Doing The Impossible
Page 7
— Muhammad Ali
All of us play while hurt at some point in our lives. It’s not playing while hurt itself that separates us from the rest; it’s how we choose to play while hurt. It’s how you do what needs to be done even on the days that you don’t feel well, how you put a smile on your face and lead the meeting when you just got stressful news from home. Successfully playing while hurt means giving 100% on days when you only feel 50%.
“Competition breeds excellence and whoever says otherwise, is still hurting from a loss in the past. Victory is around the corner if you keep competing.”
— Patrick Bet-David
How is toughness developed? Is it a God given talent or something that we acquire? Toughness is normally developed through events that create a high level of pressure. The way you respond to those events will determine your level of toughness. I believe it is God challenging us to see how badly we want to do the impossible in life. You have to believe that you will reap the reward for making it through all twelve rounds, especially during those times when all you want to do is throw in the towel. Achieving great things takes dedication on the good days and the bad days.
The list of people who had to develop the toughness of a fighter in order for them to do the impossible is long. Many times they were taken advantage of, lost a loved one, went bankrupt, or fought through physical or health challenges. For some, it seemed all odds were against them until they did the impossible. That’s why it’s very important for us to be grateful for the challenges we’ve gone through in our lives: They are building blocks for doing the impossible. Perseverance in challenging situations actually develops you into the person who you will need to be in order to accomplish the impossible. Those trials are the fire that heats us up so we can be molded into a new person. If you let your difficulties and hurts in life shape you by toughing it out, you’ll come out transformed on the other side.
“Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is.”
— German Proverb
“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
— Calvin Coolidge
Action Item:
Make a list of people in your life who you would consider tough and why. (Not celebrities, but friends, family, or acquaintances.)
Name Why
Law 22
Let Controversy Be Your Status Quo
Most people think that being controversial is something negative, but that’s not always the case. Controversy is a part of life. “Controversial” is often a description for words or decisions that will make a person less liked. How often do parents have to make decisions with their kids that are not the most popular? Anyone with a teenager knows what it’s like to get the silent treatment after a parenting decision that your teen found “controversial.”
These are some basic decisions that we make that could possibly be looked at as controversial by someone:
Leaving your job to start a business.
Having to put up with hearing comments such as “I hate you” from your sixteen-year-old daughter for not allowing her to go on a date with a twenty year old.
Talking about politics or religion with some of your coworkers.
Dropping out of college to start a business.
Stepping away from your family-owned business to create your own identity.
Leaving the city you grew up in to pursue your life-long dreams in another place.
Doing the complete opposite of what everybody else does.
Most people want to be extremely careful to say all the right things and do everything “by the book.” The world has taught us that if we play it safe, everything will work out. Those who do the impossible do the total opposite.
It’s a very normal thing for those who do the impossible to rub people the wrong way at times. They always have an enemy or a competitor who would like to see them gone. The best way to never have others dislike you is to never do anything worth noticing.
“Confidence comes not from always being right but from not fearing to be wrong.”
— Peter T. McIntyre
We have created this image in our minds of Jesus being a nice man who loved everyone and wanted everyone to be happy. Jesus did love everyone, but He wasn’t loved by everyone in return. If you read the Bible, you’ll find out that Jesus rubbed many people the wrong way. He wasn’t afraid to challenge conventional thinking and the religious elites of the time. You better believe that Jesus made enemies. Declaring He was the Son of God was definitely controversial.
“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.”
— David Brinkley
Recently I was reading The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History by Michael H. Heart. What I noticed right away was that most of the people on the list were controversial in their time. They were so certain about their set of beliefs that they were willing to fight for it until the end. They didn’t understand the concept of status quo. Nowhere in history will you find someone who either changed the world or challenged the thinking of a nation by just going with the flow.
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
— George Bernard Shaw
Here are some of the names form Heart’s list that you might recognize:
Muhammad
Sir Isaac Newton
Jesus Christ
Confucius
Saint Paul
Christopher Columbus
Albert Einstein
Galileo
John Locke
Henry Ford
Homer
Alexander the Great
Genghis Kahn
Thomas Edison
Sigmund Freud
Niccolo Machiavelli
Charlemagne
Adam Smith
Julius Cesar
George Washington
One of the qualities that we’ve all been given by our Creator is the desire to be liked. Some claim that they don’t care what people think of them, but everyone cares to some extent. Human beings seek love, approval, and respect from their spouse, family, friends, and coworkers every day.
