Do we have limits?
On Saturday 12th October 2019, history was made in Vienna. Eliud Kipchoge ran a marathon in under two hours.
By whatever measure, this is a remarkable human achievement. It gives credence to Eliud’s own assertion that ‘No Human is limited’. This day was up there with Bannister’s 4 minute mile, Hine’s sub 10 second 100 metres, and even Armstrong setting foot on the Moon. But the reality is this; we are not all created equal. We do have individual limits, and that is one of the hardest things to accept sometimes.
It brings to mind a couple of former colleagues. All three of us are similar age (over 50), height and build. But the other two are still banging out Iron Man events like they were a walk in the park, and one of them at least can still run a mile in under six and a half minutesI Me on the other hand, had a hip replaced last year! But the fact prevails that I was never in their league. No amount of coaching, training, nutritional discipline or plain luck ever brought me near their strength. They were biomechanically gifted from the outset. Their limit bar was set higher in the womb.
The world today is full of ‘prima facie high flyers’. Social media and skilful use of filters enables people to project a better image of themselves than is often the reality. Its no wonder that as we look back on a week which also included World Mental Health Day, we have an epidemic of depression and anxiety when the natural instinct is to compare oneself with others, and feel bad where you don’t come up to scratch.
There has to be a compromise.
A close friend and fellow coach evangelises on ‘coaching towards contentment’. We have to set ourselves challenges in life, but we also have to take a realistic view – pretty much what the ‘Reality’ phase of the ‘GROW’ model of coaching guides us to do. Accepting our general threshold of limitation is an important part of our development. There are things that we may just not be able to personally achieve for some perfectly sensible reasons, and that should be our level of contentment. Coaching helped me recognise my own.
Having such a threshold to work to brings real benefits, because within our own development we can see where marginal gains can be made. This is how we can move forward with less stress and pressure on ourselves to over-stretch and over-achieve. We begin to work at our own pace, rather than that we feel is imposed on us. This can bring about a much better state of mind. It isn’t about giving up, accepting second best, or taking mediocrity as an option either. It is simply being grown up, having an enhanced awareness of who we really are and how we interface with the world at a particular place and time.
Once we achieve that, we take back a high degree of control. And once we have that control, we can strive for higher things on our own terms.