CHAPTER TEN
Stop!!! Jump Over The Limits
During the second world war, the Soviet Union placed mines across the territories it had taken to war against their enemies, the Germans. A soldier who mistaken stepped on one of those mines had his legs blown off. This was often the case for soldiers on the enemy side who were unaware that mines had being placed. As the war went on and the soldiers realized that mines had being placed across the battle ground, they became increasingly careful. The soldiers would watch, stop and jump over the mines. The mines were meant to stop the enemy from taking over the land.
As much as we are blessed with wisdom and knowledge to get over limitations, the greatest wisdom only arrives when we watch out for the limitations. We stop just before the limitation, think of an idea to get us over the limitation and then act the idea, in this case, jump the limitation.
Only fools assume that the road to their great future would be straight and smooth. The wise ones are always on the lookout for road signs warning of one challenge or the other.
Running the one hundred meters hurdles race could be daunting because the athletes have to get over series of hurdles. If he does not expect the hurdles, he may end up being hit by one en-route the end of the race and it could be disastrous. Some athletes look down while they should be looking in the direction of the next hurdles, they trip and fall. The wise athletes look out for the next hurdle once they have gotten over the previous one and prepare themselves to jump over it.
Wisdom requires that while running, you watch. You watch out for pebbles, stones, broken bottles and other dangerous objects that might be an impediment and then jump over them. If you get hurt by any of these objects, you may lose the opportunity to run.
Roads built in West Africa often have drainages on their sides. This gutter are usually 3 or 4 feet wide. As a little boy, crossing such gutters was a great feet. When we get to the place where we had to cross the gutter, we’d stop, step backwards, and run forward gathering energy before taking a jump over the gutter. It required courage and strong will.
When we reach our place of limitation, that’s where we require even more energy. Limits are not placed on our paths to frustrate us. They could be frustrating though, but they arrive to help us discover that there is more potential in us and we can gear up to that potential.
At that place of limitation is the right energy. When we get there, we have to wait. Our normal pace may not get us past it, we have to refuel and be reenergized for it with the right strategy.
Our place of limitation isn’t where we give up. It is our place of discovery. Many discoveries have arrived at places of limitations. We tend to discover more of ourselves when we reach the place of limitation where more of ourselves is expected of us. All we can do is encourage ourselves and keep going watching, waiting and daring.
One doesn’t necessarily have to rush over limits because he thinks he can. Limits could be tricky and you may end up with “ I thought I could do it”. Not rushing doesn’t mean you are acting cowardly. You have to take your time to understand the intricacies of the limits so that you don’t end up trying over and over without success which may lead to your giving up. You’ve got to push but it has to be backed with the right knowledge. Think about a car on gear. It will be difficult to push the car to move. If too much force is applied, the teeth of the gear may wear. The driver will have to remove the gear to neutral, doing this knowledge.
The time lapse between when you stop before the limit and when you dare to jump is that time of understanding the nature of the limit and developing a means to get over it so that jumping become easier.
When as a child, we came to the gutter and surveyed that it was too wide to get across, we’d think first then go about searching for planks long enough to get across the gutter and then we make the cross.
When faced with limitations on a great pursuit, think of the pursuit as a must get and the limit as the gutter. Stop, think, a solution will always come and then act with solution against the limit
The challenges that limits us are not impossible. They just require patience. You have to be calm and take each step towards the challenge. You can carry yourself over your challenges and limits.
Just pause, smile, move back, run forward with increasing energy and jump. Now you are over your limits.