The Leaders Mind: #1 Resilience
Get Back Up On Yer Bike
This is the first in a series of posts on the minds of a leader that make them who they are.
I heard an inspiring interview on the radio last week.
On September 2, 2013, at the age of sixty-four, Diana Nyad emerged onto the sands of Key West after swimming 111 miles, nation to nation, Cuba to Florida, in an epic feat of both endurance and human will, in fifty-three hours. Diana carried three poignant messages on her way across this stretch of shark-infested waters, and she spoke them to the crowd in her moment of final triumph:
1. Never, ever give up.
2. You’re never too old to chase your dreams.
3. It looks like a solitary sport, but it’s a Team.
Her book Find a Way is next on my list to purchase (after I read the ones I have!)
At the end of her magnificent journey, after thirty-five years and four crushing failures, the public found hope in Diana’s perseverance. They were inspired by her mantra—find a way—that led her to realize a dream in her sixties that had eluded her as a young champion in peak form.
What resonated with me most of Diana’s three points above was:
Never, ever give up.
With many of the Power of Seven groups we have people trying to change habits of a lifetime, embarrassed by a pattern of repeating core issues, or chasing hairy audacious goals. In each case the motto I encourage is to: Get back up on yer bike.
Getting back up on your bike is by no means easy. However it is a critical part of the mind I see in great leaders I know (and have read about). If we know that this is something we always do on things we truly believe in, then when something goes wrong, we fail, the new habit fades away, etc, we know we always start again (get back up on that bike). Each time we fall off the bike and start again we learn something new (Learners Mind). Knowing that we always start again informs us that we’ve decided to stick with this no matter what, which interestingly in my experience means I fall off less often!
Getting back up on yer bike is part of the Power of Seven culture. Once you’ve sincerely decided to change something or achieve a specific goal you are encouraged by the group to learn from your mistakes then ‘get back up on that bike’ whenever you fall off. The group don’t care how long it takes, even if it’s a lifetime.
Note: falling off, learning, getting back up may involve changing strategies, asking for help, developing new competencies, revisiting the goal, changing the goal, etc. All great leaders minds are accompanied by wisdom.
Would really love to hear of any personal stories of how ‘getting back up on yer bike’ worked for you?