: the ability to become strong, healthy, or successful again after something bad happens ___________________________________
I keep coming back to this book again and again. I have incredible respect and admiration for Navy SEALs – I mean, their physical, mental, and emotional fitness is second to none. And they understand how to lead others, but more importantly, how to lead themselves first. I took a lot away from Eric Greiten’s book (and if you haven’t read his other book The Heart and the Fist – check it out!), but here are the big rocks:
Our biggest competitive advantage when building a business is that it is hard. Really hard. Any successful business doesn’t just happen. It takes constant effort, continuous tweaking of models, adaptability, and having an incredible team around you that has the same emotional fitness as you do in order to handle the daily grind. Hire the right people who can not only DO the work, but who are RESILIENT. Become a master at studying behavior and understanding who can embrace the suck and handle the grind and who will crack under the pressure of building an empire.
Worry and tension is a part of living a big life. Worry and tension are a healthy sign of life. Think about when you work out – do you gain muscle or lose weight without tension? No! You must have tension in order to change your body and you must have tension in order to grow your business. Tension is simply a sign of growth. It doesn’t mean you are not enjoying the journey, just that the worry and tension and desire to live a big life are causing you to think differently, to ask bigger questions, and ultimately get bigger and better results. Now, if you don’t have the emotional fitness to handle the worry and tension then the worry will overwhelm you – it will swallow you and spit you out.Here’s one of my favorite excerpts from Resilience:
Frankel came to see that his unfinished work kept him sane: “Mental health is based on a certain degree of tension, the tension between what one has already achieved and what one still ought to accomplish, or the gap between what one is and what one should become. Such tension is inherent in the human being and therefore indispensable… What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and the struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task.” If there is tension in your life, if there is some deep worry about living a worthy life, then… good. That tension and worry is part of a well-lived life. (Greitens, 167)
RESILIENCE can be learned. You must be RESILIENT enough to handle the worry and the tension on your quest to grow your business and on your personal journey of growth. You must practice RESILIENCE in the midst of chaos, in the midst of challenge, and in the midst of success.
Never give up. This one isn’t new to me and is a motto I live by. But it isn’t just about a motto – it’s about taking action. When you have to fire a key leadership team member, or tell your spouse you just lost $400,000 due to a miscalculated risk, or when you can’t make payroll this month – you must remember WHY you started. Go back to your why when you get stuck and then take action. Any action, any move to stir things up and create a dialogue that wouldn’t have been there otherwise. This is where the ideas flow and events begin to unfold that you never expected. But this only happens when you’re moving. I don’t care if you have to walk, crawl, or drag yourself forward – just make a move! If you stand still, do you think life is going to just hand you whatever you need? You have to show the universe that you are not messing around and that you are willing to persevere no matter what.Once you have made up your mind that you are not going to give up, the universe/God/a higher being pays attention and says, “Adam is not f’ing around. I better do everything in my power to support him because he is not going to give up.” When you tell your mind you are not going to quit, even on small daily tasks like flossing your teeth, walking your dog, or leaving work early to spend time with your kids, your mind knows that you are not kidding. Your mind wants to protect you, so your mind often gives you thoughts to justify NOT doing something that is hard or outside of your comfort zone. BUT if you keep training your brain to say YES to the discomfort and not giving up, it knows you are serious and your mind will give you supportive thoughts. This pure ability to overcome any obstacle and do things that others are not willing to do comes when you stop fearing the fight and put it all on the line. When you are able to do that – you are fully living.As you build your tolerance for discomfort and continue to practice your RESILIENCE you will be unstoppable!
Now go get your copy of Resilience and let me know what your ahas are.
Onward!
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Aim your life toward your highest purpose. Reach the greatest levels of success, inside and out.
