For the past several years, my mom has hung her race medals on the back of her bedroom doorknob. Every time you’d accidentally brush the shiny medallions as you entered the room or when their dog would nose his way in, they’d clang like church bells on Sunday morning. What seemed like a good place to hang one or two medals at first suddenly looked like Michael Phelps’ neck on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

The most interesting thing about my mom’s pile of medals that hung from the doorknob is that they were earned by the same woman who once declared she could not run more than 60 seconds without stopping. About a dozen half marathons and countless shorter distance races later, it’s a miracle my mom’s doorknob never fell off the door.

Naturally, something had to be done about this. For Christmas, I bought my mom this handmade medal hanger from Etsy. No more clanging medals upon entering her room. Her personal victories are far too meaningful to be swinging from the back of a door.

She recently shared this photo on her Facebook page with a message to all her running friends: “Thank you for helping me believe that I could.”

I know many of you out there are setting big goals for the year. You may be seasoned runners reaching for a big race goal, or you may currently think there are still many things you “can’t” do as you look to take small steps to improve health or fitness. As the old saying goes, whether you believe you can or you believe you can’t, you’re right.

Want to know what I believe? I believe each of us (yes, that’s YOU) has the potential inside us to do hard things, including things that sometimes seem impossible at first. When I truly started to believe in myself and my running abilities in 2013, my running changed. I transformed into a different runner, embracing discomfort and challenges to dig deeper and reach higher.

As you dream big at the beginning of this new year, I encourage you to remember my mom’s medal holder. It seems like such a simple thing; but it is anything but simple. It represents an old belief that she couldn’t run a half marathon … or even one mile. It represents a slow build to one minute, then one mile, then to three miles and beyond. It represents many half marathon finishes completed by a 63-year-old woman who now believes she is a runner and can do hard things. You can read more about my mom’s running story here.

“When I started training for my first half marathon, I couldn’t run a minute without stopping. But what I found was that if I tried it again the next day, and the next day, and the next day, I kept getting stronger. So even going from one minute to three minutes was a huge victory. I found that I couldn’t compare myself to anyone but me. So that is what I did.” ~My mom

Everyone’s journey is different. Some take longer to get there. Some are faster and some are slower. Some are filled with personal bests and some are filled with lessons learned. No matter where your journey takes you, never stop believing that you can do what you set your mind to at any age. If you believe you can do it, you can do it.

What did you once believe you could not do that you have done?