We are living during challenging times and resilience is critical during times like these.
The only way we can truly “fail” is if we quit. If you shut the back door on quitting, you remove failure from the realm of possibilities. You’ve likely heard the story of Captain Hernán Cortés burning the ships when he and his army of 600 arrived on the beach to battle a far larger army. He burned the ships, their only option to retreat. There was no plan B. It was fighting and win, or fight and die.
We must remove the option to quit and we will inherently be resilient beyond what we even believed we could do. Resilience is just that. Resilience is easy when retreating is not an option. There will still be setbacks, problems, “failures,” but when the option to quit is removed we WILL push forward.
Further, you’ve got to know WHY you are doing what you do. When your WHY is big enough, obstacles cease to exist. If I am building my network marketing business for my family, for my legacy, well my WHY is then far larger than any obstacle I will face. When you are building a non-profit, your WHY will be far larger than rejection from potential donors. Burn the ships, and know your WHY. This is true for network marketing professionals, direct sales marketers and entrepreneurs across all walks of life.
Did you have any experiences growing up that have contributed to building your resiliency? Would you mind sharing a story?
Absolutely! So in high school, I was a pretty good and natural athlete. I excelled at football and was able to get a scholarship to a business school I wanted to attend. My first day on campus I realized that everyone in college was really good in high school and I could no longer get by on my abilities, I would have to be willing to outwork everyone to get ahead.
That was a humbling realization and I realized if I wanted to level up, I’d have to do and become someone I had never been. However, I had a setback. A big one. I must not have been listening close enough and missed that for our first physical tests of strength and endurance, there was a mandatory 15-minute warmup so my roommate and I got there two minutes “early”, which was really at the end of the warmup. We got reamed. Bad.
Our coach made us sit outside and wait for him to finish with everyone. Well, an hour and a half later we realized he wasn’t coming for us. I was in the doghouse. My coach had it out for me all year. He tried to get me to quit daily, weekly. But I knew I wasn’t going to quit. So I worked. I worked hard. I worked in silence. I took every opportunity I got. Through hard work, resilience, and a bit of luck I was able to work my way out of the doghouse!
My coach actually left that year. With a new coach, I had a clean slate. I had been working hard to be the best version of me through that first year, and that next year I played a prominent role on the team and continued to grow every year for the next 3 years. It turned into a very solid career. If I had quit, I think my life would look a lot different than it does now, so I always look back at that moment as an inflection point in my life and an experience I am forever grateful for.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
When I first heard this quote it gave me full-body chills. It spoke to me. I didn’t fully understand it at first, but it spoke to me. Now I receive it as our deepest fear is not actually that we are not good enough, our deepest fear is our potential. We know we hold vast potential inside of us and we’re scared of that potential because we know deep down our calling is to live into it, but it won’t be easy. That was a realization for me.
I heard someone once say “the richest place in the world is the graveyard.” That’s because most people go to their grave with their ideas and their potential, having never fulfilled it or even written it down in a journal or shared. That has always been my deepest fear; not reaching inside myself and pulling out my true potential. I always feared living an average life and it’s driven me to go the extra mile in everything I do. Further, I’ve learned as we are liberated from our own fears and we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. When you change your life it’s pretty awesome. And when you change other people’s lives, well…you just left a legacy that extends beyond you.