Welcome to Core Potentials!
Hi Everybody! My name is Britte and I am one of the co-founders here at Core Potentials.
We are so excited to finally have our website live so we can share with you some of the cool things that we have been learning. Over my past 15-years while working in the athletics world, I have come to fundamentally believe that we can all reach whatever limits we are striving for. Thats right, you might call me crazy but I fundamentally believe that even if all the odds are stacked against you, you can achieve anything your heart desires. Pretty cool, right?
Napoleon Hill said it perfectly -
"Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve."
This belief is what Core Potentials is built on, and I thought it would be appropriate that for our first blog post I shared with you just why I believe this so fundamentally, and just why I think it is essential that everybody learns to believe this too. So here I go!
My love for learning about the limits of human potential began as a teenager. I was spending more than 40-hours a week dancing at (in my view) one of the best dance schools in metro-Vancouver - The Richmond Academy of Dance - and I was loving every moment of it. There is something about expressing yourself through movement that is thrilling to me, and I ended up spending most (if not all) of my time doing just that. I loved the people, I loved to sweat, and I loved how dancing made me feel like I was connected to everyone on a cellular level. At that time, dance was the ideal medium for me to connect my mind and body - and I felt very fortunate to be able to practice this craft every day.
Painting of Britte dancing by Marina Eglis - www.facebook.com/things.by.tree.rina
However, I wasn't the best dancer. I was typically cast in the back line and was never picked for the big dances, like Snowflakes in the Nutcracker. Every year I pushed myself a little harder, signing up for more classes and dedicating myself a little more, but I never felt like I made the cut.
To further my professionalism as an athlete, and to stay competitive in the dancing industry, I eventually started changing my diet. I hired a nutritionist and lost an accumulation of 10-inches of body fat around my body without ever starving or depriving myself. It was a pretty big accomplishment, especially as I watched many of my friends develop disordered eating habits. Nonetheless, despite increasing my hours at the academy and becoming proficient in my athletic diet, I still felt like I was failing.
So I decided to go even further. I applied to California State University Long Beach so I could get my Bachelors degree in Dance Science, and learn exactly what makes great dancers great. I studied the art, history, pedagogy, and love for dance while also studying the physics, biomechanics, physiology, anatomy, and nutrition. I even did a thesis where I looked at specific dance programs and quantified which habits lead dancers to advances in their training and which habits caused injuries and fatigue. I was doing everything I could to understand what makes great dancers great. But I still didn't feel good enough! I wasn't even making it into the dances anymore. I had to beg one of the professors at an audition to let me into his dance as an understudy just so I could get the credits I needed to graduate. I watched as dancers that struggled as first-year dance students advanced into amazing and beautiful artists - but I felt stuck, paralyzed, like giving up on dancing altogether. What did those great dancers have that I simply did not have?
So here I was - probably the best shape of my life. I had a fit body, kick-ass diet, stellar education, and the most support from my family and friends that I could ever ask for. What was missing? Why couldn't I make my dream of becoming a beautiful dancer be my reality?
... and then it dawned on me
Ever heard the term "your thoughts create your reality" ?
"I never felt like I made the cut"
"I still felt like I was failing"
"I still didn't feel good enough!"
"I felt stuck, paralyzed, like giving up on dancing altogether"
I had the optimal physical body, I ate only the most nutritious foods, but I was missing the final (and probably most important) piece.
I didn't believe in myself.
I was too busy looking at all the things that proved to me that I was a "bad dancer":
- Being cast in the back line (I found out later it was because I was tall)
- Not making it into Snowflakes (But I was one of the lead characters in almost every dance show... somehow forgot about that...)
- Having to beg my professor to let me understudy for his piece (Found out later that there was a protocol for dancers to be in the contemporary show before getting into the faculty show... I never showed up for the contemporary show auditions...)
I never stopped to think of all the things that proved that I was an amazing dancer!:
- Being accepted into a professional program at one of the top dance schools in Metro-Vancouver.
- Getting into and excelling in a competitive dance program in California.
- Designing, recruiting, and conducting research that contributes to helping dancers stay healthy, strong, and injury-free!
- And all the other times that I performed, taught, laughed and cried as I was loving practicing my craft.
It was there all along... but I never saw it...
If you ask any of my friends, they would tell you that I am a beautiful dancer, and have been my whole life. I teach kids to dance and they all love it. I took a random class at Harbour Dance Centre and a student approached me to tell me just how beautiful a dancer I was. I couldn't believe my ears! I even had a bit of trouble accepting the complement to be honest...
"Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve."
I conceived and believed that I was a bad dancer, and look what happened - I achieved just that. But as soon as I shifted the way I thought, as soon as I believed with all my heart that I was a beautiful dancer, that all changed. This was the missing link!
And this is why I believe so fundamentally that you will achieve whichever limit you put forth for yourself - whether that limit is bad or good, you will achieve it.
And that is why I am now here at Core Potentials trying to disrupt that thought process. If it was up to me, education would start and finish with teaching people to eat, move, and think optimally for themselves.
Imagine a world where everyone was living optimally. What would it look like?
Imagine a world where you were living optimally. What limits would you surpass?
Warm Love,
Britte