Still, as much as we love harmony, people also love controversy. We respect those who are brave enough to be different and strong enough to stand with the courage of their convictions. Many people from history who are considered heroes today were the heretics of their time.
Doing the impossible means challenging the ordinary way of thinking, going against the grain, and carving out a new path that other people can’t yet see.
Action Item:
2. How do you feel when people talk behind your back?
Action Item:
4. What are three things you can do right away in order to improve in the area of dealing with conflicts?
1.
2.
3.
Law 23
Silence Your Critics
“Critics are like crickets. Crickets make a lot of noise, but you can’t see them. When you walk right by them, they become quiet.”
This could be a controversial chapter for some of you because many of us have been taught by our parents, teachers, and pastors not to be motivated by proving people wrong. That’s good advice if you are a twelve-year-old kid and a seventeen year old tells you that you’re not tough enough to smoke a cigarette and you prove him wrong by smoking it. But there are many times in life when the drive to prove our critics wrong can actually push us to better ourselves.
For example:
The person who loses twenty pounds because he ge
ts invited to a wedding that his ex is attending.
The kid who is bullied by someone older or bigger, which inspires him to learn how to defend himself and show the bully that he’s not easy pickings. (Wanderlei Silva, Forrest Griffen, Kevin Randleman, and Andrei Arlovski are all UFC Fighters who say they were bullied when they were young.)
The teenager who is told he must ride the bench, which he uses as motivation to practice more, get better, and come back as first string. (Many of the guys who are in the big leagues today are there because a coach doubted them at one point. Michael Jordan was actually cut from his high school basketball team!)
In life, we all have people who doubt us and tell us what we can’t do. The bigger the goal that you set, the more you will hear “it can’t be done.” Impossibility thinkers turn that criticism into motivation. They are compelled by a need to silence their critics. The words “it can’t be done” to them sound like “prove me wrong.”
“History favors leaders with a high level of audacity in a positive movement. It’s worth every ounce of criticism from naysayers.”
— Patrick Bet-David
Have you ever had a teacher, a friend, or a relative give you a look of doubt when you tell them what you plan to accomplish? Has anyone ever told you that your goals are unrealistic? If not, you might need to set your sights higher; being doubted is a mile maker on the road to greatness.
When you set out to do the impossible, you will be faced with doubt and rejection. What separates the great ones from the pack is the way that they react to that criticism. To most people, negative feedback can be discouraging; but a few are able to actually turn it into fuel for their fire.
History is packed with a long list of examples of great achievers whose detractors predicted they would fail:
George Steinbrenner didn’t start off being the successful owner of the Yankees. He first owned the Cleveland Pipers. Never heard of them? The franchise eventually went bankrupt and Steinbrenner, $125,000 in debt with personal losses of $2 million, eventually silenced his critics by turning the New York Yankees into one of the most valuable franchises in sports history.
Harry Potter author, J.K. Rowling was rejected by twelve different publishers when she first wrote the book. Several publishers even told her to “get a real job.” Now she’s the second richest female entertainer after Oprah.
Most think of Einstein’s name as synonymous with genius, but he didn’t always come across that way. Einstein didn’t speak until he was four and did not read until he was seven. His teachers and parents thought he was mentally handicapped, slow, and anti-social. Eventually, he was expelled from school and was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School. But years later, no one was calling Einstein “slow” when he was winning the Nobel Prize for his breakthroughs in physics.
After his first audition, Sidney Poitier was told by the casting director, “Why don’t you stop wasting people’s time and go out and become a dishwasher or something?” Poitier vowed to show him that he could make it, going on to win an Oscar and becoming one of the most respected actors of all time.
In his first film, Harrison Ford was told by the movie execs that he simply didn’t have what it takes to be a star. Today, with dozens of hit movies playing iconic characters like Indiana Jones and Han Solo, Ford can proudly show that he does in fact have what it takes.
We know Elvis Presley as one of the best-selling artists of all time. But back in 1954, Elvis was a nobody. The manager of the Grand Ole Opry fired Elvis after just one performance, telling him, “You ain’t goin’ nowhere, son. You ought to go back to drivin’ a truck.”
