The Power of Never Giving Up

The concept of no defeat, if we look at it from a larger horizon of certainly history, we can realize that no defeat means we will not lack freedom in our future. It means we will stay the course, we will stand firm. We will believe that we are capable and we will endure progress and build. Even when they say we're dumb, we, we're weak, we're inadequate, we're inferior. We will believe. No, I will not sit back. No, I will not sit here if you tell me to. No, I will not placate. No, I will not play small because you desire me to be quiet. No defeat. Today our personal development topic is on no defeat. No defeat. Now I know in a world of today of social media, say, oh no, no, you can't say no defeat anymore, Brendan, you know, mental health, you know, you got to accept that people are where they're at and you know, give them the allowances to pause and to break and to recover and make it okay to quit too. And I go 100% agree. Teach that, believe in that. Totally cool with you. But there is a mentality of no defeat that rises above all of that. Because most people who are saying those things are thinking in the short term, the daily or the weekly, maybe even the monthly. They're thinking about an inflexible approach to, to this world. That's short term. The concept of no defeat, if we look at it from a larger horizon of certainly history, we can realize that no defeat means we will not lack freedom in our future. It means we will stay the course, we will stand firm. We will believe that we are capable and we will endure progress and build. Even when they say we're dumb, we, we're weak, we're inadequate, we're inferior. We will believe. No, I will not sit back. No, I will not sit here if you tell me to. No, I will not placate. No, I will not play small because you desire me to be quiet. No defeat. Of course, you can hear some themes here if you, you've ever been to any of my seminars or heard some of my leadership teaching, I was dramatically inspired by Winston Churchill when I started studying leadership communication in college. It's what I got my master's degree in. And I remember that as I read how Churchill felt like he was walking with destiny and his whole life had built up to be what ultimately became a great wartime leader who had studied history deeply and almost truly single handedly turned the mentality of Britain of certainly the Battle of Britain, if you will, the struggle at the time of the whole World of this mindset of how to deal with Hitler and World War II. If you've read that book Walking with Destiny, you know exactly what I'm saying. There was something that he gave to the British people at the time that now every historian recognizes was ultimately resolve, a mental strength and a ability and belief to stand firm, to fight for freedom down to every last inch kind of mentality. And whether you agree on the politics of what seemingly could be interpreted as my statements here, I want to let you know it's not about the politics here. It's about sometimes, in the face of just insurmountable odds, deciding that you're not going to lose. It doesn't mean you decide you won't change. I'll give you an example of, you know, just thinking of how many different strategic shifts happened In World War II, how many different calamities that, you know, Churchill faced as well as the British people, how many incredibly difficult days, months, years that so many millions of people endured and yet so many millions of people also were lost. One of the most tragic times in history. Something worth reading about now to understand some of the predicaments we are in. To understand history allows us to think about the major decisions people had and how they had to face them. And I'm not trying to make a political statement in any way with this. I'm trying to bring to light personal development concepts, mindsets and habits, ideas and life philosophies that help us elevate. And I always speak to it from a personal perspective. Once in a while, I'll drop some history in for people. Once in a while, I'll drop some research in for people. Once in a while I'll drop in some ethnographic research and experience. I have sometimes dropped on that practical wisdom of coaching people for 15 years. But I've seen over my career and over my research and over my study of human history and behavior that this mentality of no defeat can be extremely powerful. So let me drill it down for you. Five big ideas today. You might want to take some notes. First. One, have aim and resolve. What is the outcome and why are you resolved? Meaning you're deciding what you want. You've got that goal or that purpose, and you're resolving that. You're going to manifest that. You might have to adjust your strategy and approach. You might have to change along the way, but you resolve intellectually, emotionally, philosophically, that that thing that you desire will be manifested, will be protected, will be progressed towards come the difficulties that may Number two, shift don't die. A coach taught me this one time when, you know, I could get stubborn about something. And he said, well, listen, because I was scared to, quote, unquote, quit, which, notice, I didn't say no quitting. I said no defeat. For those who are not with me so far and you don't like me, bring up politics in any way or history in any way, please pay attention to the word choice here. I didn't say no quitting. I said no defeat. And what this coach was teaching me with shift, don't die, was this idea that I was stubborn and I didn't want to pivot, I didn't want to quit something. And because I thought, you know, quitting or pivoting was giving up. And he said, no, no, if you give up, you die. What I need you to do is shift. Don't die. Shift your approach, shift your attitude, shift your focus, shift your productivity, shift your work blocks during the week, shift some of your boundaries. Shift so that you maintain some momentum, that you get some progress. Don't be quit. Don't just quit and be stubborn and quit all motion. And that's what most people do when they get down, they get discouraged. They just quit all motion instead of doing anything over the weekend towards their dreams because they're discouraged. They watch 16 hours of television and social media, by the way, not kidding, that's pretty average. And so that's what they do. Instead of doing anything towards it. They have this, oh, one day I'll get at it. No, what has to happen is you need to not be defeated today by taking small action today. One small action, you can make sure that you're not defeated. One small step. One email, one dream, one presentation, one design, one release, one call, one text, one voice message. One thing towards your dream. Get that Progress. If you had to. Shift your approach, shift your approach, but don't die. Don't be defeatist. Don't quit entirely. Lots of people think, well, I'm going to quit my job and they quit their job and they forget to look for another one. At some point you got to go, okay? If I don't know what my next thing is, let me start working towards that. Let me build some momentum of learning here. But let me not just die sitting around hoping that one day something is figured out. Move forward.

