Mindset Makes All The Difference
One of my passions is mentorship and coaching, focusing on creating high performance cultures. There are so many books and podcasts in this arena and recently I’ve been reading A Race Too Far by Chris Eakin. This book has really resonated with me on two levels. Firstly my dad was a professional sailor in the Merchant Navy. Some of my earliest memories are of him telling stories about being out at sea and the conditions they had to endure. Secondly, at its heart, this is a book about resilience, something I think comes in many forms and is ever evolving, so I am always keen to learn more.
The book itself is about the first people who attempted to go around the world solo in yachts. And it’s totally blown me away. The participants came from varying backgrounds, from professional sailors to local town councillors and they weren’t well prepared - far from it. They were driven by National Pride and ambition; being first was what mattered.
Ambition was truly their driving force. They endured huge storms in the Southern sea, many capsized and had severe damage. The eventual winner (I won't ruin it by saying who) lost their ability to navigate, capsized, had structural damage and had a health scare yet he stayed with the ambition - to sail around the world solo in a yacht! His mindset was exceptional; each major hurdle was simply a problem to solve, a chance to do something that had never been done before.
The other thing that struck me about this book was the only thing that made the contestants falter or quit was when their mindset shifted; when they started to believe it was no longer possible.
The difference between success and failure was quite literally ambition and the mindset to achieve it. It made me think about the ability to step outside the momentary situation and examine it in the context of your ambition. Then to welcome the challenge as part of achieving that ambition is a fantastic gift we should all practice more. Even if we don’t all sail around the World solo in a yacht.