Here’s a harsh reality: we’re just not tough enough…
On my wall, framed, hangs Vince Lombardi’s famous inspirational quote about football, winning, and what it takes to be number one. He has been on my office wall for the last decade. It is my own mezuzah to excellence and always pushing the limits of what I think is possible.
Last week while working, somewhat bewildered by some frustrating issues, my eye flickered over the glass-encased image. At the top of the image below the title, in a font larger than the rest of Limbardi’s speech, the following words caught my eye:
“You have to pay the price…”
Simple words. A great challenge.
Suddenly it hits me. I needed to toughen up a bit. I needed a little more mental discipline. I was letting my fears destroy my vision. He reminded me of a story I had been told about a soldier in Vietnam.
Apparently:
A team of soldiers fought inch by inch across a painfully besieged stretch of island. They fought day after day, losing men and making little progress. Each day his supplies dwindled and several of the men began to fall ill. The classic symptoms of diarrhea and vomiting would be bad enough if enemy snipers and cleverly booby-trapped minefields weren’t even more dangerous.
Each night, a sight of the brave soldiers would swim back to the battleship anchored two miles offshore for more supplies and ammunition. Many never returned.
In the midst of this sad and miserable jungle, George fought side by side with his band of brothers. While others became feverishly ill with dysentery, he raised morale with his wit and charisma. Things seemed to be looking up. The enemy was being pushed back and the team was alive. And then things got tough for George.
He got sick. Very ill. George got so sick that he could hardly move. As rockets and mortars rained down on his head as he lay in the trench, it seemed only a matter of time before one landed too close to him. And then it happened.
George said you could always tell by the sound of a mortar overhead how close the round might be. Your senses perked up when the difference between death and inches is just a few seconds and a quick move. And in a state of weakness, lying pathetically on the edge of a trench, George and his companion had little time to move. The shell slammed into the back of the trench where George’s partner was huddled. The shrapnel completely destroyed George’s partner and tore deep flesh from George’s back, buttocks and legs.
The blood soon mixed with the diarrhea and the infection began. George had to get back to the ship or die. There was no other option. Nobody was able to take him back. To live, he had to do it alone.
And so, as darkness fell, he crawled from his trench onto the beach and into the salt water, the salt ripping deep into the open, raw wounds. And the incredible happened.
George swam the 2 miles back to the boat and survived. Despite the odds, despite his weakened state, George made it.
And I’m glad you did. George Waldschmidt was my grandfather.
What kept George alive is the same thing that will help you dominate: mental toughness.
There was no cheering section waving flags and rooting for my grandfather in the last 200 yards. There weren’t any friends who put SuperPoke “You can do it” messages on his Facebook page. And forget about any Tweets with the words “smash it,” “good job,” or “best of luck.”
It was ice water, diarrhea and deep wounds, infectious fever and a ravenous determination to live.
Mental toughness is a process of muscle growth like physical exercise. There is NO magic potion. You have to focus intensely on a few repeatable key exercises. Here are some of them:
- Avoid the urge to blame others for anything. — Bad, small-minded people know they suck. This is why they are so moody and eager to point out your mistakes. They hope that by making you feel inadequate, everyone will forget how woefully out of place their own performance is. Get out of the habit of blaming someone for whatever reason. It’s a bad habit.
- Stop working on things that just don’t matter. — Not everything should be done instead of sleeping. If you work for a boss, then you owe him a lot of time. You can’t cut that. However, you can cut back on TV time, board meetings, and anything else that gets in your way to stay focused on your destiny. Replace entertainment with activity towards your goal.
- Find the positive side of any circumstance. It’s there. — Find a negative person and you have found a mentally weak person. It doesn’t take mental courage to say something “won’t work.” Frankly, that’s the easy way out. What does require mental effort (a lot sometimes…) is to believe in something when you are the only one in your section of animators. Make it a personal challenge to find the best in every situation. And tell someone when you find it.
- Refuse to wallow in doubt. You are alive to succeed. — Stop comparing your problems to your last 18 failures. They are not the same. You are not the same. Here’s something to remember: Your entire life has been a training ground for capturing your destiny right now. Why would you doubt that? Go conquer. Stop complaining.
- Ask yourself “what can I do better next time?” and then do it next time. — Guess what? Spend a decade or two seriously trying to “be better,” and that’s exactly what will happen. The best thing after doing something amazing is not doing something stupid. So learn from your mistakes and use the lessons to master.
- Actively take time to do things that fuel your passion. (ex. exercise…) — Living in the moment requires you to live at peak performance. A big part of mental fitness is physical fitness. So go fight someone. Or go for a run. Mental motivation is accelerated by physical activity.
- Give thanks for something you have taken for granted in the past. — The exercise of gratitude is a powerful igniter of creativity. Selfishness limits our ability to work at peak performance. When you think only of yourself, you miss the real key to world domination: helping other people.
- Apologize to yourself and those around you for having a bad attitude. — Do this once or twice and you’ll come out of your funk pretty quickly. When you start having to truly apologize for being a bad influence on those around you, you learn to stop whining and start winning.
The fastest way to fail is to let your fears and doubts get in the way of your passion. It is what happens naturally. If you want to dominate, control your thinking, young Jedi. You will find yourself conquering more.