The Sound of Your Voice

Hup, Hup

I was in spin class with Dakota. Such an inspiring human.

She says so many things to us that I want to write down. I took note of this one though.

She told a story about talking to two different riders one day. In our class, one thing the community does is this “hup hup” sound during a certain movement in the class. When I first heard it, I was like, “ugh, what is this?” Then, I was like, “well, that’s fine for them, but I’m not doing it.” Then one day I tried it and it was so invigorating and brought me in to the community of people all (not all, though many) doing the same thing.

So Dakota is telling this story of how one of the riders loves that feature and the other says, “nope; that is not for me.” And Dakota, affirming as she is, says, “That’s totally fine; all choices are valid in here.” (Man I love this studio for this reason!) Then she continues. She says, “But…don’t fail to yell out because you don’t like the sound of your voice.”

Woah, dude. And I am thinking about this concept in coaching of how we criticize ourselves and how it stops us from having, doing, saying the thing we want.

Intervention

There are a number of ways to intervene in this negative cycle. One is to learn ways to deal with the negative voice.

But another one, honest to god, is just do the thing. How did I find out that hupping would work for me? I tried it. And had I tried it and said, “yep, not for me,” that would have been a very valid response. But, and here’s the big “but” my friends, don’t let that voice stop you from even trying it. If you try the thing you may not like it and then guess what?!  You don’t have to ever do it again, but if you hear in your head any variety of other thoughts like, “you will sound stupid,” etc., move that aside and try it out! This way – and this is important! – you will teach that voice that it is not the boss of you.

And your whole life will start to change.

I promise.