It’s Perishable—And It Doesn’t Have To Be
I’m fascinated by the mind.
It’s one of our greatest tools.
And one of our greatest inhibitors.
Like a muscle, it has to be worked.
I was reminded of this over the past few days.
On Monday, I listened to Chris Williamson’s Modern Wisdom podcast where he was speaking with David Goggins.
Like David Goggins does, he was talking about some of his extreme feats.
Maybe more aptly put, why he does the things that he does.
“It’s a perishable skill. Hardness. Mental hardening. Mental toughness. It’s a perishable skill. Just because you went through some training once and you got through it, doesn’t mean it lasts forever. You don’t just say, ‘oh, I got it. I’m checked off. I’m good for the rest of my life.’ That’s why you have a re-qual. You re-qual on everything. And you definitely must re-qual when it comes to the mind. That is one of the biggest re-qualifications you must have. And when you’re at that level, you gotta re-qual every day, not once a year.”
Here’s my take:
Regularly putting yourself in challenging situations is the best way to develop your mind.
Because, like a muscle, it will strengthen if you create situations that force you to use it.
And, like a muscle, it will atrophy if you don’t have to use it.
It’s why I’m a huge advocate of sport: sport forces you to challenge yourself both physically and mentally — and can be such a great teacher for developing skills to face other challenges in life.
But, we can’t rest on our laurels.
We can’t rest on our achievements.
We can’t fall into the mentality that we’ll stay at the level we’re at.
As David Goggins says, “that’s why you have to re-qual…every day.”
Yesterday was a shit day.
I failed big time professionally.
I spiraled downward all night — by the end, I had imagined myself on a corner begging for money.
I finally fell asleep at 12:30am.
At 2:30am, our oldest son was calling for me — “Dad, I had a scary dream.”
I curled up in his bed with him — and then I started spiraling…again.
I didn’t fall asleep until 3:30am.
4:30am came early — it hurt.
But, I’ve been here before, and I know if I skip on my morning swim, the day is that much harder.
I was out the door by 5:25am and in the water at 6am.
And the practice was hard.
We had to do things that are so far outside my comfort zone in the pool.
As I said to the coach after the workout, “I wanted to quit that thing 40 different times.”
But, I didn’t — and I walked away in a completely different headspace.
And maybe it’s because I’ve been there before.
And I know that when I quit, things atrophy.
But when I don’t, things strengthen.
Today was a re-qual — and I have even more ammunition the next time the challenge gets hard and I want to quit.
As far as my professional failure: just another challenge.
Like I said, sport is such a great teacher for developing skills to face other challenges in life.
I don’t see myself on the street begging for money — I have a clear plan and know how to move forward.
It’s time to take action.
Mindset is perishable.
And it doesn’t have to be.
As long as we keep working it.
It just takes daily action and a willingness to put yourself into challenge situations.
Onward.