<p>What do you think about this statement? I’m hearing it a lot lately.</p>
<p>I believe I can flyyyy!!!</p>
<p><em>flaps his arms really hard and jumps off a really tall building</em></p>
<p>Ooops…</p>
<p>I do believe that you can do something meaningful/significant/satisfying if you believe in yourself and try hard enough. But it may not be what you initially envisioned. I could have never dunked a basketball, but I might have had a meaningful life around basketball, had I wanted it badly enough.</p>
<p>In all seriousness though; in order to get close to doing “anything,” you would probably need to believe in yourself and work hard and you would need other people to believe in you.</p>
<p>I think it’s utter ********.</p>
<p>A person with schizophrenia can’t join the military, for instance, no matter how hard he/she tries.</p>
<p>There are also a lot of things that you really gotta work hard on from an early age. A kid who’s slacked off all his life, barely passed high school, dropped out of community college and works at McDonalds as a cashier for 6 years will probably never be able to be an astronaut, for example.</p>
<p>Yes, if you’re analyzing it like someone with OCD, it’s not true to the letter. </p>
<p>If you’re a normal person, however, you’ll realize it’s just a saying, and for the most part, it’s true.</p>
<p>No, innate ability is a limitation factor.</p>
<p>I really disagree to this saying. Even if not taken literally, you still have to consider that there are outside influences on our lives that we can’t control. Even if we try our very hardest and do EVERYTHING right, it’s possible that something or someone beyond our control will mess things up badly enough to make all of the hard work and good attitude null and void.</p>
<p>If people aren’t prepared for the disappointment and disillusionment that follows a major upset like that because they’ve been coddled all their lives or assured that things will always work out A-OK, they can become very depressed. People who haven’t forewarned/prepared for that kind of thing have a much harder time recovering/bouncing back than those who have, from my personal experience. That said, while things may get screwed up, hard work and believing in yourself can still go a long ways towards making your life satisfactory and worth living, even if it isn’t exactly as perfect as you’d envisioned it.</p>
<p>it’s obviously not meant to be taken literally, but if you look at the work of Anders Ericsson (see for example [E=mc2</a> (and a lot of hard work)](<a href=“E=mc2 (and a lot of hard work)”>E=mc2 (and a lot of hard work))) you’ll see that those that have achieved a lot got their thru a lot of hard work. Most people don’t put in nearly enough effort to really succeed, so quotes like this are really encouragement to try harder and not give up at the first setback.</p>
<p>It is much wiser to recognize your limitations and thrive within the bounds of your abilities.
[url=<a href=“http://despair.com/limitations.html]Limitations[/url”>Limitations - Despair, Inc.]Limitations[/url</a>]</p>
<p>■■■■■■■.</p>
<p>There are two conflicting biases that humans have here, one which will make this statement more likely, and one which will make it less likely.</p>
<p>First, humans are optimistic. Being optimistic is probably a good thing, because if we accurately estimated what would happen, we would realize everything sucks.</p>
<p>Second, our expectations, by and large, actually form our futures. If we expect to succeed, we are more likely to. </p>
<p>All in all, it’s probably an exaggeration. Whereas, the better thing to say, is that if you expect to do something, you are more likely to achieve it.</p>
<p>I was just asking because I know this is what parents and teacher tell their kids. I just don’t think we should tell them this if it’s not the truth.</p>
<p>Believe me, for years I dreamt of being a basketball player. I would go out there everyday, take 300 shots, work on my dribble etc… But nobody in my family is tall, or weighs more than a stick and as a result I’m not as athletic as other people. A lot of kids out there play baseball and their parents take them around the country to compete in baseball tournaments. Are they going to play in the MLB someday? Perhaps, but not everyone is good enough to do that. I just think we have to remind people sometimes that everyone’s brain/body is different and that there are limitations to what we can do.</p>
<p>Parents and teachers tell kids lots of things that aren’t necessarily true, and I haven’t figured out why yet. For example, a lot of them expect kids to share and establish the concept of “fairness.” Then people grow up with unrealistic expectations that the world is all fair and just, and get confused/frustrated.</p>
