Monday, April 27, 2009

Limits

(Here's an attempt at epigram.)

It's important to know your limits. People who don't recognize their limits cannot move beyond them, except by accident. They can exceed them, but not move them. That can be dangerous. Far better to approach your limits consciously, with humility, and engage with them. Move the limit from within.

3 comments:

Jonathan said...

Ok. I'll bite. How does one know one's limits? Is one born knowing those limits? Obviously not. What about limits that are imaginary, or that are the product of arbitrary lines? For example, I might think I'm bad at something I've never eve tried, but I might conceptualize that (falsely) as knowing my limits.

Instead of knowing your limits, you should re-evaluate your limits. Turn magical thinking into realistic thinking.

Jonathan said...

never "even" tried"

Thomas said...

If you haven't tried something you are in no position to know your limits in that area. You have no relevant experiences. But you may have relevant experience (occasions to know your limits) that you ignore. Everytime you go beyond your limits, overreach yourself, you fail (by definition). But you may interpret this in terms of some external accident, not a limit of your own.

I continue to think you should move your limits. But that may be what you mean by re-evaluating. As Kung/Pound said, the archer who misses the bull's eye looks within himself for the cause.