Lessons From Endurance Training

If you knew me from the first 40 years of my life, you might understand how incredible it is that I’m doing a podcast episode about endurance and offering insight on how you can increase yours. Yet, here we are.

Life can change. You can change. And through listening to this particular life lessons podcast, you’ll find some impactful information to support you as you go about creating any life experience you want. 

Life lessons from the podcast

If you do the work, your capacity must increase

If there’s something you want to achieve, do, or create in your life and you aren't doing the work for it, it's good to know that what’s stopping you from increasing that capacity is your own brain.

It's always our brain providing those thoughts about us and what we're capable of. But we’re capable of so much more than our brain says. And if you do the work, your capacity can’t not increase.

Your brain is very good at its job

Your brain is motivated to seek pleasure, avoid pain, and save energy. We greatly underestimate how powerfully our brain wants to do these three things. 

We’re up against some serious biological programming, because it’s relentless.

If you want to do hard things, you’ve got to have an answer to keep going in the face of all thought. And remember: you’re always stronger than your brain.

Your discomfort is okay

If you’re scared, uncomfortable, in pain, if you’re feeling vulnerable or anxious – that is okay. 

There’s a lot of power in being positive in the face of pain. Not like trying to think happy thoughts about pain or dismiss your pain, but being positive about your ability to handle pain, about your capacity to stand in the pain and hold that.

You can feel bad and do it anyway.

You’ll learn:

• Why it’s essential to stop negotiating with your brain
• How training actually doesn’t get easier and why that’s good news
• Why “a little bit” is the only amount that matters
• What your most powerful tool is

Episode Transcript 

Welcome to the 100% Awesome Podcast with April Price. You might not know it, but every result in your life is 100% because of the thought you think. And that, my friends, is 100% awesome.

Hello podcast universe, welcome to episode 177 of the 100% Awesome Podcast. I'm April Price, I want to welcome you to the podcast. And if you happen to miss the Inner Critic Workshop that I held a couple of weeks ago, I just want you to know that I have received so much positive feedback on it. People have found it really super helpful. And so, I want you to know that you can still watch it, you can still get all the content, all the tools and helps that you need to quiet your own inner critic. And you can get that by going to my website. Aprilpricecoaching.com there is a button right at the top. You can just click that and you'll be able to get access to that workshop and see everything that I taught there. I think that you will find it to be very, very helpful to you, and I just want you to know that that is a free resource that is available to you.

Okay so, yesterday I had my last big training session for the endurance event that I have been training for all year. And I started thinking about all of the things that I have learned while I have been training for this event, even before I do it for the actual event. I have learned a lot of things just through the training and I'm going to dedicate this episode to talking about some of the lessons that I have learned through training for this event. You know, my coach is always talking to me and telling me that it is not the event itself, that really even matters, but it's who you become along the way. And I think the things that I've learned along the way are such a big part of that. Such a big part of the becoming such a big part of actually all the other parts of my life. And I think that the realizations and revelations that I've had about myself, about my brain, about endurance can be really valuable to all of you no matter what you are practicing endurance on, right?

You can use these principles and apply them in your own life with whatever challenges you have. Okay, so this might feel a little bit like self-indulgent to talk about my lessons from endurance training. I was thinking about like my brother always says, like, the only thing that's more boring than running is talking about running. And like, this is probably like falls into the same category, right? Like the only thing more, more boring than climbing on a treadmill is talking about climbing the treadmill. But like, I really do think that there are lessons here that can be useful to you because life itself is an endurance event, right?

And so each one of us are going to have moments where, like, we're going to be tested, our endurance is going to be tested. And I think that the things that I've learned, the things that I want to share with you, will be helpful to all of you who are in the middle of your own personal endurance test. Okay, and let me just say at the beginning, like, I understand how incredible it is that I'm even doing a podcast episode this that I'm even talking about how to increase your endurance, right? And that I'm going to be using athletic endurance as the examples today because like, if anyone really knew me from like the first 40 years of my life, they would just be like really laughing right now. That like, I'm about to talk about athletic endurance. But anyways, so here we are, like, life can change. You can change, like anything is possible. That should be the first the first thing that you know right off the bat.

