Most of us are only working at around 40-60% of our full potential. To make matters worse, we often fool ourselves by thinking we're working at 100%. Spoiler, we're not.

The reason behind this is rooted deep in our biology - something that David Goggins calls The Regulator in his book Can't Hurt Me. With knowledge of what the regulator is and how it works, you can break that 60% barrier and achieve things you once thought were out of reach.

I've tried and tested this and the way it works blew my mind.

The human body is designed to have many safety features. When you touch something hot you retract your arm. When you overstretch a tendon it feels painful and forces you to relax that muscle. These safety mechanisms make sense, they save us from physical damage. The regulator, however, which is responsible for the 60% barrier, is a bit outdated.

Back when our hunter-gatherer ancestors were around, it was beneficial to always have energy reserves in the tank in case a lion started chasing you. That means even when you're exercising and out of breath, you still have the capacity to run for your life if it came to it.

These days we don't really have the threat of a predator chasing us, but our bodies still reserve energy for safety (and other) reasons.

This doesn't just apply to physical activities but also mental activities. Just like you fatigue from going on a run, you fatigue when studying for long periods. In both instances, at some point, the regulator tells you to stop, but it does so in a deceiving way.

You will feel like you can't go on any longer, but in actual fact, you can.

The regulator usually steps in after you've put in a large amount of work, so when you get the stop signal it's common to think, I've worked hard, I deserve a break. The thing is, you're only at 60% (or thereabouts).

So how do you break the 60% barrier?

Well to put it simply, through self-awareness.

Next time you find yourself giving up on something because you feel like you've reached your maximum, think back to this blog post. Don't listen to your regulator and remind yourself that this is only 60%.

Don't expect it to be easy, it's tiring and sometimes painful pushing past this point, but it's definitely possible.

I've been trying to complete the Sally Up Challenge for around 18 months. For those who don't know what that is, click here. It's basically a song with the lyrics 'Bring sally up, bring sally down' on repeat for 3 minutes and you have to do push-ups in sync with the lyrics. It's hard.

For the first 12 months, I was stuck at 1 minute 41 seconds. I literally couldn't even get 1 second past it. Every time I got close my regulator kicked in and I felt like I couldn't go on. Then a couple of months ago, I read about the regulator in this book. Immediately I thought about the Sally Up Challenge and gave it a go.

This time, as I reached 1 minute 41 seconds I kept telling myself 'You can keep going, this is only 60%' and low behold, I broke my record and made it to over 2 minutes! That's all down to knowing about the regulator.

Try it for yourself, your body is capable of far more than you can imagine.

PS. Be careful not to get injured when doing this.