Just Beyond the Trees
My heart rate is holding. My respiration is steady yet labored. And my body is holding out.
No, I'm not in the hospital. On life support.
I'm in the forest. On live support.
The Question of Potential
Potential has always tugged at me. No, not in some Herculean superhuman sort of way. But almost the exact opposite. What is normal optimal human potential?
If we strip away notions of extreme effort and crazy feats and instead consider universal possibility, how great — or how much better — could the average human life be, and what would it take to achieve that?
As I run through the woods and the miles tally, I'm aware I’ve gone much farther than the average person would. And yet simultaneously not even close to what's truly possible for the gifted human. I’m not trying to set records. I’m just interested in maximizing my life. Getting the most from it.
This might sound like I'm starting to lean toward running as a great pastime. Or signing up for a marathon. I'm not. I am only advocating for a question.
What if?
The Power of Curiosity
As I consider general human potential and how to realize it for the average person, I think it might be as simple as asking this simple yet powerful question: What if?
See, most people will never find themselves out here, miles from the comforts of home, feet aching and brow dampened. Not because they can't. But because they replaced "what if" with “why I can’t.”
Human potential and life well lived might be as attainable and simple as this singular question. The average person tends to put knowing in the way of growing. They make assumptions before applying effort.
For example: "I walked up a hill once and got out of breath; I could never run in the woods."
But what if you just tried? What if you tried, found it hard, and asked, “What if I made an effort to make it easier?” What if instead of saying "why I can’t,” you said, "What if I just tried to jog past 10 trees?" And the next time, 20.
You see where this is going. It's not about running, of course. It's about curiosity. It's about the compelling nature of uncertainty instead of the complacent trappings of certainty.
The Pause Button
So many lives get put on pause not because they die, but because they start to stop living. They replace "could" with "should." "Can" with "can't." And "potential" with "impossible."
Life's not about knowing. It's about learning.
As I bound through the woods, every step and turn is a more certain reminder of why I shouldn't be out here. My body hurts, my breath is heavy, and my heart races. My mind would surely like to be done and seek comfort instead. Still, I run — not to prove anything to myself, but to explore what's possible for all of you. I'm not special. Not gifted. Not talented. I'm only curious. And that has given me far more life than comfort ever has.
For most people, the forest stands as foreboding as a prison wall. For the lucky few, they learn that the wall they see was meant to keep them in, not out.
Step Beyond Your Boundaries
What if your limitations aren't physical at all, but simply boundaries you've mentally constructed? What if the answers to your most pressing questions — about purpose, fulfillment, and capability — lie just beyond the trees of your comfort zone?
At Paradigm Collective, we specialize in helping you ask better questions. Our accountability frameworks don't push you toward unrealistic goals but rather guide you to explore what's genuinely possible when you replace "I can't" with "what if?"
Ready to discover what's just beyond your trees? Join our next "What If?" workshop, where we'll help you identify your self-imposed boundaries and create a practical plan to step beyond them — no marathon training required.