One finds limits by pushing them. — Herbert A. Simon

One finds limits by pushing them.

Author: Herbert A. Simon

Insight: We spend a lot of time guessing at our own boundaries before we even test them. Maybe we think we can't write, or speak in public, or learn math, and we just accept it as fact. But the truth is, you don't actually know where your limit is until you bump into it—and even then, you've usually pushed it further than it was before. This matters because so much of self-imposed limitation is just assumption. You think you'll fail, so you don't try, which means you never discover you might have succeeded. The real limit isn't where you think it is; it's somewhere further out, waiting for you to get curious enough to find it. Every time someone says "I didn't know I could do that," they're describing exactly this process—they found their actual limit by exceeding their imagined one. The slightly counterintuitive part: this doesn't mean you have unlimited potential. It means your real limits are usually fuzzier and more moveable than they feel. You might hit a genuine wall, and that's useful information too. But you won't know the difference between a real wall and a fear until you walk toward it.