To find our limits, we have to feel them, touch them, push against them.
Once found, limits can be depressing. After all, they are constraints! Yet they define, at that given moment, the field upon which we play. If it doesn’t include taking flight into the sky, we need to respect that limit. Jumping off a cliff like Superman isn’t going to further.
Which is not to say these limits cannot be challenged. We may wish to revisit them. New skills of hangliding, paragliding, or piloting allow us to break through former limits to experience new heights. We add to our playing field.
What drives us, steers us along this quest? Finding what we truly like, what we want to do, who we are. This requires exploration. It requires experience, probing, testing, then assessing.
Plenty of external limits exist, both real and societally imposed. So why add to this litany? To be sure we’re not limiting ourselves, we need to overcome our internal restraints: fear of failure, anticipation of social disapproval, lack of self-confidence.
Take the first step. Do what you want, explore your own path — until someone tells you you can’t. Even then, think about it: is it time to challenge that expectation? If you never take the step, never ask the question, never push against that wall, how will you ever know?