In our last +1, we checked in on how bad you want it and talked about some of your favorite coping strategies to Optimize your relationship to your perception of effort so you can come closer to actualizing your potential and truly giving us all you’ve got before you give up. (That’s an Optimizing mouthful! 🤓)
Today we’re going to talk about a metaphor Matt Fitzgerald uses in his great book to bring the point home.
He tells us to think about a Fire Walk.
Picture this.
- – You.
- – Hot coals. Hot coals. Hot coals.
- – And a wall at the other end of those hot coals.
The wall equals your absolute potential.
The hot coals represent the pain you will feel (and need to endure) as you approach that upper limit of your potential.
(In sports, which is the context in which Matt shares the metaphor, the pain is physical. If I’m running an Olympic marathon or climbing a mountain in the Tour de France, I’m going to experience a LOT of pain. I’m going to need to walk over a lot of hot coals if I want to see what I’m capable of.)
(Of course, in life, the same holds true. The pain may not be physical, but it’s real. That fear you feel when you try to figure out how to be a great spouse/parent/friend/etc AND a great social entrepreneur AND an energized athlete? Ouch. Enter: Pain. We’re going to need to get really good at walking over a lot of (metaphorical) hot coals if we want to see what we’re capable of.)
The question is: How close can we get to that wall of our potential?
Which brings us back to the title of the book that haunts me every time I look at the cover:
How Bad Do You Want It?
Today’s +1.
Two questions:
1. What do you want?
2. How bad do you want it?
(One proxy to answer the second question: How committed are you to Optimizing? Are you actually APPLYING these and other truths you study?)
See you on the coals! 👨🚒
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