How many people do you know who have started something and not followed it through? Quite a few, I would suspect and I am sure you’ve also had your fair share of giving up on things – I know I have.
But what if the great historic adventurers of our time adopted the same philosophy when they undertook the challenges that made them icons of their time? We wouldn’t have conquered Everest, travelled to the North Pole, circumnavigated the earth, flown across the Atlantic.
What makes these people special? What makes them go the extra mile? It’s the mindset they adopted to overcome all the problems that stood in the way of what they set out to achieve.
Ok, so you’re thinking that perhaps you don’t have time to set 2 years aside to sail around the world singlehanded and that’s fine – most of us don’t. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t learn from the mindset of an adventurer to create our own mindset that equips us with the ability to succeed in what we are doing and get what we want in life.
Dave Cornthwaite, an avid adventurer brilliantly describes adventure as:-
“The willingness to commit to an uncertain outcome with an open heart”
Common problems in changing your mindset and how you overcome them.
Not setting goals
How can you possibly know that you have achieved something if you haven’t taken the time to at least establish what you want?
Setting goals means you are actively saying – this is what I really want, what I want to achieve…..and you know what? I am going to do it. It can be something as simple as eating more green vegetables or a bit more complex as retiring within the next 5 years.
What you need to do:
Set goals, really think about what you want to achieve and imagine how that success is going to make you feel. Just as someone on a diet puts an unflattering photo of themselves on a fridge door as a reminder of how they don’t want to look, it’s equally important to envisage how these new changes will enhance your life. Never under-estimate the power of positive thought.
Fear of failure
Society tells us that failure is bad and we need to avoid it at all costs. Sadly failure is a part of success – it’s just not something people talk about as freely as their successes. This means that we end up failing to succeed in case we succeed at failing.
What you need to do:
Get over the failure – it’s going to happen to you, you will survive it (unless you are jumping out of an aircraft without a parachute – don’t do that – it never ends well) and as long as you learn from it, you will be stronger.
Impatience
We are a nation of impatient people – we want everything yesterday, we aren’t prepared to wait for anything – we won’t even wait a few seconds for a web page to open, so what chance do we have of accepting that some things take time.
What you need to do:
You need to understand that some things do take time and that you have to learn to play the long game and hold out for what is important to you.
Under-estimating the power of change
You may well be thinking at this point – that there are no changes that you can make that will make enough of a difference to alter the course of your life. Well guess again – lots of small changes can offer the same results as one big change. It’s your call whether you opt for small is beautiful or big is bold …. or why not pick a combination?
What you need to do:
Get comfortable with change. Start small and work up as you gain confidence and realise how easy it is to make small changes which can lead to bigger more monumental alterations.
Giving up too quickly
This isn’t working, I’m no good at this, there must be an easier way – we all think these things at some point about something we have embarked on. Then we talk ourselves out of whatever we thought was a really good idea, for the simple reason that it seemed like a really good idea at the time.
Then we walk away and give up – oh sorry ‘we turn attention to something else’. We would never take a cake out of the oven after a minute and expect it to taste great – of course not – it hasn’t had the chance to cook properly – be decorated – it’s just not ready to be eaten. So why do we give up on ideas without really giving them a chance?
What you need to do:
Next time you are starting something new – whether it be learning a musical instrument or starting a new job, and you feel that it isn’t for you. Ask yourself what you can change to make it possible so, with an instrument, it could be more practise and for a new job it might be different training. Above all give yourself time.
Achieve Results – Overcome the Obstacles
To achieve the success you deserve, you need to brush up your problem solving skills. I remember my maths teacher at school – she had a pretty tough teaching regime, in that she rarely told you the answer to a mathematical question. If you didn’t understand, she would always say ‘”Look at the line above” or “Everything you need is in the question”.
It wasn’t until I was much older that I realised she wasn’t being deliberately mean, but teaching me the art of problem solving. If she had told me how to answer the maths question, I would be able to answer that particular question. But she taught me so much more than that – I learned the art of problem solving through logical thinking, which I have been able to use throughout life.
To Sum Up
Setting out to do something difficult is hard. Let’s face it, if it was easy, then everyone would be doing it. A strong unshakeable determination is required, combined with a relentless ability to continue in the face of adversity.
The results of this mean that by inspiring yourself to do more, you can evolve and learn, then enjoy the thrill that the adventure will give you. For me, this epitomises the qualities of an adventurer.
inspire. evolve. thrill
with
adventure.experiences.travel
Did you enjoy reading this blog post? Would you like me to write for you? Click here for more details.