The difference between quitting a task, as opposed to reaching the end of our possibilities with it . . . is this: Whenever we quit our wish to succeed at something, we have first embraced a false sense of hopelessness born of an equally false conclusion about ourselves: namely, that our past failings have formed an inescapable pattern. But, when we will work through a chosen task until we come to the end of our abilities and then remain there — aware of our temporary limitations, as well as of those fearful parts of us that would punish us for them — in such moments we stand at the threshold of our true potential. For in our willingness to journey to what seems the end of us, we are gifted with the understanding that there is no ending to our true self; and so, each time we dare to tread these unknown lands of ourselves, dawns within us a new and higher set of personal possibilities, along with the will to explore them.

More from Beliefnet and our partners