In the year 1519, Hernán Cortés and his conquistadors landed in Mexico. He arrived in the New World with roughly six hundred men and, upon arrival, made history by destroying his ships. This sent a clear message to his men: There is no turning back.

In less than two years later, he had defeated the Aztec Empire. To read more, click here. It’s an UNBELIEVABLE story.

This is a metaphor for how I like to set goals and live my life. When you decide on your goals, you need to burn your ships. If you want to change your diet, throw away all the junk food in your house. If you decide that you’re gonna wake up at 6 AM every morning, put an alarm clock in your bathroom, so you have to get up.

January was a Failure

January, by all accounts, was a failure for me. It all started with having COVID at the beginning of the month. After getting over it around the seventh or eighth, I couldn’t get going. Several weeks after having it, I was still extremely exhausted and found it hard to get motivated.

I’ve been doing 75 hard since the day after Christmas. This is effectively two workouts a day, 45 minutes each (one outside), drink 1 gallon of water a day, read 10 pages of nonfiction today, and a few other things. Well, I maintained for most of the days, but I definitely missed my fair share.

Now some of you may think, well, “he had coronavirus, so why don’t you give yourself a break.” But I’m afraid I have to disagree with that sentiment. You can never begin to negotiate on your goals. Luckily my case was incredibly mild, mainly just a headache and exhaustion. I could’ve made it happened, I just didn’t some days. But I haven’t quit. I am still staying after it and pushing myself to be the best I can. Things are never going to go as planned, so when you fail, get back up, and get after it again!

Don’t Negotiate Your Goals.

Negotiating with yourself is a very, very slippery slope. Once you begin with one thing, it slowly leaks over into every aspect of your life. Having the discipline to focus on what’s important, make goals for those things and stick to them is what I’ve found to be the best recipe for success.

Once you burn your ships, the powers that you find to achieve your goals become endless. Your focus and determination will grow every single day because, after all, they’re just like muscles. The more that you use the determination, the more determined you become. The more success you see, the more success comes your way.

Set your goals, burn your ships, and crush your goals.

Get after it!

-J