If you want to change the world get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward
It's graduation season and all the commencement speakers are sharing their pearls of wisdom with the recently minted scholars who are ready to go out and change the world. Some of them will be successful, and many will fail.
The other day I came across this commencement speech by Naval Admiral William H. McRaven, a former Navy Seal, who spoke at his alma mater, UT-Austin recently, entitled:
Please read this article and then the commentary to follow will make far more sense. What does it really mean to go and "change the world"? I'm going to be 54 this August and I've been thinking long and hard about what this means. I'm coming to the conclusion that I've been thinking about this all wrong. It's not the world that needs changing, but rather me. Anyone who has read anything I've written, knows that I have come to define success differently than many people. Successful people do many things, but the following two stand out:
1. They finish what they start 2. They embrace the concept of sustainability. The other important point is that successful people apply this to everything they do regardless of how important it may seem. It's so easy to think that success only gets applied to big, important goals and achievements. Not so. Success comes from paying attention to the little things.
"By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter."
This speech uses an extreme example of physical, mental, and emotional abuse to illustrate his points with the Navy Seal training. However, the morals are absolutely transferable to each one of us. I sincerely doubt that I could withstand and pass these extreme training exercises and tests to become a Navy Seal. That's a choice we can make: do I want to apply to Navy Seal training camp? No, thank you I don't. However, we don't get the choice as to whether we want to apply for Life Training Camp.
Whether we like it or not, we all end up swimming with the sharks during 'hell week'.
"You can’t change the world alone—you will need some help— and to truly get from your starting point to your destination takes friends, colleagues, the good will of strangers and a strong coxswain to guide them."What I take away from Admiral McRaven's speech is that the guys who quit the Navy Seal training camp are the one's who never figure out why they are there and what it's true purpose is. It's not to be first or to beat the other guys, or the system, or do something - anything perfect because it's very design makes this impossible. It's purpose is to break one's spirit and get them to quit. This, like life, has a similar purpose and that is to discover who you are and what exactly you are made of. Are you tough enough to persevere? The purpose is not to win, but rather to finish. You'll be surprised, like the Seals, how many people simply quit. Sometimes just by not quitting you find out that you are the winner.
"Those students didn’t understand the purpose of the drill. You were never going to succeed. You were never going to have a perfect uniform.
Remember the old phrase you would sometimes hear from older people, "life is a circus"? Growing up in a large family with 6 siblings, this was so true! However the Seals have a different take on this idea. It's more like the, 'what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger' saying. The point is that perseverance through continuous adversity does indeed build character, strength and endurance even though you may feel like you are simply being punished.
"But an interesting thing happened to those who were constantly on the list. Over time those students-—who did two hours of extra calisthenics—got stronger and stronger.The pain of the circuses built inner strength-built physical resiliency. Life is filled with circuses. You will fail. You will likely fail often. It will be painful. It will be discouraging. At times it will test you to your very core."
My favorite though is #5 'If you want to change the world get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward'. This one, combined with #10 is the real secret to success in anything you do. At times, life is going to be unfair, cruel, unkind, ugly, brutal, unforgiving and just flat out mean. It will also be beautiful, exciting, exhilarating, fun, fabulous, and downright awesome. You can't have flowers without rain; good times without bad; happiness without sadness; pleasure without some pain. It's all the 'circus training' that prepares us for the long haul.
"Sometimes no matter how well you prepare or how well you perform you still end up as a sugar cookie."
The only real question to ask yourself is, are you going to ring the bell or are you going to be the sugar cookie?
"All you have to do to quit—is ring the bell. Ring the bell and you no longer have to wake up at 5 o’clock. Ring the bell and you no longer have to do the freezing cold swims.
Ring the bell and you no longer have to do the runs, the obstacle course, the PT—and you no longer have to endure the hardships of training.
Just ring the bell."
#10. If you want to change the world don’t ever, ever ring the bell.
Note: All quotes are from, Naval Admiral William H. McRaven, 10 Life Lessons From A Navy Seal, speech delivered at UT-Austin 2014 commencement
