Q: Why are you reading this article?
Do you want to be the best at your sport? Win a championship? Do you want to be a better teammate? Gain more confidence?
Great! For whatever the reason and whatever you want to achieve, success starts with your mindset. You need to approach whatever you’re doing with trust. You need to trust your intuition and trust the process of becoming a better, more passionate person. When you push yourself outside your comfort zone you will undoubtably feel goofy at times. You will feel uncomfortable. You will feel afraid.
These unsettling emotions are good! They are signs that you’re doing something right. Don’t hide from these feelings; run towards them; that’s where the growth is! Every coach is looking to recruit the athlete that approaches discomfort with confidence and trust. The price of greatness is getting comfortable standing out in a world full of people who are happy to exist. These people have settled for mediocrity and become very uncomfortable when those around them choose to be great. They will try to make you feel small. They will whine, gossip, and complain about you. Don’t listen to these critics! Marcus Aurelius is his “Meditations”, tells us that, “the approval of such men, who do not even stand well in their own eyes, should have no value to you”. He is right! How whacky is it that we worry about the opinions of others who don’t even have high opinions of themselves. weird!
So be the confident kind of person who does the right thing when it is unpopular, don’t be afraid to make mistakes, don’t be afraid to speak up, don’t worry about looking foolish infront of friends or strangers! I don’t care how good you are at lacrosse. if you aren’t confident, you’re not going to be good at whatever you care about achieving. And acting “too cool for school” is toxic if you plan to be confident and passionate in your life.
We all look to our friends for validation, and it’s rarely helpful. Alden Mills, in his book Unstoppable Teams shares, that if you want to get through Navy SEAL training, you need to banish this approval seeking behavior from your minds.
He highlights the importance of this concept by describing the Navy SEAL area designated for quitters called ‘X-Division’. This is the unit where they send prospective SEALs who have quit They are not allowed to communicate with the SEALs that are still in training, who are chasing their dream. Mediocrity is not tolerated. Just like people in our lives who are trying to hold us back, and give in to our lesser selves, we must banish any toxic thoughts from our minds. Notice them when they whisper to you and banish them to x-division of your mind. One bad apple can spoil the bunch. We must cut off toxic people and toxic thoughts from our lives; immediately, before they have a chance to form a mob of negativity that will ruin any chances of allowing you to become your best self. Navy SEALS call this x division. Start cutting whiny, “cool” people out of your life today, starting with your worst enemy, that “cool”, whiny voice in your head!
#trust #passion #x-division #unstoppableteams
