Man Must Constantly Exceed His Level
This inspiring story is about Bruce Lee, a legendary Martial Arts Master.
"Bruce had me up to three miles a day, really at a good pace. We'd run the three miles in twenty-two minutes. Just under eight minutes a mile. [Note: when running on his own in 1968. Lee would get his time down to six-and-a-half minutes per mile.]
So this morning he said to me, "We're going to go five."
I said, "Bruce, I can't go five. I'm a lot older than you are and I can't do five."
He said, "When we get to three, we'll shift gears and it's only two more and you'll do it."
I said, "Okay, I'll go for it."
So we get to three, we go into the fourth mile and I'm okay for three or four minutes and then I really begin to give out. I'm tired, my heart's pounding, I can't go any more and so I say to him, "Bruce, if I run any more," --- and we're still running --- "if I run any more I'm liable to have a heart attack and die."
He said, "Then die."
It made me so mad that I ran the full five miles. Afterward, I went to the shower and then I wanted to talk to him about it. I asked him, "Why did you say that to me?"
He simply said, "Because you might as well be dead. Seriously, if you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it'll spread over into the rest of your life. It'll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. if it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level."
*** from the Art of Expressing the Human Body by Bruce Lee, John Little
INSIGHT: This teaches us that if we build a wall in front of our dreams we will never cross it, but the one who destroys all obstacles starts within ourselves.
This was submitted via e-mail by Wendy Tafoya
Phillipians 3:14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
