Reflex to Action
Cultivating mastery through action, willpower, and failure
“Think of it this way: There are two kinds of failure. The first comes from never trying out your ideas because you are afraid, or because you are waiting for the perfect time. This kind of failure you can never learn from, and such timidity will destroy you. The second kind comes from a bold and venturesome spirit. If you fail in this way, the hit that you take to your reputation is greatly outweighed by what you learn. Repeated failure will toughen your spirit and show you with absolute clarity how things must be done.”
-Robert Greene
David Goggins' childhood was marked by poverty, severe physical and verbal abuse from his father, and academic struggles, leading to a diagnosis of learning disabilities. As the only Black child in a predominantly white neighborhood, he endured racial slurs and witnessed hostility from the KKK. He was left to grow up in isolation, without support, guidance or any helping hand. By his mid-20s, Goggins faced a harsh reality: he was nearly illiterate, weighed 300 pounds, and had suffered extensive abuse. His circumstances seemed insurmountable, offering little hope for a brighter future.
So how did this man become an accomplished Navy SEAL, a legendary ultramarathoner, a world-record holder for pull-ups, author of two New York Times best-sellers, and the so-called “toughest man alive?” His learning disabilities, sickle-cell anemia, and childhood trauma certainly didn’t help. This is a man with no extraordinary gift, his whole life being battle after battle against formidable odds. So what made this transformation possible? Action.
At 24, Goggins metaphorically shed his old identity to forge a new path. One where he would take full accountability for his life and become the person he wanted to become. No special programs, no diets, no coaches, no one even in his life to encourage him. Each day brought internal battles against voices of self doubt. Voices saying he is pathetic, he is a loser, worthless, dumb, overweight, and mocked him in his lofty goals that he surely couldn’t accomplish. Yet each day he chose to persevere, eventually becoming the man he is today.
Goggins' story exemplifies the power of action — the sheer force of facing challenges head-on, embracing hardships, and learning relentlessly. His name has now become synonymous with undaunted action, representing the courage to persist when all odds, including one's own inner doubts, urge surrender.
Building Mastery Through Practice
“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”
-Thomas Edison
Mozart dedicated thousands of hours to composing symphonies. Federer spent years on the tennis court, hitting millions of balls with focus and discipline. Elon Musk invested years of relentless work into his numerous ventures. Einstein devoted innumerable hours struggling with his theories. What is the common thread amongst these extraordinary people? It's not merely innate brilliance; it's the product of relentless practice, repeated effort, and learning from a multitude of failures. Each of these luminaries exemplifies the principle that mastery in any field is not an instant occurrence, but a gradual process, forged through persistent hard work and the willingness to learn from every setback.
Achieving mastery in any field is never a product of sheer natural genius alone. Rather, it involves a deep commitment to honing specific skills and interests, engaging in practice with an almost religious fervor. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, famously posited that 10,000 hours of practice is the threshold for attaining such mastery. This is not merely about ideation but actual, hands-on practice and struggle. The journey to mastery lacks shortcuts, a sentiment echoed by Robert Greene in Mastery:
“The very desire to find shortcuts makes you eminently unsuited for any kind of mastery.”
It is through the arduous process of work, navigating difficulties, and overcoming hardships that our best selves are sculpted. This relentless pursuit of excellence should be our aspiration.
The idea is perfectly articulated in a short anecdote about Picasso:
A woman who approached Picasso in a restaurant asked him to scribble something on a napkin, and said she would be happy to pay whatever he felt it was worth. Picasso complied and then said, “That will be $10,000.”
“But you did that in thirty seconds,” the astonished woman replied.
“No,” Picasso said. “It has taken me forty years to do that.”
The public can merely hope to glimpse the surface of the iceberg, oblivious to the tremendous foundations lying hidden below. As Prince said, “sometimes it takes years to become an overnight success.”
Learn from Failure
“The only true success is failure.”
-Torah Tech Motto
So what makes practice so challenging? If it’s the key to my success shouldn’t these things come easy? Why is it hard to motivate myself to sit down and write this very post when it’s exactly what I want to do?
Action necessitates failure. We are all scared of failure. We convince ourselves that we’d rather stay in comfort, forgoing our deeper desires and taking ownership of our own life. We excuse ourselves saying we’re just waiting to find the ‘perfect’ conditions - the perfect diet, the perfect person, the perfect exercise routine, or simply the perfect time. Yet, this is merely a guise for delaying potential failure, postponing the actions we can take today to an indefinite tomorrow.
Voltaire provides beautiful inspiration with his saying: “don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” By embracing action immediately, we can begin to fail today. And therein lies the beauty. Learning to appreciate our failures is what fosters true mastery and sets us on our journey.
Failure exposes the imperfections, giving them nowhere to hide. Fail, learn, iterate. It’s a simple strategy towards improvement. Making minor improvements, day after day, if only just 1% each day, leads to a 37-fold increase in only a year’s time. So start failing today to turn your dreams into reality.
My Personal Challenge
“This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until it’s done. It's that easy, and that hard.”
-Neil Gaiman
Beginning this blog has been an incredible journey of growth and discovery. For too long I was caught up in the details - the theme, logo, hosting platform, and doubts of my own abilities. It wasn’t until I saw my good friend Jonathan’s blog (go check it out here!) that I decided to take action into my own hands. After all, the only way to see if I’m capable is by trying.
I’ve since been working to keep writing more articles, succeeding, failing, and learning as I go. The self-doubt and difficulties continue to persist. Writing remains a challenge. However, I embrace my failures wholeheartedly. I’d much prefer this form of failure over that of inaction.
This February presents an exciting opportunity for me: I'll be attending Vitalia, a pop-up longevity city teeming with inspiring individuals and interesting ideas. It's the perfect setting to enhance my writing. Adhering to my own advice, I'm setting a personal challenge: write an article each day for the entire month.
This challenge is beyond daunting; it currently takes me many hours to write a single piece, often ending up in abandoned efforts. I am not sure I will be able to succeed. However, success for me isn’t just about completing the challenge; it's about engaging with it fully, learning from the experience whether I succeed or not. Fail and I will rinse and repeat, using what I’ve learned from the experience for the challenge anew. Through action I am guaranteed some form of success.
True potential is unlocked through action. Embrace hard work, welcome failure, learn from it, and persevere. This is the path to mastery.