Acceleration by Darren Hardy, Mysticism, reading, forums, Numerology, Sun Signs, Divination

Posts: 5109 · Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2010 7:26 am

Acceleration
by Darren Hardy

When I lived in La Jolla, Calif., for exercise and a test of will I would regularly my bike two miles straight up Mount Soledad. There are very few things you can do voluntarily that cause more pain and suffering than riding a bike up a steep mountain without stopping.

There is a point at which you “hit the wall” and come face to face with your true inner character. Suddenly, all the projections and ideas you had about yourself are stripped away and you’re left with the naked truth. Your mind starts inventing all sorts of convenient alibis on why it’s okay to stop. It is then when you’re faced with one of life’s greatest questions: Do you push through the pain and continue on, or will you crack like a walnut and give up?

Lance Armstrong was the SUCCESS cover feature in June 2009. I remember watching Lance during his first Tour de France victory. The Tour had entered the grueling mountain stages of the race. The other riders dismissed Lance, because he had never been a renowned climber. During the third mountain ascent through freezing rains, mist, and then hail, Lance got separated from his team. He was left fighting the top climbers in the world, alone. On the final ascent, eighteen miles straight up into Sestriere, after five and a half hours climbing mountains, every rider was suffering. Each needed to search the depths of his stamina and self-definition—could they endure? It became a test of who could best survive the hardships and find the strength to keep going—who would crack and who wouldn’t.

With five miles to go, Lance was thirty-two seconds behind the leaders, an eternity while climbing a mountain on a bike. During a curve, Lance stood up and surged ahead until he caught the two leaders—both established world-class climbers. Having expended almost everything he had in him, Lance then launched an attack and gained several lengths on the leaders. He later said in his book It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life (Putnam, 2000), “When you open a gap and your competitors don’t respond, it tells you something. They’re hurting. And when they’re hurting, that is when you take them.” Completely exhausted, struggling to breathe, his legs and arms burning with fatigue, Lance kept pounding the pedals. Some tried, but no one could catch him, they just didn’t have it in them. At the finish line, with fists pumping in the air, the unexpected contender won the stage race and ultimately the Tour de France.

In this chapter I want to talk to you about those moments of truth and how the Compound Effect can help break through to new and greater levels of success—faster than you imagined possible. When you’ve prepared, practiced, studied, and consistently put in the required effort, sooner or later you’ll be presented with your own moment of truth. In that moment, you will define who you are and who you are becoming. It is in those moments where growth and improvement live—when we either step forward or shrink back, when we climb to the top of the podium and seize the medal or we continue to applaud sullenly from the crowd for others’ victories.

We’ll also look at how you can consistently deliver more than people expect, compounding your good fortune even further.

Moments of Truth
“There is a point in every race when a rider encounters his real opponent and understands that it’s himself,” says Lance in his autobiography. “In my most painful moments on the bike, I am at my most curious, and I wonder each and every time how I will respond. Will I discover my innermost weakness, or will I seek out my innermost strength?”

When I was in real estate, I hit the wall several times a day. While driving to an expired listing property, after just getting pummeled by the last prospect, I’d start conjuring up all sorts of excuses to skip the sales call and head back to the office. While out canvassing a neighborhood, dogs would snarl at me or it looked like it might start to rain. I’d be in the midst of “money time” (5 to 9 p.m., cold calling) and frequently get chewed out for interrupting someone’s dinner or favorite TV show. I was sure I needed to take a break to go to the bathroom or get a glass of water. But instead of quitting, every time I hit one of those mental and emotional walls, I recognized that my competitors were facing the same challenges. I knew this was another moment that, if I kept going, I would be strides ahead of them. These were the defining moments of success and progress. It wasn’t difficult, painful, or challenging when I was just running with the herd, just keeping up, but not really getting ahead. It’s not getting to the wall that counts; it’s what you do after you hit it.

Darren Hardy
Successful entrepreneur, publisher of SUCCESS magazine, and author of Design Your Best Year Ever: A Proven Formula for Achieving Big Goals. Darren's passion for personal development is at the core of his business and life philosophy. He has mentored and trained thousands of other successful entrepreneurs and is committed to helping others achieve their potential in order to live richer, more fulfilling lives.