The Outer Limits of the Human Spirit

What makes some of us push ourselves to the utmost point?  What makes some of us want to climb to the top of that mountain reaching the cold and windy skies, win a painful and grueling race, or walk across hot, burning coals with our bare skin?  We want to test ourselves?  To prove our worth to ourselves or others?  Maybe.  Or is it just innate?  Some people push themselves more than others. Some people push themselves too much maybe.  Some people refuse to give up, while others give up quite easily. I think we can all benefit from a guide here on earth to help us along our path, since too often we give up in the face of difficulty.  But not all of us.  How many of you know someone who overcame seemingly insurmountable odds as a child to reach great personal success later in life?  You may see that their siblings may not have fared so well.. but these people had some fire deep within them that burned brightly, that told them to believe that they were capable of more than just what they saw around them.  Did they have a guide coaxing them along ?  Maybe - it can take that one positive mentor to change a life.

I'd like to believe that we are all capable of doing great things.  I think that some of us just have stronger inner critic voices that limit us more than others.  Some of us listen to that voice more, while others learn to ignore it.  On the flip side, there can be that voice that propels us forward, that encourages us to test our outer limits.

I have listened to that voice as times - it has pushed me to what I never believed my body could do (in sprint races and then in childbirth).  I firmly believe that this had only marginal relevance to the physical condition and fitness of my body, but more to do with my inner will and drive. Yes, over time that inner will has dwindled a bit (that's what lack of sleep will do to you - my current excuse is having 2 kids under 5).  But I am refusing to let that inner critic run my life anymore and tell me that "only other people" can do some of the things professionally in my career that I always thought I could never do.

Luck can play a role, sure.  Or, is it actually luck or just that when we align with what our higher self has always wanted us to do, that the universe actually starts to help us accomplish what we set down as our wildest and greatest dreams?  The help is there if we ask for it, and we just need to listen to it when it is given.