What Are Your Limits?

(Or, what limits have you placed upon yourself)?

A lot of us derive, arguably, our greatest sense of satisfaction helping others; helping others acquire, pushing beyond, believing and achieving. 

In my time, the two greatest senses of satisfaction I have enjoyed have been those times that I pushed, or was pushed, beyond what I thought were my limits, real or imagined, and those times that I helped others to understand that they, too, could push beyond their limits, real or imagined -- if they wanted to. I mean, really wanted to. 

Knowing that there is a limit beyond your own, and a limit beyond that limit, and another, is...well, amazing to say the least. Awe inspiring, really. If you've ever gone a limit beyond a limit then you know what I am talking about. 

To this day, I am continually amazed at the numbers of people, many of whom I know, who limit themselves on a near daily basis (In actuality, it may be a daily thing for them). 

The how-to of getting beyond your limits and truly pushing the boundaries of your capabilities are beyond the scope of this article. There are a great number of books written on the subject of over-coming limits. In my early days it was psycho-cybernetics. It goes by a number of names these days but the bottom-line is learning to program, or re-program, your mind such that you remove the limits you, or others, have imposed upon you. Some call it un-learning. Others call it mind over matter. Whatever you call it, it works. But, you've got to know how and, then like anything you do, put it to practice -- daily. You would be truly amazed if you knew what you could really do if you truly believed and let go. 

I'm not talking about some Hollywood fanciful version of "If you believe..." After all, what is belief? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, belief is: [1] a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing.  [3] conviction of the truth of some statement or the reality of some being or phenomenon especially when based on examination of evidence.  (Yes, I skipped definition two. If you want to know why, look up the word belief at Merriam-Webster dot com). 

Take that key phrase in definition number one: ...habit of mind...So, based upon that definition, whatever it is you do habitually will be your belief, your reality. 

Taken another way: if you're readily providing excuses for your less than lustrous performance then you either don't belong where you are or you need a serious shot of mental re-programming. If you don't belong, there is no shame in admitting that you don't belong and moving on. If you still think that you do belong but find yourself saying something like, "Wah, poor me, I just can't do it, wah." Or, "Poor me, if only I was..." Or, "Poor me, if only I could..." Or, "Poor me, if only it/they weren't so..." Then it has nothing to do with anything except with what some of us believe to be the most important asset a person has: his/her mind. 

I have known for a time that you cannot help a person, anyone, no-one, if that person does not want to be helped. Oh, you can do the work for them; you can constantly sweep up their mess; you can always be counted on to wipe their noses, make their appointments, make sure they get up on time, do the things they said they were going to, and anything else you can think of ad infinitum and ad nauseum but they will not change until they decide to change. 

Yes, you can take a leap of faith. Yes, you can believe blindly. But, to truly believe, you need to have experienced. 

In this era of psycho-babble feel-good, huggy-huggy, perhaps the most important and often over-looked necessity is that of programming, or re-programming, one's mind to achieve more and thereby believing. It is not an easy nor quickly learned thing but I guarantee it is worth its weight in gold. 

There are many other things that we call old-school that works wonders in this age of digital I want it all now over-kill. But learning to control your own mind is, in my opinion, the first important step, and the over arching control mechanism to believing and achieving. 

Most people don't realize until it is too late that the limits imposed upon them were the limits they imposed themselves, or allowed others to impose upon them. ( Author: unknown )