Know your limits.

“Argue for your limitations and sure enough, they’re yours.”

Richard Bach

Do you know your limits? I mean, do you really? If your answer is yes, I have another question. How do you know?

We all have limits but most of us don’t actually know what they are. We set them prematurely so that we can feel safe. Protected. We confuse our limits with our comfort zones and we let fear dictate what we can and cannot do without actually trying. We don’t even think about it. We just convince ourselves that it can’t be done. That we can’t do it. We set our boundaries and live within them.

Let’s define boundaries. Boundaries are a line that marks the limits of an area. For example, the limits we set with other people and which indicate what we find acceptable and unacceptable in their behavior towards us. These are good boundaries. Good limits.

Let’s look at another area. What are the limits you have set for yourself in regards to your career? Is that last promotion all you will ever need? Is your business doing everything you dreamed it could do? Or do you want more but your afraid to rock the boat… take a risk?

Limits are hard to find as we all know that when we push past them, we can get hurt. We can fail. And this applies to all areas of our lives. Our personal relationships, our careers, and most certainly our dreams.

Have you ever felt the sting of failure by pushing past your limits? If your answer is no, then the answer to that first question is also, irrevocably… no. You don’t know. You can’t possibly know your limits unless you have actually pushed past them. And that’s fine if you are okay with that. But at least be honest with yourself and answer the question truthfully. Accept that and live happily within that acceptance. There is nothing wrong with it.

But.

If you are not happy with it, change it. Find those limits. Challenge yourself to get that promotion or start your own business. Write a song and share it. Take a risk and fall in love. Fall down 50 times learning how to wake surf. Write a book.

It is only once you have pushed past your limits that you can define where those limits are or should be. Only when you have felt the hurt or disappointment of something not working out that you can know where the lines need to be drawn and the boundaries need to be placed. If you have always lived within them, you don’t know how far they can be pushed out. How far those boundaries can expand.

Let’s define boundaries again. A line that marks the limits of an area defined by the lessons you have learned through having the courage to try harder.

So know your real limits. Push that boundary.

Find it. Shove it. Create it.

Then do it again.