myself a hundred times over the preceding 5 hours.

I learnt them perhaps 15 years previously, when I first became a fangeek of the mysterious world of ultra running, as it was then. Watching a video of the legendry Leadville 100, these were the words that were blasted out of the PA system to the athletes standing on the start line.

I never forgot those words, it was like they had been waiting for me to discover them.

I’ve used them, verbatim, to coach athletes, to motivate teams, to weave into my corporate workshops, and just to reassure friends who sometimes need to hear it.

And I’ve often needed to hear it too, almost as if in a personal Ho'oponopono prayer.

A parable for life.

We’re all better than we think we are.

We can all do better than we think we can.

What are the words or mantras that changed everything for you?