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The British rowing team had not won a gold medal since 1912. By all measures, they didn’t have a good rowing program.

Then something changed. In anticipation of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the team developed a useful strategy that changed everything. They went from being an average rowing team to winning Olympic Gold.

Within their one strategy is embedded several key principles that are essential to epic success. Additionally, within their strategy is a plethora of scientific backing in performance psychology.

In performance psychology, there is a concept known as “implementation intentions,” which is a strategy to plan for the worst — so you can perform your best.

Example: Often, endurance athletes have to pre-plan the conditions in which they will quit an event. If they don’t predetermine when they will stop, they will stop premature. Navy Seals have the 40% rule, which means you usually hit mental resistance at about 40% of your capacity — and that’s where most people quit.

If you have an implementation intention in place, you can overcome the tendency to stop when something starts becoming uncomfortable or difficult.

At the most basic level — an implementation intention is a pre-planned response to a specific obstacle.

What makes this idea so powerful is that — in addition to visualizing the achievement of a goal, you’re also visualizing the process. You’re thinking of all the ways it could go wrong. And you have a simple and triggered response to overcome any obstacle.

The best example I’ve ever heard of the use of implementation intentions was the British rowing team of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

They developed a one-question response to EVERY SINGLE DECISION they made. This one question allowed them to measure every situation, decision, and obstacle — and to not get derailed where most people do.

With every decision or opportunity, every member of the team asked themselves: WILL IT MAKE THE BOAT GO FASTER?

Example: you get invited to a late night party the night before training. WILL IT MAKE THE BOAT GO FASTER?

If the answer is no… then the decision is no.

Tempted to eat a doughnut? WILL IT MAKE THE BOAT GO FASTER?

The British rowing team used this single question — a profound implementation intention — to quickly escalate their unity, skills, conditioning, and training.

They destroyed their competition and won GOLD.

Meditating on this story, Spartan Race founder and author of SPARTAN UP!, Joe De Sena, said… this type of thinking may seem extreme or extensive to some people. But the question is, ‘Do you really want to achieve your goal?’ If you do, then there are no excuses.

The question is: Do you want to compete with someone who has this mindset? Someone who is THIS deliberate about EVERY decision they make? Someone this thoughtful about their life, and how they respond to challenges?