Okay, and before we get started, also, let me just tell you that when you are hearing this episode, it will be the night before my event. I will be already at the foot of Whistler Mountain, which I'm going to explain in just a minute. And I will be preparing for this event right there on the mountain when you're hearing this podcast. And I just want you to know that I'm going to try and like document a little bit of our experience there and probably post some stories and and things on Instagram. So, if you want to follow along in the event and you want to see how we are doing in our event. I'm climbing with my son and my brother, my sister in law, my niece, we're all climbing together. And if you want to follow along and watch my journey find me on Instagram. I'm at April Price, okay?

So, let me just start by explaining what the event itself is. I know that I've referred to it, but I've been a little bit vague about what it actually is, because it's just not an event that is widely known, right? Like if I said I'm doing a marathon or a triathlon or Iron Man, like you would know exactly what I was talking about. But when I say I'm doing 29029, most people are like. What the heck is that? So the event is called 29029 and basically you have 36 hours to reach 29,000, 29 feet, which is the equivalent height of Mount Everest. So, the idea is that you will climb Mount Everest, but you won't actually do it on Mount Everest, okay?

You're climbing the height, but you're doing it on a smaller mountain than Everest so that you don't have to worry about carrying your oxygen or falling in a crevasse or like hiring a Sherpa, right? Like any of that, you don't have to do any of that. And so, these events take place on smaller ski mountains. The event that I'm a part of takes place on Whistler Mountain in British Columbia, and we are going to ascend that mountain eight times, and then you ride the gondola back down, climb again. So, in total you do ascents, which equals climbing, that a total of 29,029 feet the equivalent of Everest. So, in order to prepare for that, I have been climbing anywhere from 6 to 12 to even sometimes 15,000 feet every week for nearly six months now.

And I do my climbing on a treadmill and it's usually set between 25 and 30%. And for the last three months, even before that, I was just working to try and build up my stamina to be able to even get up to 30%, right? Building up my ability to be even like be able to like climb at 30% without holding on and to be able to do it at a good pace. And so for me, like really I kind of committed to this last December, so, it's been a long time coming. And I want you to know that, like, it really has been challenging. I had to do a lot of work just to build up, like the ability to even climb at 30%. At the beginning I was like, okay, let's just see how hard this is, right? And I set the treadmill at 30% and I was like, okay I'm just gonna go as far as hard as I can. And I barely made it 2 minutes. And then just like everything hurt and I was just like, Oh my gosh, like, I don't know, like what hurts was most is it my legs is at my core. Is it my lungs? Like, it was so challenging, right?

But yesterday when I did my final big climb in preparation for the event, I climb more than 3 hours at 30%, and I did the other 3 hours to prepare I was never less than 25%. And so that difference, in my capacity is the first lesson that I want to share with you. And that is to tell you that if you do the work, your capacity must increase. If you keep at it, if you do the work, adaptation by your body is inevitable. And if it's not like that, I hope that it will work, or I hope that my body will change. But in fact, it has to. It must like you can't not change when you put in the work. And when my brother first told me about this event and encouraged me to do it like I was certain I would never have the ability to do that, never have the capacity to do it. Physically, mentally, aerobically. I was just like, no.

I am completely disqualified from this event, right? And I just figured like, okay, that's good for you. But that's one of those things that are just not available to somebody like me. And I wasn't even sad about it, really. I was just like, Yeah, that's great for you, but it's not something that I'm ever going to do, right? But it turns out that that is not true. Our capacity must increase when we do the work. And my capacity was only limited at that point by the work that I hadn't yet done, the stuff I hadn't hadn't tried, hadn't had paid the price for that work, hadn't been done yet, mostly because of what I believed about myself. I never believed that I was good at any of the skills that are going to be required to climb this mountain. I didn't believe that I even liked hiking. I still believe that probably, but I just really it's so important that I tell you that that I am not special, that I am not like, gifted athletically, like anybody in my family could tell you. Like, I was the least athletic, one of the whole entire group, right?

