Your Limits are Self-Imposed — You Are Capable of Greatness
I
was at the gym today doing my final sets of pull-ups. I like to leave my
pull-ups for my last workout, because I feel like it is the most challenging
exercise I allow myself to do. I like to feel that I pushed myself to my limits
before leaving the gym, to feel accomplished and to try to get to the ever so
evasive #6 pull-up one day.
I
usually can manage an average of five pull ups before my muscles start aching,
and I usually take it as a signal to stop before I hurt myself.
I
released the bar after five pull ups and was standing around, cooling down and
getting ready to tackle my last set of pull ups when I felt a large presence
looming behind me.
I
turn around to face a man towering over me with biceps the size of my head, his
veins bulging and muscles twitching. He was holding what looked like a wooden
platform. I felt myself tense up, wondering why he was standing there looking
at me.
Had
he run out of weights and decided that I was going to replace his deadlift
material? Was he going to bench press me without my consent? My thoughts raced
with extreme but very plausible outcomes that made me break out in sweat.
To
make matters worse, I saw another man with a similar stature lumbering over.
His face was making an expression that you’d see on a silverback gorilla after
pummeling a rival gorilla. In other words, he looked like he was looking for a
human dumbbell as well.
They
gave each other firm handshakes and turned toward me. They came closer with the
wooden platform, and I instinctively took a step back. I was ready to submit to
them, to relinquish my identity as a human being and become the 150 lb. barbell
they sought me to become. I closed my eyes and smiled as I realized the purpose
of my life — Ah, I see… I was meant to become
gym equipment.
I
was nearing enlightenment, becoming one with the universe and feeling my feet
lift off the ground, until one of them smiled and pointed at the pull up bar.
“You mind if we use this together?”
I
blinked for a few seconds, recovering from my trance and returning to the
material world, and managed to nod.
The
man (let’s call him Leonidas) holding the wooden platform placed it on the
ground below the pull up bar, steadied himself on top of it, and grabbed the
handles like his life depended on them.
Then
he proceeded to cross his legs and ready himself in a mid-air hanging position.
His friend (let’s call him Xerxes) used both of his palms to assist his crossed
legs — both for support and balance.
With
a war cry capable of rallying 300 men to fight off the Persians in the battle
of Thermopylae, Leonidas started his pull-ups with ferocity, concentration and
determination. He was fighting the earth’s gravitational pull as well as his
own body weight, and he was winning. I felt something primal awaken within me
as I was watching Leonidas. I could see that he was straining to get past the
20 mark. Xerxes, also feeling the primal instinct, shouted encouraging words
and assisted Leonidas with his hands. Leonidas’s face displayed great strain
and his muscles were shaking from fatigue, but he managed to break the
invisible boundary that was trying to inhibit his growth. He finally allowed
himself to drop from the pull up bars, onto the platform, and without rest got
into position to assist Xerxes in his pull ups. I watched this process in awe
play out multiple times — they continued to repeat
the cycle without rest for another set of 20 pull ups, and then they
acknowledged me standing in the back.
“We’re going to rest for now. It’s your turn.”
With
adrenaline pumping, I silently walked up the platform and tried to emulate
Leonidas’s techniques. I gripped the handle bars as hard as I could, and
crossed my legs together as hard as I could. With a deep breath and a calm
mind, I pulled myself up for the first pull up.
Immediately
after the 4th pull-up, I knew I was approaching the end. My weakness would
bring shame to this small tribe that I had invited myself into without them
knowing. I would fail my brothers, and they would chuckle and walk away,
leaving me as I fell from the pull up bars to my meta-physical death.
I
stayed in the air, hanging from the handles, trying to muster up the strength
for a final pull-up. I tried to encourage myself by breathing slowly and
thinking positive thoughts. But I knew that Leonidas and Xerxes, the brothers I
had known for the last 5 minutes, were behind me, judging me, watching to see
if I’d live up to their expectations or fail. The pressure was becoming too
much. I felt my fingers slip, one by one, as I prepared to land back onto the
wooden platform and silently walk out of the gym into the sunset, never looking
back and disappearing to another country — I could
never return.
“Goodbye, cruel world.” I thought as I felt my fingers
relinquish the bar.
As
I felt myself coming down, a new unsuspected and uplifting force caught my
crossed feet before they hit the platform. I felt myself gripping the handle
bars again in surprise, and I looked back. It was Xerxes with his signature
silverback gorilla expression on his face.
