How do you deal when you feel like your personal limitations are stopping you from creating the life you want?
Fact: You don’t live in a vacuum. That means that other people, places, and things that are outside your control influence your life all the time. Roadblocks may appear out of nowhere. Life routinely throws you a curveball, and your path to obtaining the things that you desire is put on hold. This is why you have to understand how to overcome your limitations – so that you can effectively deal with obstacles that threaten to keep you from realizing the reality you desire.
Change Your Perspective! Obstacles Can Be a Plus!
Here’s how you start to learn to overcome your limitations.
First, remember that obstacles are a good thing – or at least they can be, if you let them. They challenge you to think outside the box. They push you to higher levels of performance. Hindrances and hardships allow the cream to rise to the top. They can even create a stronger, more successful, more powerful, and capable “you” than you ever imagined possible.
Consider the Past
Look back on times when you overcame some seemingly unbeatable stumbling block. At first, you saw that limitation as an interfering mountain that you would never be able to climb. Through determination, taking action, and good information, you found yourself on the other side of the mountain, and clearing that hurdle was nowhere near as hard as you thought it would be.
This is going to be the case with most limitations, obstructions, and restrictions in your life.
By remembering past experiences where you managed to successfully overcome your own limits, you build the confidence to surpass any stumbling blocks you encounter in the future.
Overcome Your Limitations: Focus on What You Can Control, Not What You Can’t
Be honest with yourself. Identify the things that are under your control and the things that are not. If something is slowing your down in your pursuit of a particular goal and you have control over it, stop making excuses. Take action and do whatever is needed to clear that hurdle. If something is outside of your control, you are either going to have to ignore it, or brainstorm a unique way to influence it.
Remember that everything that has ever been achieved by man was thought to be impossible at one time. There is a first time for everything.
For example, before Roger Bannister
Set a time-frame for overcoming the obstacle. It’s easy to say “I’ll do it tomorrow” when faced with some distraction or impediment. The only problem is that tomorrow never comes. What you see a roadblock in your path, give yourself a realistic but challenging deadline for overcoming it.
Look at the situation objectively. Step outside of yourself. Look at the reality you are in as if you are viewing it from the sideline with no feelings on the outcome one way or another. This outlook often presents simple solutions to what otherwise seems like an impossible situation.
Begin to recognize obstacles not as problems, but as goal-achieving magnets. Think about it. Overcoming an obstacle automatically moves you closer to realizing the goal or desired set of results you are trying to achieve. This attitude makes you confidently positive that the next time you see some hindrance to the reality you are trying to create, you will have no problem overcoming it and moving closer to whatever success you want to realize.
37 Quotes for Overcoming Your Limitations
- “I’ve learned that fear limits you and your vision. It serves as blinders to what may be just a few steps down the road for you. The journey is valuable, but believing in your talents, your abilities, and your self-worth can empower you to walk down an even brighter path. Transforming fear into freedom – how great is that?” ~Soledad O’Brien
- “There are no limitations to the mind except those that we acknowledge.” ~Napoleon Hill
- “Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve.” ~Mary Kay Ash
- “The only limits you have are the limits you believe.” ~Wayne Dyer
- “You begin to fly when you let go of self-limiting beliefs and allow your mind and aspirations to rise to greater heights.” ~Brian Tracy
- “Argue for your limitations and sure enough, they’re yours.” ~Richard Bach
- “Learning too soon our limitations, we never learn our powers.” ~Mignon McLaughlin
- “You have to learn to get comfortable being uncomfortable. You have to be willing to get out of your comfort zone and push your limits.” ~Jesse Itzler
- “Do just once what others say you can’t do, and you will never pay attention to their limitations again.” ~James Cook
- “Age is no barrier. It’s a limitation you put on your mind.” ~Jackie Joyner-Kersee
- “There are no limitations to any of our dreams.” ~Gene Simmons
- “If you accept a limiting belief, then it will become a truth for you.” ~Louise Hay
- “I’m not interested in your limiting beliefs; I’m interested in what makes you limitless.” ~Brendon Burchard
- “You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.” ~Michael Phelps