And so, I just want you to know that that if there is something you want, something you want to achieve, something that you want to do or create in your life like. And if you aren't doing the work for it, right? It's good to know that what is stopping you from increasing that capacity is your own brain. It's always our brain, our thoughts about us, about what we're capable of. But it's always a lie, right? We are so much more capable than we believe we are. And when you do the work, your capacity has to increase.

So, like on Saturday when I finished my last training session and I like finished 12,000 feet in one setting, right? I was texting back and forth to my son and I just, I texted like, we are so much more capable than we ever think. And if I could just shout that from the rooftops, I would like I wish every one of you could know that that like whatever you believe you're capable of, you are wrong. You are capable of so much more than that. And I really want you to hear that today. I want that to sink into your heart. You are so much more capable than your brain believes then your brain will give you credit for. And I know that like you might be saying, well, like April, it's just different for you. Like you're tougher than me.

It just comes easier, more naturally for you. I want you to know 100% that that isn't true. I truly, for most of my life have felt like physically limited. But I want you to know that that's all it was. It was just a feeling, a feeling of limitation, not actual limitation. And you are so much more capable than you think. And whatever it is you want, if you are willing to do the work, your capacity will increase along with that work.

Okay, number two, I want you to know that your brain is very, very good at its job, okay? I learned this lesson. Oh, my gosh, I learned this lesson so well, doing this training that my brain is so good at its job, right? I feel like this challenge has given me such an incredibly healthy respect for my brain and like how it does its job. And like, of all the lessons I learned, this is one of the most valuable to me. And I know that I get on here all the time and I tell you, like about the priorities of your brain, how your brain is motivated to seek pleasure and avoid pain and save energy. And I think, of course, when I first learned this four or five years ago, like that really helped me understand why do the things I do, why I don't do the things I do. It helped me stop blaming myself and shaming myself and really understand that there was always a good reason that I was or wasn't doing things.

And it was always because like my brain was like trying to fulfill these three priorities. And it really brought me a lot of peace to recognize, like, okay, I just didn't know that. I didn't know it wasn't me. I didn't know it was my brain driving things like the whole time I thought I was the problem, right? But that has become even more clear for me doing this training. And I have probably never seen my brain so clearly pursuing these priorities and so clearly pursuing them at all costs. Like I have as I have trained for 29029, right? It has just allowed me to see the clear distinction between me and my brain. Easier than I ever have before. And really understand that we are up against some serious biological programming. And for the most part, we just greatly underestimate that. We underestimate just how powerfully our brain wants to seek pleasure, avoid pain, and save energy. Just how determined and how fixated it is on those priorities. It never gives up. It never stops pursuing those priorities. It is relentless. And through my training I have learned like on a whole new level, just how relentless our brains are at fulfilling their jobs.

Like they just do not give up. Your brain is on a mission and it thinks that your survival depends upon it. And it's it's not going to give up. It's just going to keep doing its job to get you to stop, to get you to give up, to get you to never start. And it does that by giving you thoughts. That's like, it's too hard. I'm not capable of it. It doesn't matter. It's not working. It should be easier by now. I'm too tired. I don't want to. And it's just like thought after thought after thought. And as your brain gives you these sentences, when you think them, you feel all the feelings those thoughts create. You feel dread and discouragement and resignation and apathy and exhaustion and despondency and resistance and fear and anxiety and so, so, so much dread, really. I feel like I became an expert at dread over the last six months.

And it's just like, your brain is going to give you any thought it can to stop you and get what it wants to get its priorities fulfilled. And you got to know that. You got to know that your brain is really good at its job. Whatever it is that you are trying to do, you have to stop thinking that you are the problem and start recognizing that it's all your brain. And your brain is so much better at this job than you can imagine. Now, that doesn't mean that you can't overcome it, but you've got to be aware how good it is at its job so that you are properly equipped to overcome it and to get the things that you want, okay? Like if you want to do hard things, you got to have an answer to keep going. In the face of all those thoughts, remember that you are always stronger than your brain. You get to direct it all. Your brain has its thoughts and those thoughts create feelings and that feels really powerful. But remember that you get to choose. You are the chooser and your brain has to talk you into it to get its way. It has to like get you to believe its thoughts in order for you to stop. Like that's the only weapon it has, it has to talk you into it. And if it can't talk you into it, you've just got to keep going. I want you to know that you have sovereignty over your life. Your brain is good at his job, but you are the chooser and you are more powerful than your brain, okay?

