In this article by Benjamin P. Hardy he tells a story about a farm boy who decides to see how much work he could get done in a day. He asked himself “If I work as hard as I can, I wonder how much I can do in a day?” As Ben says in the article another variation might be "how far could I possibly go?".
It turns out the kid crushes his days work becoming obsessed with seeing how much he could get done, and only stops briefly for a drink and food. His boss asks how he got so much done and pays him a bit extra for the hard days work. It ended up being the most money he had ever held in his hand.
"As he walked the few miles back to his farm, his mind danced. His heartbeat was quick. He felt like the richest man in the world. And he was — because he now had a confidence and level of self-trust that you can’t actually buy with money.
He had just watched himself push his own boundaries. His worldview of himself was ripped wide open and he stepped out of the limiting confines of his previous self-definition.
His curiosity led him to greater confidence and greater rewards than his imagination initially conjured."
This got me thinking and I wondered why as we grow older why we don't continue to ask ourselves questions like this. As kids it is always "how high can I jump?", "how far/fast can I run or ride my bike?" We start to think we know all the answers to our abilities but it is only because we put limiting beliefs around our current capabilities and don't ever really push the boundaries. Where we are currently at is probably far off where we could possibly get to if we just challenged ourselves.
The article goes on further saying "most people are curious about how little they can do". I believe this to be very true. When I look at our society today that is what most people are aiming at. It seems like an easy option but it may not be.
"Joe Polish, the founder of Genius Network, has a great saying. He says that, “Winners find ways to be winners and losers find ways to be losers.”
It actually takes a lot of ingenuity and creativity to be unsuccessful.
Polish describes his time as a drug-addict, and about how much effort and thought it took to keep up his life. He was incredibly resourceful to get his drugs and to hide his stories and deceptions from family, friends, and others.
It takes a lot of work and curiosity to be a failure.
It takes a lot of energy to continually convince yourself that you’re not worth a damn.
It takes a lot of hard work and energy to pretend you’re working at work when in reality, you’re doing anything but work.
What if you flipped the script on yourself?
What if, rather that seeing how small you could be, you saw how great you could be?"
So out of all this the takeaway is to push yourself hard in whatever area you choose and see how good you really could be. It will be worth it because as mentioned above that is how you will gain confidence and self-trust. To me that is very important.
Start with one area and then start implementing it in all areas of your life. That to me, is personal growth.
I think John Meadows said it so I'll credit him for it "If you never push your car to the red line then you'll never know how hard it can go".
How hard can you go? Go and find out.