#1739 An Exciting Thought Experiment

In our last few +1s (here and here), we’ve been having fun tossing Plan B overboard and going ALL IN on creating a life of our dreams.

Today we’re going to spend another moment with Matt Higgins and mine another wisdom-gem from his great book, Burn the Boats.

Let’s get straight to work.

Matt tells us: “Every time I achieve something new, I immediately look for something to build on that success—often in ways that weren’t necessarily obvious beforehand. Once I started investing in companies, suddenly I had the kind of experience that could land me on Shark Tank. Once I had the Shark Tank seal of approval, I could teach at HBS. Once I taught at HBS, I could write a book. What can you do today that you couldn’t do yesterday that moves you closer to what you want to do tomorrow? If you’ve still got a pulse, then there’s always something else you should want to do tomorrow. And every new thing you achieve in life puts you in a better position to secure whatever the next milestone is.”

He continues by saying: “An exciting and freeing thought experiment: If you ignored the limits, and assumed you could do anything, what is it you would do with your life?”

That’s from Chapter #7: “Consolidate Your Gains”—which is the first chapter in Part III of the book.

Part I = Get in the Water.
Part II = No Turning Back.
Part III = Build More Boats.

As I read that, I thought of Arnold Schwarzenegger for a couple of reasons.

First, Arnold wrote a blurb for this book and has some VERY strong thoughts on Plan B.

We’ll talk about his thoughts on Plan B in our next +1.

Spoiler alert: Arnold HATES Plan B.

And…

In his GREAT (!) book Be Useful, Arnold echoes this wisdom when he tells us: “There’s a story about Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to summit Mount Everest. When he came back down to base camp, he was met by reporters who asked him what the view was like at the top of the world. He said it was incredible, because while he was up there he saw another mountain in the Himalayan range that he hadn’t climbed yet, and he was already thinking about the route he would take to summit that peak next. When you reach the mountaintop, it gives you a brand new perspective on the rest of the world, on the rest of your life. You see new challenges that were out of sight before, and you see old challenges in new ways. With this huge victory now under your belt, they all become conquerable.”

Imagine that for a moment.

You summit Everest.

You look around.

And what you MOST enjoy about the view is the NEXT PEAK you can joyfully summit.

Now…

Back to Matt for Today’s +1 reflection.

It’s time for “An exciting and freeing thought experiment: If you ignored the limits, and assumed you could do anything, what is it you would do with your life?”

Well, what will it be, Hero?

Seriously.

Pause.

Flip the switch.

Invite the best, most Heroic version of yourself to join us for a little thought experiment.

Take a deep breath. Chest up. Chin down. Calm. Confident.

Now…

Think about ONE thing you are MOST proud of in your life.

Something that required you to dream big, push through some huge obstacles, and challenge yourself to REALLY show up.

Got it?

Feast on that Hero Bar.

Now…

KNOW that if you can do THAT, you can do EVEN MORE incredible things.

Now…

Let’s go back to our thought exercise…

I repeat…

“If you ignored the limits, and assumed you could do anything, what is it you would do with your life?”

Got it?

Now go get it.

Here’s to going ALL IN as we activate our Heroic potential and give the world all we’ve got.

Moving from Theory to Practice to Mastery.

Together.

TODAY.