And that brings us to the third lesson that I've learned, and that is that we increase our ability to succeed when we reduce the amount of negotiating that we do with our brain. Okay, so because your brain is so good at its job, you have to be on guard when it comes to negotiating with it, okay? So, because it is so good at winning those negotiations, right? So as I was doing this training wherever I could, I reduced or eliminated the points of negotiating. You know, with my brain, okay? Because notice once you have decided you want to do something, the only reason that you don't then go do it is because your brain somehow negotiates its way out of it, right? We decide, okay, I'm going to get in shape. And we start on Monday. Monday morning comes and your brain negotiates its way out of it, right? And this is like we have to stop negotiating with terrorists, okay? We have to at least stop negotiating with people who have different priorities than I was, right? And that is your brain.

So, when my brother talked to me about it and last December, I really started thinking about it more seriously and kind of went back and forth, back and forth. And then I texted my son, I'm like, What do you think? Should we do it? And finally we decided, Yeah, like, yeah, we're going to do it. And but there was some lag time when I went and to sign up we were like on the waitlist. And so we didn't know if we were going to get in. And I decided like, I really need to start like prepping, right? Because if I, if I get in and I do this race, like I have so much work to do and. I need to start right? Like I said, like I couldn't even go 2 minutes at 30%. So, I was like, I really need to start now. And in that interim period, like, my brain really was just like, This is stupid. Why are we even over here? Why are we even on the treadmill? Like we don't even know if we're going to be in this event? This is a total waste of time. This probably doesn't even matter. This is probably just a waste of energy. And my brain just kept going like that. Right. And so in order to stop, negotiate, I told my brain, listen, until we find out no, we're going to show up and we're going to do this training. And I'm not going to negotiate about this anymore until I have a no, I'm going to assume that we're on and just going to keep training.

So, then we got accepted. We got off of the waitlist and onto the event list, and then it was a matter of just like showing up and and training every day and kind of requiring like I was just sort of at that point making up my own workouts and my brain really wanted to negotiate those, right? It was just like, Well, do you even know what you're doing? Do you even know if this is working. And like all of that? So, eventually I hired a coach and my coach created a bunch of workouts for me and, and made a calendar. And at that point, when I hired my coach, I told myself none of these workouts are negotiable. Every single one of these that are on this list or on this calendar will be done, they are non-negotiable, right? And it's really about making a decision and reducing the amount of time that you have in negotiation. Now, I admit there were plenty of days where I sat outside the gym and like my brain tried to negotiate out of it, it just was like, oh, let's just sit here for ten more minutes, right? Let's say, ever do any more minutes like it wanted to?

And like, honestly, on my hardest days, on the hardest workouts, like what made them the hardest was like my brain arguing and trying to get out of it. And like, I found there was more relief. Like when I had a workout like that where my brain was like kind of of a double mind and kept trying to talk me out of it and talked me out of it. I, I would get so much relief when I could say to my brain, listen, you can talk to me about this after the workout is done, but I am not negotiating. Now we are going to finish this workout one way or the other, and like, I'm not negotiating about it. And the less I can negotiate, the better off I am, the less energy I spend in my own brain, right? Trying to, like argue with myself. So, I really recommend that you decide whenever it is. Like you decide to go all in and make a plan ahead of time and let your brain know that we will negotiate when it's over, okay?

The fourth lesson that I learned in training is that it never gets easier. It's a terrible thing to say. It just doesn't, It just never gets easier. And it's not supposed to. And this is such an important lesson to learn. So probably a week ago, I had one of my very worst workouts. In fact, I think I even talked about it on the podcast last week. But I was so discouraged after I was just like, Oh My gosh, if I can't do a regular Tuesday workout and it's that bad, is that hard? Like, how am I ever going to do this mountain right? And I was just so discouraged that it hadn't gotten easier that there I had been for nine months. And it was still sometimes like every step was a challenge. And I was like, surely like, this can't be right. Like, how could it not be any easier, right?

