When you are approaching the border of your present capability, you have three options. You can: 1) go backwards, 2) stay where you are or 3) continue to move forward. The choice is yours to make and you must remember that your habits are formed according to the pattern of your choices.
How you handle the final step when as you approach line that separates you as you are now from you as you could be moments from now determines in large measure your progress in life. If you are in the habit of either retreating or freezing when you are called on to perform in a way that seems to you to be just beyond your present capability, your life will stagnate. If, on the other hand, you push through to victory whenever you face a limitation or an underdeveloped aspect of your character, your life will flourish.
Your life can give evidence of eternal progress if you so choose. No matter what comes your way in your relationships, circumstances, work, health or anything else for that matter, you can overcome. The limitation may not clear completely, say with your health or with some fitness goal, but you can have a mental or emotional victory in relation to it that is worthy of acknowledgement and celebration.
Every circumstance you face tests your mental, physical and emotional stability. No three of these capacities are fully formed at birth and none should rightly stop growing at any point in your life. Physically-speaking you may lose overall capacity but you can always improve or maximize where you are at any given point in time.
Far too many people see the line of present capability as a wide and impassible canyon rather than the small crack in the pavement that it is in reality. It is easy to build up emotional and mental blocks that stymie forward movement in what would otherwise be a quick, simple, clean and easy process of personal growth. You’ve no doubt witness in person or on video someone who refuses to jump from a platform on a zip line and slide to the bottom because of such a block. Sliding down requires little to no effort and requires much less from the person than climbing up the steps, but as I mentioned, you can either: 1) go back down the steps, 2) freeze or 3) jump off and slide to victory.
If you are in the habit of creating such barriers for yourself, fear not. Habits are simply the accumulation of decisions in a particular direction. To change a habit, you must string together a series of decisions that reinforce a new direction. It can be a challenge, but that is the point! Nobody said life would be easy. Life is hard at times, but if you lustfully embrace life’s challenges you will begin to lead an uncommon life.
You CAN push through to victory. You SHOULD push through to victory. You will not know fulfillment in life if you shrink from the challenges you face, not so much because your life will be a failure, but because you will not have the wherewithal to assist others to their fulfillment if you do not develop the habit of taking the final step that puts you over the line that separates what you were from what you will be.
Gregory Hake 
Well said, after experiencing resistance yesterday this is exactly the words I needed.
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Assisting others to fulfillment – I can only imagine what the scope of my history would have been if I were to have learned this at an early age. The things I could have done better, the things I could have positively changed — so many many opportunities are given to us. I would venture to say that the successes we have all had in life are attributed to either the conscious or unconscious application of this very fact. I thank God that as the stakes are higher in life when we are older, that we can consciously think about this fact, and be purposeful about it in applying it. Funny thing is, somehow you come to realize that it really is your default state — it appears to be the natural order of things for oneself and that it really is rather unconscious once you aren’t so conflicted and torn with the superficial asymmetries of life.
Herculean post my friend!!!
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Really like your point here about the pattern of our choices. And this: “The limitation may not clear completely, say with your health or with some fitness goal, but you can have a mental or emotional victory in relation to it that is worthy of acknowledgement and celebration.”
I needed to read this today. Thank you. I’m going to print it out for the days ahead.
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This is so sensible, thanks for the great post!
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My pleasure!
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I really appreciated your points that outline how we can experience victory. It sounds so easy if we just take it one step at a time and move forward when we see an opportunity.
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I think you really nailed the point of this whole post with the last sentence. The key to a fulfilling life is moving out from yourself and assisting others, but you can’t give what you don’t have. Being able to do something when you don’t really want to is called discipline, and that might be what it takes to build a habit in the right direction. If so, so be it. Suck it up and keep moving, and before you know it you will be at a new high point in your life.
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Just what I needed to read, thanks!!
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Seemig insurmountable circumstance is a part of everyones life. What looks easy to another can appear crushing to me. It’s not a race or a competition. I’ve faced extremely difficult, frightening and heart wrenching times, some that weren’t of my making or choosing , while others I could see I had a part in. What has mattered most was not giving in or letting myself give into the temptation of letting myself “off the hook”. Seeing something through is packed with surprises from yourself and other people. Miracles occur every day but it is necessary to have a human being present who won’t give up, who will shoulder the responsibility as it works out, who will be there to accept the gift if it can possibly be given.
Thank you for your great words
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