Redefine Your Limits by Being Honest With Yourself | Kyle Maynard| Big Think

Redefine Your Limits by Being Honest With Yourself

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Do you retreat from your ambitions out of fear? Self-preservation isn't doing you any favors, says Kyle Maynard. Confront your excuses and live more honestly.Why don’t we chase our dreams? What if everyone confronted the daily excuses they make for themselves? Innovation would explode around us. Life satisfaction would soar. Any yet we typically keep a safe distance from our inner-most ambitions. Self-preservation is linked to a deep evolutionary drive that makes us err on the side of caution to avoid social isolation or decimation at the toothy end of a lion. It’s time to tear down these ancient and ultimately irrational behaviors, says Kyle Maynard. Being the first quadruple amputee to reach the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Aconcagua without the aid of prosthetics, he has lived his life on the philosophy of ‘No Excuses’. Being honest with yourself about what your excuses are empowers you to push back against them and truly live. Kyle Maynard is the author of No Excuses: The True Story of a Congenital Amputee Who Became a Champion in Wrestling and in Life.

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KYLE MAYNARD :

Kyle Maynard is a motivational speaker, bestselling author, entrepreneur, and ESPY award-winning mixed martial arts athlete, known for becoming the first quadruple amputee to reach the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Aconcagua without the aid of prosthetics.

Despite being born with a rare condition known as congenital amputation, that has left him with arms that end at the elbows and legs that end near his knees, he learned early on with the support of his family, to live life independently and without prosthetics. Kyle thrives on physical challenges and following a few rough middle school football seasons; he went on to become a champion wrestler, CrossFit Certified Instructor and gym owner, competitive MMA/Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighter, world record-setting weightlifter, and skilled mountaineer.

In 2012, Kyle became the first quadruple amputee to climb – actually bearcrawl – the 19,340 feet to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro without the aid of prosthetics. His 10-day ascent was widely covered by the press, followed on social media, and raised money and awareness for wounded veterans as well as Tanzanian schoolchildren. Upon his return, Kyle won his second ESPY (Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly) award for Best Male Athlete with a Disability.

Four years later, he reached the summit of Argentina’s breathtakingly beautiful and sometimes deadly Mount Aconcagua – the highest peak in both the Western and Southern Hemispheres, standing at 22,838 feet.

Kyle was also the focus of the moving documentary, “A Fighting Chance,” which chronicled his life and the pursuit of his first Mixed Martial Arts cage fight – which was produced by ESPN Films & SnagFilms and premiered on ESPN in 2010 and can currently be found on Netflix – with film sales proceeds benefitting injured armed forces veterans; and at 19, Kyle authored his account of his life experiences in The New York Times bestselling book, No Excuses (2005), which is still in print and in demand today.

He travels more than 200 days annually around the world to share his “No Excuses” philosophy.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Kyle Maynard: What is one big excuse that you could take on right now, today, and do something about? If you started there what would your life look like in 30 days? What would it look like a year from today? What would it look like five years from today?

And if we took on some of our bigger excuses, can you imagine what would happen inside of even just New York alone, if you had one percent of the population that took on their biggest excuse, what the creative generative effect of that would bring?

Frankly our brain is hardwired to survival, and because of that our brain with any fear that we have or any justification that we make as to why we do something or not do something, I believe a lot of those answers come back to survival. And there's usually a positive intention behind some of the excuses that we go and make, maybe even preservation of our own energy or preservation of self. There's a lot of times where fears are good, rational fears, and there's a good intention behind them; it's just uncovering that and kind of unpacking it, and seeing what's really going on there.

I think for starters I think some of the excuses I make come to mind, in terms of common excuses: I don't have enough time; I'm too busy;

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