Taken from today’s edition of “The Insight”

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How do you get past ‘The Quit Point’?

 

You know the ‘quit point’.

It’s that moment where you think, “This is just too tough”. The point where your mind is begging you to give up. Or, often, where it justifies giving up.

It’s a point I know well. For many years, it was the point where I threw in the towel.

When I began studying world class performers, I noticed that they all had this incredible tenacity – the ability to just keep going, no matter what. I also knew that, if I wanted to be successful, I needed a lot more tenacity myself.

I remember writing a line in ‘How to Shine’, asking the reader, “Have you found your limits?”. I was asking the reader whether they’d ever pushed themselves hard enough to find their limit. And, as I read the words, I asked myself that same question and was faced with an uncomfortable truth. I hadn’t been anywhere near my limits. I knew where discomfort started, but didn’t have a clue where my limits were.

So, I set out to develop my tenacity.

I embarked on a couple of rather daft challenges. The first was a ridiculous 40-day endurance event around the UK, which I wrote about in ‘Could I Do That?’. Spoiler alert… I didn’t complete it (but you’ll have to read ‘Could I Do That?’ to find out why 😊). I guess it was partly because I had this feeling of ‘unfinished business’ that I embarked on the second challenge – to walk 100 miles in 24 hours. And, it was during this challenge that I really learned how to navigate through my ‘quit point’.

I set off at 9pm on a lovely summer’s evening. Having done 15 months hard training, I was feeling okay as I came in at the half way point. As planned, I stopped briefly to re-pack my rucksack with food and drink, change my clothes, go to the toilet, etc. The mistake I made was to stop and sit down briefly. So, as I set off again, my body stiffened up. It was like rigor mortis had set in. I had shooting pains down the outside of each leg – like a spear being jabbed into my knees.

I hobbled along for a mile or so, wrestling with the argument in my head…
“You can’t go on”

“What if you’re doing permanent damage?”

“Why are you putting yourself through this?”

“Are you some kind of sadist?”

Interestingly, there were a few other thoughts…

“You’ve done really well to get to 50 miles”

“No-one’s watching. It’s not like you’re being sponsored. You won’t let anyone down”

“You could just go home. No-one would think any less of you”.

And then it hit me.

This is the ‘quit point’.
This is the whole reason I set out on the challenge in the first place – to learn how to navigate a quit point. This is why I’ve been training for the last 15 months.

I started to understand that there are two questions I needed to answer.

Why are you doing this?
How much do you want it? (or… How important is it to you really?)

If you can answer these positively, you’re likely to get through the ‘quit point’ and make it to the other side.

If you’d like to find out how to develop tenacity, resilience and composure (in yourself or others), check out “Mental Toughness in Five Steps”.
https://be-world-class.com/mental-toughness-in-five-steps/