Everything has a limit. So we’ve been taught, at least: “There’s only so many hours in a day”, “There’s only so much one can do”, “You can only do certain things when you’re a certain age” and the list can go on, maybe limitlessly. Sure, there are real limits to what we can and cannot do. Nature and physics have laws that tell us there are some boundaries that cannot really be crossed. Or so we know. But what are the limits of our potential? What limits are there to how much we can grow? What are we actually capable of? Let’s explore this together.
How Much Can One Grow?
Recently I wrote a post about growth and shared in on my socials.
“Humans are the only species that hit a glass ceiling.
How tall will a tree grow? As tall as it possibly can.
How much can you grow? As much as you’re WILLING to.
So is the glass ceiling real or is it just in our imagination?”
Of course, there were all sorts of comments, with some of them ironically saying that by this rule, people could grow 6 inches in height or that trees don’t grow as much as they could if there are other fully grown trees around that impede that. As you can imagine, there were all sorts of opinions from our fellow keyboard warriors. While many of these people were just having fun on the internet, some of them really didn’t get the actual idea. That it’s not about growth in the physical sense, but about the potential you have. The spiritual growth, the self-development, the idea of becoming better than you were yesterday. And some of the ones who got the point, were still trapped in the old paradigm that there is only so much you can grow or do in life.
I know that my weekly letter is read by clever people, who have understood that their potential is limitless. And that is exactly what I am teaching everyone I come in contact with. That they have virtually no limits, but the ones they impose on themselves. And those are shaped by our beliefs, by the society, the environment and the peer group we live in.
So how much can you grow? In other words, how much can you develop in one year? How much can you give? How many languages can you learn? How many people can you inspire? As many as you’re willing to! There are no limits to how much better you can become, compared to how you were the day before, the month before, the year before.
Ok, But What About The Physical Limitations? Are Those Imagined Too?
It’s true that we are bound by some laws. Natural laws, chemical laws, thermodynamics etc. Gravity is a very good example. No matter how much potential we know we have, if we jump off a building, convinced that we’re going to fly, the Earth will draw us to it. And the fall would be epic and painful. Could even be deadly… This is what we know and it’s better to not challenge those laws that keep us safe.
But what if we looked a bit into the past? In 1903, the Wright brothers had a breakthrough, when they were capable of taking off the ground for the first time with an object heavier than air, that was not catapulted, but had an engine and was manned by a pilot. Other inventors kept building on top of that and got us to where we are today – when we’re capable of flying hundreds of people over the ocean in aircrafts that weigh tens of tons. Were there known limits to people at that time? Yes! Were they broken through? Yes!
Who knows, maybe one day we will be able to actually fly on our own, using just our bodies. In the meantime, keep yourself safe from the force of gravity.
What about limitations to our physical bodies? How limited are we actually? Well, I say we’re not. And there are many examples, but I will take just one. Before 1954, nobody had been able to run a mile in under 4 minutes. That seemed like an unbreakable limit. And people got close, but the under 4-minute mile seemed really far-fetched. After all, there’s only so much you can do… Not for an English neurologist, though. The 6th of may 2024 marked the 70th anniversary of a great breakthrough. Seventy years ago, on the 6th of May, Roger Bannister ran the first under 4-minute mile, making it in just 3 minutes and 59.4 seconds. Again, nobody had been able to do it before. But once Roger Bannister showed that it was indeed possible, it became possible for everyone. As a matter of fact, after Bannister, another athlete was able to run a mile in under 4 minutes, and even to beat the previous record. Until 1999, another 17 athletes broke the records set by their predecessors for the under 4-minute mile.
So are there limits to what our bodies can do? If you don’t acknowledge your potential, there are. If you do, there aren’t. There aren’t any because our potential is infinite. Time will tell us.
“If Something Doesn’t Grow, It Rots”
By nature of things, if we don’t grow, either physically, spiritually or in any other way, we rot. We die. And some might say that we still don’t have the ability to grow in height or grow new organs. And that is true for most people. Yet there are some people that say the opposite. For all we know, there could be people that have managed to do that. But let’s look a bit at what is possible for us and has been shown before.
We’ve all heard of the placebo effect. And it is as real as gravity. In double-blind trials, new drugs are tested for efficacy against placebos. The control group gets placebos, while the test group gets the actual drug. Neither one group, nor the other has any idea what they are on. They are told that they are getting the new drug, which is supposed to help them with their ailment. And interestingly enough, in the placebo controlled group, there are people who get better or even get cured of the disease they have. Was it the sugar pill they were given that healed them? Or was it their mind? My illusion is that it was the mind.
What does that healing mean? It means that our mind convinces our body that an external factor is going to make us better, to heal us. And our body believes it with such conviction that it starts to GROW new, healthy cells. So do we have the ability to grow in height or grow new organs? Maybe we do, and we don’t know how to use it yet. There are people out there who can talk at length about healing our bodies. Joe Dispenza, Deepak Chopra, Gregg Braden and Bruce Lipton are just a few. Explore the possibilities and see whose methods you resonate with. You might start seeing improvements in your life that others call ‘miracles’.
The point is – regardless of what we’re talking about, whether it’s spiritual growth, becoming more knowledgeable, healthier or even taller, we base our limitations on the beliefs we have. And a belief is a poor substitute for an experience.
To sum up, there is no glass ceiling. There is no limit to how much you can grow, to how much you can develop, learn, do and give. And if there is, make sure you break it quickly!
Jim Rohn once said that “Every life form seems to strive to its maximum except human beings. How tall will a tree grow? As tall as it possibly can. Human beings, on the other hand, have been given the dignity of choice.”
Are you choosing to stay under your glass ceiling or to break through it?
Blessings!
Daniel
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