"Burning the Boats"

Do This To Improve Your Focus

2000 years ago, Julius Caesar famously declared, “If you want to take the island, burn the boats!”

When he set out to conquer England by water, upon landing at the coast, he found himself face to face with his own soldiers preparing to retreat when they realized the Celts had way more men. This caused Caesar’s men to panic with fear and start preparing their boats for a quick exit.

Because Caesar knew about the art of war and the nature of men, it is said he ordered all the ships to be burned. This was a powerful message to his enemies but an even more powerful message to his own men.

Throughout history, this strategy has been used numerous times to accomplish success. Famous Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu wrote in the Art of War:

"When your army has crossed the border, you should burn your boats and bridges, in order to make it clear to everybody that you have no hankering after home.”

When you can't retreat and don't have any other options but to fight, you commit 100% to doing whatever it takes to make your chosen path succeed. And if you 'fail', it certainly won't be for lack of effort or courage.

I think this is true for most things in life. Whenever you want to create change in your life, achieve new things, and make something succeed long-term, whether this may be in your career, in your relationships, in your personal or professional life, eliminating other options to fully commit to one thing, to Plan A, directs the concentration of your human attention towards a singular purpose, which improves your performance and increases the odds of succeeding.

This is a mindset that successful leaders, entrepreneurs, and anyone facing a major life decision implement where they remove the safety nets and the conditions that may block mental retreat, as a way to eliminate any possibility of backing out on their choices and fully commit to their chosen path.

"Burning the boats" is a metaphor to eliminate all the internal and external stories that conspire against us and that trigger our brain to conjure a backup plan. It helps us fight our biggest obstacle when it comes to creating change in our lives: ourselves.

Disclaimer: I don't think this means staying in things (businesses, jobs, relationships, projects) that feel like a loss cause and not knowing when to 'give up' and fold the hand. Instead, I believe this mindset talks about the need to give things a real, honest try before we choose to retire completely from the war.

Giving things an honest try means to provide them with your main focus and attention, to stop dividing your attention between too many projects, and to keep getting back up even when you feel like you are only falling down, especially at the beginning.

Remind yourself often that just because you lose some battles doesn't mean that you are losing the war.

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