<p>I think it is important for kids to be told that whether it is true or not. You will never know what you are truly capable of unless you push yourself until you fail and beyond, and I don’t know what young person would be motivated and willing to do that without the belief that, in theory, no possibility is entirely out of the question. There is a saying, and as cliche as it is I think it is relevant: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you will still land among the stars.”</p>
<p>I grew up in a family where learning and mental disorders are rampant, and I know in our case it is very important that, even though these people cannot possibly do EVERYTHING-- they do have limitations, like anyone else-- if they don’t bust their butts trying every way possible to get to where they want to go, they’ll never get anywhere. But that effort, time and time again, leads people to places where we never thought they’d get. That’s the way you find your true potential, not by examining your limitations. Some limitations can bend, even break, and you don’t know which ones unless you make the attempt.</p>
<p>“Recognizing your limitations” is inherently a defeatist mentaility. Naturally you won’t be able to do certain things but if you invest all your effort and talent into achieving a goal, and you end up failing, you might still find that you accomplished more and went farther than you would’ve had you initially set limitations to constrain that goal (and effort). Most people misgauge the bound of their limitations and wind up expending less effort than they’re capable of. </p>
<p>If you take the time to evaluate whether what you’re doing is within the constraints of your limitations, then you’ll miss out on taking that big risk and obviously to accomplish big things, you have take big risks.</p>
<p>EDIT: cross posted with Emaheevul but yeah “Shoot for the moon…etc” is exactly the cliche colloquialism for what I’m saying.</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>Just in case you didn’t follow my link, here’s the tagline: “Until you spread your wings, you’ll have no idea how far you can walk”.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, shooting for the moon with insufficient capabilities may result in unexpected reentry and a fiery death while descending through the Earth’s atmosphere. That’s why kids should be prepared and use capsules with sufficient heat shielding as a fallback mechanism (perhaps I’m carrying the metaphor a bit far…?)</p>
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<p>I hate it when that happens.</p>
<p>We all recognize everyone has limitations, right?</p>
<p>
That’s not the point. Obviously I can’t flap my arms and glide on the thermal streams and break other physical laws. However, some dirt poor kid from Englewood shouldn’t be told that he can’t be an astronaut or president or nobel prize winner or navy SEAL or whatever. Because if he lives his life thinking he CAN win a nobel prize, but instead fails and “just” ends up being a physicist at Harvard, he’s still far far exceeded his expectations had he been told to “recognize his limitations.”</p>
<p>Look, I see nothing wrong with having high goals. However, you need to realistically assess the situation and implement fallback procedures. Can Caillebotte’s hypothetical kid win a Nobel Prize someday? Sure. Is this likely to happen? Of course not. So, while there is nothing wrong with aiming for the Nobel, the person in question needs to be prepared to live with a more probable outcome.</p>
<p>You can do anything if you believe in yourself and try hard enough</p>
<p>It’s possibly true, actually, in a certain sense - if you really want something badly and can make sure your focus from it does not waver, you will achieve it…after several failures. Focus not only on the task, but also on figuring out how to rise to it.</p>
<p>But the question is if one really wants it or is just in fantasy land and developed an attraction. </p>
<p>I could say I want to solve problems that would make me worthy of a Fields Medal, but I hardly can back up such a claim. I don’t have the innate ability of people who win the medal - and a lot of people pursue endeavors because they’re just a natural step for them to aspire for. People with certain talents will inevitably feel the urge to develop them. I have no doubt that there are some exceptional stories of people who develop an urge, without having had markers of extreme talent early on, and turned their obsessions into impossibly crazy achievements. Energy to do things does ultimately come from within. The limitations of wanting a certain lifestyle may not allow one to tap into them.</p>
<p>But the point is what most people want correlates well with what they find to be fulfilling without causing them an extreme amount of pain or making them totally redefine how they live and think.</p>
<p>This may just be a twisted way to say - No, you can’t do whatever you want. But I think it’s the real deal.</p>