How do you know your limits, if you don’t test them?

Most of us don't know our limits, because we limit ourselves. We think we can't do something, even though we want to try. We bring our limits into focus. Or it is just there, in the back of our minds, wearing us down. I remember when I began studying the martial arts. I had stumbled into a martial arts club on campus. At the time I did not know much about the martial arts, I only knew I wanted to learn. The club taught Taekwon Do, a Korean martial art. I went one night and watched and was amazed by the students. I got the nerve to approach one of the black belts and ask how I could join. Before I knew it, I was standing in class. The instructor was American and it turned out that he was very, very good. Before I met him he was ranked number two in the world for full contact fighting. It took a few years before I realized just how good he really was as an instructor and a practitioner. Remembering those beginning day's I recall feeling of awe, and pain! I had never been pushed so hard physically. At the end of every class it was all I could do to walk back, across campus, to my apartment. My hands would shake and I would drink a soda to try and get some energy back into my body.

Read more...