What is a Limit?

By Colin Hall

A pane of glass, a blade of grass, a brick wall, or a cliff to tall, limits are meant to be broken. All my life I was told the sky was the limit, but that still isn’t enough. Climb to the top is still not enough. That is what I am. If the stars aren’t enough I’ll reach even higher, if the sun is to dim burn even brighter. This is what I have done, still do, and will continue to do until the bitter end. Impossible is only suggestion, because those same words, those two echoing, almost maddening words continue to ring in my head. The drive, the moto, the will to carry on, all in those same two words. 

Continuous Improvement.

It is a common opinion that people have a specific personality, that a person is, honest, caring, rude, likable, disloyal, good, bad, or in between. This is what defines a person, for good or bad. This is a mentality that has been around for a very long time, and this way of thinking prevails to this day, especially in highly populated areas. This was the basis for saying things like. That person has great character, or that is not a very nice man, or even, you should trust them I know them to be a good person. These along with many other expressions are commonly used due to experiences with another person’s personality. It is used to do everything from, judging people, or describing people for better or worse, and is a fundamental element in modern society. You can see this all the time in neighborhoods when someone tells you to avoid the unkempt house of the crotchety old mad and his rabid dog, or those Frederickson’s across the street are having a party next door, I like those kind folks. Maybe I trust the nice old lady across the street to look after my cat on a long trip. The point is most people do, or at least can relate in some way to these basic assumptions about others based off of personality and how much we like or dislike anthers.

The people of the podcast The Personality Myth would like to challenge this idea in one simple way by saying that your personality can change. They do this by going into a prison holding an event hosting the different abilities, skills, talents, or tricks that inmates who volunteer can do. This can include things from poems and music, to magic tricks and shows. To further the point they interviewed an inmate who committed a very bad crime (I won’t say what he did but it was bad.) and they couldn’t even tell what crime he committed based on talking with him. They actually had to ask him directly what he did, and afterwards he said, “It was easier to be no good”.  To finish the podcast they talked about a study on kids’ honesty with a marshmallow and wrapped it up by saying, “The future isn’t in a marshmallow”.

I view this personally by connecting it to my own ideas and philosophy. I believe in the idea that the only real limit is one you set so to relate this to personality I see both sides being right or wrong, here’s how I see it. If someone wants to change something about themselves it will happen, whether it takes a few days, to something taking almost their entire life, regardless of how long it takes, if they want it bad enough for better or worse it will happen. The same thing goes the other way to people are stubborn, and, regardless of their environment will remain that way again for better or worse. People throughout history have proven just how much a mindset can determine things. In this regard it can almost be scary what the simple thought of, I can, or I won’t, do something can be. People are capable of choosing to either adapt to an obstacle or push through it regardless, this simple choice really is the determining factor. I will use myself as an example as my final argument. I was bullied, still kind of am but that is beside the point and hated it so much so I would lash out which again still admittedly does happen. Regardless because it was based on discrimination, specifically for my mental disorders, I started to get the idea that discrimination was just as bad. So I got it in my mind and forced this to be as basic a thought in my mind as how to walk. It didn’t take too long to work mostly due to my previous experiences, but it did work. I can prove this with the fact that when I took the bias test, it said I had no immediate bias. Was it the only way to do it? No. Was it the best way to do it? Probably not. Did it work? Most certainly!