‘Not today, not now. But tomorrow, you can quit. And then when the sun rises tomorrow, you can quit the following day. Take this mentality into anything that you do.’ This was the message that Rob O’Neil gave us at an incredible skeet shooting fundraiser held at the Nashville Gun Club benefit Special Operations Charities.
I had the pleasure of meeting Rob, along with Charlie Sheen and Travis Pastrana (yea, you read that correctly) at Tim Montana’s house for dinner the night before the charity shoot, as Tim is the host of the shoot and the engine behind it. Tim is a seriously fantastic musician, and you should all check him out! Charlie Sheen directed this music video here. It was a surreal experience surrounding by some of the most badass guys in their respective fields. It was a little bit mind-boggling. Thanks to my buddy Baker Leavitt for inviting me!
Rob O’Neil is a Navy SEAL who was involved in many missions, including the mission to save Captain Richard Phillips during the Maersk Alabama hijacking, and Operation Red Wings in which he helped save Marcus Luttrell, and the mission Operation Neptune Spear to kill Osama Bin Laden. In 2012, he left the Navy after serving for over 16 years.
Just take one more step, and then another.
As Rob continued, he also talked about celebrating the small wins. During the darkest times of his BUD/S training, he said he ‘just had to focus on what’s in front of me and get through that. Just make it out of bed. Then make it to lunch. And then to dinner. And then make it to bed. Do what I needed to do before bed to make sure that I was ready for the following morning.’ And then repeat the cycle over and over until it’s over.
There is no reason we can’t use this as a process in our own lives. When things are hard, we have to break it down, step-by-step, and keep moving. We can all take “one more step.” You may not be able to run a full marathon right now, but you can always take one more step.
In fact, that’s all it takes to live the life of your dreams. That first step. It only takes one day to get on the right track, to change your habits, to get moving, get a run in, get sweaty, and get those endorphins flowing through your brain. And then you decide you’re going to do it the next day because when you wake up, you know you can’t quit today. And then you do it for 10 days, and then a month. Then you’ve lost weight, you start feeling better, looking better, eating healthier. And it compounds on iteself EVERY SINGLE STEP OF THE WAY. Every day you wake up, think to yourself, I can quit this tomorrow, but not today! GO GET SOME!
GO, DO & GROW!