Your upper limit problem

In his book The Big Leap, Gay Hendricks discusses a fascinating concept called the Upper Limit Problem.

Essentially, it’s where we have an upper limit to the level of happiness, joy, and good feelings we can experience before we go into self-sabotage. Most people are unaware of the upper limit problem but those who become aware are able to overcome it.

It may sound crazy but it’s true. Often it comes from our subconscious, which is formed by the experiences we have by the age of 7.

It explains why people who lose a lot of weight have a 95% chance of gaining it back. It explains why people who win the lottery have an extremely high chance of being worse off financially within 2 years than they were before their win. It explains why problems in relationships start
surfacing once one of the partners has met the upper limit of their happiness.

Have you ever run into your upper limit in any area of life? If you think about it, you’ll know because you’ll experience a certain level of success and happiness before guilt sets in, you find reasons to be unhappy, or you have unfound fear or worry?

Remember, your human brain is designed to protect you, not to make you happy, so the upper limit problem makes perfect sense.