How Far Are You Willing to Push Yourself?
Leo Petrik
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This Weeks Feature Article
How Far Are You Willing To Push Yourself?
This question came across my desk this week and I thought that it would be a great topic to share with you, and unpack what it could mean for you, your business and your marketing.
Now, let’s put a little bit of context to this question…
Right now, athletes from all around the world are meeting in Birmingham in the UK and competing at the Commonwealth Games (Go Australia)…
From a sporting perspective most of you understand the concept of pushing yourself to your limits to achieve a sporting goal… and those goals are measured in weights lifted, times beaten, distances thrown, and points generated through demonstrating exceptional skill in particular sports.
In the humdrum world outside of sport, there are many individuals (although far too few in reality… although you may be one of them), who compete against yourself, to become better in yourself…
You are the individuals that push yourselves to lose weight, to gain weight in certain circumstances… to become physically stronger, faster, and fitter in the pursuit of physical health and vitality… using a variety of modalities to achieve these goals.
There are the very rare few of you who push yourselves beyond normal limits to create success in your chosen professions, and continue to experiment with financing, marketing, sales strategies, manufacturing techniques, different niches, et cetera.
And even though you understand these fundamental concepts of pushing yourself beyond your limits intellectually, the question remains -
“How Far Are You Willing to Push Yourself?”
Now... please understand that I'm simply the messenger here...
The sad truth is most of you will never, ever know the joy of success because you simply can’t, won’t or didn’t push yourself enough…
In fact, many of you will move from one occupation to another because you feel that you didn’t achieve any level of fulfilment or success in the job that you had... which you were searching for.
The most challenging aspect of this question is that you don’t even know what your limits are, and quite often you’re too scared to find out… as a consequence many of you will give up all too soon, and all too often when you are just short of when success would actually manifest for you.
Please let me share a story with you that may simply put it all into perspective…
During a study at Harvard in the 1950’s, Dr. Curt Richter placed rats in a pool of water to test how long they could tread water.
What he found was, that on average the rats would give up and start to sink after about 15 minutes.
But right before they gave up… primarily due to exhaustion, the researchers would pluck them out of the water, dry them off, and let them rest for a few minutes – then they would put the rats back in for a second round.
In this second round - how long do you think the rats lasted?
Now please remember, the rats had just swam until their bodies failed due to exhaustion only a few short minutes earlier...
So, how long do you think the rats lasted… 15 minutes… 10 minutes… 5 minutes?
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Now, I would love to tell you the answer right now… but I’d like to touch on a couple of things first and then I'll be happy to share the findings of Dr Richter and his team…
When you consider athletes of any description, and any individual that is striving to achieve a certain physical, mental or spiritual goal… most of them will achieve that goal because they continually test their limits… they push themselves to a level of exhaustion, stress or mental fatigue… and then they rest.
Once rested, they go out again and continue to push themselves to a point that is slightly beyond where they left off previously… and they will continue to do this until they reach the goals that they are trying to achieve.
Now the interesting thing about people who are chasing physical, mental and spiritual goals is that you have some idea in your mind the result you are trying to achieve, and your goals are generally very quantifiable… so taking small steps towards those goals has a direction, and a purpose.
In the life of business, you have no idea what success looks like, and you have no idea how hard you should push yourself to achieve the goals you believe you want and need.
This in fact is quite understandable, as there really hasn’t been any quantifiable data to tell you how much you must work to create success, and it will be different for each one of you… and because nobody has done that, most businesses will fail.
So, if you want success you need to push harder, but the big question will always be… How Hard?
Let’s get back to Dr Richter’s story…
Once the rats were put in for a second round of swimming, they lasted an average of 60 hours!
Yes, you are reading that right… 60 hours of swimming.
The conclusion that was drawn by the scientists, was that since the rats BELIEVED that they would eventually be rescued... they could and would push their bodies way past what they and the scientists previously thought impossible.
I would like to leave you with this thought:
If hope can cause exhausted rats to swim for that long, what could a belief in yourself and your abilities, do for you?
Although you might not have any idea what you’re capable of right now... isn't it worth a shot to achieve real success?
Remember why you’re here…. start believing in yourself and start achieving the results in your life in business that you can achieve.
If you would like to know more, or would like to know how you can do this, please contact me and we can discuss some ideas and strategies that will help you.
Quote of the Week
“The only way that we can live is if we grow. The only way we can grow is if we change. The only way we can change is if we learn. The only way we can learn is if we are exposed. And the only way that we are exposed is if we throw ourselves into the open.” — C. Joybell
(Life is more exciting when things are uncertain. Uncertainty teaches resilience, and resilience gives you the awareness I need to become your best self.)
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