In my last post, I wrote about Lewis Gordon Pugh and his amazing feat of swimming 1Km in the arctic in sub-zero temperatures.
So just how how did he do it?
First assemble your Dream Team.
The first key lessons to learn from Lewis is about how for any lofty and worthy goal, you must assemble your team. The criteria for choosing his team were:-
1. Choose the best in the world for your team.
Every team member had to be the world best in their field. So for instance Lewis had the best doctor, scientist, trainers, mind coaches and polar bear guards in the world.
Polar bear guards were needed to ward off any polar bears who might have seen Lewis as a tasty morsel. As Lewis said, an encounter with a hungry 11 foot polar bear is a bad day at the office!
2. Unrelenting pursuit of excellence,
Each member had to be forever getting better. Everything they did to their highest standard and they strived to get better all the time, even though they were already the best in the world.
3. Humility
Each team member, though supremely confident had to be humble. There was no room for prima donnas.
4. Members had to have Self-discipline
There was no time to chase or chivvy anyone! Each person was given responsibility for their area, knowing that the job would be done.
5. Ability to work together as part of team
Lewis handpicked and assembled a group of people, all superstars in their field. But they had to have the ability to work together as a team. There were 29 people in his team for the Arctic swim and they had to work together as a team, despite language and cultural differences.
So once Lewis had his team, what was the next step?
Undergo supreme and focused training
The training had two aspects:-
1. Get the mind right
Lewis worked on the subconscious mind. The moment he was on the ice and about to start his 1Km swim, he had to be 100% certain of finishing.
2. Physical training.
To accmilatise to the arctic conditions, Lewis trained in a lake in Norway where the water temperature was a mere 2 degrees centigrade. Despite 6 weeks of this training, the most he could ever swim in one go was only 400 meters.
On the way to the geographic North Pole for the actual swim, he had a trial run and could only do 5 minutes before he had to stop. His fingers were literally frozen and were like someone had beaten them to a pulp with a mallet.
And how did he actually approach the goal of swimming the 1Km in subzero temperatures?
I will cover that in the next article in this series about Lewis Gordon Pugh.
In the meantime, here are some key questions for you:-
What will you know look for in your dream team?
What will you demand from those around you?
And just what sort of mind and physical training are you prepared to undertake to achieve the impossible for yourself?
