Limits

Questions of the Day:

How do you know you have limits if you've never found them?

And...

How do you know those limits are limiting if you've never attempted to push past them?

We Are Mental
99.9% of our limits are mental.

I want to share a really awesome story with you. Our friend Jim, for his 60th birthday, rode a recumbent bicycle from California to Pennsylvania. Jim didn't take the shortest route, either, no he took the circuitous route and he did it hauling a trailer across the desert in June. He finished the ride in about six weeks. Total mileage: 4,013.

Throughout the process of planning the trip, Jim wondered over and over again if he was crazy, if he could succeed. He had no support, very little money, no cell phone, no Ipod or MP3 player, and very few supplies. In fact, he would be completely alone on his journey.

Despite a plethora of self-defeating thoughts, Jim pushed past his fears and began his ride. When he wanted to quit, he kept pedaling. When the weather got nasty, he kept pedaling. When people threw stuff at him from their cars, he kept pedaling.

When the mountain passes in Yosemite were too steep for him to pedal up, he got off his bike and walked. When he got caught in a brutal hailstorm in the middle of nowhere, Kansas, he tried to take cover under his trailer. When the hail stopped, he got back on the bike soaking wet, frozen and bruised.

Each day Jim pushed his mental and physical limits and discovered something new about himself and the world. He discovered all of the things he could do, all of the things at which he could succeed, things most people said were impossible. He met wonderful people, saw some of the most spectacular scenery in the U.S., and accomplished something incredible, something only a handful of people will ever accomplish.

Now I don't expect that most of you will ride a bike across America, although if you do that would be awesome. I just wanted to share Jim's story as a way to help inspire you. He found something he believed to be a limit and then proved to himself that the limit only existed in his mind.

Amy's Weekend Challenge:
Find a limit, either in health and fitness or in some other aspect of your life and challenge it. See where you go. The sky's the limit.

Be safe and have a great time!

Copyright 2009 Amy Giaquinto