Limits : Knowing When To Stop Or Keep Going

Limits –

Hello #qccommuity friends. I trust you are doing well. Welcome to the new week and my blog.

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Limits can be defined as setting parameters personally, organizationally, emotionally, or otherwise that govern the behaviour of such individuals or what is allowed in such organisations. The limits we set for ourselves as individuals either make, shape, or even mar us.

There was a time I changed job, and payroll was added to my job description while on the job. Assuming it came with the offer, maybe I would have rejected it and moved on. This is because, from my previous experiences, the accounts department handles the payroll while I provide all the inputs needed to run it. However, when that instruction came from the board, I took it up and had a deep discussion with myself on how to navigate and make it happen.

I didn’t allow that request to break me because it seemed I was exceeding my limits. However, I looked at it the other way and encouraged myself to push beyond the limit, so I enrolled in training with the financial manager, and after a few weeks, I started running payroll officially.

On the other hand, some limits are not worth pushing beyond, like I do see some employees going for easy purchase. A buy now and pay later offer. Majority of them struggle to contain the payments on a monthly basis because they do not earn much, yet they will go for the easy purchase. I have seen some of them get their items retrieved with force or even get the phones locked because of their inability to pay up the agreed monthly due. This is because they are pushing beyond their limit negatively.

Therefore, once there is struggle, breakdown, dissatisfaction, unhappiness, and distortions, then someone is pushing beyond limits in a negative direction. To avoid this, I weigh my options: what will be the outcome, the benefits, and the disadvantages. If the disadvantages outweigh the benefits, I move on and won’t bother pushing beyond that limit.

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Furthermore, to push beyond my limits, I consider the benefits and ensure that it is not something that will go bad or break me in the long run. I conduct a feasibility study of that activity/project, and once it turns out negative, I forget it, but if it turns out positive through a SWOT analysis review, I take it up. If I need training, I go for it; if it needs upskilling and a 360-degree change of strategy and positioning, like relocating closer to a location to get a good job that tickles my fancy. Once the limit is positive and won’t break me, I am in.

After all, change, they said, is constant, and again, limits are just like records that are open to being broken in a positive way. I am a positive limit breaker.