“Who dares wins” is a familiar British Special Air Service (SAS) quote attributed to SAS founder and creator World War II British Army officer Sir David Stirling. The concept of the SAS and every other special operations (spec ops) military unit since is to go well above and beyond what would be considered par.
All spec ops units require an extremely demanding selection with a high failure rate. Throughout the entire selection process including subsequent training, you can wash out at any time for any reason.
The standards and qualifications are set high and the price tag for failure is expulsion. To make it through, would require a level of personal dedication surpassing the standards to which you aspire. And I think that applies to most things in life, whether it be self-protection and firearms safety, or trying to secure that promotion at work.
An Olympic athlete, professional musician, successful entrepreneur, accomplished inventor, recognized industry pioneer et al share a similar level of dedication.
Success, both professionally and academically, is commonly and rightfully attributed to dedication. Whether you are a musician, a shooter, or a martial artist, the greater your dedication the better your performance. If you ask any award-winning subject matter expert about how they attained their tremendous volume of knowledge and demonstrable skill, the topic of dedication would invariably surface.
You can be dedicated to a path, craft, idea, concept, belief, job, skill, objective, or goal. Exceptional attainment in any endeavor usually doesn’t happen without a reciprocate level of dedication. Although most would agree with the dedication-attainment relationship, an inquisitive mind would want to know exactly, what is dedication?
The most common dictionary definitions of dedication are: committed to a task or purpose, setting aside for a particular purpose, devotion, or loyalty. If your dedication is to a family member, spouse, friend, co-worker, job, goal, purpose, objective, side hustle or even learning a new skill, then there are three approaches that can provide further insight and understanding of dedication. These are perspective, mental engagement, and prowess.
Perspective
Perspective is a particular point of view or attitude toward something. In a nutshell, it’s how you look at it. What does dedication mean to you? Is your dedication out of obligation? Are you coming from a place of drudgery and mundane responsibility or does it flow forth from passion or inspiration?
The more powerful the motivation, the greater the dedication. Passion is one of the more empowering motivators. It is said that when you find passion, you find purpose.
A strong draw to or desire for something is the fire that stokes passion. Some people know this without explanation, others have had it burning within them from a very young age, and still, others have come to find it more recently. Should you have the passion to accomplish a specific goal, it is important to precisely define that goal in your mind’s eye so that it can be seen clearly.
First off, a goal should be attainable. If you set out to earn five million dollars by next weekend, outside of robbing a bank, in most cases it’s probably not attainable. If you’re going to set a goal it should be realistic and attainable. It can certainly be difficult, but it must be attainable. Otherwise, what’s the sense of dedicating yourself to an unattainable goal?
After selecting an attainable goal, the next step is to clearly define that goal. Exactly what does it look like, smell like, taste like, and feel like? Can you clearly see it in the theater of your mind? The clearer your mental image picture of your attainable goal the sharper your focus and the better your vision.
Perspective is how you look at something. The better the vision of what it is you are looking at, the stronger your reach for what you can clearly see.
Mental Engagement
Way back in the day when I was studying abroad with my martial arts masters seeking a high-level performance, I asked them “Sir, what is it that can increase your skill so that you can perform at a higher level?” The answer surprised me because I thought it would be more of a technical, mechanical, or physiological response, but instead, it ended up being mental.
The master’s response was to ‘be deliberate’ to engage your mind. The term they used in their native language loosely translated to ‘infusing self.’ In other words, if you’re not mentally engaged, then you’re simply going through the motions.
What the masters meant about being deliberate is to be cognitively reflective. When working on a new skill, don’t just go through the motions of completing a task just to “get her done” and check it off your list. Like flowing water, the mind seeks the path of least resistance and it’s easy to fall into the “whatever” mindset.
Deliberate practice requires deliberate effort. Such effort must be carefully thought out in advance. To be mentally engaged is the mind power behind dedication. Often referred to as ‘being mindful,’ the masters tell us that each task should be done consciously and intentionally with careful consideration.
Mental engagement also encompasses your will, perseverance, and resilience. Such mental toughness means that you are willing to accept failure, be criticized by others and all the while continue to be empowered by your dedication.
Dedication is a mental endeavor. How far are you willing to go? Where are your personal boundaries? How much is too much and what do you consider not enough? Are you willing to suffer the pains of personal growth? Do you strive for mediocrity, or do you reach beyond the norm? Dedication is about being mentally committed to your task or purpose.
Prowess
Do you have the mental fortitude to go that extra mile, and do what it takes to meet or exceed the standard? To go above and beyond? What exactly does it take to land that skill or objective? How can dedication be defined in terms of performance or accomplishment? Practice does not make perfect. Practice makes permanent.
Perfect practice improves performance. The masters say that performance must be carefully monitored to provide cues for ways to improve it further. One of the most underrated cues is learning from our mistakes.
When it comes to skills development, failure, errors, and mistakes are your greatest teachers. It is said that although best to learn from your mistakes, it’s even better to learn from the mistakes of others. Which one of us in life has not made a bad decision resulting in uncomfortable consequences? The greater the error the more empowering the lesson.
In training, if you’re not failing, you’re not pushing past your comfort zone or beyond what your personal skills envelope. It is to the benefit of your dedication to push beyond not only your comfort zone but the very standard you’re trying to obtain. Whatever that attainable goal may be, you not only want to get to that finish line but aim past that line like running a foot race.
The spec ops community provides a masterful example of practical dedication by going beyond. If they’re shooting for a 100% standard, then they train for 120% going 20% beyond the requirement. If they are required to run a seven-minute mile then they will train for a five-minute mile. If the requirement is an hour, they will make it an hour and a half.
In business, if you’re trying to make $10,000 a month and you set your sights to gear up for earning $15K then you will work to surpass your initial goal.
As there’s no such thing as a free lunch, there’s a price tag for everything under the sun—including dedication. Developing prowess includes your willingness to make personal sacrifices such as going without certain items. It might be needing to give up time, opportunity, or other such things of meaning and significance.
Dedication is considered one of the most powerful forces available to us humans, with which to shape our lives and realize our goals. It’s the force that powers our willingness to step outside our comfort zone, push that envelope to the very edge, and watch it bend.
Armed with dedication we become an unstoppable force to fulfill our passions, harness the power of our minds, and hone our skills to earn success. Who dares wins.
