This little light of mine…..

I went to the NPC Battle of Champions bodybuilding show in Des Moines a few weeks ago. It’s at the same venue as the competition I’m doing in April. I met some amazing women and was chatting with them. I can’t remember if I said I was “thinking about competing” or “going to try to compete” in April. And then I thought, why am I lying? I AM competing in April! I have been laser-focused working toward this goal for 5 months. I have been posting on social media, telling all my friends and family what I’m doing, but I meet people and suddenly…what? It’s like I subconsciously think I’m not good enough, or I’m afraid they will think I’m not good enough, so I don’t want to come right out and say what the real deal is.

I find myself doing the same thing when talking about Krickyfit. When people ask what I do, many times I say I teach fitness classes. Which is true, but why say it that way? I started a whole freaking business! When I do say I own a gym, I always qualify it by saying it’s really small. Or making sure I point out that I’m not making any money. WHY? How can I empower other women when I am shrinking my own self, downplaying the fact that my “little” gym is doing BIG things?

I was listening to Kacia Ghetmiri’s EmpowerHER podcast and she was talking about identifying as a person who does the thing you want to do. She used the example of training for a marathon and identifying herself as a runner. By doing this, she started acting like a runner and doing the things a runner would do. This is powerful! For me, instead of saying “I want to be a bodybuilder,” I need to replace that with “I am a bodybuilder” and “I am a bikini competitor”, and align my actions with that. Oh yeah, let’s not forget: “I am a SUCCESSFUL business owner.”

When I corrected myself in the conversation to say I AM competing in April, the response I got was, “Hell yes you are!” There are two sides to this. First, we have to stop shrinking ourselves. We have to be proud of who we are, what we are doing, and what we are about to accomplish. Second, when we catch other women minimizing themselves and downplaying their badassery, we can’t let them get by with it.

If you need to get yourself in a room with some incredible women whose mission is to make each other shine even brighter, try out Krickyfit. Yes, it’s a workout place, but my “really small” gym is so much bigger than that. I hope to see you soon.

Love,

Kristin