- “All limitations are self-imposed.” ~Ernest Holmes
- “Growing up, many of us are taught to place limits on what we can accomplish while on earth. We tend to think of things in binary form: either as possible or, more frequently, impossible.” ~Clemantine Wamariya
- “Do the uncomfortable. Become comfortable with these acts. Prove to yourself that your limiting beliefs die a quick death if you will simply do what you feel uncomfortable doing.” ~Darren Rowse
- “Every person takes the limits of their own field of vision for the limits of the world.” ~Arthur Schopenhauer
- “Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding, find out what you already know, and you’ll see the way to fly.” ~Richard Bach
- “One extends one’s limits only by exceeding them.” ~M. Scott Peck
- “Remember: We all get what we tolerate. So stop tolerating excuses within yourself, limiting beliefs of the past, or half-assed or fearful states.” ~Tony Robbins
- “Never set limits, go after your dreams, don’t be afraid to push the boundaries. And laugh a lot – it’s good for you!” ~Paula Radcliffe
- “You only know yourself when you go beyond your limits.” ~Paulo Coelho
- “Stop limiting your potential. Realize that there’s an unlimited amount of things that can do with your life.” ~Sonya Parker
- “The fears we don’t face don’t become our limits.” ~Robin Sharma
- “The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.” ~Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- “Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing.” ~Sylvia Plath
- “In the morning a man walks with his whole body; in the evening, only with his legs.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.” ~Arthur C. Clarke
- “What is sad for women of my generation is that they weren’t supposed to work if they had families. What were they going to do when the children are grown – watch the raindrops coming down the window pane?” ~Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
- “Each life makes its own imitation of immortality.” ~Stephen King
- “We are put on this planet only once, and to limit ourselves to the familiar is a crime against our minds.” ~Roger Ebert
- “I guess I just like to challenge myself and push myself harder to do things that I don’t think I can, to do things that other people do not think I can. It pushes me. I push my own personal limits.” ~Bethany Hamilton
- “Do not think of your faults, still less of other’s faults; look for what is good and strong, and try to imitate it. Your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes.” ~John Ruskin
- “If we can see past preconceived limitations, then the possibilities are endless.” ~Amy Purdy
- “There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder.” ~Ronald Reagan
- “Our limitations and success will be based, most often, on your own expectations for ourselves. What the mind dwells upon, the body acts upon.” ~Denis Waitley
- “When you’re taught to love everyone, to love your enemies, then what value does that place on love?” ~Marilyn Manson
- “Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.” ~Albert Einstein
- “One finds limits by pushing them.” ~Herbert A. Simon
- “If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.” ~Bruce Lee
Affirmations for Overcoming Your Limitations
Working on overcoming your limitations? Try this quick 3-minute set of affirmations, designed to help you overcome your limitations. Read each affirmation, aloud or to yourself. Then, read and answer the journal prompts (self-reflection questions) in your journal.
My limitations serve as motivation to excel.
I avoid looking at my limitations as a disadvantage. They serve as representations of my starting point towards greatness. I am excited to be blessed with new days to achieve that greatness.
Although I am unable to fill multiple roles at work, I avoid feeling discouraged. Instead, I feel encouraged to learn as much as I can.
My co-workers serve as conduits for knowledge. I use each chance I get to learn their roles. Being able to fill in when I am called upon is important to establishing my worth to my employer.
Complacency rarely factors into my day. Whenever I have a free moment, I use it to develop and learn.
I actively seek to form personal and professional relationships with people from other parts of the world. Our differences challenge me to learn more about them.
Learning new languages is exciting to me. It gives me a chance to communicate across the cultures that I am exposed to. Although I am limited today in my language capabilities, I am working towards turning that around.
Today, I am as capable as I choose to be. My strength lies in my willingness and ability to grow. I am committed to developing the person who I am on an ongoing basis. Knowledge is a strength and opens me up to wonderful possibilities.
Journaling Prompts for Overcoming Your Limitations
1. What are some of my main limitations? How can I expand my limits?
2. How do I reward myself when I achieve something that I set my mind to?
3. Where do I get the motivation to keep going?
