Long ago, a warrior was about to set his armies against a powerful foe whose men outnumbered his own. He sailed into the enemy's country, unloaded the soldiers and equipment and gave the order to burn the ships that had carried them. Addressing his men, he said, "Do you see the boats going up in smoke? That means we cannot leave these shores alive unless we win. We now have no choice. We win, or we perish."
They won.
In Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill uses that story to illustrate his point that every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn their boats behind them and cut off all avenues of retreat. Only by doing so can one be sure of maintaining "a burning desire to win." That state of mind is essential to success.
Are you willing to burn your boats behind you?
Have you done that?
There was a point in my life when I thought I had, but when I took an honest look, I realized that I was still playing it safe. And I was still losing, still struggling.
There seems to be an automatic defense mechanism in people that as soon as they start thinking about how they can actually break free from where they are and live in abundance and success, every reason in the world why they can't comes to the surface.
As long as they believe in their reasons, they will stay where they are. They will play it safe. And they will miss the answer that is right in front of them. They just won't recognize it.
They will be like Henry Ford's engineers, who insisted for a year that the V8 engine Ford envisioned, with eight cylinders cast in one block, was impossible.
Ford told them to design it anyway and to stay on the job until they had succeeded. At the end of a year, they still said it was impossible, but Ford continued to insist that he wanted it and he was going to have it. Finally, as if by a stroke of magic, the secret was discovered.
Why did it take so long? As the engineers worked, they came up with all of the reasons why they couldn't produce the engine. They had to exhaust each of those reasons first in order for them finally to tap into the way for it to be done.
And Ford had to stay true to his vision and not give up, no matter how long it took.
Don't miss the law of the universe reflected in that story: It doesn't matter what it is that you want, the way to have it is already here. The solution was right there for the engineers; it just took them a year to see it.
What solution is right here for you now? Can you let yourself move toward it?
If you can't imagine staking everything you have on winning, can you practice with something smaller? Think of it as an experiment to see if this approach works for you. Is there something you want that requires a stretch but that doesn't threaten your existence? Try burning the boat that would help you retreat from that thing you want.
Now, see what happens.
Copyright 2011 - David Neagle. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long as you leave all of the links active, do not edit the article in any way, and include the following byline:
David Neagle, The Million Dollar Income Acceleration Coach, mentors entrepreneurs in over 7 countries how to quantum leap their current businesses past the 7-Figure income level in just 12 months. Would you like to get started achieving your goals in life?
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