Michael Phelps teaches us not to put limits

 I want to go with a character blog again as it connects more dots. I have taken Napoleon last time around, let's think of a character this time that can be written about. Maybe let's go with Michael Phelps. Okay, so here we go. I really like some of his quotes and let's start with this one. 

You can't put a limit to anything. The more you dream, the farther you get. I really like this quote. What essentially, he is talking about is that you can't really put a limit on your dreams. For example, if you are an actor and if you say you want to go and have a movie with a 1000 Cr box office collection, you are putting a limit to it. When you put a number, you are putting a limit to it. So, the more you dream, the farther you get. For example, I'm sure Michael Phelps might have a certain number associated to him right. That this is the number of seconds that he wants to finish his lap. Now, when he puts that limit, he will never be able to know what's the end of the limit. For example, you might be a software engineer, and you would put a limit of say 2 hours of coding per day. But the moment you put that limit, you don't know your true capacity. I know that Michael Phelps practices 4 hours of swimming every single day without a fail. I love that attitude of his. Similarly, I have heard that Sachin Tendulkar, when he used to practice, he never puts a time on his watch. He just kept on practicing until he felt like it. That's the way he lived his life. So become like Sachin and do not have a time boundary, or any limit that you associate to anything of value. Keep on practicing and practicing and practicing until you are there. So be like Michael Phelps or Sachin. If you want to take more real life examples think about an achievement. If you are working at a startup that's an ecommerce website. Don't think of it like a start up, rather think of it as an ecommerce website and now don't think of reaching the heights of amazon itself. You can reach higher than Amazon as well. So put your dreams as big as possible. That's the best way to live your life. The higher the dream, the more limit less you can be. 

There are always going to be obstacles that come in your way, stay positive. Now this statement is so good. There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hardwork, there are no limits. He again emphasizes that there are literally no limits with hardwork. So, go ahead and tell this to yourself every single day. No great journey is easy in life. In fact, the reason its so great is that there were obstacles along the way. There were people who doubted your abilities along the way. We will also make certain mistakes. But we keep on putting in the hard work because there are no limits. Think of any journey you had. I can remember that when I was in 11th Standard, there was a lot of pressure on me to get to the topmost college in the state. I worked extremely hard for it. There were days where I would feel not so motivated, there were days where I would feel not so happy, there were days where I would score less in a test, but my dream never changed. I kept working hard irrespective. There were absolutely no limits to the heights of success one could achieve. So keep working hard and the results are going to come, sooner rather than later. Don't be too worried about the obstacles in the journey, because that's what makes the journey so great. 

Damn. This guy. "I think that everything is possible as long as you put your mind to it and you put the work and time into it. I think your mind really controls everything."  If you break down this statement. Think of the first few quotes where he talks about not having any limits. Knowing that there will be obstacles. However, when you truly look at this guy. He talks about work and time into it. You have to put in the work and time into it. Our mind controls everything. If you put in the work when you are doing software, you will achieve what you want to achieve. You put in the work and time when doing architecture, you will achieve what you want to. You put in the work and time when doing say gyming, you will achieve what you really want to achieve. So go ahead and put in the work and the time and your mind will control everything. You need to control your mind. Mind is a super power that can help you achieve the impossible. 

Look at his words, perseverance, determination, commitment, and courage, those things are real. The desire for redemption drives you. I really like this idea. When we talked about obstacles previously, he told that the journey is going to have some obstacles. There are going to be days when we need to persevere harder. We need more determination in completing something and more commitment. Now what do we mean by determination and commitment. What I typically mean by determination and commitment is that when you are determined to put in the work and you are totally fully committed to put in the work and the time, then you are going to achieve everything. By courage what Michael Phelps means is that you should not be afraid of anything. In fact, rather better put it, courage is not the absence of fear but the ability to act despite. I think that is courage. It goes beyond fear of judgement, fear of failure, fear of success, fear of spotlight, everything. They say you should never have 2 things. One is fear and the second is sharam. By sharam what I mean is shame. You should not be ashamed of who you are ever. You have never done anything wrong, so why be ashamed of showing the world who you are. I sometimes get insecurities with acnes. However, when I look at this player, Carlos Alcaraz, I see that even he has acnes but he goes out plays the best tennis, defeats the best players and then people still respect him and like him for his game. Not the acnes. I love that. Go out and be so so skillful that your insecurities just vanish away. 

I remember playing cricket with my brother one day. No one really knew my brother in the game. However there came a time, when he took one brilliant catch and people just forgot everything and said wow. That skill of yours was so good that people remembered that catch forever. That's why I believe that skill beats all your insecurities. I know I drifted from the topic here, but persistence, determination, commitment and courage those things are real. 

Final Thought:
Michael Phelps’ journey reminds us that the only real limits are the ones we place on ourselves. Dream bigger than you think possible, work harder than you think necessary, and trust that perseverance will take you beyond your fears.

Challenge:
This week, pick one area of your life — career, fitness, learning — and remove the limits you've set. Dream without numbers. Work without a clock. Commit fully, and see how far you can truly go.