by Calsue Murray

Created on: December 24, 2008

Limitations

With few exceptions, we are born into our lifetimes with few, if any, inborn or natural limitations. By far, the greatest limitations that we experience, as we progress through life, are the ones that we, often unconsciously, impose upon ourselves.

It is as we progress through childhood that we are most vulnerable to experiencing episodes of ego deflation that are likely to cause us to develop life-long limitations. It is during childhood that we are so sensitive to criticisms and so anxious to please that we can be more damaged by words spoken to us than we will ever be, later in life.

I was six years old. My closest childhood buddy and I were practicing dance steps in preparation for participation in a children's pageant. It was when his older sister said to me, "You just can't dance!" that my life-long limitations on the dance floor began. I believed her. I became forever afraid to try to learn to dance.

When, as a young adult, I took dance lessons, I doubted that I could learn to dance well enough to become a good dancer. The words of my childhood friend's sister never left my mind. The doubt, humiliation and fear generated by her words are with me still.

It has been very recently that I have come to understand that my friend's sister and her hurtful words were not the real reasons for my limitations on the dance floor.

It is just recently that I have come to realize that my own psychological reactions to her words are what caused me to develop the limitations that I have experienced throughout all these years. I know now that freedom from those limitations depends solely upon me.

When we encounter obstacles, road blocks or hurdles, our immediate tendency is to deny, criticize and blame others for our failures to succeed, or at least to make progress.

Even if the attitudes and activities of other persons contribute mightily to our predicaments, we, ourselves, control our mental processes. We, ourselves, have the power to resist the impaction of negative psychological and emotional influences.

We, ourselves, have the power to persevere and accomplish the goals that we set for ourselves. It for us to "cast out doubts" or never to entertain them in the first place!

Many generations ago, as a pre-adolescent, my attention was directed to the following phrases from a popular song: "Accentuate the positives;" "Eliminate the negatives;" "Don't mess with Mr. In-between." In those, long-ago years, it was made clear to me that I, alone, was responsible for

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