"Don't limit your challenges, challenge your limits."

There’s a big distinction here between the two phrases that work together to create the full meaning. “Don’t limit your challenges” is about overcoming being defensive. It’s about fighting against the safe thing to do, what is comfortable, and where you are complacent. After acknowledging those limiting beliefs on how we are diluting risk in our life or monitoring expectations, we can now overcome this scarcity mindset and work through those areas where we are being defensive.

Then the second part of the quote, “Challenge your limits”, could be seen as offensive. This is about stepping into the unknown to discover what you are capable of. It’s leaving your prior expectations behind to find new frontiers. You don’t know what you’re fully capable of until you ask yourself the question. What’s the worst that can happen. You fail? You will not fail if you approach it as an experiment.

In the book, “The subtle art of not giving an F”, novelist ,Mark Manson, talks about choosing your pain. Manson writes,“what is the pain you want to sustain”? The pain in being defensive is that you never realized your potential, and takes the form of regret. The pain in being offensive is that you get rejected, or fail. But it also means you tried to do something meaningful.

So which pain do you want to choose?