Dare Mighty Things
Do something big, bold and beautiful with your life.
The date…April 23, 1910.
The venue…the Sorbonne in Paris, France.
The Orator…Theodore Roosevelt.
The message…Find Your Arena.
In one of the greatest rhetorical triumphs…Roosevelt draws a proverbial line in the sand between those who DARE MIGHTY THINGS…who get in the arena and do and those who criticize.
He reminds us that glory and honor come to those “who spend themselves in a worthy cause” and encourages us to praise the people who are out there fighting the big battles…even if those battles end in defeat.
Call it self-righteous or contrived, but I am tired of the cynicism and aloof detachment so often displayed in society…and would rather focus on inspiring, promoting and celebrating the workers, the planners, and the doers.
I believe that life would be so much more rewarding if we encouraged people, especially our youth to do their own pushups, to develop self-reliance and to spend themselves daring mighty things…on doing work that matters and pursuing a worthy cause.
There is a no purer form of success, no more exact and demanding test of what you are capable of than to DARE MIGHTY THINGS…something far outside your comfort zone…something that demands that you go all in and get dirty, sweaty and stinky…and ultimately find joy in the capacity to achieve it.
While we all have different goals and aspirations, we all love and benefit from doing something BIG and CHALLENGING— something that inspires us to reach the peak of our potential jailbreaks us from our comfort zone, and transforms us into a better, far more capable version of ourselves.
The ultimate reason to DARE MIGHTY THINGS is to entice you to become the person it takes to stand up, get into the arena and deliver on your dare.
The Seven Rewards for DARING MIGHTY THINGS
1. You Develop Mental Toughness
It’s actually pretty simple. You either rise to meet the mental demands and physical rigors of daring mighty things, or you succumb to them.
The very nature of DARING MIGHTY THINGS sets an appropriate stage for practicing mental toughness, which by definition means a psychological edge that enables one to remain focused and confident during high-pressure situations to perform at one’s full potential.
2. You Confront and Conquer Fear
The very act of DARING MIGHTY THINGS is unique in that it immediately engages the fight-or-flight mechanism, and you never know how you are going to react until you are faced with the fear.
If I fear it, I must do it…must become your battle cry as fear is never a reason for quitting.
It’s only an excuse for those unwilling to face their doubts, insecurities, and mental boogie man. Therefore, your first duty in DARING MIGHTY THINGS is to conquer fear and the mental resistance it brings along with it.
3. You Become More Courageous
Courage is the greatest resource you have when DARING MIGHTY THINGS. What good is a worthy ideal or a big, ambitious goal if there is no willingness to overcome fear, mental and physical resistance, adversity, or self-doubt?
The conceptual opposite of courage is cowardice. We are therefore confronted with the reality that we either habitually practice courage, or we habitually practice cowardice.
4. You Get to Test Your Limits
It is imperative that you accept this reality…when you DARE MIGHTY THINGS, you will never be the same again. You either cope or crumble. You become better or bitter. You emerge stronger or weaker.
It has to be this way, as a big challenging goal exists to tests your limits, to push you beyond the breaking point, and to separate you from the herd.
5. You Intensify Your Focus
A mighty dare is like a great romance. It calls for your passion and your devotion, and it demands to be the center of your attention.
DARING MIGHTY THINGS is a form of seduction. It means concentrating your energy and resources on what’s most important…keeping the fire burning!
You do that by making everything. Everything you think, say, and do must be focused on the mighty goal and on leveraging all available resources.
6. You Build Supreme Self-Confidence
Think of a mighty dare — any kind of challenging goal. Ask yourself, what role does self-confidence play in DARING MIGHTY THINGS?
The truth is no mountains can be climbed, no hearts won, no opportunities seized, no books written, no elections won, and no victories enjoyed without self-confidence.
The inspired ability to DARE MIGHTY THINGS and climb great heights is directly attributable to your self-confidence. As your challenges build, so does your self-confidence.
7. You Turn Pro
Few things in life are capable of radically altering your perspective, but developing the capacity to DARE MIGHTY THINGS not only impacts the size of your results, but it also transforms your mind and expands your worldview.
It changes everything. The way you walk, talk and communicate all exude a level of self-confidence and self-assurance that’s impossible not to notice.
DARING MIGHTY THINGS involves psychological trauma that induces fear, self-doubt, and insecurity, while simultaneously dislodging you from your comfort zone, ultimately bringing about superior performance.
By DARING MIGHTY THINGS, you provide yourself with proof that you have what it takes to become one of the great ones of your generation.
This proof cements in your mind that you are the type of person capable of greatness, and that you really can do anything you set your mind to.
Allow me to wrap this up with a close worthy of this mighty subject…
The ultimate test of the impact of your life is twofold: whether the world you leave behind is qualitatively different from that which you inherited, and what grand contribution you made to that change.
That’s why I’m calling you out right now.
Gary Ryan Blair is creator of the 100 Day Challenge…a radical approach to high performance that shows people how to achieve 10X size goals by applying the methods and best practices of growth hacking to their life and career.
Join a global community of 600,000+ aspiring people and get the training, support and environment you need to supercharge your growth.
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