Walk Your Talk - especially when It hurts

My lifestyle mentoring business is my passion. I don't simply say the words. I live them. Everything I say or write in my business I speak from the heart. My clients tell me it shows. It's what makes my business the wonderful success I perceive it to be. It makes me feel good about myself and I enjoy getting some lovely feedback from time to time.

Sometimes however you need to have the stuffing knocked out of you. Mine was about to come.

Three months ago I met my test in the form of a simple but painful injury to my leg. More than that I was to find out it was the culmination of many years of favouring a weakness in one leg. Being an active sportsman of many years I have long been proud of the strength in my legs.

The remedy now however would be more than a few exercises and some pain-killing tablets. I would have to almost teach myself to walk properly again. Muscles that had apparently not been favoured for years screamed for mercy as they were forced back into long-gone action.

Simple walking became a constant mental demand just to put my legs into action. Even lying in bed gave no respite. Sitting was my only relief and I clung to the comfort of chairs whenever I could. My positive thinking philosophies were being tested to the full. Walking my talk was hurting - literally and figuratively.

Pain is relative for everyone. It was the constancy that was getting me to call on all my many years of lifestyle mentoring resources.

I would love to say that walking my talk finally did the trick. However it took the caring concern of others to push me beyond my comfort zone, encouraging me to confront the rapids of my white water fears that would carry me welcomingly into the still waters of mental peace over which I could again regain my control and composure.

What I have learned from this experience is not simply if you walk your talk all will be well. Others could not make me break through my comfort zone. I had to make that decision alone. It was the talk I had so often walked that said each of us has more power, strength and tenacity than we know of until our limits are tested.

Whatever the nature of your pain, I encourage you to take the test and pass the exam. Only then can you move on to the next level of understanding that the true joy of living lies in the outcomes of confronting and beating the pain.