How many Big Macs can you eat?

On March 6th 2020, Joey Chestnut sat down and set a new world record by eating 32 Big Macs in one sitting in 38 minutes and 15 seconds (see comments section for the link to his video).

As a point of comparison, Donald Gorske (USA) has eaten at least one Big Mac every day since 1972, totalling 32,340 Big Macs (see comments section for the link to his video).

My record is eating 3 burgers in one sitting...it was 1984 (I was 12) and my father bet me $10 that I couldn't finish them.?That $10 bought me hours of fun at TimeZone that afternoon.?What is your glass ceiling?

The term 'smashing glass ceilings' is a metaphor for the invisible barrier that prevents you from doing things that you believe to be out of your reach.?It is a form of playing safe that is fuelled by the fear of not being good enough or an inability (or unwillingness) to see new possibilities.?

Amongst doing many other things, your brain is also designed to keep you safe.?When you are exposed to potential harm or risk (like being near a hot stove or standing in front of traffic), your brain keeps you safe through retreat and inaction (like not touching hot stoves or stepping out in front of traffic).

To help embed this risk management, your brain creates a narrative.?This is a story you tell yourself which justifies why you should stay safe and not leave your comfort zone.?When you are presented with a challenge that appears to be out of your reach, the brain 'reads out' your narrative in order to keep you safe.?

An example of a narrative you might tell yourself could be 'I'm not good at sales', 'I'm not leadership material', 'I could never achieve that', 'I'm too old for that', 'I could never run that far', etc.

These narratives are all designed to keep you safe so that you avoid getting hurt, failing or dealing with uncomfortable emotions like uncertainty, self-doubt, insecurity and fear.?

Narratives are laced with emotion and fear and so they are very effective at containing your behaviour within your comfort zone.?

Think of what happens when you need to make sales calls.?This activity is often avoided because of the fear of rejection, the fear of failure or the fear of looking 'salesy' and needy.?The narrative might be 'I'm not good at sales' which then gets reenforced with 'I won't call now, I need to do more research first', 'it's not the right time to call - I'll try after lunch', 'I'll just send them an email instead so that I don't bother them'.?The greater the perceived risk, the stronger the narrative becomes.?

?Your narrative stops you from doing something that may cause you injury, however it also stops you from comforting your fear and achieving things outside of your comfort zone.?Your narrative creates a glass ceiling of possibility.?

If you find yourself achieving the same level of success, and hear yourself giving the same reasons (excuses) why you can't achieve any more, then there is a good chance your narrative has created a glass ceiling.?

The interesting thing is that glass ceilings become weaker in the face of social proof.?When you see other people achieve what you didn't think was possible, your narrative loses its grip on you.?Glass ceilings shatter with counter evidence.?

For the past 3 months my son, Raphael, has been bouldering. It is like an indoor rock-climbing gym, without any ropes/harnesses, which only goes up about 4-5 meters.?On the weekend Raphael took Robyn and I bouldering.?Robyn is not a fan of heights.?The whole drive there she was telling us that she might not join in, and that she hasn't trained in a while, and that she doesn't cope well with heights.?Her protective narrative, sparked by the fear heights, was in full swing.??

Her narrative stepped up a notch when she realised she had to demonstrate that she could safely jump down from 1.5 meters up a climbing wall.?It might not sound very high, but it feels a lot higher when you are there.?After some negotiation, and a few attempts, she finally got there and was now safe to climb.?

Interestingly, once Robyn did the safety jump, her narrative started to quieten down.?She attempted a number of climbs and got part way before climbing down.?After about 15 minutes of being in an environment of seeing people climbing walls, her narrative started to change and Robyn felt that it might be possible for her to complete a climb - something that her narrative said she definitely shouldn't do.?Then, barely 20 minutes later, Robyn completed her first climb.?

Apart from being an awesome afternoon with Raphael and Robyn, and a few calluses on our hands, it was a real time experience of stretching narratives.?

What narrative do you have running in your head that might be holding you back from new possibilities??

#resililience #highperformance #mindset