Understanding the Difference Between Real and Imagined Limitations

This guy was my driver for 3 days in India. Every week, he makes a 9-hour drive from the city of Chandigarh to the mountains of India. He does this 3–4 times a week. He also has a wife and two kids at home. He makes about 600 dollars a month. He sleeps in his car at night, even though it’s freezing in these mountain towns because a hotel is too expensive. He can’t afford to eat in the places where his passengers dine.

These roads aren’t the ones you and I drive. They’re treacherous, narrow, filled with potholes and it seems like you could drive off a cliff at any moment. Every drive comes with the possibility of death. In this life, there are no 3 day weekends or holidays. Every day he doesn’t work is a day of lost income. He’s done this for 15 years.

There’s no upward mobility in his situation. There’s no way out of this life. It’s a real limitation.

Imagined Limitations

But for most of us, our limitations are not real, they’re imagined. Our circumstances are temporary, not permanent. Compared to the driver, most of us have superpowers. We are born with a great deal of privilege.

• We have the time to put into building a better life.
• We have the mental energy to be resourceful