“You were born with wings, why prefer to crawl through life?” 
 ~Rumi

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I read a story many years ago that gave me pause to think…maybe you’ve heard it too.  If you are a football fan especially a Patriots fan this is old news.  The message however is worth some deeper reflection.  It would be easy to just pass it off as another professional athlete in trouble without doing any self-reflection.

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On June 26, 2013, Aaron Hernandez, star Tight End for the New England Patriots, was arrested on charges of first-degree murder.  He subsequently was found guilty and years later was found dead in his prison cell by suicide.

This is a sad story for certain...Aaron Hernandez had the potential and the opportunity to be one of the best players at his position in the history of the NFL; he had a 40 million dollar contract, a new baby, and a fiancée as well.
 

We might wonder, how did he get here? Didn’t he realize he had the opportunity that most can only dream about? How could he allow himself to get caught up in such a bad situation? (And this was not an isolated troubled incident for him)

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We find this phenomenon all too frequently with pro athletes.  However, it is not just related to people in the sports limelight.  This is something everyone faces; THE UPPER LIMIT PROBLEM and it holds us back.  In Aaron’s case, it was a game-changer that ended in death.  For most of us, it just keeps us living a small version of who we really are and calling it good enough.  As the poet, Rumi said…just crawling through life when we can fly.

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Gay Hendricks, a New York Times Bestselling, wrote about the upper limit problem in his book, The Big Leap. He says that he hasn’t met a person who doesn’t suffer from it at least a little. Even if we are already highly successful, this problem is still holding us back from our full potential.  We hit the upper limit when things are going well, sometimes even fabulous; we have limited tolerance for “too much good” so we do something to sabotage it.  Everyone has a thermostat set for how much good they will allow in their lives in the form of relationships, finances, health, and in their vocation.  This thermostat is set at an early age based on our belief system (BS).  Our BS was formed mostly by the time we were 7 years old based on beliefs handed down to us by family, friends, and society in general.  In order to make our ‘big leap,’ we must examine our lives and decide to turn up our thermostat to allow for the greater and greater good.

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This takes courage and a decision to change.  The truth is, the more we are locked into our behavior patterns – the more we are acting in denial of our true free selves. The more difficult we find it to break out of our ways of being; the further we have gotten from being in touch with who we really are.

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It seems that Aaron Hernandez had his thermostat set and could not allow greater good. He succumbed to live his old life.

 

The Aaron Hernandez story can be a wake-up call for all of us. A wake-up call to live the life we are called to live and become the person we have not yet been. It’s a call to raise the thermostat and to challenge our upper limit.
 

What area in your life would you love to improve?  This area(s) is a great indication of where there is a BS (belief system)that is holding you back.  If you are truly ready, ask yourself this question,” Am I willing to increase my thermostat to allow for the greater good?  

If you said YES, good for you!  Now take some action today to move in that direction.

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