Nido Qubein shares in his book, Attitude – The Remarkable Power of Optimism, a very interesting perspective on our personal limitations.  He states, “Most of the limitations that keep us from realizing our full potential are artificial.  They are imposed on us by circumstances or by other people.”  He suggests that these include such things as our age (feeling that we are too old or too young), lack of money, what we may conceive as past failures, problems, opinions of others, our education status, fear and doubt. Are any of these things on your list of limitations?

Qubein says, “The real limitations have to do with the way we see ourselves and the world around us.  Our attitudes hold us back from becoming all that we were created to be.”  Examine yourself to see if any of the things he proposes are on this list fit you:  excuses, wasting time, having an overall negative outlook on your life, feeling sorry for yourself, worry, pettiness, lack of flexibility, laziness, lack of self-discipline, procrastination and bad habits.  I had to say “ouch” after reading this list!

It is much easier to find an external source of blame rather than to look at ourselves internally.  However, looking at outside circumstances removes our hope along with the blame.  I heard Kevin Miller on the Ziglar podcast just today say, “Men and women are only limited by the size of their hope.” You see, we don’t have control of all our outside circumstances or other people.  The only thing we can truly control is ourselves.  The truth is that we do what we really want to do.

What can you remove from your artificial limitations list, by recognizing the real limitation, that will help you change yourself?  Could your concern about your age really be an excuse for not disciplining yourself enough to do what you know you should be doing?  Could your lack of money be due to procrastination?  Should you stop worrying about what other people think and get busy?

What are your real limitations?  Take an honest look at yourself so you can get on your way to living . . . your life to the fullest.