Thank you for listening and subscribing and thank you for sharing each episode with the people who matter to you. Many of you have reached out this past week and asked the same question. How do we limit ourselves? Probably, the most relevant question to be asked by anyone in any profession or any circumstance.

 

Bottom Line Up Front, the BLUF. We limit ourselves in 4 basic ways on a daily basis.

 

We start out skipping some wake up function to our body.

We rarely read out loud each morning what our goals are for that day.

We skip sharing our goals with our partners and family and often neglect listening to their goals.

We all respond emotionally to what the day brings.

 

Clearly there are secondary and tertiary ways and mechanisms that limit us. Yet without realizing the 4 basic ways have already set us up to be less the secondary and tertiary are irrelevant.

 

Before I share some examples and functional ways to effect the 4 basic ways to not limit yourself, let me explain why our world is constructed around few even realizing they skip the basic self limiting functions. It is much easier to be lazy. I think lazy is the worst four letter word known to man. Lazy destroys health rapidly. Lazy causes relationships of all types to dissolve. Lazy loses more money than a one day market crash. Yet, lazy is what happens to many on a daily basis. And the inertia on lazy is what we take into the hours we are awake trying to succeed.

 

But, that is the negative aspect of self-imposed limits. Negative reflections as you know aren’t helpful regarding success. Negative reflections are just facts with no clear way to deal with the facts. Tell someone they are lost, or out of shape, or dressed wrong, or Lazy is just fact. But knowing the fact doesn’t give anyone a new means of dealing with or adjusting. Maybe being negative and stating fact ensures the fact remains unchanged.

 

So, let’s deal with the each of the four is short order.

 

In the morning, right when you wake up, what do you do? Having trained thousands of leaders and teams over the past 29 years, I can tell you most people wake up silent and lethargic and stiff and sore. Many wake up next to some one and softly get out of bed, walk out of the room straight to the coffee pot or refrigerator. On the way they notice their feet hurt, or legs are stiff, or neck or back or shoulders are achy. Their eyes are tired. Their heart rate is low. These various limiting factors are real and consuming coffee or something from the refrigerator may seem like the best solution but let me tell you it is not. The rest of the day will be inundated with pain, stiffness, decreased mobility and lack of desire.

 

Instead, for the next week, try another method. Wake up and immediately, right in the bed room while seated in your bed move every single joint. Then get on the ground and do 10 push ups. Engage and demand your arms and shoulders and body turn on and move. Roll over and do 10 sit ups. Ask your core muscles turn on and begin to move your body. Then stand up and do 10 squats. Your legs and hips are yours so ask them to engage.

 

When you actually have a body moving and capable of doing what you ask it to do, you will have over come the first limiting factor. Your body will be engaged and responsive the rest of the day. Forgo this basic routine and you will have limited your health and capability.

 

The second basic limiting factor is to speak out loud. Literally tell yourself what you intend to accomplish that day. It doesn’t matter how small or big that goal is. You have to begin to use the spoken word to succeed. I want to work out, or I want to call one new client, or I want to go to the store. Forgo this basic routine and you will find achievement rather difficult.

 

The third basic limiting factor is often the hardest to do, it should be the easiest but alas I have found it rather hard to find one person that does it. Could be why marriage and intimacy is so hard to maintain? The third factor is to listen to the goals of your partners in the morning and to share your goals with them. Simple, but not easy! Forgo this basic routine and you will find increasing difficulty and meaning in the relationship you are in.

 

The final factor is our immediate emotional response to everything that happens from waking until sleep. Most don’t even realize we have already responded emotionally to how we our body feels, or what the day may bring, or worse how our partner and family is within 30 minutes of waking. We wake in pain and are frustrated. We don’t tell ourselves what we want to accomplish that do so we emote apathy and passionless. We don’t connect with family and we feel empty.

 

What if you learned to not respond this way, or rather what if you didn’t let your emotional Ego dictate how you feel? What if you weren’t so emotionally reactive to traffic, to rain, to delays at work? Your response emotionally so quickly and randomly is your limiting factor. Uncontrolled emotions are very limiting to every aspect of your life. And let me tell you, your emotional response is entirely up to you.

 

You are in charge of doing or not doing these four limiting factors. They don’t take skill, time, or money. Not doing them destroys your skills, your use of time, and your wealth.

 

Imagine what you would feel like and be capable of doing every day if your body could move well? What would you do if you could move more gracefully or more powerfully?

 

Imagine if you set and goal, big or small, and achieved it?

 

Imagine the relationships you could have if you were interested in what your lover, spouse or family was doing that day? What would life be like if someone in your family called you at noon and asked how did that meeting or deal turn out?

 

So, maybe this week, overcome these four self imposed limits, every day. Imagine if you were not so quick to feel frustrated with the way things are going? Imagine the life of not being so upset with the uncontrollable?