Sally Koering Zimney uses cold-plunging in her Minnesota backyard to show how self-doubt stories keep us stuck between deciding and doing. She outlines a framework: make a decision, recognize the limiting narratives you tell yourself, then act anyway.
Chapters
There I was, and my heart was pounding so hard I could feel it in my head, and my mind was just racing, saying things like, "What are you doing, Sally? What are you doing? Get out of here. This is a terrible idea. No, no, no. No, no, no." But in that moment, I was about to do something that many people say that they'll do and never quite do. But not me, oh no. There was a tumbly, rumbly mix of dread and fear and just enough excitement to get me to this moment right here. And I say to myself, "Don't be such a chicken shit, Sally, and do it!" So I count myself down, I count myself down. 5, 4, I don't wanna, 3, 2, 1, go! And I get in a cold plunge. This is my cold plunge tub. It's in my backyard. I live in Minnesota. This water is between 30 and 35 degrees typically, and for the last 30 days I have been getting in this cold plunge tub every day. Asterisk around every, but really pretty close to every day. And I got to tell you, I love a cold plunge. Okay, so, uh, let's start with the obvious one: cold plunging. All right, stand on up, put yourself on the spectrum from woo, it have to I want to, but love to. Look at her go. Wow. Ooh, yes. Love tos, I see you. Oh, we got a whole bunch of I want to, buts. I feel it. I feel it. Okay, but can I ask Tori, why are you in the, like, if I have to? How come? Can I just ask why? Okay, we're not Torian. Why? Why would you love to be silent for a week? Because what I really want to do today with all of you in the time that I have is to help you do bigger, braver, bolder things faster. Okay, because we all want big, brave, bold things. Whatever that means for you, but oh my God, some of us, it is taking too long. It is taking too long, friends, for you to get into the tub. So, how, how do we do this? Because wanting to is one thing, but actually doing the thing is quite another, and just, you know, there's no guidebook most of the time. So I just wanna show you what it typically looks like from my point of view as a coach. Typically, we've got on one side, we make a decision about what it is that we're going to do. We decide, right? And then on the other end, we actually do the thing, okay? There's a decision and a doing, and in between there's a whole lot of delays. A whole lot of delays, like me cold-tubbing, cold-plunging. So, what are the delays for you? And here's what it is. I'm just going to tell you, they are stories. They are stories that you are telling yourself between doing and deciding are these stories. And the quality of those stories determine how quickly or even if you plunge. So what are the stories that you are telling yourself? Because they are powerful and they can leave a mark.
