Beyond Limits

Getting beyond our limitations is a popular subject. We see it in movies. In “Unlimited,” Bradley Cooper took a little pill, NZT, which gave him extraordinary mental powers...way beyond the usual 10 or 20 % of the brain that we normally use.  In “Lucy,” Scarlett Johansen accidentally assimilates a powerful drug and continually develops more and more power until she becomes God-like.

So the idea is out there. We know there is more to us than we usually acknowledge or use.

Ernest Holmes, founder of Religious Science, addresses the issue in his book, Science of Mind.  There are 66 references to the concept of limits, including the words limit, limitation, limiting and limitless.

We know God, or Creative Intelligence, or the Universal Spirit...whatever word we choose to use for the Source, has no limits, has no limit to what it can or would do for us, has no limit to its power. Where the limitation comes in is our ability to use this power, this power for good that is available for us to use.

As Holmes says, “Man is unfolding from a Limitless Potential but can bring into his experience only that which he can conceive. There no limit to the Law, but there appears to be a limit to man’s understanding of It. As his understanding unfolds, his possibilities of attainment will increase.”

So basically, we create our own limits. What is it that we want to do, to create, to be?
We have ideas, we get stalled. We lose focus. We procrastinate. We lose belief in ourselves. Our inner critic does a number on us. Who do you think you are? You can’t do that. Get real.

Rev. Nancy Woods and I are teaching a class beginning October 9 called Beyond Limits. I was thinking this could be a good topic for today’s talk. Then I got sleepy and went back to bed.

I had this very vivid dream. I am visiting a zoo, and I’m surprised to find a leopard roaming around free. There’s a handler nearby but he’s very nonchalant and not paying much attention. The leopard leaps up onto me. I feel his claws digging into my skin. He’s not biting; he’s just hanging on. I call to the handler to help, but he’s busy.
I look the leopard in the eye. I start humming softy; eventually he disengages, but I’m upset.

I need to get to another part of the zoo...I see other people up ahead. But I also see Bengal tigers roaming around. Really? Loose? What the....?  I need to get from point A to point B. But through Bengal tigers? Other people have done it. What’s up?

I wonder: Are the tigers real? Are they carnivorous? Are they on tranquilizers? Are they going to pounce on me? I wake up.

So here’s the thing. If I’m going to accomplish my own dreams, I need to get past the tigers. The tigers are my perceived limits. When I see  a video of myself speaking,  my inner critic notices everything that’s wrong and I think...I can’t go forward. I’m too old, too this, too that.

Those tigers, those limits, are blocking my path. And I have all kinds of hidden beliefs about those tigers, those perceived limits. I have to somehow make friends with those perceived limits and move beyond them.


And as Holmes says, “Trust the Universe. God is always God. No matter what our emotional storm, or what our objective situation may be, there is always a something hidden in the inner being that has never been violated. We may stumble, but always there is that Eternal Voice, forever whispering within our ear, that thing which causes the eternal quest, that thing which forever sings and sings.”

So on our quest to sing our song, whatever it is, whatever form it takes, we CAN move past our own perceived limitations, our own tigers blocking our path to enjoying all that life has to offer: health, wealth, loving relationships, creative expression, joy and more.

And so it is

Become a Senior Dynamo

The Prosperity Plus class is over but it revived my interest in completing a book I started awhile back: Become a Senior Dynamo. Expand Your Dynamic Range and Live Large in Your Golden Years.

You may be wondering, so what exactly IS a senior dynamo? It’s those of us, in our  later years, who want to tap our inner dynamos of energy and generate our personal power to the max -- to radiate the good health, creativity, loving relationships and financial abundance that form the four pillars of experiencing our best life now.

Even though we may feel ourselves slowing down, experiencing the vicissitudes of an aging body, or possibly seeing dreams unfulfilled,  we don’t intend to shuffle off  this mortal coil with the thought, “It’s too late, now.”

And expand our dynamic range? What’s that? In photography we use the term to describe the luminance range of a scene being photographed, and use different techniques to increase that dynamic range to produce a brilliant, very detailed photograph.

So as an avid photographer, I adapted this phrase to describe a Senior Dynamo...someone who is expanding the parameters of human existence to live life full throttle, someone who is evolving to become more brilliant, powerful, alive, healthy, loving, creative, fulfilled, beautiful and spiritual!


While I stalled on the book, I managed to get started on a senior dynamo website: (www.seniordynamo.com). But really, I want to finish the book. The challenge is that I often don’t feel like a Senior Dynamo.

“Aging ain’t for sissies,” said Betty Davis in her laser fashion. And sometimes I let fatigue, depressed mood or inertia take over. So the recent Prosperity Plus class was helpful, in bringing motivators such as Thomas Edison and the power of FOCUS to our attention.

Edison said, “If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.”  He was an inventor. That’s what he did.  He cut out the distractions and focused on his work. He tried, and tried again. “I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 things that won’t work.”

He had the ability to FOCUS on the one thing he was working on. “The difference is you do a great many things and I do one.”

I realized that’s what I’ve been doing. Allowing one distraction after another to steal my time and attention.  I need to clear away the clutter and focus on what matters most. 

That’s the advice of Gary Keller, in his book, The One Thing, The Surprisingly Simply Truth Behind Extraordinary Results. Rev. Mike McMorrow will be teaching a class around this book in September, so we’ll have an opportunity to practice this approach on our projects and ask ourselves: "What’s the One Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary? 

For me, it’s not only finishing my book, but becoming a fantastic Senior Dynamo.

Wait! That sounds like more than one thing. Maybe the class will help.

And so it is.

Here's a link to a youtube video of my talk, which starts at the 1:18 minute mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq7CTREth0E