Recognizing Self-Imposed Limitations

Do you really know what your body can and cannot do?

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

It is all too easy to believe that getting older means falling apart. Your vision becomes less clear, your joints crack, pop, and ache more easily, and your hair turns white.

Is this really the natural progression of things? Or have we simply accepted it for what it is, and determined that it cannot be fought?

This is more than just aging when it comes to knowing your body. In general, your body can be as strong, flexible, and malleable as you believe it to be…or not.

I know this first-hand. I have broken many bones, strained and injured multiple muscles, and I can frequently beat most people in a coolest/nastiest scar competition.

On top of this, I have been between 20 and 80 pounds overweight more-or-less my whole life. However, I still take frequent walks, prefer stairs to elevators for five-floors or fewer, and participate in medieval fencing from 1–3 times per week.

Finally, I recently turned 47. A year ago the optometrist prescribed glasses for distance vision (primarily for driving) and recommended readers for certain small and off-color fonts.

I am heavyset, damaged, middle-aged and still really active. Sure, I know I have a few limitations, but not so many as I could have if I didn’t believe that I am more capable than that.

I am not as limited as I could be

Much of this is based on choice. Despite some pretty wicked damage to my body I do not let ANY of it stop me.

(My damage includes the messed-up leg and titanium clavicle from getting hit by a car crossing the street; cracking my knee downhill skiing at age 13; breaking my pinky finger and thumb on my right hand; tearing the meniscus of my left knee; dislocating both knees multiple times, and; carpel-tunnel syndrome in both wrists.)

Impressive list, right? Any one of the above injuries could have caused me to walk with a limp, stop fencing, baby my body and work on not getting hurt again. Timeline wise, the first of these injuries was around age 9. But no, that is not how I have approached this, nor continue to approach it.