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Blog

Pushing Your Limits

Alan Andersen

What do you think of when you hear someone (like me!) say, “You need to push your limits”?

Envision yourself standing on a high peak of the Rocky Mountains watching a storm rage below. An eagle soars up through the thunderheads, and arcs toward the sun. The rainwater on his wings glistens like diamonds. Had it not been for the storm, the mighty raptor might have remained in the valley, and you wouldn’t have caught a glimpse of its beauty.

Pushing through storms gives people the opportunity to grow in character, expand their sphere of influence, and live on higher ground. It strengthens our self-confidence and encourages us to keep reaching for more.

Being a coach, I push people every day to challenge their self-imposed limits and to go for the stretch goal. Faulty belief systems are the main thing that limits people in pursuing their personal greatness.

But the limits I see people breaking aren’t the right ones. They are overloaded, and living on caffeine, adrenaline and mediocre success and yet they keep striving! Forgoing sleep, answering emails 24/7, working 60 hours a week, saying yes to every request, climbing the invisible ladder of success, justifying their adrenaline addiction. And then because they are overstretched, calm themselves by eating, drinking, spending, or self-medicating.

We have confused which limits to break through and which ones to honor and create space for. What suffers is our true fulfillment and satisfaction with the things we do have, value, and desire in life. In fact, living a life of purpose, vision, and legacy is about moving beyond your own limits and comfort zone to something greater than you.

I invite you to decide where you need to set new limits for yourself to live intentionally by your values and to generate creative space for true living to occur.

Your Coach,

This article previously appeared at True Life Coaching, a subsidiary of Shandel Group. If you enjoyed this post, read Shandel's book, Clarity: Focusing on What Matters.

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