3 Ways To Deal With Our Imperfections and Limitations

L et’s get this straight. No human is perfect. I know Eliud Kipchoge would motivate us and tell us that “no human is limited”. I agree. But let’s go back to the perfection thing. There is no perfect human being out there. However, despite our imperfections we are able to rise up and overcome our limitations.

Excruciatingly Slow

Unfortunately, this might not happen in a day or at the first asking. We live in a world that cherishes fast things. We want fast internet, fast foods, fast weight loss schemes and so on. However, for us to overcome our limits, especially with our imperfections, it will take a while. It is a process.

The nucleus for any change in life, whether radical or not, is always going to be the individual. It is not a collection of people. The nucleus is a human being, one person. The spring revolution started with one person. The civil rights movement had its nucleus in one person…or let’s say, different individuals.

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You get the point. If there will be any change in the world, it starts with an individual. It starts with you. Mother Teresa said that if you wanted to change the world, you should go back home and start loving your family. Well, before you can love your family, you should have the capacity to do so as an individual. That means you will have to work on yourself.

Continuous Failure

Time and time again, your imperfection will rear its ugly head. The Bible says that a righteous man falls down seven times, but seven times he rises up. Nobody is perfect. That’s why time and time again we have to rise up and make another attempt.

I heard just recently of a story of a certain pastor or Christian. These people have values, strong values at that. This individual was caught up in a web of behavior that was against his values and detrimental to his faith. If I remember the story correctly, he was either addicted to pornography or drugs.

Keeping On

The story goes that this man kept going to church time and time again asking for forgiveness from God and trying to get out over and over again. For twenty nine times he tried. The story says that after the 29^th time, he got free and has never been in those chains ever again.

The truth is that in life, we will have to break some of the chains that bind us and effectively make us limited one way or another so that we do not accomplish our call, deploy our full potential and impact this world. If we are caught up with ourselves, we cannot change the world as we should given it is our mission for existence.

How To Make it

That is why we have to keep making the attempt over and over again. However, as we make these attempts to master ourselves, I want you to notice three of four important aspects of this resilience.

1. It Will Be Tough To Get Started

Probably that is why you have been postponing doing some things. You do not want to make that spiritual decision because it is uncomfortable. You do not want to make that health decision because it takes a lot of guts and it is difficult. You do not want to make that financial decision because it is tough.

The fact is that it will never be easy for you to get started. It is never easy for you to get on the journey of romancing your spouse for example. You will never be ready to start. The more you delay, the more apathy sets in and blocks you. If you are not careful, you will never start. This is the greatest danger the world over.

It’s not the Impossibility, it is The Conditioning

I want you to realize one thing. That it is not difficult or impossible because it is difficult and impossible. It is so because you are unprepared, unfit and unaccustomed. It is actually possible to be a hopeless romantic. It is possible to run those 100 Kilometers every month. It is possible to save every time you get income.

But the fact that you are not used to makes it feel as if it is the most impossible thing ever. Nope. You are the nucleus. So get settled and agree with the fact that it will take some time before you get the right conditioning. Work on your conditioning and don’t focus on the impossibilities.

2. It will Get Worse

Get this in your mind and have it settled. The moment you make a decision to go against the grain, that’s the moment you will experience the discomfort of your life. This is because you are not conditioned yet. Your body, your mind, your emotions or whatever else is the tool that you are directly using to get back up will take a beating.

When you try to do it again, it will feel worse the second or the third time as compared to the first. It will get really worse and discouraging. You will feel like you are not making headway and that there is no point of your resilience anyway. If this keeps going, you can easily give up. In fact, very many people give up here.

It’s Working

You need to notice that the getting worse is an indication that it is working. When you break up that relationship and you feel like dying, you might be tempted to go back to it. But that would be a bad decision. Stick it through and feel the gross pain and retrogression. Soon enough, the bounce will be on you.

3. Overtake Yourself

Notice that you are the nucleus. Never forget that. The worst thing that people do when they get started is to immediately start comparing themselves with others. You start running and you start comparing your statistics with other people. It is too early to do that.

The person that you need to outrun is yourself first. Look down and not around. Give it your best shot. The next time you go out, give it your best shot again. Keep improving until such a time that you feel you have a personal best of sorts. Then and only then can you look up and start considering to compare yourself with others…because that has its place too.

Many people get discouraged because too early on, they see others flying but see themselves snail pacing. Don’t do that. Run your own race. Be comfortable in it. Overtake yourself first before considering to overtake others.

Soon enough, your imperfections will have improved and your limitations wills start waning off. That’s how we do life.