(Quotes are capsules of information, reinforcement, or enlightenment.)


“The limits of my language means the limits of my world.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein – Austrian-British philosopher


Coaching Point: Life is to be lived not simply described. The person who has a greater way to express life lives it more fully.

It’s true we go through life seeing only the narrow circle of our personal experience. We don’t fully experience the world. Lift to only the outer edge of the atmosphere to experience the visual vastness available. At best we can somewhat fully experience our piece of the world but only to the extent we see its parts.

Our ability to discern and describe defines the limits of our experience. If I can’t see and describe, I don’t experience. If I don’t experience, I limit.

Now let’s flip this because it is also true that much is indescribable. Feelings and emotions, for instance. We experience the emotions of a sunset, a child’s laughter, the passing of a loved one but find them difficult to describe. The poet, the artist, the philosopher come closest.

It is that tug of the attempt to describe which defines our limits. To the extent we don’t even try to expand our language is the extent to which we limit our world.

How many people do you know who seem to have stopped expanding their language and thus have limited their world?


Copyright 2022 Steve Straus. All rights reserved.