Breakthrough Belief #3

Breakthrough Belief #3: Success means giving 100%. It’s impossible to fail so long as you give your best.

In twenty-seven years as the head basketball coach at UCLA, my mentor, the greatest coach of all time, John Wooden never said the words “winning” or “losing” to his players. He never said the words!

Did he want to win? Oh yeah!

But, even more than winning, what coach Wooden wanted was for his players, coaches, family, and friends to learn to focus on what they controlled: their effort, attitude, and mindset. He wanted them to own the breakthrough belief that success means giving 100% … that it’s impossible to fail so long as you give your best.

In my events when I have my participants step up to break through one-inch-thick boards, I ask them this question: “Suppose you go BAM and it doesn’t break, BAM and it doesn’t break, BAM and it doesn’t break. Did you succeed or did you fail?”

For a moment, it’s quiet in the room as they ponder that question. And then I tell them the simple but powerful truth. The moment they step forward and go for it, they have succeeded. Whether the board breaks or not, they have gone further in the direction of that breakthrough than ever before. They have put themselves in the game. If they keep at it, they will break through.

The ‘Great One’ from ice hockey, Wayne Gretzky said one of the most brilliant things I’ve ever heard about reaching our potential. He said,

“I’ve missed 100% of the shots I never took!”

Success IS taking the shot. We don’t control results. We control what we put in to move toward those results. When we own this breakthrough belief and live with this definition of success, something magical happens. We no longer fear failure. Why? Because when you focus on your effort, energy, and attitude, you don’t look at setbacks as failures.

Instead, you see them as opportunities to learn, grow, and change. You become a humble breakthrough leader and a life-long learner.

At one of my breakthrough events years ago, I had a young man named Christian teach me the awesome power of focusing on what you control and letting go of what you don’t.

I was the closing speaker at this event put on by my friend, Bob Proctor, one of the great teachers of personal growth. This event was the last session in a year-long program Bob offered called Matrix, and the participants enrolled in this course because they wanted to transform their “big idea”, their dream into reality.

Christian, who would change my life that day, was there with his father. Though they had been in the program ostensibly to learn how to make a start-up business succeed, they were there to transform an even bigger dream into reality.

You see, Christian had been in an accident several years before and was paraplegic. He was confined to a wheelchair with a severed spine. Though his mind was very sharp and his eyes full of energy and spirit, he could neither stand nor walk, and he had little to no control of his arms and hands. But Christian and his father shared the same enormous dream…that he would someday walk again on his own.

I knew none of this as I flew up to Toronto for this event. But on the way there, I thought about past participants in my breakthrough events who had not broken through their boards. There weren’t many who I had held the boards for over those fifteen or so years who had not eventually broken through. As I thought about those who had tried and failed to break their boards, I remembered how all of them had been physically challenged in some way. They had each tried hard but had just not made it through.

Until that moment on that airplane, I had been convinced that their physical limitations had simply been too much.

But as I sat there, I suddenly had a startling new thought, an epiphany. For the first time, it struck me that maybe it wasn’t their physical limitations that had kept them from breaking through. Maybe it was MY belief about them. Maybe it had been my focus on their supposed limits rather than their possibilities. Maybe the limits were of my own creation. Maybe I had not truly believed that success means giving 100% and it’s impossible to fail so long as you give your best. Maybe I had been so focused on the results I wanted them to have that I had stopped focusing on what I controlled, my own effort, attitude, and beliefs. I made up my mind that from that moment forward I would completely own that belief in my participants’ possibilities rather than limits.

If they had the courage to step up and give 100%, I would believe in them 100%!

At the end of my presentation, we dove into the breakthrough experience. Everyone there had broken through except Christian. The cheering was deafening and the energy incredible. I went over to Christian and looked into his eyes. There I saw two magnificent truths… First, I saw clearly that he truly WANTED to breakthrough. Second, I saw in his focus a belief in possibility so strong that it would be impossible for him to fail if he gave his best. That was enough for me!

I went down on one knee in front of him tingling with this new and real belief that it’s impossible to fail so long as you give your best. I would give him my best, without any doubt, fear, or trepidation. I encouraged him to look beyond the board and into my eyes and to simply reach through it.

Everything seemed to unfold in slow motion. He locked his eyes onto mine and never wavered. The cheering literally shook the room. Every heart was with Christian. Every breath was with him. At that moment, no one was thinking about themselves. Everyone poured their absolute love and support into this remarkable young man.

And it happened. A hand that would not open and an arm that would not straighten suddenly came to life and in one unstoppable rush of love overpowering fear, Christian flew through that board!

In seconds everyone there swallowed Christian up in an unbridled forty-person hug as his father fell to the ground weeping in awe, wonder, and joy. The whole team broke that board that day.

I don’t know when Christian will walk again. But I deeply believe he will, because he showed all of us that day that real success is giving 100% without doubt, limitation, or fear, and that it is impossible to fail so long as you give your best.

Bring this breakthrough belief to your business and your possibilities are limitless.

ps. In the seventeen years since Christian’s breakthrough that day, I have never again had a participant in my breakthrough event who I held a board for fail to breakthrough.