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Just go to progressmode.com third, realize that the mentality of no defeat begins with mentally preparing to honor the struggle to know and to tell yourself, this is going to be hard, this is going to be hard. And when it gets hard, this is what I'm going to do to deal with it, to cope, to, to release the stress, to keep moving forward, to get some assistance or some help. It's the mental preparation in advance. You know this when you train for a marathon. As an example, as you, if you ever worked with a coach, one of the biggest things they'll tell you is you're planning for a marathon isn't to just see yourself running across the finish line like the visualizations of the 70s. No, the visualizations of now is you consider how difficult it is, why you want to do it, why it's important, who it will serve. You think about the preparation. You think about the first miles of the race, and you think about mile 12, when your knees feel like they're going to pop out and your ankles are going to snap and your shoes are going to burn off the rubber. And you think, what will I do then, in the heart of struggle, what will I say to myself to endure and to keep going? We've got to mentally prepare ourselves for the challenges that inevitably come up and honor them when they do, by facing them, seeing them, knowing that those struggles have met their match. Because you will not be defeated. Number four, you got to amplify your strengths and acknowledge your weaknesses. See, too often we're defeated mentally because we're living only in our weaknesses. We're stewing on our weaknesses, we're thinking about weaknesses, why we're not good enough, why we can't do it, why we're insecure, why we're scared, why we don't deserve it, why everyone else can have it, but we can't. And instead of putting our strengths into play, instead of acknowledging our weaknesses so that we can learn and shore some of them up, at least the ones that matter to our progress, we just quit. And not being in motion is defeat. You can quit projects, you can quit ideas, you can quit values, you can shift, you can change. You can leave relationships and quit on towns. You can quit roles, jobs. But at the end of the day, are you defeated when you quit? A lot of that happens for people when they have not been living in their strengths long enough. If you're just going through the motions of life, or you're just doing things that you're weak at, or you hate, then when a major obstacle comes up, you're quickly defeated because you don't have that muscle memory of all those times that your strengths pulled you through. You've got to practice, acknowledge, strengthen, amplify your strengths every single week in some way or another, flex those strengths because that conditions the mind and the body. Go, hey, look, I'm capable. I'm capable. I believe I can figure this out. I believe I'm capable to get this done. Let's keep going. Last big idea. If you are feeling defeated, if you are feeling down and out, realize you sometimes just got to build up. You still got to build up. You know, as I read back further and further in history, and you read about, for example, maybe there's a little bit of a. Think of a metaphor of a tiny little fortress. And that tiny little fortress, they get completely overwhelmed by another invading army. They lose, they're defeated. They're even sometimes controlled by other people. And yet in the mornings and the nights, there are some characters around that fortress who are still building up the defenses, still building up the fences, still building up for next time, still building up the relationships and the politics to capture their freedom when the chance presents itself, they're still building up. Even when it looks like they lost already, there's still those revolutionaries still chipping away, still looking for that opportunity, still believing and still acting in resolve that freedom can be theirs. Still building up. You may have something in your life right now where you feel like you know what a health condition puts you down. Job, you got fired, project fell, build up. What do you have to learn now? Who do you have to surround yourself with now? Who can you partner, team up, or ask for help with now? See, you're always preparing for the next stage of advance. Let me say it again. You're always preparing for the next stage of advance. Even when you're winning, you're still preparing for the next stage of advance. I've had the blessing of working with super bowl teams, and they win the super bowl, and then guess what? Over the next coming months, in the quote unquote, off season, they're still building up. They're learning what they could have done even better to amplify their strengths or to win. And what they are doing is they're still advancing, they're still preparing. Even though the season is months away, you're always preparing for the next level of advance and achievement. You don't even know why you're here. You think, okay, it's silly for me to do this personal development stuff. No, no, you're building up. These grooves set a mindset in your mind and your brain, and over a period of time, you become mentally stronger when the stuff does hit the fan later on. Or you're mentally stronger because you believe in yourself more. You've practiced your habits, you've scored yourself. You're constantly exploring how to get better so that next time the big challenge comes up, you go, you know what? I know how to get better. I will endure this. I will work through this. I'm not going to be defeated. There's no defeat here. There's. There's learning, there's changing of approach, but I will not be defeated because I will always be preparing for the advance to the next level.