Navy SEAL's training

Since Bin Laden's capture much has been said about the Navy SEAL's and their training. One interesting article was written by a former SEAL, Eric Greitens, and published in the Wall Street Journal (read it here). One sentence in the article struck me. The author was saying that not all the folks who are expected to graduate end up doing so. One group that won't make it is the " look-at-me former athletes who have always been told they are stars but have never have been pushed beyond the envelope of their talent to the core of their character" bunch.

It was the "they have never have been pushed beyond the envelope of their talent to the core of their character" that got me thinking. We want rewards, but we don't push ourselves enough. We are content with the applause, prizes and attention, but only very few of us push beyond our limits. Thus, we never reach our full potential. We never get to know what our limits are. We start to blur the line between encouragement and entitlement. After a while, the two become interchangeable  - the encouraged and rewarded becomes the entitled, who refuses to do anything unless he gets rewarded or compensated in one way or another. We've seen it all around us: from the professional athletes  to the CEO's. The more success they achieve, the more money they demand. But, the performance is not always better. It's good - they are after all top dogs - but is not going up proportionally with the compensation they received. They don't try to do things differently or reach new limits. They simply apply the same rules they applied all their lives. It's good, but it's not beyond limits.

Progress is made by pushing the limits, by challenging yourself and the world around you to break barriers and set new limits. And, once you reach them, to break them again. Do yourself a favor and push your limits. Reach your full potential, and once you get there, set another goal.

Are you challenged enough?