You Are Capable of More Than You Think

Go as far as you think you can, and then take one more step. This will teach you that you are capable of more than you realize and when you get in the habit of knowing this then you will understand that the limits of your thoughts are not your true boundaries. If you can do more than you think then you don’t have to start off “knowing” what you are capable of or living within those boarders, you are able to explore and hold space for the potential beyond your thoughts. If you are capable of more than you think then life is a playground and you get to be curious about how far beyond your previous perception of self you can move. You will learn much more about who you are and what you are capable of because by not knowing you will be willing to find out. This is how you break out of previous self-conceptions. This is your way into a new form of being.

That was the advice the voices gave me when I was training for my first marathon. They used training for that event as analogy for other areas in my life, so even though it could literally be applied to taking one step beyond my current running goal the concept had much broader implications.

Self-concept plays a huge role in how we experience our lives. It may not be at the forefront of your mind, but the beliefs you hold about who you are and what you are capable of will often influence the experiences you let into your life and form the boundaries of your own expectations. When you start to see yourself in a different way then you invite new experiences which will generally reinforce the new self-concept. There is a great deal of personal growth that can be triggered by learning to recognize aspects of your self beyond what you initially perceived.

I’m currently reading a book about this concept called Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz. I haven’t finished it yet, but so far I agree with the primary concepts. There are some examples and conclusions in the book that are culture-bound and I would guess are influenced by the expectations of the period in which it was written but if you can get past that and allow the underlying ideas to have some influence, I think the book makes a good resource. It definitely goes more in depth about how self-concept shapes experience then I have room to explore here, so if that is something you are interested in it might be worth checking out.

The self is a concept that could be explored through many different layers and perspectives, but more and more we are learning the self is more fluid than previously described. In fact, who we are is much larger and more dynamic than something as structured as thought could encompass. This is why thinking about the self is a limiting process. Who you are goes beyond words or thoughts, but thoughts can help to direct you to new experiences and levels of understanding.

Growing beyond what you think you know does not mean disregarding thoughts altogether, it means following them to their limit and then realizing that there is more beyond that limit. The practice of going up to that boundary and one step further can be one way of reminding yourself that what is real extends beyond our mental constructs of experience. It can be one way of allowing yourself to explore who you are beyond previous conceptions and it can also allow you to experiment with what life is beyond any particular philosophy and ideology. The real truth of all things is that this existence is so far beyond what we can convey in any number of words. To really grasp all that you are and all that life is implies moving beyond the word forms or thought forms into the experience of fullness. This comes naturally when we are babies, but it often has to be relearned as adults.

Your life is a beautiful expression of yourself, but who you are goes beyond any formulation of what you think, say, or do. These actions are expressions, but they are not you and any time you can use them to challenge what you previously believed about yourself you are opening doors for yourself to come into a new way of understanding. It can be challenging to reach that far, but the result of re-teaching yourself and removing limits is an entry way into a beautiful open world with unlimited possibilities that you get to explore. You don’t know what is beyond the boundary, unless you are brave enough to look beyond it. Be brave enough to question the limitations you have set for yourself; you might surprise yourself with how far you can go.

Have a great Monday

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