Ep. #276: Motivation Monday: How the Stockdale Paradox Can Change Your Life

[00:00:00] This episode is brought to you by me. Seriously, though, I’m not big on promoting stuff that I don’t personally use and believe in. So instead, I’m going to just quickly tell you about something of mine, specifically my workout app stacked. It has tens of thousands of users and close to 400 reviews on the Apple store with the Four star average, and it helps you get more out of your training in several ways.

It helps you quickly and easily plan out your workout routines. It gives you quick access to useful tools like plate math and one rep max calculation. It allows you to visually track your progression in your workouts, as well as your body measurements, and much, much more. It’s free to download too, so if you want to check it out, then head over to www dot com.

Get stacked app. com or just hit the iOS app store and search for [00:01:00] stacked workout and you will find it. All righty. That is enough. Shameless plugging for now. At least let’s get to the show. Good morning. Good morning. Mike here from us for life and Legion athletics. It is Monday, and that means it’s time for some motivation starting, of course, with a quote.

And this time I’m going to go with an old German proverb in light of the fact that I am learning German, which I should have done a long time ago. I’ve been with a German woman since I was 17 years old. So it’s about time. Although in my defense, I did give it a run years ago. I went through Michael Thomas and Pimsleur.

Which are just audio only programs, which I was doing when I was driving and doing my cardio, walking my dogs and so forth. And I was curious if audio only could get me to at least functional fluency. And the conclusion at the end of it was not so much. You really have [00:02:00] to give it sit down time. And I now know you have to give it flashcard time.

That’s very important, especially for vocabulary building. Anyway, let’s get to the proverb. And in German it is Anfangen ist leicht, beharren eine Kunst. In English, to begin is easy, to persist is an art. Hey, quickly, before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it?

Because no amount of marketing or advertising gimmicks can match the power of word of mouth. If you are enjoying this episode and you think of someone else who might enjoy it as well, please do tell them about it. It really helps me. And if you are going to post about it on social media, definitely tag me so I can say Thank you.

Thank you. You can find me on Instagram at Muscle for Life Fitness, Twitter at Muscle for Life, and Facebook at Muscle for Life Fitness. [00:03:00] As the highest ranking officer in the Hanoi Hilton Prisoner of War Camp during the height of the Vietnam War, Jim Stockdale knew he was not getting out anytime soon.

Instead, he was tortured regularly, and he had no prisoner’s rights, he had no release date, or really, any reason to believe that he would live long enough. to see his family or his country again. Despite all this, though, Stockdale refused to give in. He did everything he could to keep his fellow prisoners alive.

And he also worked tirelessly to stymie his captors attempts at using him and his comrades for propaganda, even going as far as disfiguring himself so he couldn’t be held up as an example of a well treated. prisoner stockdale encoded intelligence messages into letters to his wife risking brutal torture and death he devised guidelines for dealing with torture that increased his fellow soldiers odds of survival as well as a morse code like system of communication using [00:04:00] taps to ease the isolation anxiety among the men just to name a few of the things that Stockdale did while imprisoned.

And when it was all said and done, Jim Stockdale spent eight years in captivity. And after his release, following the American withdrawal from the war, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Now, it’s hard to imagine, even for a moment, what Stockdale’s experience must have been like. How in the hell did he not just collapse into a completely catatonic state?

How did he find the strength to stand up every day and continue to work against the enemy? What was the secret of his unbreakable will? As quoted from the fantastic book, Good to Great, here is the answer in his own words, quote, I never lost faith in the end of the story. I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the [00:05:00] defining event of my life.

of my life, which in retrospect, I would not trade. This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end, which you can never afford to lose with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be. Now, Jim Collins, the author of good grade, he called this mentality, the Stockdale paradox, the belief that you will prevail in the end, harmoniously coexisting with the willingness to face.

The darkest facets of your current circumstances. Now, when Stockdale was asked about the people who didn’t make it, his reply was very interesting. He said, quote, the optimists. That’s right. He said that the optimists were the ones that didn’t make it. He said that they were the ones. Who said we’re going to be out by Christmas and Christmas would come and Christmas would go.

They then say we’re going to be out by Easter and Easter would come and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving and then it would be [00:06:00] Christmas again and they died of a broken heart. Now I think that this message is powerful because what it says is that hope is vital but unbridled optimism, especially when it borders on delusion, can be very dangerous.

Winston Churchill knew this as well, which is why he created the Statistical Office early in the war, and he assigned it a very specific job. He wanted it to feed him unfiltered facts and data about the conflict, no matter how disturbing. Churchill said that he had no need for cheering dreams, because facts are better than dreams.

And he said this at a time when the Nazi blitzkrieg was stampeding through Europe, a dark time, a bleak time, especially for Britain. And Churchill ended up relying very heavily on this department throughout the entire war, and he could not have made the decisions he made without the willingness to face things as they were, not as he wished to face them.

They were now, while it’s doubtful that we’ll ever have [00:07:00] to face personal hardships like Stockdale’s or carry burdens as heavy as Churchill’s, we can count on this. We are going to have to deal with shitty situations that we feel are unfair, or maybe even unbearable. We’re going to suffer setbacks. We’re going to suffer disappointments.

And. They may be completely without reason or even sometimes without anyone clear to blame. The bottom line is if we are going to go anywhere and if we’re going to do anything meaningful in our lives, there are going to be obstacles many obstacles and many large and intimidating obstacles and how we deal with these inevitable difficulties.

Is going to define who we really are as people. Are we going to be like the unfortunate optimists that succumbed in Hanoi? Unwilling to see the forest for the trees? Or are we going to be like the stoical Stockdale? Never giving up, but [00:08:00] also never giving into fantasies of imminent bliss. Are we going to sit in our hands with our heads in the sand?

Or are we going to never stop working toward our goals while also maintaining full awareness of what really matters? Lies ahead of how much work lies ahead of where we are versus where we want to be. Hey, there it is, Mike again, I hope you enjoyed this episode and found it interesting and helpful. And if you did, and don’t mind doing me a favor and want to help me make this the most popular health and fitness podcast on the internet, then please leave a quick.

review of it on iTunes or wherever you’re listening from. This not only convinces people that they should check the show out, it also increases its search visibility and thus helps more people find their way to me and learn how to build their best bodies ever too. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then just podcast and you [00:09:00] won’t miss out on any of the new goodies.

Lastly, If you didn’t like something about the show, then definitely shoot me an email at mike at muscleforlife. com and share your thoughts on how you think it could be better. I read everything myself, and I’m always looking for constructive feedback, so please do reach out. Alright, that’s it. Thanks again for listening to this episode, and I hope to hear from you soon.

Soon. And lastly, this episode is brought to you by me, seriously, though, I’m not big on promoting stuff that I don’t personally use and believe in. So instead, I’m going to just quickly tell you about something of mine, specifically my workout app stacked. It has tens of thousands of users and close to 400 reviews on the Apple store with a four star average.

And it helps you get more out of your training in several ways. It helps you quickly and easily plan out your workout routines. It gives you quick access to useful tools like plate math and one rep max calculation. It allows you [00:10:00] to visually track your progression in your workouts as well as your body measurements and much, much more.

It’s free to download too. So if you want to check it out, then head over to www. getstackedapp. com or just hit the iOS app store and search for stacked workout and you will find it.