More on Limits

Sebastian Marshall has a great piece on his blog today on overcoming limits. Here’s an interesting section:

The question you asked – “What steps/training did you use to remove your inhibitions?” – I think that’s already like, half the battle. Most people don’t even realize that they have severe inhibitions. It’s like gravity, it’s always there acting upon them, but they don’t consider it.

Unlike gravity, this force can be changed and overcome.

Step 1 is to intellectually get your mind around it. It’s a bit of a constant process. I think it was Hunter S. Thompson that said something like, “Nobody can tell you where the safe line is… everyone that found out is on the other side.”

For me, I run downside/upside calculations a lot. Man, on paper a lot of stuff makes a lot of sense to do. Did you know Gandhi used to write 60 letters a day sometimes, to various people he found important and influential throughout India, the British Empire, and the rest of the world?

That’s cool, that’s worth emulating. Nothing to lose by doing so, paper and typewriter ink is cheap enough. But even Gandhi acknowledged that he was often anxious about doing it, sometimes even directly in the letters he was writing.

I reckon realizing that there’s natural inhibitions, studying the nature and cause of them, and coming to the intellectual conclusion that you’d do better if you were taking more inhibited action… that in and of itself goes a long way.

I love the quote by Hunter S. Thompson: “Nobody can tell you where the safe line is..everyone that found out is on the other side.” Check out Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas if you get time.

Bottom line: it’s difficult to push your own boundaries but ultimately worthwhile.