Back one early December morning, I turn up at Horseshoe Bay for a run. It’s one of those beautiful days I can’t believe I’m the only person who gets to take advantage of. But I’m not quite alone today. There’s a silver-haired lady, I guess in her fifties, already doing laps near the waterline. As I’m setting myself up, taking inexorably long to arrange water bottle and keys in some last ditch procrastination, I notice just how fast this compatriot of mine is moving. This woman is trucking it, seriously hauling-butt! She’s one of those retired pros, I assume, been training all her life.

“Wow!” I said as she tore towards me, “how d’you keep up that pace?”

“Not bad for 72!” she replied.

I nearly fell over. Almost forty years my senior and running faster than I probably ever have. I had to know this woman’s secret! The story she shared surprised and inspired me:

“Four years ago,” she said, “I was a total couch potato”. She did nothing physical, was overweight and watched a lot of television. One day, shopping in town, she collapsed. Rushed to hospital, the doctor told her it wasn’t good news: if she continued on that same path, it was “just a matter of time.” Prescribed a pharmacy of medications, they said her only hope was to get moving, shift the weight and get her body chemistry sorted.

And so she did. She started with walking, but the arthritis hurt her knees, so she decided to swim. Growing up here she swam as a kid, and assumed she still could. She said, after 5 minutes in the water she thought she was going to drown being so out of breath. That’s why she started running. She wanted to force herself to get used to that feeling of breathlessness, so that way she could swim without worrying. She started literally minute by minute, slowly building up her stamina over time.

Four years of consistent effort later and over one hundred pounds lighter, she now speeds up and down the beach with ease, medication-free, claiming to be the fittest and healthiest of her life.

This lady, and I don’t even know her name, ranks among my heroes! Not so much for what she can do, but for having the chutzpa, determination and courage to do it.

It is a leap of bravery at any age to make a change, especially a big one like a lifestyle overall. And I think we need constant reminders like this one that it is never too late to transform ourselves and go after what we want.

A client, in her thirties, recently sat in my office wondering if it wasn’t getting too late for her to change careers. I’ve heard people claim they are too set in their ways to try something new, too damaged to find a healthy relationship, too busy to spare the time to do something good for themselves, that they’ve missed that boat, are over that hill, too fat, too young, too responsible… the list goes on.

But is a dog really ever too old to learn new tricks? I’m no Barbara Woodhouse, but I’d say it depends on how much that particular pooch wants the treat at the end.

I don’t think we’re just being lazy when we make these excuses for ourselves about how our circumstances are holding us back. Often there are limiting beliefs involved – ideas ingrained from what we witnessed and experienced growing up that have shaped what we genuinely believe is possible for ourselves.

Many of our excuses can seem very real in response to the fear associated with putting ourselves out on a limb and opening ourselves to vulnerability from trying something new (fear of failing, fear of being hurt, fear of looking foolish etc.).

And sometimes these excuses serve just because we’re not really that bothered about changing – the perceived discomfort of making the effort isn’t offset by the expected benefit, and a catchphrase sounds better than admitting we are just too lazy to try.

The difference, and the real turning point comes when something happens and our ‘shoulds’ or ‘coulds’ suddenly become our ‘musts’. When the prize at the end outweighs all the trouble to get it, and the importance of that new alternative reality that awaits cracks through our current limited vision of ourselves and the world. The wake-up call.

This lady was told either to change her life or it’ll be a short wait for it to end. That’s a pretty dramatic ultimatum. And even that’s not enough for some people. I have encountered folks with similar stories: diabetes diagnoses, cancer scares, smokers… And not just health related: people who can see the destination of the path they are careening down and still aren’t changing. They continue to delude themselves about their reality, thinking their current behaviour is the only way for them to be. I’ve done it. I’ve been there.

It’s when we get really focused on what we actually want, what is truly important to us and those we love, and what we decide we have to make happen because nothing else will do, that we can break those old habits and ways of being. We give ourselves no choice but to change. Our vision of ourself changes and we align ourselves to that new vision.

I reckon we’re each capable of some extraordinary things when we get out of our own way and open ourselves to the possibilities. It seems certainly worth investigating rather than remaining a prisoner to our self-constructed limitations.

If there is something we’d like to change, especially something we speak about often or complain that we’re not doing but wish we were, here are some questions to ask to gain awareness:

* What’s stopping me do this?

* Who says this reason has to stop me?

* Has anyone else in the world had my circumstances and still achieved something like this?

* It is possible? Then surely it is possible for me.

* What will doing this give me?

* Who else will be positively affected by my changes?

* How much do I want this result?

* What will happen if I don’t change?

* Who else will be hurt?

* How important is this change to me?

* What will I let stand in my way?

* When will I allow myself to do and become what I am truly meant to?

It’s liberating to know and decide for ourselves what changes are worth our time and effort… and then make them. Age is just a number. Most limitations only hinge on a state of mind. We’re all too young and precious to just ‘roll over and play dead’!

Julia Pitt is a trained Success Coach and certified NLP practitioner on the team at Benedict Associates. For further information contact Julia on (441)705-7488 or at www.juliapittcoaching.com