“Come on. You don’t stop here. Give me 5 more — I got you.”
I
stared at him in disbelief, and then I glanced over to Leonidas. His burning
gaze told me the same thing Xerxes had said. He nodded and I turned back,
feeling revitalized but still hesitant of my own capabilities.
“Five more pull-ups? I feel like I can’t even do one
more. How could I possibly push myself to do five times that amount?”
But
there was no turning back. Xerxes had my feet gripped tightly and I knew he
wasn’t going to let me go until I finished five more. I took a deep breath, and
started my ascent. Every pull-up I completed, I was in pain and felt my muscles
threatening to tear. But each time I went up, I felt the support of Xerxes’s
hands and I was able to complete something I never thought I could.
Before
I knew it, I was on the last pull-up, and I came to the realization that I had
never been able to push myself this far before. I came to realize that, all
this time, I thought I was pushing myself to the limit by only doing five
pull-ups and quitting when I started to feel a bit of strain, when in
reality I was giving up right when I started to test my limits.
With
a strain that I haven’t felt in the entirety of my few months at the gym, I
finished my fifth pull-up. I felt exhausted but I knew I had a huge smile on my
face as I faced Xerxes. He smiled back and extended his hand toward me. He said
nothing, but I felt that he was trying to relay this message with his eyes.
“I knew you could do it. You have to overcome your
limits. Keep testing yourself and embrace the pain and discomfort.”
Then
he turned to start his next set of pull-ups while Leonidas stepped in to
support him. They went right back into the exercise, while I stood there having
an epiphany.
I
did not want to sweat and feel sore. I did not want to feel pain so I stopped
pushing myself. In this moment I realized that the five pull-up limitation that
I had placed on myself the entire time was not a physical restraint, but a
mental one.
It
was a self-imposed limitation.
I
was not (and probably would never have been) aware of it until someone pushed
me out of my comfort zone.
It
made me re-evaluate everything that I do in life. I stop writing when the ideas
don’t come naturally. I don’t force myself to be uncomfortable, to be stressed,
to truly be challenged by venturing beyond what I know. I stick to writing
about the same things and carry the same style, and then I wonder why I am not
improving as a writer or amassing large amounts of readers.
We
place self-imposed limits on ourselves all the time, and it happens extremely
quickly. We look at a famous painting and stare at it in awe, and instead of
being inspired and feeling like we could create something as beautiful as the picture
before us, we immediately limit ourselves and tell ourselves the delicious lie.
“There’s no way I could do anything even remotely close
to that.”
And
why not tell yourself this? It’s easy. It removes responsibility, it removes
the discomfort of knowing that you could be something greater than you are
right now, it removes the pain of feeling inadequate compared to something as
magnificent as the painting in front of you.
You
don’t have to work hard, because you’ve convinced yourself it is impossible to
achieve such a level of skill and expertise. You don’t have to risk failure and
disappointment because you’ve convinced yourself that you simply cannot and
will not be able to create or imagine something so deep and spectacular for
other people.
But
what if you told yourself you could?
What
if you truly believed that you could write that great novel?
What
if you shattered the arbitrary limitations that you’ve placed in all parts of
your life and you started to live the life as an unstoppable human being?
What
if you lived life to the fullest, so that when you look back in your death bed,
you could say that you lived with no regrets and lived the best life you could
have lived?
Limitations
exist in the mind. I’m not saying you should go jump off a bridge tomorrow
thinking you could fly or walk into the gym and try to squat 500 pounds. With
practice, patience and discipline, you could build yourself up to achieve
things that the present you could never imagine.
Stop
underestimating yourself and think of yourself as a capable, intelligent and
strong human being.
Don’t
be fooled by the words “gifted” and “talented”. It only allows us to create
more self imposed limits that will prevent us from living the life you want to
live. It only spawns excuses that allow you to indulge in your mediocrity.
If
everyone has the potential to become a great human being, then you no longer
have an excuse to lay back and feel discontent about your life. You no longer
have a valid excuse to live the life of a couch potato. Don’t indulge in your
laziness — strive to become the best
version of yourself.
The
path to greatness starts in the mind.
Until
you truly set your sights upon a goal and believe that you can get to where you
want to go, you will never change and grow.
And
until today, I never knew that I could exceed something that I originally
believed I couldn’t do. By five times.
https://medium.com/@ohcwilliam/your-limits-are-self-imposed-you-are-capable-of-greatness-caf4bc485595
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