Time Magazine has deemed their voyage "the most storied epic of survival". The story is that of Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew of 27 men on The Endurance in a 1914 attempt of a Trans-Antarctic Expedition.
Various books and movies have been made of this harrowing failed expedition. Due to unexpected wind conditions, The Endurance became locked in pack-ice early in their voyage (despite being the Antarctic ‘summer’) and remained there for nine months (including the Antarctic winter). The crew made repeated desperate attempts to carve a channel through the ice to open water. Eventually the ship succumbed to the pressure of the ice, forcing the crew to survive out on the ice floe with their supplies and lifeboats. They spent five months striving to get closer to the floe’s edge, waiting for an opportunity to row to land.
When the ice briefly broke up enough to reach the open sea (more than a year after their journey began), they rowed for five days across open ocean to reach uninhabitable Elephant Island. Knowing they would never be found there, Shackleton and a crew of five others then sailed/rowed a lifeboat another 720 nautical miles of open ocean to reach a whaling station on South Georgia Island. From there, they were able to return to Elephant Island to rescue the remaining men. Every crew member survived. It is an epic tale of perseverance that rivals any Marvel movie ever made!
Hope, Determination and Confidence are a Mindset
There are so many lessons that can be taken from this tale and much has been written regarding Shackleton’s leadership. For me, what really stands out is the sense that Shackleton must have relied on a remarkably strong sense of hope, determination and a confidence that he could overcome any challenge. As we all continue to navigate chaotic and uncertain times, we could all benefit from cultivating more hope, determination and confidence.
How did Shackleton and his crew stay positive, hopeful and confident through so many setbacks and challenges? Yes, their lives were at stake, and they had little choice. But in so many ways, at so many times, it must have looked hopeless.
While I don’t understand exactly what motivated them, I do think there are ways we can all develop a more confident mindset in the face of adversity and uncertainty.
Three Tools to Help You Stay Hopeful, Determined and Confident
1. Know Your “Why?”. [Or is it “Have a Bigger Goal”, Or “Have a Clear Long-term Goal”] When things look bad, our biggest risk is that our survival brain takes over and we become hyper-focused on our immediate challenges and the uncertainty about the future. Having a bigger “Why?” keeps things in perspective. Shackleton was committed from the very beginning that every single crew member would survive. That shaped his focus and decision making throughout the journey. Having a longer-term goal that is meaningful to us puts today’s challenges and efforts into perspective, gives life purpose, and gives us clarity.
2. Focus on What’s in Your Control – Everyday! In the face of uncertainty and unmet expectations, our survival mind’s natural response is to i) feel upset by this, and ii) want to fix it. The challenge is that many of the things that upset us are out of our control (traffic, weather, other people’s behaviour, the path of a global pandemic, etc.).
We gain hope by not getting swept away in negative thinking, confusion and inaction, and by staying focused on our goal. We gain confidence by staying focused on what is in our control (sleep, diet, movement, not feeding our addictions, taking focused action, being grateful, generous, courageous, compassionate, etc.). I can only imagine that Shackleton kept the crew focused on what was in their control.
3. See Obstacles as the Pointing to the Way. Our natural response to challenges is to see them as ‘bad’. We might resent them or try to avoid them. Both Stoicism and Buddhism teach us to see the world as neither good nor bad, but simply as neutral. It is our mind that quickly labels things as good or bad, based on our life experience. Instead, we cultivate perserverance and determination toward our bigger goal.
For example, an employee quitting may turn out to be a way to form a stronger team. A health challenge may turn out to be exactly what you needed to clean up unhealthy habits. For Shackleton’s crew, when the ice crushed The Endurance, it must have seemed like a sign of the end. Yet it forced their hand. As that door closed, it forced them to make their way by foot the edge of the pack-ice, and this was one of the necessary steps towards their survival.
We Can Create a Sense of Confidence Amidst Uncertainty
We often feel most confident when we know the game we are playing and we have the skills to play it well. Life is good and progress is easy. But sometimes life challenges us in ways that shatter our confidence. The goal for each of us is to find hope, determination and confidence, even in those times. To hold firm to our longer-term vision of what is most important to us. To use that perspective to focus our daily actions on what’s most important now and what’s in our control. And to pivot when faced with unmet expectations. Hope, determination and confidence allows us alchemize these obstacles into our next steps.
What do you need to alchemize in your life? How might these tools give you more clarity, focus and confidence?
To learn more about how you can create more hope, determination and confidence for your and your team, please reach out to me at scott@mindfulwisdom.ca.
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Image Credit: Royal Geographic Society, Wikipedia Commons