In college I played a ton of table tennis, when I started out I wasn't that great I was barely able to hit the ball over the table where I wanted to but naturally as I played more games I slowly got better and eventually I was defeating a lot of my friends in games to 21 points, but there came a time where my skill level just plateaued. I felt that I couldn't get any better no matter how much I played or practiced. Similarly in chess I started out jumping around 300 ELO points to around 1400 ELO but afterwards I felt that I could not get any better no matter how hard I tried. There was something that acted as a barrier that was stopping me from improving. They say it takes 10,000 hours to perfect a skill, maybe my problem was that I wasn't contributing enough time. But despite spending hours on various skills I always got to a stopping point where I felt I could not possibly get any better.
My problem is one that is faced by many people. It was my mindset. What differentiates the people that are good at a skill and great is that the great ones always think that there is something to improve. They are not phased by failure. The people that are successful are only successful because they are always analyzing what they are doing and trying to make it better. For example, I never realized that certain things about my table tennis game could be made better such as my form, and control of the amount of force I put into a swing among other things.
Many people think that there is a cap to intelligence, that people with a certain I.Q. will always be fixed at a certain level of intelligence. Recent studies have shown that even in old age the brain can improve, that it can create new neurons and connections. The universe has a way of surprising us. In the past people thought that the Earth was in the center of the universe, but then the thinking shifted toward a Sun centered model, and now we have knowledge that the universe is vast containing uncountably many stars and galaxies.
Carl Sagan said that "The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff." We each have limitless potential, everyone has something unique to contribute to the universe. If we continue limiting ourselves with words such as "I have reached my potential" or "I'll never be that good" we are making a great disservice to ourselves.
Become limitless.