Of all the examples of great ones silencing their critics, the first person who comes to my mind is always Muhammad Ali. I was fortunate enough to be able to visit The Muhammad Ali Center in Kentucky. I learned that there was a time when everyone around Ali doubted him— media, friends, and even family. Ali didn’t just ignore the criticism of others; instead he used it as motivation. His dream became not just to be a champion, but to prove all the people who doubted him wrong.
“Criticism is something you can avoid easily—by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.”
— Aristotle
There is no better way to silence your critics than to make them eat their words. But always be grateful for your critics and use their doubt as fuel in your tank for doing the impossible.
Action Item:
1. Who has ever doubted you? How did you react to their doubt? What kind of power do they have over you?
Name Reaction Power
Law 24
Charge Your Batteries with Challenges
There was a time in my life when I was one of the laziest people you could ever meet. All I wanted to do was watch sports and play video games. I had a 1.8 GPA in high school and I didn’t apply myself at anything. I definitely wasn’t challenging myself. Later in life, I became curious as to why some people are lazy and others are driven in life. I discovered that laziness stems from boredom—from not being challenged or not pursuing a goal. We are lazy when we’re not growing and not being forced to elevate our thinking.
Have you ever watched a boring movie? What happens? You all of a sudden start feeling sleepy. That’s because you’re bored. Likewise, when we are chronically tired, it is often because we are uninterested in life. If life is making you tired, ask yourself, what are you on the hunt for? What has captured your imagination?
When no real challenge faces us, we get mentally and physically lethargic. Napoleon Bonaparte was known for his boundless energy and strength. He never let himself rest and he was never satisfied with what he had achieved. Napoleon once said, “Sometimes death only comes from a lack of energy.” A lack of energy comes from not being challenged, when we have taken on less than we are capable of. Have you taken on as much as you are capable of? Are you taking the easy route or pushing yourself? Or have you maxed out your life? Are you happy or simply content? Contentment can be found living life on cruise control. But happiness comes from being challenged, growing as a person, and chasing a dream.
“Without passion you don’t have energy, without energy you have nothing.”
— Donald Trump
We spend about a third of our waking hours working. That’s a lot of hours of boredom if your job doesn’t inspire you. Have you ever dreaded going to work in the morning and clocking in? Have you ever had a job where the later it got on Sunday night, the crankier you got because you hated going to your job the next day? We have all had to work uninspiring jobs at some point in our lives. In my experience, I was bored when I worked for a company that had no vision beyond making money.
Those who do the impossible don’t consider their job to be work. I was asked once why we have to work so hard to achieve greatness. My answer was simple: I stopped working a long time ago. Now I live. I no longer consider my day filled with “work”; rather it is just part of life, and something that I look forward to every day. Most people are discouraged when you tell them that an eighty-hour work week is a formula for success. We all have 168 hours per week, but most people mentally separate their working hours (usually from nine to five) as a distinct part of their life. They often view work as a necessary evil. The key is to have no distinction between living and working. When your job is your passion, giving a speech, making phone calls, planning a strategy, or writing a business plan is not work; it’s just another part of living. When you live your passion, you don’t have to worry about energy or boredom. Chasing your dreams is the only caffeine that you will need.
“The more you lose yourself in something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have.”
— Norman Vincent Peale
“The biggest challenge with underachievers is that they have a tendency of giving up right before a MAJOR VICTORY in life.”
— Patrick Bet-David
Law 25
Have Heart
According to the dictionary, courage is the “mental or moral str
ength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.”
You have to have courage if you want to do something special in your life. Courage is a common thread among all the great ones.
Years ago, Latin was considered a must-learn language in many schools. Today Latin is a rarely taught or used language. But the Latin roots of many English words have left us with a treasured vocabulary. Looking at the Latin roots of our words gives us insight into their meaning. Courage comes from the Latin coraticum, meaning heart. Heart is the core of courage because it is the source from which the characteristics of courage emanate.
Think about what we mean when we say:
That fighter has heart!
That player has heart!
That soldier has heart!
What we are really saying is that person has courage.
I want to share some quotes with you about courage that do a better job than I could at explaining why courage is so important:
“Without courage, all other virtues lose their meaning.” —Sir Winston Churchill