{"id":10578,"date":"2014-02-06T11:30:23","date_gmt":"2014-02-06T16:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simpleprogrammer.com\/?p=10578"},"modified":"2018-02-22T09:42:23","modified_gmt":"2018-02-22T14:42:23","slug":"burn-boats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simpleprogrammer.com\/burn-boats\/","title":{"rendered":"Burn The Boats!"},"content":{"rendered":"

We often don’t push as hard as we can forward, because we can always retreat if things don’t work out. Sometimes, you have to through caution to the wind, put your stake in the ground and be willing to burn the boats. In this video I talk about how forcing yourself to move forward by eliminating other options and choice can help you achieve better results.<\/p>\n

[responsive_video]http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hN8E6pdvWBw[\/responsive_video]
\n[blank_space height=’3em’]<\/p>\n

Full transcription<\/p>\n

[spoiler]<\/p>\n

John<\/b>:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hey John Sonmez from simpleprogrammer.com<\/a> and today I want to tell you about something that\u2019s going to help you to get that extra little push that you might need to be able to achieve your goals.\u00a0 Perhaps you\u2019re stuck and you have an idea of what you want to accomplish but you just can\u2019t seem to get there.\u00a0 Today I\u2019m going to give you the answer and hopefully this will help you out so stay tuned and I\u2019ll tell you what it is coming up next.<\/p>\n

All right, so before I give you the answer I want to tell you a little bit of a story that maybe will help you to understand why this strategy I\u2019m going to give you is so important.\u00a0 It goes back to history to Alexander the Great and in fact, many other successful commanders have implemented the same strategy.\u00a0 Cortez used this strategy when he conquered Mexico with 600 men and several other commanders in history have used this strategy but probably the most known version of this story is from Alexander the Great.<\/p>\n

He went to conquer Persia and Persia had the biggest army at the time and also the most powerful navy.\u00a0 He was pretty well outnumbered.\u00a0 When he had his men sail to land to go and fight the battle and they get out of their boats he gave them 3 words as an order.\u00a0 He said, \u201cBurn the boats.\u201d\u00a0 Now this is interesting.\u00a0 When you think about this this is a pretty scary thing to do and it seems ridiculous at first.\u00a0 Why would you burn the boats?\u00a0 What\u2019s going to happen if you lose, if you need to retreat?\u00a0 You need to get back in the boats and save yourself, what\u2019s left of your army.<\/p>\n

Well, in that case nothing was going to happen.\u00a0 They were going to die.\u00a0 There was no choice.\u00a0 This is what he did is basically gave his men 2 choices: You\u2019re going to fight and you\u2019re going to win or you\u2019re going to die.\u00a0 That\u2019s the only way you\u2019re leaving.\u00a0 That\u2019s the only way you\u2019re going home.\u00a0 There is no retreat.<\/p>\n

Now this is a powerful concept if applied correctly in your own life, because sometimes you need to go out there and you need to burn the boats.\u00a0 A lot of times if we have a retreat, if we have something to go back to it stops us from moving forward as hard as we could. \u00a0When we know that it\u2019s fight or die and we can put ourselves in the fight or die situation we fight all the more harder.\u00a0 In fact, in many of those cases in history where a commander ordered to burn the boats what happened was a greatly outnumbered army was able to defeat the bigger army because they had the motivation.\u00a0 Because they knew that the only way that they were going back home was if they won.<\/p>\n

Sometimes you need to apply that same strategy in your own life.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s in your career.\u00a0 Maybe you need to just quit the job that is holding you down and go on and take a new job.\u00a0 You need to burn those boats.\u00a0 Maybe you need to set a date in time and say, \u201cLook, by this time I am going to hit this goal.\u201d\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s weight loss, maybe it\u2019s gaining muscle, maybe it\u2019s a career goal or some kind of financial goal.\u00a0 You need some way to burn those boats.<\/p>\n

I often recommend that if someone is not happy in their job and they want to move to a new job and they haven\u2019t planned for this, then go ahead and write that letter, write a draft of that letter and set that letter to send on a specific date to their boss, a resignation letter that says I\u2019m going to quit or I quit and sorry.\u00a0 Set a date for that in the future, a definite date. That\u2019s burning the boats.\u00a0 Then you don\u2019t have a retreat.\u00a0 You know that that letter\u2019s going out.\u00a0 Heck, put it in the mail and have it future dated for a certain date or have someone hold it for you that you\u2019re going to send that out on that date.\u00a0 This is a powerful strategy if you use this successfully because it\u2019s going to force you to get over that hurdle.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of ways that you can implement this.\u00a0 Now it\u2019s not always the best thing to implement.\u00a0 You don\u2019t always want to burn the boats.\u00a0 There\u2019s a difference between burning the boats and burning the bridges.\u00a0 You don\u2019t necessarily need to burn the bridges.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to burn other people and connections that you\u2019ve made.\u00a0 But, if you can find places where you\u2019re being held back because of fear and you just need that extra little push then you can really implement this strategy to great success.<\/p>\n

Hopefully this has been helpful to you.\u00a0 This is something that I use in my life to give myself the extra push.\u00a0 I\u2019ve done this multiple times where I\u2019ve just set a date on my calendar and said, \u201cBy this date I am going to accomplish X\u201d and I have forced myself to do it because I\u2019ve made an embarrassment or I\u2019ve made some kind of commitment, some way that has caused me to burn the boats that were behind me so I can\u2019t retreat.\u00a0 I have to hit this thing that I set out to do.<\/p>\n

If you liked this video and if you like to see more of these types of videos don\u2019t forget to subscribe to my channel and you can check out my blog at simpleprogrammer.com<\/a> where I have all kinds of technical articles and career advice for software developers and thanks for watching this video and I\u2019ll talk to you again next week.\u00a0 Take care and don\u2019t forget to burn those boats.<\/p>\n

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