It has been my experience that dedication, determination, and a razor sharp focus can make up for a lack of natural physical gifts. With the right mindset, an athlete of average talent can compete on the same playing field with someone who has been blessed with all of the physical gifts imaginable but lacks discipline and mental toughness. It is a way for a guy like Tom Brady to develop into arguably the greatest quarterback in NFL history, even if he isn’t the strongest, fastest, or biggest player on the field.
Brady’s story is a familiar one by now. Coming out of the University of Michigan back in 2000, he was viewed by NFL scouts as a solid college quarterback who played hard, made good decisions, and limited his mistakes. But he wasn’t particularly fast, his arm strength was questionable, and if you passed him on the street you probably wouldn’t have any idea that he was a college athlete. As a result, six other quarterbacks were picked ahead of him, including a guy by the name of Giovanni Carmazzi who played college ball for the relatively unknown Hofstra University. Carmazzi was taken in the third round by the San Francisco 49ers, but would end up never playing a single down in the NFL. Still, he was drafted ahead of Brady who waited patiently to hear his name called.
The New England Patriots finally selected Brady in the sixth round with the 199th pick overall. He would have to wait a year before he actually got a chance to play in a meaningful game, taking the field in relief of injured starter Drew Bledsoe in week two of the 2001 season. But once he actually managed to get some playing time, Brady took control of the team and there was no turning back. The rest is history.
There is no denying that Brady is a hell of a quarterback, but he hasn’t been blessed with the same physical gifts of some of his contemporaries. Other QBs are faster, more mobile, and have stronger arms. That hasn’t mattered one bit however, as he has shown time and again that he is practically unflappable on the field, has supreme confidence in his own abilities, and is as mentally tough as anyone who has ever played the game. As a result, he has gone on to win five Super Bowls and was named the MVP in four of those games.
At the other end of that spectrum of Brady is a man like Reinhold Messner. He’s not exactly a household name, but he is definitely a hero of mine. Raised in the Italian Dolomites, Messner is considered by many to be the greatest mountaineer of all time. His list of accomplishments is long and distinguished. But perhaps most impressively, in 1978 he and his climbing partner Pater Habler proved skeptics wrong by summiting Mt. Everest without the use of bottled oxygen. At the time, experts thought that was akin to going to the moon without a spacesuit. Not content with completely changing the accepted paradigms of mountaineering however, Messner would return two years later to do it again, this time completely on his own. That expedition would become the first ever solo summit of Everest, a feat that has yet to be truly matched to this day.
No one questions Messner’s physical gifts. In his prime, he was a mountaineer without equal. But, in addition to having incredible strength and stamina, he was also as mentally tough as they come. He could endure the harshest weather conditions imaginable, sometimes spending days confined to a tent while he waited for conditions to improve. Through it all, he remained focused and determined, which is what often truly set him apart from his peers. His unwavering faith in his own abilities and his willingness to push through his personal boundaries were the traits that enabled him to go to great heights, both literally and figuratively.
The Italian alpinist was a master at setting seemingly-impossible goals and then figuring out ways to make them a reality. Often he would imagine every detail of an expedition ahead of time, planning and plotting his approach, overcoming some of the biggest obstacles long before he ever set foot on a mountain. This mental preparation was an important part of Messner’s process, and a major key to his success. He could visualize every stage of the journey, breaking it down into smaller, more manageable segments, then he would put all the pieces together so that he could successfully reach the summit. The goal was always to climb the mountain, but it was a series of smaller objectives, much more manageable on an individual level, that allowed him to eventually achieve the larger one.
I refer to this as macro- and micro-goal setting and it is an important aspect of pushing beyond our personal boundaries. Throughout this book, we’ll discuss such topics as setting monumental challenges (macro goals) for ourselves, and then finding smaller objectives (micro goals) that can serve as the stepping stones to success. We’ll discuss how to get yourself into the right mindset to take on a challenge and overcome adversity when it inevitably rears its ugly head. We’ll look at the ways that we can learn from both our successes and failures, and we’ll talk about what it takes to eliminate excuses and keep moving forward, no matter what life throws our way.
We’ll also examine the value of constantly learning new things and finding new adventures to pursue, no matter what stage of our lives we are in. As the old saying goes, complacency is the enemy of success, and I believe that there is no better way to stay young than challenging yourself in new and interesting ways. Having objectives to pursue can help keep your mind and body sharp, and when you start to realize all of the things that you can accomplish, you’ll begin to set your sights even higher. Confidence can play a big role in achieving your goals and it can lead to even bigger things down the line when it is mixed with experience.
Perhaps most importantly of all, we’ll even discuss how to identify when you are pushing yourself too hard and how to back off, allowing yourself time to recover and regroup. This can help you to avoid burnout, stay focused, and keep connected with the important people in your life too. After all, what good is achieving the big goals that you set for yourself if you have to give up everything else along the way? We’re here to talk about how to build an adventurous, successful life, not destroy it.
Over the course of the following chapters I’ll share more stories from my own life and career as a Navy SEAL and endurance athlete. I’ll also provide some inspiring—and sometimes harrowing —tales of others who have been able to push beyond their own personal boundaries and literally redefine what we know humans beings are capable of achieving. Those stories will come from a variety of different areas, including adventure sports, mountaineering, exploration, and business. Hopefully these tales will prove equal parts entertaining and educational, serving as examples of the concepts and philosophies that we’ll be discussing.
Whether you’re looking for motivation to set some new goals and then go after them, or you already have some major objectives you’d like to achieve in mind, I hope to provide a blueprint that can help you get to where you want to go. I believe that we can accomplish just about anything that we set our minds to, provided we are in the right mindset, are willing to work hard, and are willing to push ourselves out of our comfort zone from time to time, too.
This book is a template for how to make that happen while getting to know yourself better along the way. Hopefully, by the end, you’ll have the tools you need to reach your goals and to achieve things you might not have even dreamed were possible. These are the tactics that have worked for me and I think they’ll work for you too.
(To be continued...)
This excerpt is taken from “Reaching Beyond Boundaries: A Navy SEAL’s Guide to Achieving Everything You’ve Ever Imagined” by Don Mann and Kraig Becker.
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