Don’t limit your challenges. Challenge your limits.
I love this idea.
Who knows how many times I’ve heard this quote or other sayings that are like this?
But sometimes the mind comes alive and, at last, we hear what we’ve been deaf to or see what we were blind to.
I used to wonder when my real life was going to begin. Then I wondered when I was going to give myself the permission to let this happen.
I had to push myself and allow my real life to start.
Besides, what are these things called limitations anyway?
I understand what limits are. The truth is, we all have our limits. We all have our personal breaking points. We have boundaries that became too rigid because of a past violation. We have ideas and fears and we have trained ideas and biased assumptions.
There is another quote that comes to mind –
Know your limits but never stop trying to exceed them.
(author unknown)
I like this idea.
Know your ability but never stop trying to improve – at least that’s my take on this.
Never stop yourself from growing or learning or moving because all else is stillness and stillness is lifeless and lifelessness is equal to death. Sonce no one is here just for the food and friends, it’s time to re-evaluate our stance and recognize our goals.
I have watched life go by and stood in positions and done nothing about what I saw or disliked.
I took it . . .
I have accepted the unacceptable treatment at times because I was afraid to speak out.
I have taken treatment that was unworthy of my time yet I was too afraid to speak up or do something.
I was too afraid of the fight or the aftermath.
I was too afraid to stand up and be counted.
I was too afraid to be alone or be “wrong.”
But why?
Yesterday’s entry led me to this quote:
“Don’t be afraid to suck at something new.”
Why would there be a fear of trying something new?
Why is the ego so fragile and worried that we might seem imperfect?
Why is pride so thick that we limit ourselves due to concerns of vanity or failure?
Or wait –
Why do we care so much or focus on failure and imperfections?
Lastly, what does this do for us?
How does this help us achieve life?
I think about my efforts at the gym and my insecurities that arise when using gym equipment around strangers.
I think about the different levels and degrees of social anxiety and the hints of panic or anxiety attacks which I face when encountering the unknown.
I think about the people I speak to about this topic or the times I’ve talked about depression or my anxiety and fears, which are petrifying to me, and people looked at me, baffled, as if to be surprised by my thoughts.
I think about the harshness of judgment which is always internal. Let’s be clear – if we never had the thought or the discomfort, we would never associate our life with anxious thinking.
Socrates said the following:
“If you don’t get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you don’t want, you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can’t hold on to it forever. Your mind is your predicament. It wants to be free of change. Free of pain, free of the obligations of life and death. But change is law and no amount of pretending will alter that reality.”
I agree with this.
I agree that the mind is our predicament. I agree that it is absolutely possible to think ourselves sick or into chaos. I agree that the mind wants peace but in fear of loss and in fear that peace is either too far-fetched or unreachable, we start to overthink. We worry. We consider scenarios that might happen. To put this simply, we start playing out the ideas in our head which, in the end, no one hurts our feelings more than we hurt our own.
I believe this.
I believe that the mental concepts in our mind can either inflate and build or deflate and destroy us.
Therefore, a new item to cross off the list is self-doubt; to achieve a new height in self-care and to promote rather than degrade.
This is important.
This is what helps us move forward instead of living life in our rearview mirror.
Besides, how can you see ahead or look at the big picture if you’re always living behind or focusing on the fears in the rearview which kept you from what “could’ve been?”
I go back to the quote which I read from a caption from Tony Robbins:
“Don’t limit your challenges; challenge your limits. Each day we must strive for constant and never ending improvement.”
I will say that yes, there are days when it’s good to take a break. I go back to an old favorite of mine which is a song from Billy Joel called Vienna Waits For You.
There’s a part that goes: “Slow down, you crazy child and take the phone off the hook and disappear for a while. It’s alright, you can afford to lose a day or two.”
And it’s true.
Whether Vienna waits for me or whether I’m waiting on something else, either way, the item up for discussion this morning is the achievement of bliss.
This is a hard box to check off.
Life is out there and it’s happening right now.
Not everything is pretty or happy.
There’s bad news out there and yes, it’s waiting for everyone.
But why does this have to limit us?
Why do we have to be so concerned with outcomes?
I used to begin a presentation with a saying that goes, “We are in the effort business, not the results business.”
I said this because oftentimes results are out of our control
Life happens. It rains when we needed the sun.
I get it.
Accidents happen. We grow and we change.
But the effort business – this has to remain consistent because we’re always putting effort into something. Even if our effort is to remain in our own stillness.
The decision to do so still takes effort.
Effort is energy and energy is in need of direction.
So, the next question becomes how do we plan to direct our energy today?
Are we going to sit in our own shit and be miserable?
Are we going to challenge the limits?
There is so much out of my control –
And yours too . . .
But, if we choose to,
we can dare the line, right here and right now, and make our life exactly what we want it to be.
That’s my item on the list today.
I might not have it easy and I might not have what I want, but I don’t have to give in or give up either.
Giving up or giving in is a limit.
Today’s goal is to challenge my limits –
So be it.
The Written Addiction 