Are You Really at Full Capacity?

I came across the following lines from David J. Schwartz the other day:

“Capacity is a state of mind. How much we can do depends on how much we think we can do.”

Seth’s original post was about achieving all of the things listed in a year, not just some of them. Over the past few days since I’ve started this site, it’s become more apparent just how much work there is to get through compared with how much I have been doing up to now. The work required is beyond the ordinary, but that is precisely the point – if it were easy, if it were the bare minimum, then it wouldn’t be exceptional to accomplish these things and they wouldn’t set one apart from the crowd.

Still, I agree with Schwartz’s statement; capacity is indeed a state of mind. We often imagine that our current lifestyles have us acting at somewhere near optimum, that we have little room to fit in any more, that we are near capacity. After all, we did something to fill all those hours of our day so it must have been important. A day of doing ‘important’ things means we’re living near capacity, right? Doubtful.

I’m confident that I can create enough time in the next year to complete the list, and I’m certain that there are countless others who could find the time as well. What’s more, anyone who undertakes a series of challenges like these can’t lose, because no matter how far through one gets, it all helps – even a little more learning is better than just waiting for things to happen to you, apathetic and frustrated.

PS. If you really are at full capacity, maybe you should give The Four Hour Workweek a look. Hopefully it can help you to fill your life to its limit with things you genuinely enjoy doing.