There’s a lyric from an Eagles Song. The song is called, Already Gone. One of my favorites of theirs. The lyric says, “…we live our lives in chains and we never even know we have the key…” Whenever I hear it I reflect on the utter and simple truth of those words. To me, what it signifies most is, virtually any limits we encounter in our lives are put there by us and no one else. We create our own story and then we live it. Whatever that story is, and whether it’s based in fact or imagination, the moment we accept it as truth it begins to define us. And, because it’s OUR story, that happens immediately.

WE ALONE HAVE THE KEY TO OUR OWN CHAINS Image - US - CVC CoachingBut it is equally true that we have the freedom to change our story. We have the ability to begin to see that whatever limiting thoughts we concoct about who we are and what we can do, can be changed. But we’re the only ones who can change them!

To me, changing our story in a way that recognizes that the only limits we have are the ones we’ve placed on ourselves, is the first step towards the positive changes that come from what we call growth. In fact, that realization, at whatever level we encounter it, is the very essence of growth. It is how we shuck off the old self we have created with our thoughts of limitations and move to a newer self that has simply and completely stopped accepting those limitations.

When we are strong, and determined, and unwilling to accept our old story any longer, then we are ready to move into something more fulfilling, freer, more accomplished. And once we do that, those old ideas of limits dissolve into the dust they were to begin with, and are relegated to the past. As Larry Winget reminds us, if our lives suck it’s because we suck. I would say, if our lives suck it’s because we are still living it with those worn out notions of limitations. Those notions that tell us we can never be any better than we are now.

Human beings are a lot of things. But that they can rise to accomplish exceptional goals should be clear to all of us by now. That is as true for you as it is for any other person that has ever lived.

I’m usually not one for proposing simplistic solutions, but the real truth is, each day we have a chance to divest ourselves of worn out and useless notions about our own abilities. There’s no better time to begin that process than now. Our dreams are not there to tease us with unrealistic expectations, but to remind us of our true potential, our true identity. Because the very act of dreaming is how we remove ourselves from the boundaries we have created in our minds.

We have always had the key to remove our chains. Always. We really just have to decide to use it. And once we begin that process, it leads us inevitably towards greater and greater success and greater fulfillment. And, to the eventual realization, that there are no limits for us. That we, quite literally, can accomplish anything we can dream.