More often than not, it is your mind that defines your limit even before your life does. A lot of people grow up believing that limits are inevitable, and that they are life walls or barriers that are fixed, and that they define how someone's life will turn out to be. They subconsciously tell themselves "this is how far you can go." Over times, these mindsets become dominant in them and may even become like a law to them. However, the truth, which can set you free, is that limits are not to be feared, rather they are meant to be faced and challenged.
Image from Pexels
Before humans started flying, everyone thought that they are limited to transportation by land and by water. It continued that way until attempt was made to break through the limits and airplane was invented. Now we have seen amazing advancements in that field. In the same way, people used to think that humans were limited to life on earth until people started going to the space. Now, humans have gone to the moon and back. Maybe somewhere in the future, humans may become interplanetary, and may colonise other planets. This just shows that there is no limit to what can be achieved. The only limit lies inside the mind. Once you are able to challenge your limits, you will easily overcome them.
If you are travelling, for example, and you meet checkpoint on the road, it does not mean that you have come to the end of the journey, neither does it mean that you cannot go forward. More often than not, what you call limit is actually a checkpoint, which is not meant to stop your journey in life. Any major achievement you see today in almost every field of human endeavour; like science, technology, sports, leadership, etc, came from people who refused to accept the boundaries. They refused to be held back by what others call limit. The truth is that if limits were to be absolute, then growth and progress would have been practically impossible. Progress is possible and growth happens when you push through when others retreat.
It is actually fear that makes limit look permanent. Fear has a way of exaggerating the risks of making attempt and hides the possibility of success. Why many people fear crossing limits is because of the pain, rejection, or disappointment that they associate with it. Especially if they had tried before in the past and failed, they would still have the same fear of failing again. What you should know is that fear is not a true judge of reality. Each time you challenge your limit, you are not actually eliminating fear completely, rather you are making a choice to move without recourse to the fear. Courage is not the nonexistence of fear, rather it is resolution that you can grow and make progress without a recourse to what is happening.
Image from Pexels
It is worthy to note that challenging your limit, or taking risks, is not being reckless, but it means being intentional about your life and your choices. It also means asking yourself important questions like "is this really your limit, or you are just at the edge of your experience?" Or "is this really the whole options you can explore or you are simply running out of patience?" In order to break through your limit, you have to learn and keep learning, be consistent, be disciplined, and be daring. You will be surprised that what was impossible yesterday, will become easier today with more learning, discipline, and consistency. When you attempt to move beyond your limit, you will be surprised what you are capable of achieving.
More often than not, limits are not chosen, they are inherited. For example, your background can pose a limit to you, past failures can also appear as present limit, society can also become a limit. But what you should have in mind is that you are not under any form of mandate to live under the limit that you did create for yourself. When you begin to challenge these imposed limits, you will start to reclaim authorship of your life. That is, you move from mere survival to living with purpose, and from reaction to intention.
Thanks for reading
