Bruce Lee

From the Art of Expressing The Human Body, there’s this little story about Bruce Lee, arguably the greatest martial artist that ever lived, during a training run told by John Little, a close friend of Bruce:

“Bruce had me up to three miles a day, really at a good pace. We’d run the  three miles in twenty-one or twenty-two minutes. Just under eight minutes a mile [Note: when running on his own in 1968, Lee would get his time down to six-and-a half minutes per mile]. So this morning he said to me “We’re going to go five.” I said, “Bruce, I can’t go five. I’m a helluva lot older than you are, and I can’t do five.” He said, “When we get to three, we’ll shift gears and it’s only two more and you’ll do it.” I said “Okay, hell, I’ll go for it.” So we get to three, we go into the fourth mile and I’m okay for three or four minutes, and then I really begin to give out. I’m tired, my heart’s pounding, I can’t go any more and so I say to him, “Bruce if I run any  more,” –and we’re still running-”if I run any more I’m liable to have a  heart  attack and die.” He said, “Then die.” It made me so mad that I went the full five miles. Afterward I went to the shower and then I wanted to talk to him about it. I said, you know, “Why did you say that?” He said, “Because you might as well be dead. Seriously, if you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life. It’ll spread into your work, into your  morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.”

 Either push your limits or die. If you’re going to allow yourself to be bound by arbitrary, artificial  and anonymous limits, why even bother? One more time (you know you  should read it). If you stop at your “limits”…

…you might as well be dead. Seriously, if you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life. It’ll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.”

What’s your level? Are you exceeding it or are you dying? Because if you let limits define what’s possible in your life, you’re not growing, you’re dying.