But the truth is that like, yeah, while it never gets easier, my brain is always going to argue for its priorities. I am so much better at continuing forward, right? I am so much better at persisting even when I don't want to. And it just reminds me of that quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson. This is like that which we persist in doing becomes easier. Not that the nature of the task has changed, but our ability to do has increased. It's not it's not that like climbing at 30% got easier.

But my ability to do it and not stop has increased. My ability to talk back to my brain has increased, my ability to ignore it and just put it in a box and go forward has increased, okay? So, I just want you to know that so many times we're waiting for it to get easier. We're just like anticipating, begging, hoping, waiting for the moment when it gets easier, whatever it is that we're doing. And I just want you to stop waiting to recognize, like, it is not going to get easier, and it's not supposed to. If I want it to grow me, if I want it to change me, if I want it to make me different. Like it can't get easier. So, don't wait for that resistance to disappear before you show up. Don't think that you have to change and get strong before you can do the hard thing right. That resistance is not going away. And if you can disregard the resistance or accept it and acknowledge like it is supposed to be here, then that's half the battle. Like, honestly, just thinking it's supposed to be easy and then finding it's not is just, like, so discouraging.

And when you just know it's supposed to be hard, it makes everything so much simpler. And along with that, I just want you to know that just because it's hard doesn't mean that you are not capable of it. That's what happened to me that Tuesday. I kept thinking like, Well, if this is hard, then I'm not capable of the whole thing. And that's simply not true. Ease and comfort in it, like, does not equal your capacity or your ability to do that. And I told Caleb, like, Yeah, it's going to be hard, and that doesn't mean we can't do it. And the last thing that I will say about that is that like whatever you're putting off, hoping that it will be easier. It's not going to be easier later. It's just going to be later. So, don't put it off waiting for it to to get comfortable. Waiting for it to get easy. Waiting for you to be ready. Like that isn't coming. You're never going to feel ready or it's never going to be easy. It's just going to be later, okay, so might as well get started now. I can't tell you how many times I pulled up to the gym. My brain was like, no. And I was just like, You know what? It's not going to get easier sitting out here. It's only going to get later. And that got me into the gym, all right?

Number five, I want you to know that little things. Little amounts are the only things that matter. So, sometimes you will hear people say that, well, even a little bit counts or even a little bit can make a difference. But what I learned is that a little bit is the only thing that makes a difference. A little bit is the only thing that matters. We only ever accomplish things one step at a time. It's only the little things that ever matter. Okay. Your brain wants to make it seem like you need to make a lot of progress, and you need to make it fast. And if that's not the case, then you're doing it wrong. And maybe that's the message that we get out in the world. Like the fastest one who makes the most change in the shortest amount of time. They're the ones that are doing it right, and the rest of us are not doing it right.

But what I learned it is the little amounts. They are the only things that ever matter. One step is the only thing that matters. If I don't take this one step, I don't get to take any more. And we only ever accomplish things in tiny units. And so instead of thinking that that is a problem, like if you can start to see it as the actual way that we accomplish anything, everything becomes much more manageable and doable. Okay, so on Saturday I had a six and a half hour climb. I ended up going 12,000 vertical feet. And at the beginning, like 12,000 vertical feet feels like the moon. It feels impossible. But I just break it down into the smallest possible segments. I break it down into five minute segments. And those five minute segments feel totally possible. I can go 5 minutes at any incline, at any speed. I can go 5 minutes, right? And if I keep doing that 5 minutes, which is totally possible, if I do that 5 minutes enough times, then the impossible suddenly becomes totally possible. So like, it's the same with my training plan. When my coach gave it to me, it was five months long, it's like five pages long.

