Burn Your Ships

Back during Greco-Roman times, a famous leader was landing a fleet of warships with thousands of men to seize land from the enemy. To ensure that his soldiers would not retreat, he commanded that the ships be burned, to that there was no turning back.

How often do you burn your own ships — cut off any avenues of retreat for your goal? Do you think that the army fought more valiantly when they knew that there was no escape? When you remove all options but one, when you limit your choices, there is a much higher chance that you will take the path that you need to so that you can get your desired results.

How many of us give ourselves an “out?” A fallback plan or a Plan B which we will gladly take if Plan A fails.

But what if Plan A wasn’t failing at all? What if Plan A just needed more time to work (the reality of life is that no matter how hard you push anything, everything takes longer than you expect).

If you “burn your ships,” make sure that you have no way out, but in the direction that you want to go in, then you are much more likely to succeed. Give yourself an out, and you are more liable to take it, instead of powering through.

This is intimately tied to structuring your life or work to get the result you want — if you are looking to lose weight, eliminate all bad food from your home and your life. If…