In the 1500’s Hernando Cortez was the captain of eleven ships with more than 500 soldiers headed for Mexico to conquer the Aztecs and bring back gold and treasures. As you can well imagine, after his ships arrived in Mexico, the sailors and soldiers were not in the best of shape. Some of them fell ill on the journey, some had lost their motivation, and their quarters were not exactly shipshape. Several of Cortez’s crewmates wondered what would happen to them in this strange new land. If they faced challenges or resistance, how would the crew return home? The crew asked Cortez what the plan would be to get back home. The captain had the perfect response: He burned the ships

There was no going back

The only direction to go was forward

The old way of doing things were about to be rethought.

In fact, there were no more “old way of doing things”; a new way had to be defined.

(I have no idea what book I originally pulled this from and my internet search for it has failed significantly – if you can help me properly site this I would be grateful!)

When you land on the shore, and there is still work to be done, you have to burn the ships.

There is a great amount of work to be done this year. Part of me can’t believe it’s February already. The other part is still smiling wide about accomplishing a major goal last Saturday.

However, I know that I have to keep moving forward and that I can’t fall back on yesterdays accomplishments. I know that that moment, while forever captured in photography, has passed and that I am going to have to make new moments that are just as great.

That’s in the pipeline.

Now, I must travel across unexplored land, taking my journey from the ocean to the mountains and vast plains. I have absolutely no idea what is going to come my way but I have plans on what I am looking for.

Sometimes we find those things, but a great deal of the time we are significantly surprised by what we didn’t know was coming. I am ready for that – good and bad combined.

My thirst for adventure has increased 100 fold ever since I landed here. My excitement and love for what I am doing has also grown significantly.

The interesting thing is that fear is becoming less and less of a factor in my day to day decisions and I am moving forward quickly and with purpose in everything that I am doing. I am planning more.

I am creating action plans…attacking them with vigor…and then seeing how they work – making adjustments as needed.

This type of living did not come naturally, in fact, I can say that it was a pure side effect of crossing the finish line with something that I had wanted for such a long time.

When you cross that line, you begin to understand that whatever it is that you are working on only needs time and a well thought out plan to achieve it.

We are all capable of great things.

I wanted to take a quick second to let you know that I am reintroducing my Video Blog back into The Better Man Project because I can take some time to focus on something else besides fitness for a while. I love the talking aspect of video blogging and hope that you will enjoy the content that I am going to be putting out there.

I recorded roughly 15 blogs yesterday and am pretty excited about putting them together for you to see. They will be of course posted here and on YouTube itself.

Never rest on yesterday’s achievements.

The minute you start building your foundation on things that you have accomplished instead of who you are…well…that’s when things are going to get very shaky.

Maybe in the short term they are going to be ok, but once you start getting into the Dog Days of summer, you are going to fall apart at the seams.

It’s much more important to know who you and and why you are that way than to base your entire life off the criticisms or compliments of others.

Why?

Because life has a pretty interesting way of taking everything you have and tearing it apart when it feels like it. If you know who you are and how you got there, well, you can build it all back and then some.

You can’t do that if you are hollow inside.

Know who you are.
Know why you are that way.
Know what you are up to in this world.

Be willing to stand up for what you believe in.

If you can do that, well, things are going to work out pretty well for you in the long run.

Burn the ships

Evan Sanders
The Better Man Project