Limits.
I think it's important to have limits.
Restrictions.
Sometimes, those restrictions guide us in our behaviors. Remind us of right and wrong. Something to hold society accountable for. These are good things, for the most part. There are even times when we can use restrictions to force our minds to come up with a solution in a different way. These 'creative restrictions' help to force us out of the norm, the expected. Perhaps I'll write on that one day as well.
Some limits are of a more tenuous nature, those that we set for ourselves. Some are so ingrained into how we think, that we don't see them. Fear can be the seed from which these grow. It's much simpler and far less frightening for us to say "I can't do that.", than it is to take a risk. Risk failure. Truth be told, most people never take the time to find out what they are capable of. Where their true limits are, for certainly there are limits. Pretending, or supposing, to know where they are, can be a mistake. How do you determine if a particular limit is a self imposed limit, or a real limit? With in the bounds of common sense and safety, the only real way to know, it to test.
Challenge a limit.
What are you capable of? Do you know? How hard have you pushed yourself? Most people don't bother. These are the Sheep. Willing to let other people think for them. To busy trying to fit into a mold that the collection of Sheep deem most appropriate. Usually this means blending in with the other Sheep. Moderation in all things, they say. Bah. Rubbish. What does moderation give you? Safety or Boredom? Cage or Freedom? Moderation tells you to sit on the couch and stuff Funions in your face. Don't push yourself too hard, you could get injured. Be safe. Stay home. Don't challenge yourself. It's not worth it. Moderation is at the core of our societies mediocrity!
You don't really want to know what your potential is, do you? “But”, you say, “It's too hard to reach that goal.” Yes, it might very well be. Then again, that goal might be closer than you think. There seems to be a balance in this world (leaning ever so slightly towards entropy, of course), and perhaps you've heard these before:
*Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
*Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat. -Theodore Roosevelt
*I believe that one of life's greatest risks is never daring to risk. Oprah Winfrey Are you chasing your goals? Challenging yourself? Growing? Or have you stagnated. Unmoving like brackish pond water, breading disease?
*As I see it every day you do one of two things: build health or produce disease in yourself. -Adelle Davis
Sometimes it just seems so damn hard to get any closer to your goal. Too many obstacles, too many roadblocks. Or are there? Really? Could some of these things be of your own creation? I now that for me, that's more often the case. Fear, that nasty little toad, creeps in a creates a nice big challenge.
A brick wall.
*Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want something badly enough. They are there to keep out the other people. -Randy Pausch
Or a door that needs to be overcome with skill, wile, or cunning. (Or perhaps a Magic Key). I like the gate analogy the best of all. Oft times, you can see the goal, right through the bars. It's out of reach though. Most just shrug and give up. Over the last few years, I've taken to pushing myself. Searching for some of my limits. I have been surprised, on almost every occasion that what I had thought was a limit, was simply a gate. A brick wall to keep other people out of where I wanted to go.
One of those limits I tried to find had to do with sleep. Having suffered from insomnia for over 10 years, I wondered about how little sleep one really needs. On August 20th of 2007, I decided to try something called Polyphasic Sleep. The short version is that I was taking 20-30 minutes naps, six times a day. SleepLessBlog For 40 days I averaged 3.7 hours of sleep, sometimes getting as little as an hour and a half in a 24 hour cycle. (Hard to call them days when you don't have a core sleep to break up the day from the night) Most people, if you ask them, “Could you live on six 20 minute naps?”, they would most fervently say “No.” I did. I took up yoga, and wrote more in those 40 days than I had since college! Does that make me some genetic freak? Alien? Or simply an adventurer of life, willing to see what I'm capable of. I leave that as an exercise for the reader.
An ongoing challenge that I seem to be involved with is long distance cycling. “Long Distance” be a relative term, mind you. On May 3rd of 2008, I rode 126.4 miles, by myself. Took me almost 12 hours, including pit stops. To be perfectly honest with you, dear reader, I had serious concerns that this attempt would more than likely end in me calling for a ride. You see, the longest ride I'd done so far in the season had been 54 miles. You really don't know where your limits are until you push. Is 126.4 miles in one day my limit. Hardly. What is my long distance cycling limit? I haven't the foggiest idea. Could I ride 200 miles. I think so. 500 miles? Um, sure. I really don't know, and I certainly don't want to put a limit there that doesn't need to be there. I might find my limit. I might not. But I can tell you that it is something to behold when you walk (or cycle) right past something that seemed like a foreboding and enormous wrought iron gate, only to find that something as simple as doubting it's solidity allowed me to walk right through, as if I held a Magic Key.
*When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
What are your limits.
What is holding you back from what you want?
Challenge it.
I'm handing you a Magic Key that unlocks that gate.
Now, are you a Sheep content with mediocrity, or an adventurer of life willing to take a bit of risk to see what you're truly made of?
Maarburg
Current meatspace coordinates: Unknown
