Today is August 24 and the Navigate the Chaos question to consider is “When is the last time you wanted to achieve something as much as you wanted to breathe?”
People who navigate the chaos have experienced the need to achieve as much as they wanted to breathe.
Motivational speaker Eric Thomas tells the story of a young man who asked a guru how to be successful.
The guru invited the young man to the beach at 4:00am the next morning. Confused as to the request, the young man followed the guru’s instructions. When the young man arrived at the beach the guru grabbed his hand and walked him out into the ocean so the water was at his knees.
The young man had no idea what the guru was doing. “I don’t want to swim in the ocean,” the young man said, “I just want to be as successful as you.” The guru looked at him and said “You want to be successful? Do you really?” As the water started to rise to the young man’s chest he said “Yes! What does being in the ocean have to be with being successful?”
Just then the guru grabbed the young man’s head and held him under water until the young man was about to pass out. Looking into the young man’s eyes the guru said “when you were under water just now what did you want to do more than anything else?”
“Breathe” the young man responded. “Right, so when you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you'll be successful."
But Thomas believes that most people only say they want to succeed. They really don’t want to put in the effort, the long hours, and the hard work required to succeed. Most people won’t do whatever it takes to succeed. They quit at the first sign of adversity, failure, or obstacle.
When is the last time you wanted to achieve something as much as you wanted to breathe?