Leading without Limits

Have you ever wondered what you were really capable of? What you could do, if you didn’t know what you couldn’t do? Our world is full of limits, some which are legal limits to give us boundaries to keep us safe. Other limits are imposed on us, sometimes by people around us, and sometimes by ourselves. Legal limits are important and are therefore not the subject of this newsletter. However our self-imposed limits are!
Have you ever heard someone say – “I can’t do that!” Why can’t we do more than we ever dreamed we were capable of. The reason most people can’t and don’t is because they decide they can’t and then they fulfill that destiny. Effective leaders are visionaries, they allow themselves to see the potential and to ignore the imposed boundaries. If we lead others without limits then we allow them to think, we encourage them to express themselves so that new opportunities can be shared. We make discoveries. We grow. Take a look at some of the most successful companies today! They are companies who had vision, who had determination and who believed in testing and trying things that pushed them beyond the limits of most peoples imagination.
So why do we have limits? We have them because we have listened to people who were programmed to listen to limits. I use the word programming loosely, but much of the world has historically been divided, as it is today, there are those who want to discover and those who don’t. The discoverers or leaders have paved the path to our technology and exploration. But these people are the minority. The majority have been conformist, in that they don’t want to seem greedy, they dream of having only what they absolutely need to survive, because to them it would be selfish to want for more. They are reluctant to believe in bigger goals and therefore settle when they reach the first goal rarely striving for the 8th goal. They settle and begin to live within limits.
Living without limits – is as much a mental process as it is anything. We have to believe we can achieve which is the first hurdle. Then we have realize that we are going to work toward that goal. I was with Jim Cathcart Saturday, author of the Acorn Principle, he reminded me that when we get stuck in limits, we may need to dream for a moment, about what we want to be, and then aim so that we become that person or reach that goal. What would you like to be? What limits are stopping you from being the leader you need and want to be? Be careful because this question often invokes our blame characteristic, when we are often the only person there is to blame on this issue. I understand we all have a maximum capacity, at which we become tired and unproductive, but I also understand that if we keep working this capacity it can grow. As a skydiver, I want to grow and to test my ability to learn more about this sport, it causes me to stretch and that helps me to change my limits. In 2006 and 2007 I walked in the Susan G. Komen 3 day 60 mile walk to fight Breast cancer. For many the thoughts of walking 20 miles a day is overwhelming. But when we break it down into small segments it becomes something we can do.
I am completing the final touches on my book Closing the Gap: Brining Generations Together. Any limits I had about writing this book, were mine. I have 25,000 subscribers to this newsletter and not one of you, said I couldn’t do it! I created my own doubt, but I decided to let go of my limits. In this book on the various Generational Issues all over the world I talk about Generation Y or the Millennial Generation born after 1977. They are a generation that tests the limits. They need leaders without limits regarding potential, because they are ready to move us faster and farther, if only we will let them. Today, challenge yourself to see the potential that lies within you and those you lead, instead of accepting limits.