Navy SEAL's 40 Percent Rule for Success

Whenever there’s hardships to overcome, a lot of people most likely tend to give up than persevere. Depending on the factors affecting your decision, it is always hard to understand the situation and then try to push thru and go on.

Have you asked yourself that whenever you find yourself on a bad situation what should you do? Do you push everything to its limit or you just find it convenient to give up?

I have found a rather great article about that, The Art of Giving Up.

According to that article, the world is obsessed with stories of success, and yes, it is. There is a well-known concept in the management literature called "the survivor bias," which refers to the erroneous conclusions that researchers draw from focusing excessively on successful organizations and people. Pick up any magazine, and you will see the survivor bias in action: the stories are almost always about the successful; very few stories focus on the failures. You might wonder why someone should focus on failures instead.

At one level, the focus on the successful is understandable; after all, we all want to be successful, and so, focusing on those who have already "been there and done that" would seem appropriate.

However, there is a flip side. An obsession with success can have negative side effects on what arguably matters even more in life: being happy. Thus, anyone cannot find happiness, you just keep on pursuing it.

  

Kids today face tremendous pressure to persevere to succeed, but is such success worth it?

One of the key drivers of success is perseverance and a "never say die" attitude. Not everyone are equipped with this kind of attitude. This is epitomized in a variety of sayings, such as according to a quote by the South African Golfer Gary Player, "the harder you work, the luckier you get," and "Never, never, never, give up" which is made famous by Winston Churchill. The focus on hard work and achieving success appears to have reached a feverish pitch in recent years: Even kids in kindergarten are reminded of the importance of perseverance. You can personally check that out thru your children, if you got any. Children today are so overworked that they don't get the requisite amount of sleep, not to mention not having enough physical playtime, thanks to all those gadgets. All this hard work and focus on goals has probably enhanced our productivity, but what is not as well-known is the cost at which such success is earned.

There is one saying attributed to Albert Einstein, it goes: "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

Now, let’s come to our senses and talk about failures…

There is a guy named Jesse Itzler.

He tells the story of a Navy SEAL whom he cold-called and invited to live with him and his family for month.

We might have different reactions and views about this.

Itzler says he first met this unnamed Navy SEAL at a race. The SEAL was quite a large man and he ended up breaking all the little bones in his feet, but still finishing.

Well, the race was 100 miles long.

Itzler thought the SEAL could teach him a thing or two. About, perhaps, pain and insanity. So he asked the SEAL to live at his house for a while.

The minute he arrived, of course the SEAL decided to test Itzler. That's just the way SEALs are.

The first test involved pull-ups.

Itzler failed constantly. He managed six, then fewer, then fewer still. It’s harder than anyone could thought.

The SEAL, being a kind spirit, forced him to do 100. It took a long time, but he did it.

"It showed me that there's so much more that we're capable of than we think we are," says Itzler.

He says the SEAL told him: "When your mind is telling you you're done, you're really only 40 percent done."

You should have realized by now that everything you thought you could do but then surrender in the middle, your mind is winning the battle over you. You must keep on pushing then, because you’re only 40 percent done.

The thought, uplifting, yet frightening at the same time.

Itzler says that the SEAL's motto was: "If it doesn't suck, we don't do it."

That shows deep determination.

For the SEAL, though, it's about realizing where your comfort level is and completely ignoring it.

Sometimes, though, it truly is hard to know whether something is worth doing. You just have to figure that out yourself.

One of the elements of giving up involves suddenly knowing that the thing you're pursuing isn't as valuable or exciting as you thought.

Or is that the highly intelligent way that we fool ourselves into giving up?

Most of us sacrifice our present-day enjoyment for the sake of a future that may never really arrive. Researchers interviewed people in the winter years of their life, and asked them what they would change about their past if they could re-live their lives. Findings from one study revealed that people consistently wished that they had been a little less work-oriented, that is, a little less focused on being successful, and a little more pleasure-orientated, that is, a little more focused on enjoying life.

The million-dollar question, of course, is: how does one decide when to give up a particular goal? This is not an easy question to answer, which is why deciding which goals to give up, and when, is an art rather than a science. Perhaps no single answer is appropriate for everyone. However, if you feel that you are highly stressed (e.g., if you need sleeping pills to fall asleep), and if you feel that your stress is mainly due to your obsession with goal-attainment (as opposed to, say, failing health or poor relationships), you could take it as a sign that you are too goal-directed for your own good.

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment -Buddha.

Cheerio!