A good movie requires 4 things:
1) good guys
2) bad guys
3) fighting...blow some stuff up.
4) the good guys win at the end.
That's it. Too many movie makers make this much harder than it is. The Mission Impossible movies are a great example of good movies. For some reason, I became really enthralled by the last couple of installments of the movie series and it took me a while to figure it out. Once I did figure out why I was so focused on these movies, I became almost obsessed with them. What I noticed about the main character, Ethan Hunt played by Tom Cruise, is that the movie makers were doing an incredible job of portraying Hunt's illogical and at times insane persistence. The entire movie was Hunt failing over and over again until he breaks through (obviously at the very end defeating a bad guy that the movie makers have helped you grow to hate over the previous 90 minutes, like I said, good movie!).
There is a particular car chase scene that embodies this persistence theme perfectly. After 6 minutes of ridiculous stunt work and race car driving, Hunts pursuit ends in a brutal crash and it appears the bad guy has escaped. The scene feels over. Until Hunt drags himself out of the car wreckage and gets on an unmanned motorcycle to continue his pursuit. You can watch the whole chase scene here or just skip to the last 30 seconds of the clip to see the crash. *note: the whole scene takes place after Hunt almost drowns trying to steal a top secret file, so the insane persistence theme is way over the top at this point in the movie. AWESOME!
There are some 'impossible missions' that we will face in life. Here's an indication that you DID NOT or ARE NOT facing an impossible mission; there is no failure involved. There will be some challenging things in life that will be hard but you won't fail either. That's not an impossible mission. An impossible mission will involve gut-wrenching, heart-breaking, failure. This is what I'm talking about. And you know what you should do when you are facing an impossible mission?
Get. On. The. Bike.
How does a person get on the bike in the face of soul-crushing failure? Here's 3 quick P's...
PURPOSE - remember why you started or who you started for or what your priorities are. None of this changes just because you've failed. In fact, failure may be the poorest reason for changing anything about your purpose. Failure has a way of validating your purpose especially when you are trying to lead people. Speaking of people...
PEOPLE - link arms with like-minded people that share your purpose or wholeheartedly support your pursuit. As soon as the car crashes at the end of the scene, a couple of Hunts friends show up. Their presence is enough to let him know it is alright and then he jumps on the bike a takes off.
PLAN - what was your plan when you started? What is your plan now that you have faced failure? Dwight Eisenhower said that during times of war, plans are useless but planning is indispensable. In my experience this is very accurate. The process of planning brings together your purpose, the people that you want around you, and how you will pursue your impossible mission. All of that preparation gives you focus and actually makes you more likely to be persistent. The plan might not work out but persistence has taken root when you plan.
I shared this idea with a team I was coaching a couple of years ago. It was galvanizing. When things would go wrong, which for this group happened more than I would like to admit, we would just remind each other to get on the bike. In fact, they reminded me to get on the bike more than I reminded them.
A big crash of some sort will happen in your life. It likely already has.
GET. ON. THE. BIKE.
1) good guys
2) bad guys
3) fighting...blow some stuff up.
4) the good guys win at the end.
That's it. Too many movie makers make this much harder than it is. The Mission Impossible movies are a great example of good movies. For some reason, I became really enthralled by the last couple of installments of the movie series and it took me a while to figure it out. Once I did figure out why I was so focused on these movies, I became almost obsessed with them. What I noticed about the main character, Ethan Hunt played by Tom Cruise, is that the movie makers were doing an incredible job of portraying Hunt's illogical and at times insane persistence. The entire movie was Hunt failing over and over again until he breaks through (obviously at the very end defeating a bad guy that the movie makers have helped you grow to hate over the previous 90 minutes, like I said, good movie!).
There is a particular car chase scene that embodies this persistence theme perfectly. After 6 minutes of ridiculous stunt work and race car driving, Hunts pursuit ends in a brutal crash and it appears the bad guy has escaped. The scene feels over. Until Hunt drags himself out of the car wreckage and gets on an unmanned motorcycle to continue his pursuit. You can watch the whole chase scene here or just skip to the last 30 seconds of the clip to see the crash. *note: the whole scene takes place after Hunt almost drowns trying to steal a top secret file, so the insane persistence theme is way over the top at this point in the movie. AWESOME!
There are some 'impossible missions' that we will face in life. Here's an indication that you DID NOT or ARE NOT facing an impossible mission; there is no failure involved. There will be some challenging things in life that will be hard but you won't fail either. That's not an impossible mission. An impossible mission will involve gut-wrenching, heart-breaking, failure. This is what I'm talking about. And you know what you should do when you are facing an impossible mission?
Get. On. The. Bike.
How does a person get on the bike in the face of soul-crushing failure? Here's 3 quick P's...
PURPOSE - remember why you started or who you started for or what your priorities are. None of this changes just because you've failed. In fact, failure may be the poorest reason for changing anything about your purpose. Failure has a way of validating your purpose especially when you are trying to lead people. Speaking of people...
PEOPLE - link arms with like-minded people that share your purpose or wholeheartedly support your pursuit. As soon as the car crashes at the end of the scene, a couple of Hunts friends show up. Their presence is enough to let him know it is alright and then he jumps on the bike a takes off.
PLAN - what was your plan when you started? What is your plan now that you have faced failure? Dwight Eisenhower said that during times of war, plans are useless but planning is indispensable. In my experience this is very accurate. The process of planning brings together your purpose, the people that you want around you, and how you will pursue your impossible mission. All of that preparation gives you focus and actually makes you more likely to be persistent. The plan might not work out but persistence has taken root when you plan.
I shared this idea with a team I was coaching a couple of years ago. It was galvanizing. When things would go wrong, which for this group happened more than I would like to admit, we would just remind each other to get on the bike. In fact, they reminded me to get on the bike more than I reminded them.
A big crash of some sort will happen in your life. It likely already has.
GET. ON. THE. BIKE.
‘Bite Down and Don’t Let Go’ is a collection of writings on
being intentional about life in a way that produces great persistence. Read
about it more here.
Dr. Chris Hobbs is an educational leader and Director
of Athletics at The King’s Academy in West Palm Beach, Florida. He’s earned a few
degrees and won some awards. He’s happily married to his high school
sweetheart and they have three teen age children. Life is messy and complicated
most of the time. You can follow him on Twitter
for all sorts of inspirational thoughts and good laughs.
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