The question that drives this man forward — “What if I push harder? What if I shed this layer? What if …”
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I am better than I currently am. How much better, I am not sure, this is a question that drives and motivates me. I want to know what my limits are; I want to have those limits pushed so that I can uncover what it is that I am truly capable of. To be able to say, “Any further and I would have collapsed or I could not have mentally have gone any further,” is something that I hope to one day soon say because it is then that I know that I have given my all and have put myself to the test.
For myself, my exoskeleton is my limits, I wear my current limits on the outside of myself but underneath these limits I have a another set of limits waiting to push through.
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Following this moment, the thought of, “I am better than I currently am,” will hopefully be one that crosses my mind. The process that pushed me past what were my old limits starts back up and pushes me to the limit once more. It’s all a cycle. The cycle begins with me knowing that I am better than my current self and pushing those limits.
Perpetually I am look for signs and metaphors in everyday life to learn from, to reflect, and grow from. One area that I find many signs and metaphors from is from nature. Like many other people I like to compare myself to the animals. No I am not going to compare myself currently to a wolf or a lion, or some other tired cliché like an eagle, an owl, or what have you. Rather I am going to compare myself to a humbler creature, a crab, yes a crab! You see a crab has an exoskeleton, but underneath that exoskeleton is yet another layer.
When it is time the crab will shed its exoskeleton and the new one pushes its way through. For myself, my exoskeleton is my limits, I wear my current limits on the outside of myself but underneath these limits I have a another set of limits waiting to push through. Unlike the crab, nature does not shed my exoskeleton, I have to do it. The only way to shed my old limits and put on a new set of limits is for me to push myself. I have to force the new limits out!
I am better than what I currently am. I am better than what I will be after I push past what I currently am.
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Throughout my life I have had many challenges but nothing that has pushed me to my limits, this is a shame. I feel most people have not been pushed to that point and they are perfectly content with it. That is may be fine for them but for me it is anything but fine. “What if?” is a question that constantly runs through my brain. That question haunts me when I do not do something that I was intrigued by or given extensive thought so. This question coupled with my taking Economics in both High School and College, which introduced me to the term opportunity cost. The cost of missed opportunities because you chose to do something else. Almost everything has opportunity cost from deciding to stay at home instead of going out to a networking event to listening to listening to the radio instead of an audiobook, on your morning commute to work.
If something really intrigues me but I find myself doing something else that does not intrigue me or challenge/push my limits for me that opportunity cost is way too high. “What if? What if? What if?” plays constantly over and over in my head.
I am better than what I currently am. I am better than what I will be after I push past what I currently am. I am better than that, and then better than that. I choose to push myself, to take risks, to consider the opportunity cost, to answer and challenge the, “What if?” question, to know that I am better than what I currently am. Most importantly I choose to shed my exoskeleton, to shed my past limits, and find out who this better self is. My better self-had better not get to comfortable because he is only there temporarily, his better self is right below the surface.
I am better than who I currently am and I am shedding my current self for my better self as we speak. This is what motivates me!
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Photo: Pixabay