Embrace the Suck
Embracing the suck is not a shortcut to tapping into performance potential hidden from the average person. It’s a real way of approaching the obstacles facing you, and growing beyond them. We used to say that we “trained as we fight,” meaning no half-efforts, no taking it easy simply because we were in training and not on an actual battlefield. Success in life is often like that—you make your own luck, and often that luck is the result of hard work no one else ever sees.
Here’s your hack: work hard. Seek out experiences that stretch you out physically and mentally. Learn how to flip your switch. Do a good job at whatever you do. It’s as simple as that. Flip that switch and break it, so you have no choice other than to maintain and sustain that drive. Find the next challenge. Don’t avoid them, embrace them. See the struggle for what it is—an opportunity to grow, to create something amazing and fulfilling and kick-ass. Search those challenges out.
No one grows in their safe zone. It’s a static place. No change, no evolution, no learning. When you search for those things that are really hard, those things that really suck and embrace them, you’ll have those life -changing experiences that will lead you exactly where you want to be. The payoff might take two years or two days. Some challenges are bigger than others. But the payoff will always be there, if you face those challenges head-on.
If It Were Easy, Anyone Could Do It
Many decisions in life aren’t black and white. There’s a gray area in the middle between what you should do, and what’s not going to work out well in the long run. It’s hard to know whether a project or a business or a relationship is going to end up the way you envisioned it when you started.
The journey can be tough. A lot of people will see something that captures their attention, and they’ll limit themselves, say something like, “Man, I wish I could do that.” A wish is only a wish if all you do is wish for it. It only becomes reality when you take action.
That’s one of the things that holds so many people back. They hold onto their wishes and keep them as only that. They never take the steps to make that wish a reality. These are the things that separate the successful people in life from the ones who might be super smart, or have a shitload of money, but who don’t seem to achieve anything with either. Those who succeed are the ones who had the vision, and who didn’t quit when the going got really hard. They drove through failure to reach success.
You want to know how to break free of your biggest or smallest of fears? ACTION. Fear will paralyze you. It is like a wall that disables your ability to move forward and overcome it. Too many people allow fear to hold them back from their biggest aspirations or their greatest dreams. Just remember that the only way to break past these fears—to get closer to your goals, dreams, and aspirations in life—is to take massive action on them and move past these imaginary barriers.
Surviving the Tough Times
Surviving tough times is also a matter of discipline. You’ve got to be disciplined to keep doing the things you know you need to do, even when those things might be the last things you want to do.
Avoid Paralysis by Analysis. In infantry tactics, they teach you to shoot, then move. Shooting and staying put just guarantees your enemy is going to ruin your day. It’s one thing to think a situation through before the shooting starts, but once the bullets are flying, taking time to do an in -depth analysis of your situation, rather than acting and moving, can be fatal.
Same thing when it comes to surviving tough times. It’s called “paralysis by analysis.” This is when people react to tough times by doing nothing, overthinking situations, and in general watching while their dreams collapse around them, rather than doing something about it. They’ll think, “We can’t be in trouble, the money has to be there. This has to work in our favor.” They analyze and analyze, when what they ought to be doing is working on finding a solution.
One of the greatest competitive advantages I’ve had, since the beginning, is that I don’t get weighed down by analysis. I don’t overanalyze things. “I know what I want to do,” I’ll say. “I don’t know how I’m going to do it. But I’m going to get started.” I move when I can, figuring out how to solve problems as I go. I am not the kind of guy who’s going to get caught short, paralyzed by fear. I may not know how to get from Point A to Point B, but I’m going to get moving and figure it out along the way.
Entitlement
Entitlement is like that fool’s gold. People will think that everything’s going to go their way because it always has, because they live in the United States, because the universe owes them, for some reason. It’s a wrong -headed optimism that tells entitled people that anything they’ve achieved thus far in their lives was meant to be, and that the future is secure for them.
Soon enough, you see these people later, when the reality of the world smacks them in the face. You’ll hear them bitching about their lousy salaries. They’ll be pissed that they had to work a few extra hours last week to get a project done. A couple hours of missed sleep and they are all messed up.
Entitlement lets you believe all the great things in your life are just going to fall into place. First, you’ll get that perfect job without even trying. Then, the perfect house will drop into your lap, and you’ll use the huge paycheck from that dream job you never had to chase to pay for it all. Along with that, of course, will come the perfect spouse or significant other, who will magically appear like everything else in the entitled person’s life.
Find It, Get Rid of It. One of the best things you can do for yourself, and your future, is to recognize whenever you’re giving into feelings of entitlement, then work extra hard to rid yourself of that feeling. My personal trick, whenever I feel like I didn’t get something I deserved, is to remember all the people out there at the moment who have it way worse than me.
Going All-In
One of the things going all -in does is it brings clarity. You see your situation for what it is, and you’re able to solve problems in ways that you might not if you had no skin in the game. Going all -in removes the safety net of Plan B. There’s no looking back. You’ve made your decision and now it’s time to devote every scrap of energy you have into making it a reality. Going all -in means transcending discomfort and embracing the idea of bearing any burden, accepting any pain and suffering, whatever it takes to achieve your dream, whether that’s to start and build an amazing business, establish yourself in a career, or meet your goals.
If you don’t know where your limits truly are—and believe me, they’re a lot further out there than you think—then you don’t know how to operate at your 100 percent. If you don’t operate at 100 percent of your capacity, you’re not going all the way in.
Go One More
That’s what “go one more” is all about, and, to be honest, the main idea of this entire book. Tap into the power of pushing yourself to break past the physical and mental barriers that separate you from where you are and where you want to be.
So many people limit their chances for achievement by jumping into projects or a workout or anything in life and work limited by what they think are their possibilities. They have expectations about the limits of their mental and physical performance. These expectations are almost always far less than what they could actually accomplish if they pushed themselves. Going one more is a natural way to push past those self -imposed limits and let your mind and body work to their full potential.
Push back against those barriers. Those are walls we build before we start anything. Before starting a business. Before going on a workout. Before starting a new job. It’s natural to want to protect yourself by setting limits that you can easily bump up against. This gives you the false impression of really working to your capacity. In reality, it just means you’re working within your comfort zone.
Going one more is about stretching limits. It should hurt. It should not feel easy or comfortable. Find what you think is your limit, then go beyond it. Believe me, when you find yourself at mile nineteen, whether figuratively or literally, it’ll be one of the greatest moments of your life.