📌 Don't think small ... (Original Wildlife photo and thoughts)

Your Attitude is your Altitude

How often do we think - "Why slog - this much is enough". Do you realize that we actually clip our own wings with that attitude?

Ospreys, kites and Buzzards fly around often in my location. Seeing them circle high in the sky, I often wonder why we choose to get stuck in small ambitions and a low flying life. Why can't we reach for the sky or even reach for the stars...

I lifted my Nikon P900 in a pensive mood and fired off a few quick shots. Captured an amazing one in about 20-30 shots. Here is the Hi-res image:

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I firmly believe that there is no such thing as 'fate'. We write our own destinies. We set our own limits. The limits we set bind us to a life bounded by those limits.

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Limits are formed by the extent of our 'sight'. For the mundane among us, the limits are mostly determined by beliefs based on what we can 'touch and feel' or 'see'. Some of us may go a bit farther by analyzing what is 'heard' rationally and forming 'limits' based on that. The 'visionaries' among us perform better and exercise their 'imagination' based on logical extensions of their experiences and come up with higher 'limits'. However, the fact remains that 'limited' we all are. Only the extend differs.

As an analogy - Take the case of an ant walking on a piece of stretched string as shown above. The ant only perceives the single dimension of the string. It is limited to think that it can only walk in that one dimension. If we make a loop, that part of the string just disappears from the ant's vision and it still keeps walking in that straight line. The ant's world, therefore, is limited to the piece of rope under it's feet in this case.

Most of us do behave like these one dimensional ants for some time in life. Some of us behave like the ants most of our lives.

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• Breaking free from our limits first requires us to think about and prepare for getting out of our comfort zone. This is not difficult but we need to be conscious of that need. I have discussed this at length in my blog 'Leave comfy perch'

• Setting our goals high is of essence. This requires us to broaden our vision. A small goal always seems within reach. We do not feel like putting in more efforts. We always try to put in just enough effort to achieve a small goal. As a result, we never progress beyond that goal. That goal then starts looking like the limit of what we can achieve! See - our own actions and goals, if inappropriate, start becoming hard boundaries and we become more and more reluctant to try and cross them.
  Imagine a dog with an electric collar. Every time the dog goes near the fence line, he gets a tiny buzz on his neck, electronically triggered. Eventually, the dog learns to stay within the fence. Even when the fence is eventually removed, the dog still remains within the 'fence'. We, with small goals, become that dog, wandering around the 'invisible, non-existent' fence. Makes sense?

• Resolve to keep trying - It does not matter if we fail. It does not matter if we do not achieve 100% of the goal. What matters is we made a beginning and started achieving. This sense of achievement and the resolve inspires us to set even higher goals next time around and keeps us going.

In conclusion:

Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul

Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal

- Pamela Vaull Starr

Steemians, please share your experiences and views on the subject. It will be great to get more perspective and a lively dialogue going. Thanks

Note: The title image and wildlife photo are my own. Other images have been created by me using images from pixabay.com