Limits and Risks

Most of our dreams are on the other side of our fears. Part of knowing yourself well is understanding what your limitations are both now and in the future. What are your redlines that you won’t ever cross or want others to cross on your behalf? You should know what your non-negotiable redlines are in any endeavor and put yourself in a position to enforce and enact consequences to those who don’t respect your boundaries.

Still, sometimes we must be willing to cross the line and accept the consequences of those actions. We can’t just violate limits and not expect to pay a cost. That is the most important part of risk taking, understanding the context, the necessity, and the outcome of your actions that contravene those limits. Sometimes we don’t understand the full picture or incorporate the risk of other parties in our decisions. Having such a narrow focus on a baseless goal without zooming out and understanding your reality will almost always lead to failure which you will have to accept to move on to the next objective. Some of us are wired to “fuck around and find out” and others simply take risks without understanding the costs to society or themselves. There are others that will hover around limitations and never push past their deepest fears. This is the unhealthiest coping mechanism. Sometimes you just need to go for it and find out like it’s your job.

Some of us latch on to our own history as an indication of how to respond to new challenges with require taking risks. You must be willing to give in to fear even if it leads to failure. If you don’t, you’ll never understand to what it takes to succeed in a fast-paced, life or death environment. Most of us don’t work in an emergency room but the more we commit into pressure, the more we will be able to succeed in pressure cooker environments. We learn to thrive after meeting seemingly insurmountable challenges.

When you finally meet your match in a competitive environment, you must be willing to let go of control and fear of the unknown. You will cross into a territory that is completely foreign to you, but you must accept that you’re not in control, but you can always control your reaction. You can always say no and walk away, or you can push through fear. We all will hit a limit at some point. The sooner you meet a limit and cross the line to find out what’s on the other side of that limit, the sooner you will be able to live a fulfilling life not tied to the fear of what could’ve been. Take the leap, find out, and adjust accordingly.