And I thought like, I am never going to get to the end of this, but a day at a time. I have crossed it off. I can't even believe the amount of checkmarks on that training plan, the amount of vertical feet, hundreds of thousands of vertical feet that have added up one step at a time, one day at a time. And I'm going to do the same thing on the mountain tomorrow. I'm going to break that event down. I don't have to go eight ascents. I have to go one ascent eight times, right? And and I'm going to break each a cent down into two parts to 45 minute segments. And the reason that is useful is because I do 45 to 60 minute segments at 30% nearly every day at the gym. And so to do to hike that whole thing tomorrow, I just have to do what I have done many, many times like I have. I've done 45 to 60 minute climbs many, many times. And I just have to do it 16 times tomorrow to make it up that mountain.

I've done it hundreds of times in training, and if I can do it 16 times on the mountain tomorrow, then I will succeed and all that. To say that when where you want to go feels impossibly hard, impossibly far, you've got to break it down into the most doable parts, the smallest possible parts. And by that I mean like what is the smallest segment that feels possible to me? And then do that. Okay, now how many more times do you have to do that possible thing? Right? How many more times do I need to do the smallest possible thing in order to do the impossible? Every day my brain would tell me that this day doesn't matter.

You can skip this day. It doesn't matter. But I always knew it did. I put on my shoes and went to the gym and once I got to the gym I'd be on that treadmill and my brain would tell me, okay, this minute doesn't matter. We can stop now. We've done enough, right? Or you can rest for this minute. This minute doesn't matter. But I always knew that it was the only thing that mattered. The smallest units matter. The little things are the only things that matter. Okay. All right. So that brings us to lesson six. And that lesson is that I can be in pain and it's okay. So, I wish I had, like, a nicer way to say this, to, like, sell you on it and make you excited about it. But the truth is, this is a really powerful thing for me to know, especially that, like, I can be in pain and it's okay, I can be in pain, I can be hurting, and it will end and I will be okay. And the truth is that all the adaptation, all the change, all the the growth that I need to do is going to happen when it hurts. Like my body's going to respond when I when it's hurting, my body's going to be like, okay, we need some more energy. We need some more muscle. And we got to, like, solve for this down there, right? And I had to constantly remind myself of this, that it was supposed to her, in fact, and like when it was painful, my brain, like, universally believed, like this means stop.

We should stop. That is, you just kept telling me, like, we're not supposed to be in pain. It's supposed to be easier. This is supposed to hurt. I must be doing it wrong. It hurts and it's hard. And obviously, I hope this goes without saying. I was not in pain. Like I was like doing damage to my body was just my muscles were. Like, please don't make me climb, right? And so, one of the most powerful thoughts in those moments to keep going was it's supposed to hurt. And I know that does not sound like a lovely thought, but it gave me so much peace. Like, every time I heard, I was like, Yep, right on schedule. It's supposed to hurt. This is where we change. This is where we grow, this is where we adapt. This is what prepares me for the mountain. It's supposed to hurt right now and making it right, making it like the exact experience that I was supposed to have, the expected experience instead of, like, the surprising or undesirable or like scary experience, like, changed everything for me. Like, I know that there are people out there that will even take it a step further, right?

Like, if you've heard Courtney do alter talk about she's like she'll even say, like, I want it to hurt. I haven't got, I want her like, I can handle it. It's supposed to hurt, right? But she says, like you know, she looks forward to it instead of trying to hide from that pain. She looks forward to the moment where it comes because she's like that. That's that's where the work is. That's where the work begins. And I get so excited because that's where I get to do work on my own mind, in my own pain cave. So, I know the pain cave doesn't sound like too appealing to most of you, right? But I just think knowing, like, your discomfort is okay. Like your discomfort, whatever you're doing, if you're scared about it, like, if it's uncomfortable, if it's if it's painful, if you feel vulnerable, if you feel like anxious, like that is okay, you you can feel bad and do it anyway. And I just I really think there's a lot of power in being positive in the in the face of pain. And by that I mean like, not just like, like trying to think happy thoughts about pain, but actually like being positive about your ability to handle pain, being positive about your capacity to like, stand in the pain and hold that right.

