"Only those who risk going too far find out how far they can go."

Former Navy SEAL David Goggins - Who’s known as an accomplished military service member, an ultra-endurance athlete, and the toughest person in the world - Knows a lot about our personal limitations. In his book “Can’t Hurt Me” he talks about something in our mind called ‘The Governor’. 

The Governor is our brain’s fail-safe off switch. It’s the voice of reason trying to keep us from overexerting ourselves. It’s there to protect us, but Goggins estimates that The Governor is activated at only 40% of our physical potential. This means that we’re capable of more than double what we think we are when our mind says we’ve hit our limit.

It takes courage to expose yourself to what lies beyond your comfort zone. It’s uncertain and potentially damaging to push too far. But here’s the truth: "Only those who risk going too far, find out how far they can go." 

When you “risk going too far”, it suggests that it’s very possible that you hurt yourself. That you end up on the wrong side of the bet you made. That’s what risk is! But in order to find out just how far you can go and the true edges of your personal limits, it requires that you put yourself in harm’s way. 

This is obvious in a workout where you commit to a weight, speed, or amount that challenges you. That’s how you find out what’s on the other side.

In business you take financial risks or try strategies that aren’t guaranteed to produce results. That’s the only way you tap into the scale of results that you’re capable of.

In relationships you need to be willing to save 'I love you' first and risk heartbreak, or make contact with a new friend first and risk rejection, to discover just how strong your relationships can be.

Darren Hardy puts it this way - Life is like a pendulum. If you want to experience a certain level of success, you need to expose yourself to a certain level of failure. As long as the pendulum has the energy to swing high on the side of success, it has to also have the energy to swing high on the side of failure.

If you want to live a more outstanding life you need to be open to taking on more outstanding risk. 

And that’s what this quote tells us. "Only those who risk going too far, find out how far they can go." You don’t need to be the person that is all or nothing, burning the boats and being reckless in pursuit of discovering their full potential like David Goggins. That’s not enjoyable to everyone…

But maybe bumping yourself up a on the spectrum will serve you in experiencing the next level of depth that you’re after in life. And then when you get there, maybe you bump it a little more!