The Biggest Lie Anyone Has Ever Told

Anyone who has ever read a business growth book knows what it means to “think outside the box.” This concept was new and cool 10 years ago. Since then, we have often been told by business gurus that we will reach “our highest potential” when we finally learn to “live outside the box.” This is potentially the biggest lie anyone has ever told. It is a sure way to sabotage your success. We have been trained to believe that if you have a boundary or a limit, you’re a loser. We have been told that limits are for sissies and the winners without them will trample you down on their way to the top. If you want to win, you must have no limits. This way of thinking has created a group of go-getters that have little prowess of dealing with the REAL issues that hold them back. If you can’t see your limits; you cannot impact where you get stopped.

This “no limits” way of thinking is pure denial and the source of ineffectiveness in productivity and growth. EVERYONE lives inside a box outlined by their limitations and boundaries, and will continue to do so until they die. The real goal is not to live without boundaries, but rather to embrace them, take them on and bust through to the next level. There will always be limits on what we can and will do in order to produce a certain result. If you think you have no limits, you’re kidding yourself.

The biggest mistake that people with an entreprenuerial-spirit make is believing they have no boundaries. When they eventually confront an area of failure or frustration (or bump up against the wall of their box,) they are at a loss to impact the failure because they live in a world of deception; a world where they are in complete control and cannot be stopped. Yet, once they are stopped, they look around wondering what happened while their business tanks.

Your personal power actually lies in your ability to acknowledge your current limits (your box,) distinguish those boundaries and then take them on, break through them and then design new boundaries. Basically, your job is to constantly examine where you will likely fail, obliterate that boundary and then move on to the next one that takes its place. The growth process continues to go on and on, with the individual constantly expanding where their limits are (the box they dwell inside.) This means that success is derived when you become an expert at embracing your failures and weaknesses. This is a tough sell in a nation where vulnerability is a 4-letter word.

Everyone has boundaries and the disregard of them will leave you powerless to affect those limits, and thus, leave you trapped inside of them in a state of perpetual denial. Success comes when you embrace all that you are not, deal with what’s so, and build from there.

Some boundaries are even necessary and beneficial. When created with intention, they direct your ideals, morals and the way you live your life. The real freedom is in acknowledging the boundaries that are not useful and then creating a structure that will cause you to break through them. For instance, planning is a self-created boundary.

Embracing your boundaries is the true foundation of freedom, growth and expansion in one’s life.

There is no way out. You and I will always live in a box. The trick is to get a new one, bigger and better, as often as possible. What boundary will you embrace today?