Overcoming Your Limitations: 5 Powerful Lessons from the First African-American President

Overcoming your limitations is possible with the right mindset. Under the sun, limitations are inevitable unless you are not moving. The difference between the winners and losers is that winners choose to overcome their limitations while losers reside in fate.

The flesh of this article today is predicated on our human limitations and our ability to overcome them. Come to think of it; our limitations kick off right from the time we are born. You don’t choose where you are born and whether you came from a rich or a dysfunctional family; it’s upon you to handle every limitation as it comes in the journey of life.

An inspiring figure that we can draw some lessons from is the first African-American President, Barack Obama. 

A Sneak Peek at His Life

• Born in a multi-racial family -He had to deal with social perceptions.
• His parents divorced a few years after he was born, and he had to live with a step-father – Lacked parental love at some point.
• The power couple suffered a miscarriage in their young marriage – Michelle had to conceive her daughters via in-vitro fertilization.
• The young Obama struggled with a smoking habit – Michelle later confessed he quit.
• Barack Obama wasn’t raised in a religious household. – He is a devout Christian today
• Despite his racial background, he was elected the first black President of the United States.

That being said, not everyone is born or destined to be President. Still, you can decide to overcome your limitations today and be an agent of change in your community or society. Barrack’s life gives us a taste of what it feels like being at the bottom low and rising to the mountain peak. 

Do you know your limitations, and have you purposed to overcome them? Whether it’s a limitation in your education, health, or a bad habit, you have the willpower to give yourself a better life. 

5 Lessons About Overcoming your Limitations from the Obama’s

1. Obama was Born in Multi-racial Set-up but Overcame Them

Born in a country known to have a history of racism, it is clear that Obama had to fight the social perceptions that come with being born to an African father and a white woman. 

Like Obama, you could be facing a family limitation today, regardless of which part of the world you live in. Yours could not necessarily be a case of different races, but maybe you truly know that you could be facing some limitations in a close to a dysfunctional family. Society always has typical stereotypes about such situations. 

Take solace in the fact that we don’t choose our parents, but we can choose to overcome our family limitations.

2. Raised with a Step-Father

The harrowing tales of children in the hands of their step-parents don’t portray anything good from such a family setup. However, your case could be different. This is an encouragement to children living with step-parents; you happened to be raised in such a family or facing the ripple effects of divorce.

Additionally, there is a rapid increase of children being raised by single mothers who may not be comfortable revealing the identity of their children’s fathers to their kids for reasons they know best. That is a limitation you will need to overcome not to hinder your progress in life. Of course, it’s disheartening and disturbing knowing that your father is walking across the face of the earth, yet you don’t know them.

Face life with optimism and refuse to be limited by your family setup. It’s one thing to have a parent and lose them, and it’s another to have them, yet you don’t know about them. On the positive side of things, you could get that lost parental love from a guardian, mentor, or father figure in your life. 

3. Struggled with a Bad Habit and Overcame it Eventually

It’s said that Obama had a bad smoking habit. It isn’t clear how long he wallowed in smoking. Bad habits enslave and could make you miserable in the long run, not to mention their long-term effects.

If you are struggling with a bad habit today, you need to know that it’s quittable. The power to do that rests in your mind. I’m not privy to how exactly he went about quitting smoking, but the truth is, he made that deliberate change to be a better version of himself.

Think about what becomes of you in the next decade if you continue encouraging your bad habits. You, too, can make a change for the better. 

4. The Power Couple Had to Overcome their Limitations to Child Bearing

The knowledge that you cannot sustain a pregnancy or sire children is devastating. But how exactly do you overcome this? Luckily for the power couple, they could fix their situation.

Someone once said no problem has no solution. And if it has no solution, it can be managed. The inability to raise children does not hinder you from showing your parental love to children or rather enjoying the warmth and love of a family setup.

This has been made possible through the possibilities of adopting children and raising them as your own. I may not have the best answer here, but with faith, hope and optimism, you can choose to live above your current limitation in light of this context. 

5. Overcame Racial Barriers to Become President of the Super Power Country

I can’t describe this any better than the headlines that captured the euphoric victory of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. Yes, he had developed the muscles for the presidency through his political career as a senator.

But even with that, the office he was running for needed grit, courage, and enormous resources to pull through. In his own words, Barrack says, ‘Yes you Can.’ And if you keep the audacity of hope high, your joy is bound to come in the morning.

I didn’t say you should run for the presidency in your country, even if you aren’t a politician 😁. But there is something you want, maybe in the line of your career, calling, or business, you keep feeling is bigger than you. What is so bigger than you that you feel you don’t even stand a slim chance to get there?

You can achieve it if you believe in yourself and put your mind to it. What you conceive, you achieve. Overcoming your limitations is doable.