Challenges Are Best Head First

Life Changing Challenges Are the Best

At least twice a week, the Navy SEAL trainees were required to run the obstacle course.  The obstacle course contained 25 obstacles including a 10-foot high wall, a 30-foot cargo net, and a barbed wire crawl to name a few,

says Naval Adm. William H. McRaven, ninth commander of U.S. Special Operations Command.

But the most challenging obstacle was the slide for life. It had a three level 30 foot tower at one end and a one level tower at the other.  In between was a 200-foot long rope. You had to climb the three tiered tower and once at the top, you grabbed the rope, swung underneath the rope and pulled yourself hand over hand until you got to the other end.

Challenges Seem Unbeatable Until One Day...

The record for the obstacle course had stood for years when my class began training in 1977. The record seemed unbeatable, until one day, a student decided to go down the slide for life—head first. Instead of swinging his body underneath the rope and inching his way down, he bravely mounted the TOP of the rope and thrust himself forward. It was a dangerous move—seemingly foolish, and fraught with risk.  Failure could mean injury and being dropped from the training.

Breaking Records Perilously Fast

Without hesitation—the student slid down the rope—perilously fast, instead of several minutes, it only took him half that time and by the end of the course he had broken the record.

If you want to change the world sometimes you have to slide down the obstacle head first

Do Like Buffalo's and Face Challenges Head On

It’s also true of buffalo. When a storm hits, instead of turning tail and running away, they face the storm because they know it is faster and less harmful to face the storm than run away from it. Every time we run away from something we are living in fear and fear holds us back from living a successful, joy-filled life. So the best thing in business as well as in our personal lives is to turn around and face the obstacle head on. Face up to the challenges and break records.

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