Our Superhuman Potential

I came across this video of bike stunts and wow. To be able to control your body at mid-jump, up in the air, and then land perfectly—just amazing. Unbelievable, even.

It's a skill that you and I don't have. We'd probably end up in a painful twist and broken bones if we try it ourselves. But the potential is there. It may seem unbelievable, but it's possible.

We have the potential to be superhumans. It's just waiting to be discovered and sharpened.

It's not just in sports.

Inventions are from ideas. Ideas that come from human minds. The electricity. The phone. The internet. Electric cars. Robots.

We keep setting the bar higher. And with each discovery, each invention, each advancement, the potential increases too. Electricity and internet made the later inventions possible.

As we become better, so does our potential.

More than skill and smarts, superhuman changes happen at a deeper level: biological adaptation.

The human body adapts to the environment for survival. People living at high altitudes have adapted to the thin air, to lower oxygen levels. And they've adapted in different ways.

As written by Hillary Mayell:

• The Andeans have more hemoglobin, which is responsible for transmitting the oxygen through the body. That means they are more effective at distributing oxygen throughout their bodies.
• Tibetans compensate by taking more breaths per minute than we do at sea-level. They may also "offset low oxygen content in their blood with increased blood flow." Their blood vessels expand, allowing their bodies to deliver oxygen more effectively.

These stories tell us one thing: we have great potential.

We can master control of our bodies. We can come up with extraordinary ideas and bring them to life. We can be resilient and thrive in harsh conditions. What's stopping us?

We can be exceptional human beings. It's up to us to work toward actualization.