The Tribe Gathering - Sunday Mindset For The Week Ahead

"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude." Thomas Jefferson

When we establish a vision for ourselves and those we lead it is very easy to set out with positivity, full of determination and energy. Perhaps we’re too naive concerning the possible obstacles we’ll face. Sometimes we can be overzealous in our excitement about achieving a goal we have. Our confidence, though vital, can keep us from comprehending the hardships we’ll encounter on our path to seeing our vision to fruition. This is why regularly fueling our desire to achieve is so very important.

I go back to our equation for success: (Ambition+Passion+Purpose = Hard Work) Time = Success

Our desire to succeed and to serve others is what drives our ambition, passion, and purpose. Finding joy in what we do and not just in achieving is a valuable ability when our leadership path becomes difficult and we get downtrodden. Courage is necessary as a good leader looks ahead and around at what is coming and what is currently causing them to fail so that they can attack it head on. Perseverance through hardships and failures is what enables us to get back up and try again. These virtues make up our work ethic. Our ability to work hard is constructed by them and our proficiency in them.

But, what happens to our work ethic when faced with the seemingly impossible? What are we left to do when catastrophic failure happens or when failure compounds over time to a degree in which our movement forward becomes deadlocked?

I love the book “Do Hard Things” by Steve Magness. It’s a look at what he considers to be “real toughness” as the taught and rehearsed practice of dealing with difficulty, learning the skills to manage and overcome those variables, and then deciding to try again. In his words:

“real toughness is experiencing discomfort or distress, leaning in, paying attention, and creating space to take thoughtful action. It’s maintaining a clear head to be able to make the appropriate decision. Toughness is navigating discomfort to make the best decision you can.” - Steve Magness, Do Hard Things

I want to bring in the variable of time from our equation. When we factor in difficult situations, loss, stress, and failure and multiply those by time, our toughness can wane and for some, completely disappear. That’s when it’s time to “Buck up!”

Wayne “Buck” Shelford was a rugby player and captain for the famed New Zealand All Blacks. While their culture alone has inspired many works, perhaps the most infamous tale in their story is that of Buck Shelford’s toughness in their match vs. France in 1986 now known as “The Battle of Nantes.” Shelford in the first half alone lost 3 teeth(or 4 depending on how late you’ve been at the rugby social after the match when the story is told). And he was also the victim of a vicious kick to the groin. While in excruciating pain, he carried on with play for the remainder of the half.

But then, he entered the locker room at half time and has this recount of the moment: "I ripped my gear off, pulled my strides down, and one of the guys from across the room said 'heck, look at that!' One of my testicles had been ripped right out of the scrotum. It was hanging between my legs. These sort of things do happen, you've just got to play on."

Buck Shelford then proceeded to have his injury stitched up and returned to the game for the second half in which he suffered a severe concussion and was finally forced to go off.

Are you on a collision course with failure due to circumstances you can’t control? Has an insurmountable burden finally made a goal unsuccessful? Are you on a pathway that is littered with loss, goals left unmet, and the corpses of the hopes you once had for a project, program, or your life? If so, then adopt this mindset. “These sorts of things happen, you’ve just got to play on.” It’s one thing to “get on the line” and persevere through rough patches. It’s entirely something different to exercise real MENTAL TOUGHNESS when faced with unavoidable failure.

If you find yourself in the middle of or staring down failure that is imminent, accept that it happens, embrace the realization that regardless of how painful it is that you will most definitely learn from it, and then lean into it. “Buck up,” make the decision of what to do next, feel the pain from it, let it make you ready for what’s next, and then get back in the “game.” Failure happens to us all. If you have the abilities to find success again, the self belief in your capabilities to resurrect yourself, and believe that you will find joy again to spark your passion to succeed, then you can “play on.”

If you’d like to develop your leadership with us then email us at [email protected]

If you’d like to hear more from the Tribe Coaches you can follow us on YouTube and subscribe by using this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC44EvGGHCnz6OMAWs92S09w