[Mahler]

Mahler’s Monday Morning Motivator # 165 – No Limits

No Limits

A recent post that posed a question about accepting declines in performance as we get older prompted some serious thought on my part. Is there some point at which we say that we have reached a peak or have done as much as possible? And should we be ready to accept that at a given age we will make no more progress and even, sad to say, expect to lose ground?

In thinking about it, I was reminded about a friend of mine who is considerably younger. I remembered a time when I asked if he and his wife wanted to go to an amusement park. His response was that they were too old for such things. Just exactly when are you too old to have fun? At what point in the calendar of your years have you passed the point where it is beyond you to have a good time with friends? His response to me made him seem, although in his thirties, so much older than myself. Perhaps we grow old by acting so. For the record, there still isn’t a coaster I will not ride and holding on is for sissies.

This same attitude can carry over into our fitness pursuits. Are there things that we should give up or perhaps not even attempt, just because our personal odometers have clocked a certain mileage? The fitness magazines and web sites are always touting numbers that we should be able to reach or goals that magically make us fit. Some even go so far as to break it down by age group. For example, they might say that a twenty year old can do so many pushups, but a forty year old can do a specific number that is less.

So, as we get older, should we set our sights lower? When the years begin to pile up, do we automatically cut back on our activity? When one decade rolls into the next, do we say okay now I will lift less weight, run shorter distances, bike at a little slower pace? I will pause here to listen to the resounding “hell no” that I am expecting at this point. I’m listening.

Let’s face it. We don’t live forever, although I am planning to give it a damn good try. Look around you. We do decline as we get older. It’s scientific fact. But it’s not a reason to throw in the towel as you reach a specific plateau. Put a hold on ordering the “Hoveround.” Let your body tell you what you are capable of doing, not some number that tells you how far you are from the date of your birth. And while your body is talking to you, give it something to talk about. Push it to the limits, even if the limits of your 50 year old body happen to be those for one that is 20 years old. Age is how old you are and should never be an indication of how fit you are or should be.

If you measure what you can do by how old you are, you have already placed limits upon yourself that you will never overcome. For to tell yourself that you can only do so much at a given age is a self-fulfilling prophesy. For your age, for any age that you may reach, for the things that you do, for the things that you want to do, there must be no limits.

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Have a Great Week!

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