So, I recently read a story about some prisoners of war and they were talking about like the ones that broke and the ones that couldn't survive were the ones that would, like, have an expectation that the pain would end and expectation that like, oh, this is going to be over in a couple of months. This will be over soon, we'll be rescued soon, we'll be rescued by Christmas. Or like these thoughts that like the pain would end soon. Like they were sometimes that was sometimes so devastating when those when those moments would come and go. And there was no relief from the pain. And this guy was talking about how the ones that did the best were the ones that realized like, no matter what happens and no matter for how long I can handle it, and being in that positive mindset that they could handle whatever came. And I think that's so powerful. It's like not you're not trying to dismiss your pain and pretend it's not there, but what you want to do is like acknowledge that no matter what, you can handle it and you will be okay, right? Like you're positive that you can handle whatever comes.

And like, just to go along with that, like, no matter how bad it got. Like, I never died. Like, no matter how much my brain protested. Every workout ended. Every climb ended. No matter how much I cried, no matter how much my muscles scream, no matter how much I didn't want to take another step. Like I survived it, I handled it, and every single workout ended. And that is just so good to remind yourself that whatever is challenging, whatever is painful, like you can handle it. You can feel the feeling. You can feel the. The. The pain physically. And socially, whatever kind of pain it is, and you can handle it and it will end.

You know, somewhere along in my training, I started imagining future me, the one that like would finish the climb and at at ever staying at 29029, when you do your last climb, you wear this red bib, and if you make it to the end, make it to the top, you get to earn a red hat and you win this red hat. And I spent a lot of time on that treadmill just imagining like the me and the red hat. And I would imagine her kind of like out there in front of me encouraging me and like, like, you know, kind of cheering me on as I as I made those climbs. And I knew that like every single day that I was like in pain, that I was in discomfort, that I was making her future possible. And I had this moment one day where I realized, like, oh, like I kept thinking that, like, she was going to be different than me somehow that that future me, the one wearing the red hat that like she would do that climb and she wouldn't be hurting that like she would be so good at it that she wouldn't be hurting. And the other day I realized like, oh, my goodness, like that future me, that girl with the red hat out in front of me is more familiar with pain than I am currently, right?

Like it's not that she has less pain, it's that she has more, but that I have prepared her to handle that. And it was just like this. Like, kind of like. I don't know. Aha. Moment for me where I realized like, oh, that future version of me isn't like free of pain. She's just better at it because of the work that I'm doing right now. Like she can handle even more. Not that. Not that she has less. And I kind of like, felt like the whole time, like, oh, she's so lucky I'm doing this work now for her. But I realize like, no there will come a moment two days from now actually, where she will be in more pain than I have beenni , and she will be able to handle that because of like all those hours that I have put in in discomfort and survived.

Okay, you guys, I just looked at the clock I know that this is long, thanks for sticking with me. I have so many like things that I have learned through this experience. And like, that, for me is one of the, like, biggest treasures of this whole thing. Like, yes, I'm excited to, like, climb that mountain. I'm excited to, like, see what I'm capable of. I'm excited to, like see the culmination of all of this. But I'm just so grateful for the things that I have learned on the way. I feel like they have blessed my entire life. I've spent a lot of time in this podcast episode, kind of like showing you how you have to overcome your brain. And sometimes when I talk like that, it's easy to think of our brain as our enemy. But I also just here at the end just want to tell you that, like, your brain is your most powerful tool when you manage it and when you put it to work for you, like my brain has to obey me. And when, when I can, like, manage it, it, it does amazing things for me. Like it's going to make my legs walk and my lungs breathe and my body move. It's going to be the thing that carries me up that mountain as I manage it. And I am just so grateful for the opportunity, the opportunity to be in a body until I learn to manage my brain and like see what can happen when I do that. It feels like one of the greatest privileges of my life. And that, my friends, is 100% awesome. I love you for listening and I will see you next week.

Thanks so much for joining me on the podcast today. If you want to take the things I've talked about and apply them in your life so that you can love your Earth life experience. Sign up for a free coaching session at Aprilpricecoaching.com This is where the real magic happens and your life starts to change forever. As your coach, I'll show you that believing your life is 100% awesome is totally available to every one of us. The way things are is not the way things have to stay. And that, my friends is 100% awesome!