Burn The Ships
There is no turning back
In the year 1519, Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes and around 600 men arrived on the coast of a mysterious new land in search of gold. At the time it was known as the “New World." Today it is known as Mexico.
Knowing his men were exhausted and didn’t want to fight for the treasure, he made an unexpected move as the boats came to shore. As the men stood ready to fight, Cortes burned the ships.
To motivate his men he burned their ships. There now was no turning back. Either they were going to take the treasure and return in the Aztec’s ships or they were going to die. Two years later, Cortes and his men took not only the treasure, they took the entire Aztec empire.
There are a lot of lessons from this story and the phrase burn the ships.
Think of all the moments in life where we need to burn the ships of our past. To make it impossible to turn back. To not take the backup option or option B. Or instead of saying I should do this or that, you actually do it.
As we make changes in our personal lives or professionally, we like to leave the safety net up. We leave open the possibility of going backwards, losing ground or failing.
What if there were no other options? What if there isn’t a plan B? Did Cortes’s men have a plan B?
It’s about committing to a process, striving for success by removing the alternatives. It could be;
Starting a business
Hiring or firing an employee
Making a big change at your business
Expanding your business to a new territory
Releasing a new product or service
Cutting off the old way of doing things
Losing weight
Running a marathon
Writing a book
Getting out of debt
Quitting an addiction or bad habit
All of our personal and professional situations are different. What is it that you want to conquer? What have you been putting off and saying I should do that or someday I will get to that?
“If you want to take the island, then burn your boats.” -Tony Robbins
There should only be one direction, one way forward, one way to overcome and one way to conquer and win. It’s the point of no return. The line has been crossed to never go back.
If you want to make real change, you have to go from saying I should, to I must. Shoulds become musts. When it’s a must, we find a way.
Forget about past successes and failures. Forget the old or traditional way. Forget playing it safe.
Eliminate all options so you only have one path forward. It’s impossible to turn back. If there is no turning back, no other options, we find a way to overcome. We find a way to conquer and win.
It’s a new day.
No turning back.
Cut the ties.
Leave the past.
Burn the ships.
The Coffee Table ☕
- wrote a great piece called The Creators. This is the best piece I have read of Jared’s. It falls in line so well with what we deal with in society and online today. I mean who doesn’t agree with this line, “People spend way too much time thinking about politics.” A very on point and entertaining read.
Morgan Housel just wrote another post which is pure gold. Intelligent vs. Smart There is so much good and many thoughts that come from this post that you just have to read it. I’ve read it four times now and each time I get something else from it.
A few months back my neck started to hurt. I couldn’t figure out what the cause was. It turns out my pillow was worn out. I read reviews all about different pillows. I even tried a few but returned them. I ended up settling on the Saatva Latex Pillow. It has never smelled like most pillows do and it’s made with organic cotton. It’s amazing what a new high quality pillow does for your sleep. So far, so good.
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