Burn the Ships!

-Devlyn Steele

Are you committed to your purpose? Instead of moving forward, do you find ways to backtrack in different directions or just stall where you are? Sure, moving forward, there will be obstacles. Even more than obstacles, there are real battles that will be not always be pleasant. Life and people will test your commitment. Even more so, your own will and temptations will play a hand of testing to see if you really are committed to your purpose.

Then there are mistakes, you will make them and make them more than once. The peanut gallery will shout their criticisms. The setbacks might scare you, but only let them scare you for a second. No matter how hard the climb might seem, reach inside yourself and find your belief and your will and keep climbing. For an obstacle might seem like a mountain, but as Robert H. Shuller put it, "For every mountain there is a miracle." It is a miracle that you are here in this wonder of a miracle called life.

Shouldn't you express the miracle of your life by living it to the fullest? When you were born, you had one purpose, to grow and move forward. Never get too comfortable where you are or be afraid to move forward. As Gay Hendricks described it, we made a handshake deal with the universe. "In a state of comfort, it is easy to forget the deal you made with the universe to use yourself fully."

It is easy to forget. It is easy to let obstacles, setbacks, criticism, fear, and even comfort of success to hold us still. There is no such thing as still. One rule in life is that everything is always changing. You can't stay in the womb and go back to it, you need to move forward. However, we do look for how to retreat and stay in our comfort zone. Sometimes you need to make sure that there is no retreat, sometimes you need to burn the ships.

Have you ever heard that phrase, "Burn the ships?" In 1519 Spanish Conquistador Hernando Cortez landed on the shores of Mexico in the Yucatan. Cortez was a true leader and a motivator of men. He convinced a combined force of over 600 soldiers and sailors to join him in his quest to go after a greatest treasure in this distant land. They sailed on 11 ships and landed in a country that was control by a very large and powerful empire that prevailed for six centuries, the Aztecs.

Could it be possible for a small band of men to battle a nation and win? Cortez made a command decision that might have confused his men, he ordered them to, "Burn the ships." His men refused at first and he gave the orders again and declared, "If we are going home we are going home in their ships." Without an option to fail, to retreat, to not stay committed to their purpose, history reveals that in fact they did win.

How did a small number of men win when no one was able to defeat the Aztecs with large scale attacks for over six centuries? When Cortez ordered the burning of their ships he took away the option to retreat, to fail, to allow fear to stop them. It was very simple, win or die. When they won, they also in fact took the treasure, their true purpose.

What treasures are waiting for you in your life if you were that committed to your purpose? Remember you have a handshake deal with the universe to use yourself fully. Don't keep looking back at the ships and plaining your escape and looking for a fallback position. Your purpose is ahead of you and the treasures of your life are waiting for you. Intensify the level of your commitment to your purpose and burn the ships. Live up to your handshake deal with the universe, live life to your fullest, connected to your purpose and enjoy the treasures.