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Breaking Barriers June 28, 2006

Have you ever noticed that when you have a perceived performance barrier you’re working at, you keep coming close to it day after day, week after week, and you start to wonder if you’ll ever beat it? Then one day you break through it, then you beat it again during the next couple of attempts, and pretty soon you’re beating it every time. You then wonder what it was that was stopping you from reaching that limit all that time.

This morning I ran 5 km (3 miles) in 26 minutes 22 seconds, beating my previous personal best (from 2 days ago) by 23 seconds. My previous best before that was around 27 minutes 45 seconds.

I’d been running the 5 km in around 27:40 to 28:00 every time. My times haven’t been improving for weeks, and I was wondering how I was ever going to beat the 27:30 barrier. This time corresponds to 5:30 per km, so I’d been using my GPS to keep an eye on my pace and try to keep it under that level. I did pretty well for the first 3 km or so, but every time I’d run out of energy towards the end and my time would come in at just over 27:30.

Two days ago everything seemed to go right. The temperature was nice, the hills didn’t seem quite as hard, I was breathing and stepping comfortably, and my pace was good. I realised towards the end of the run that I was making very good time, so I put in as much extra effort as I could muster and really ran in the last 300 m or so. My final time was 26:45, a whole minute faster than what I was previously doing!

This morning I did the run again, and this time I came in at 26:22!

It seems that once a barrier is broken, it’s shattered. A switch is flipped in your mind that suddenly removes whatever thoughts were holding you back. You know you can beat it and so you do, again and again and again.

The hard part is beating that barrier for the first time.

Whatever it is you’re doing, if things seem to be going really well it’s a sign that this might be the day. Dig deep, put in as much extra effort as you can, and make the most of whatever is going right for you today. Tell yourself that this is the day you smash the barrier. Think about what you’re doing, strive to keep up your pace, and focus on the end result you’re hoping for. If you truly believe you can do it, chances are good that you will.

If it doesn’t come together this time, think about what went wrong. Did you have energy left at the end that you could have used earlier? Did you do anything differently? Did it work or hold you back? What part of your performance could you improve? What’s the one thing that’s holding you back the most? Work on these things, and eventually they’ll all come together on the same day.

Once you’ve broken that barrier, think about what it was that allowed you to achieve a new personal best. Did you do anything differently? Did you use any new techniques? Did you prepare differently beforehand? Did you pace yourself differently throughout the activity? Did you go hard towards the end? Did you start out hard, or save your energy for the end when you really needed it? What did you focus on or think about? How did you feel during the activity? How did you feel afterwards?

Next time out for that activity, remember all these details. Go over them in your mind before starting. Think of them during the activity, and try to repeat the same thoughts and actions throughout. You know you can do it, and you know how you did it last time, so chances are good that you’ll do it again this time. Once you’ve beaten the barrier a few more times, it’ll seem easy and you’ll be enjoying operating at your higher performance level.

And pretty soon you’ll encounter a new performance barrier, and you’ll get to repeat the whole process again!

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