Hitting my Perceived Limits

The other day I went into my local gym to get my body fat checked before a workout. The front desk misheard me and I scheduled a free personal training assessment. Why not? I guess. I ended up learning a powerful life lesson.

I was introduced to one of the personal trainers and our session started. Our workout was simple. Single leg squats, pushups, pull ups and crunches. 4 sets of each, all until failure. I made the rookie mistake of expending all my energy on the first exercise that by the time I moved on to pushups, I was spent. For every set of pushups, I would do them until I felt my arms would give in, I would hit my perceived limits and just when I was about to stop, he would say “Keep going!”, “You can do more!”, “It’s all in your head!” and he was right I could always do more.

After our workout he said “Our mind puts limits on what our body can achieve, yet, our body can do so much more. We want to free the body of the mind’s limits, but most importantly, we need to free ourselves from the mind’s limits.”

It’s crazy how our mind puts limits, not just on our physical capabilities, but everything. “You’re not qualified for that job”, “Your writing is messy”, “you’re not good enough for that girl”. The truth is, the only limits are self imposed.

Every time I hit my perceived limits, I hear the personal trainer’s voice:

“It’s all in your head!”

And I keep going.