Driving at Night

You can’t see your destination when you’re driving at night, all you can see is what’s directly in front of you in the beam of your lights.  If you apply this metaphor to how you approach big projects, you can accomplish much more than you realize.

I heard Jocko Willink tell a story of how many Navy Seals survived Hell Week.  The ones that thought about making it to the end of the week couldn’t last and they quit.  The candidates that had success set their gaze to the next achievable objective: the next meal.  Every few hours they were given a short break for food, if they could just make it to their next meal, then they could get a respite and gain momentum to carry them through to the end.

As I contemplate doing the CrossFit Games Open Workout 16.1, I am going in with the same mindset.  I will only look as far as my headlights can cast their beam. One small achievable objective after another.  Twenty-five feet of lunges takes me eight steps.  That’s not hard.  Eight burpees is not that bad.  Another set of lunges is something I can do.  Eight pull-ups is do-able.  It’s easy to look at the clock and get discouraged but if I just keep my focus on the small set at hand, I’ll get through it.  You will too.  Just imagine you’re driving at night.

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