Recently I heard a story about the behavior of fruit flies.

If trapped in a covered glass jar, the fruit flies grow accustomed to flying just under the lid. When the lid is removed the fruit flies will still fly just under the opening. Bottom line, the fruit flies are free to leave the glass jar and, because they limit their own flight range, they imprison themselves.

I just returned from a good long walk with a friend. It was a bit longer than we anticipated it would be when we first began. As we turned around to go back to our cars, I asked if she needed to get going. Neither of us had any pressing calendar needs for the next couple of hours. So we strolled on a new portion of the path. Two and a half miles later we turned around to head back, for the second time. In all, we walked 7 miles today.

I am amazed at that number. Like the fruit flies, contained to the jar only because of their self imposed limitations, so I see, do I limit myself. Amazed I walked 7 miles and can still move! Seven miles is a really long walk! Notice the assumptions there and how those assumptions limit me. While enjoying the good company and lively conversation, the distance faded from importance. I pushed past limits configured by my mind, without input from my body. Considering I’ve met with no catastrophe since my return, it is safe to say I am physically up to such a walk. I bump up against beliefs that this is too long a walk. I notice how the belief holds me back and places me in a category of “unable.”

How often do we limit ourselves from living fully? From going the distance to get more juice out of life? What if there were no limits, or they were far and away different than what we think? Like the fruit flies, we assume the lid is in place.

Look up…there is no lid on your life…the sky’s the limit, or is it?

Take the challenge:

• What are the glass jar limitations in your life?
• What is holding you back?
• What are the self-limiting stories you tell yourself?

(c) Maren Beckman, 2010