Step Out of the Box
A green Lamborghini parked outside my house. Note to self, if I ever decide to get a crazy expensive car, DO NOT get this color!
Update: A well-informed reader – Mike – let me know that the car in the photo above is highly unqiue – one of the only ones in the country at this time - and it does not have a govenor in it. Also, the use of govenors are primarily for environmental and other reasons, as opposed to simply keep the cars from outrunning police. They probably could outrun the authorities anyway which is why police use helicopters and other methods to keep our roads safe. I’m leaving the post below un-edited, but thanks to Mike for these added insights!
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Really fast cars have these things called governors. They are devices that control (and in some cases limit) the maximum speed of a vehicle. It’s what keeps a Lambo from outrunning the police. Our bodies have internal governors too. They keep us from taking ridiculous risks. From pushing ourselves too far. From taking actions we might later regret. From doing things that could sacrifice our lives, friendships, livelihood, etc.
The problem with our internal governors, is that they quickly and frequently get out of alignment. If you were a car, you could wheel yourself into a shop for a tune-up. Unfortunately, resetting your internal governors is not that easy.
As we go through life we end up hearing other people saying we can’t or shouldn’t do certain things. Or we try things and fail. Or we see others try things and fail. Or we see people not even trying and therefore assume that things are impossible.
This kind of reality causes us to set our own governors at ridiculously low levels. We think we can never get out bodies in shape. Never do 50 push ups. Never get that better job. Never get that better relationship. Never make it through six “wheels” (Urdhva Dhanurasana) in yoga class! The longer we let these lies persist, the more they sink in.
Every now and then it is imperative that we give ourselves a tune-up and see that the boundaries we set are fake and often just plain ridiculous. Try something new. Push your physical body. Try something again (for the second, third, fourth time if need be). Set a crazy goal (or a BHAG in Lululemon terms).
Do whatever it takes to step out of the prison of your self-imposed comfort zone, aka “the box.” Bust out the box and see what you are really capable of.
This is exactly what I’ve been thinking about lately, but your metaphor makes the idea so much more clear. It’s so easy, especially these days, to throw your body’s “governors” out of wack. In my case, after an overly restrictive diet my body wouldn’t be satisfied until I had eaten myself uncomfortably full. It was really hard for me to know when to stop but now I’m beginning to ‘normalize’. It took a few weeks of being either hungry after meals or way too full though.
I live in China, and whenever I visit the States, all the images of food one is bombarded with makes it really easy to overindulge. I don’t know how I would live here, where one can step into a Whole Foods and have literally hundreds of delicious options, and so many desserts that are hard to resist.
Emma
June 26, 2010 at 6:11 pm