Today’s lesson is brought to you by the Hebrew word הַגבָּלָה, which means limits or limitations.
Pause.
Definition Time:
Limitation= a limiting rule or circumstance; a restriction.
Play.
We’re a people bred by society, and our society is one of risk takers. Especially in recent years, with our every moves being posted and shared on social media, it seems like everyone around us is leaping out of their comfort zones and onto an African Safari (or hiking the Acapelican Trail, or quitting their jobs to trek around Australia…).
Every inspirational poster, meme, and quote inspires us to reach for our dreams, get out of our daled amos (‘four corners’) and do something.
“Challenge yourself,” they say! “Take a leap, do something different,” they say!
I’ll tell you a secret: I’ve always been the kind of person that (blindly) follows the intuition of others. If they say jump, I pull out the trampoline, because they must be right, right?
Eh, not so much.
There’s excitement in daring, and we should dare, but…shouldn’t we know our limits first? Shouldn’t we know who we are and what we’re capable of before we gogogogogo?
Say, for example, that you’re taking a yoga class for the first time. You’re not going to flip right into a handstand or flying frog, right?
Ah, but that’s where the difficulty lies.
Our insatiable desire to do and be more has convinced us all that we don’t need to build up to incredibly challenging poses. I, for example, have weak wrists. I know that my limits include not flip over into a handstand without preparing first. But, I still do it, and I face the challenge. This is not a weakness, this is a strength.
Life is full of tests that require you to learn how to follow your own intuition; they will teach you to access the building blocks necessary to challenge yourself, whatever that means. And in order to challenge ourselves, we need to first know our limitations!
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I know what you’re thinking: Limits do the opposite. They restrict, restraint, they hold us back, they’re a handicap, a weakness.
Ah, there it is. When you admit to having a limit, are you therefore succumbing to being weak?
Knowing your limits does not make you weak…but challenging yourself without knowing your limits will make you weak.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe was famously quoted when talking about how to strive for more. You’ve acquired 100? Great, strive for 200? 200 is taken care of? What about 300? And so on.
You can—and should— strive for more. The point here is not to tell you to reel it in, to hold back, to do less. Limits exist if only for you to push them, to confront them, to shape them. But in order to do that, we must first understand what a limit is.
Limits are a gateway to successfully and skillfully apply your area (s) of strength to your challenges (self inflicted and otherwise).
Limitations do not make you weak unless you allow them to, the same way that no one can make you feel inferior without your permission.
It takes time to recognize the difference, especially in a world full of people so dead set on proving that they’re not weak. We’ve made ourselves out to seem invisible, that our efforts or effortless, and that challenges are met head on without a sense of fear. But, in doing so, we’re actually creating a society of weakness, limit, and scarcity.
I say, be a daredevil with purpose. Let your passion drive you with mindfulness, not recklessness. Sure, take the leap and build your wings on the way down—but please make sure you have the materials needed to build the wings on your person before you backflip off a cliff in Costa Rica, ok?
What are the building blocks of knowing your limits? I don’t know yours, but I’ll tell you mine:
- Recognizing my limits
- Realize that I don’t need to qualify my limits with anyone (seriously!)
- Use my knowledge to leap over my limits and get to the next level (pass Go and collect 200!)
- Rinse and repeat
So, yes, take those challenges. Yes, reach those goals! But first, get to know who you are, and what your points of no return are…and then do it anyway.
Onwards!