At Limit Coaching, we believe that limits are universal. Whether it’s limits you experience when practicing sports or the mental component of performance, our reactions to crossing our limits are intertwined. Goals we set for ourselves in sports are comparable to goals we set for ourselves in life, just like our responses to ourselves in sports and life are related. We set a goal and try to achieve it. Chances are, we will fail before achieving those goals, and it’s likely we will have to push past limits in order to achieve them.
Our reactions to these scenarios are telling of the values that shape us, and are therefore representative of our attitudes toward life. It is these reactions, preconceptions and attitudes that Limit Coaching will focus on.
We tend to give ourselves limits, even though we don’t exactly know where our limits lie. It’s amazing and empowering to challenge your own (made up) limits. This is why I’ve always loved sports.
You see a certain challenge; I want to climb that boulder, I want to be able to push that much weight, but I can’t right now. How do you know you can’t do it right now? You don’t. In a split-second, we already give ourselves a limit. At first sight it might seem impossible, and maybe right now it is. But if you take a moment to see what needs to be done to achieve the goal, give yourself the chance to work on it, you might break through the limit you have set for yourself. The drive and the motivation behind putting limits to ourselves is fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of failure. Only when you extend your own made-up limits, can you realize the true potential of yourself.
That is what I believe in; understanding the simple fact that the only limit there is, is put there by you. We have more control over our lives than we sometimes realise. I think to truly get to know yourself you must seek out your real limits, instead of the artificial ones.
Be aware of what shapes you; your values and your thoughts
So what are your core values? Who are you? What makes you an individual? What do we want from life? What brings us satisfaction? What can we do to not only live toward happiness, but to realise when those moments are before us. We must be conscious. Of ourselves, of our self-imposed limits and of how our uniqueness shapes our perspective of the world around us.
The first step is to seek the answers to the questions “who are you” and “where do you come from?”, because everything else is built onto these cornerstones. Unresolved traumas twist into self-doubts without us even realising it’s happening, colouring our perception of the world and our own capabilities. When we find the causes of our self-doubts we can shift from seeing them as things beyond our control to something we can break free from. We are more powerful than we imagine ourselves to be, because the flaws and self-doubts that stop us from acting are – for a great part – self-inflicted. None of us are perfect, but we are more than we imagine ourselves to be.
We must be conscious of what we tell ourselves. Whether we tell ourselves that we will undoubtedly fail. Our greatest obstacle is our own mind, and to break through this obstacle we must first consider how our pre-existing values influence our way of life? How do they reflect in our behaviour or work ethics? How do they influence our conceptions of success or failure?
When we know our core values and beliefs, we can come to see our strenghts and weaknessess.
Do things that align with who you are and what you want. Own it & yourself.
This second step is about honouring your own uniqueness. You are, in every case, different from everyone else. You have a perspective, strengths and passions that make up the totality of who you are, and in this combination of aspects, there is no-one like you. This means that you have a one-of-a-kind input into whatever it is that you choose to do, which is an empowering thought. And that is the goal: to be empowered as you are.
Embrace yourself & take authority over your own actions and choices
The first step is to know, the second step is to embrace, and the third and final step is to act. Once you know yourself beyond your own initial beliefs, you must work to act that self into existence. You must decide to not be held back by the limits that we now know to be self-imposed and be true to who you are and what you want.
By enacting yourself, you birth this newly found version of yourself into reality. Rather than it be a fantasy of yourself, an alternate universe imagination that could have been, it becomes real: you become real. Only an enacted self based on the new insights from consciousness can be a truly authentic self.
By authenticating yourself, you breathe life and reality into what was previously only a conception. By taking authority over this new authenticated self, you take responsibility for the actions you take and for the choices you make. No longer will you be able to tell yourself that you can’t: anything and everything you do will be enabled by yourself.
The moment you take authority of your actions, you become the master of your own fate. You will be truly free from the limits that used to stop you before, conscious of what caused them and how they changed you, authenticated by acting in a manner that is true to yourself and now – finally – in a place of power to exist outside of their influence.