"I won't give up"

Two and a half years ago I started training for my first half marathon. Extremely nervous and not sure if I would be able to run a half marathon, I started to train for it in a gym and once it warmed up, I started to train in the canyon. Every time I ran on the trail up there, at the spot that I usually would want to quit running, I ran past this cement rock with lots of graffiti on it. Normally I just ignore graffiti seeing as most of it is swear words or inappropriate pictures or phrases, but this time, something caught my eye. It was this statement:

"Life has no limits if you are not afraid to get in it." 

That quote usually gave me another boost and I would be able to finish my run for that day.  I loved running past that rock every day because every day I was reminded that really there are no limits to what we are capable of doing. I saw that immediately with my running life. Many years ago I would have never dreamed of running two half marathons and a full marathon but I did it. I didn't let the fear of trying something new or pushing myself stop me from accomplishing something great. 

Today as I was thinking about my life, I found myself thinking back to this graffiti rock and how I have been letting my fears take over what I am capable of. I started to allow the thoughts of "I am not good enough to be a recreation therapist" stop me from really searching for a job. I realized that I need to stop letting that fear stop me from applying because really there are no limits to what I am capable of. There is a job out there that needs me, and I will be able to do more that I think I will be able to because there are NO limits. 

There are two extremely powerful words that we allow to have more influence in our lives then we should, "I can't".  As soon as we start saying we can't do something, then just that happens, we can't and we don't.  We stop all our potential and progress because we tell ourselves that we can't. And once we believe that we can't, why even try right? And then failure happens and of course we say that the failure happened because we can't do whatever it was that we were thinking about trying. 

Luckily, we have two other words that are just as powerful or even more powerful, "I can." Its amazing how much power those words have. Once we tell ourselves that we can do something, we get over the fears of failure that we have and we jump. And in the end, we will succeed because we know that we are capable and we can be successful.  

President Uchtdorf said in General Conference a couple years ago, " Don't let the voice of critics paralyze you-- Whether that voice comes from the outside or the inside."  I think the majority of the time, we are paralyzed from our own criticizing voice. We got to take another word of advice from President Uchtdorf and "STOP IT." We need to stop paralyzing our self from reaching our full potential  in life because we feel that there are limits to what we are capable of.  

Its a crazy thought that a little bit of graffiti has changed my life, but it has. So thank you to whoever decided to paint on a rock because it has reminded me that I can take big leaps because really I am the only one who can limit what I do.