The Way To Aim Far Beyond Your Capability
How can I go far beyond my thinking capability?
‘Aim beyond what you are capable of.’ Paul Arden
Each of us has been endowed with gifts and talents peculiar to any other person, and you and I don’t have a clue of what we are capable of until we try.
Someone once challenged me to shoot for the stars, and if I missed them they suggested that I might just end up with the moon.
But the over-riding problem with the majority of humanity is that we fail to even load the gun, let alone shoot anything.
The Lesson We Can Learn From Ian
I had a brother in law. His name was Ian. Stricken with physical challenges from the day he was born, he withdrew from his peers. So much so that it was often hard to get a single word out of him in conversation.
After leaving school I remember meeting him on the bus. It was obvious that Ian was depressed. No amount of cheering up seemed to help.
But beneath that morbid surface he had a passion brewing, which had been supported by his dad Frank. Ian loved looking at the stars, and with his dad’s assistance they created a telescope.
One night, out the back of Bourke, in the Australian Outback, Ian was looking at the stars through his telescope. That night he met his creator. It was as if the light of the heavens penetrated the very spirit of the man.
On his return home his family noticed that his entire personality had been transformed. Sadness was dramatically exchanged for joy. The blob that was Ian became a bubbling brook of expression. It so impacted his younger sister so much that one night she sat him down and said, ‘Whatever you’ve got I want.’
That sister of his is now my wife of over 28 years.
Ian got married, adopted a daughter, and appeared to be moving forward in life, but experienced setback after setback with employment, and in particular his health.
With each passing year the joy began to fade and the passion waned to the point that he began to take solace in the bottle.
Finally, after many years his wife and daughter left him, and at the age of 50, all alone, he died whilst sitting in a chair in his house. His body wasn’t discovered until days after. The Ian I had grown to love and respect had left and gone to heaven.
Throughout the years, even while I was struggling to identify my own passion, I challenged Ian, time and time again, to take up his passion and turn it into his living. He tried, and even purchased a bigger telescope at one point, but failed to fully push through with his dream. He never seemed to be able to fully grab it with both hands.
Ian died with his passion still buried deep within his heart.
Don’t let that happen to you.
To help you, here are the equations you must apply to your great life if you want to go beyond your capability.
- Aim = Beyond
- Nothing = Impossible
- Opposition = Opportunity
- Mistakes = Lessons
- Capable = Infinitum
Grab your passion and pursue her with all your might. Don’t allow life’s knock-backs and detours to derail you.
Aim far beyond your capability. Stretch far beyond your reach. Dream far beyond your dreams. Aspire far beyond your aspirations.
Don’t leave this earth before you have conquered mountains, traversed seas, and overcome the fears that would seek to bind you. Don’t allow anything to stop you from fulfilling your greatest potential – and if at any time you flinch or fall back – remember Ian.
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