I learnt a very important lesson this past week, primarily through my extensive karate course that the karate organization I belong to ran, and also through the stresses and challenges that a typical week at my high school offers.
Many times in life we’re always seeking to push the limit, and continuously put ourselves in the spotlight particularly because it’s to look good. We’re caught up in the rat race of modern civilization, our minds a swirling mess due to the influences modern media possesses.
Now you might think this last statement strange, considering that I am such a proponent of the Internet and Web 2.0. But sometimes we need to understand something about ourselves that I think is so drastically overlooked 90% of the time.
It’s a simply thing called your limit.
An abstract concept, yes, but it has solid groundings in who you are as a person, and how you perceive yourself to be. A strong ego in some of us can really influence this, and so too can small things like over-confidence. And so the important lesson I learnt this week was that we must understand ourselves on a deeper level, to the extent that we can establish our limit.
By knowing your limit, you know when and how to react to a situation. For example, I chose not to participate in a major upcoming competition due to the fact that I haven’t been training properly for it. This was due to the fact that I have indeed been very busy with other work lately, and haven’t managed to channel the right amount of time. Perhaps this also alludes to the management of a proper schedule that we must ensure be kept, but the main thing is that you know your limit.
It can also be transcended into writing, and technology. Companies need to know to what extent they can push the design and architecture of a product before they need to move on. Case in point: Microsoft. Windows Mobile is an ageing operating system – something that can clearly not compete with the upstarts from Apple, Google and BlackBerry. So, the Redmond giant decided to revamp it into Windows Phone 7 OS (confusing name, but a drastic improvement over its predecessor). They understood its limit.
And so when next you too get a fragment of time in this cacophony of chaos that we all live in, perhaps take the time to understand to what extent you can push yourself before you realise that you should step down. It can uphold your dignity and show the calibre of person that you are.
Life in Pixels 