Burn The Boats – Bill Wooditch
MUST HAVE RESOURCES
SUMMARY
Bill Wooditch, a keynote speaker, a peak-performance business training coach, and an author of the best-seller Always Forward!, talks about how we can burn the boats and just move forward so we can live a life of value.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Existence is safe, but living involves risks and rewards.
Don’t just exist. Choose to live.
If you have a plan B, you’re not totally immersed.
You can influence the result, but you have to own the process.
Fears are socially learned.
Two types of fear: Fear of loss and fear of change.
Understand the difference between fear and danger.
Measure success in your own way.
We can use the fuel from our doubts in a positive way.
TRANSCRIPTION: BURN THE BOATS – BILL WOODWITCH
Luis Congdon
Hey, Thriving Launchers. Today, we have a special episode for you.
When I first started my entrepreneurial pursuit, trying to start my own business was scary, and I always seem to have one foot in and one foot out.
Maybe you have this in your own business, or you have it in some area of your life where you’re not fully committed, couldn’t burn the boats, and you’re not entirely getting those results.
Today, I want to share with you as a part of my own journey with that and bring on a very special guest to talk to you about how to burn the boats and fully commit to having the results you want in your life fearlessly.
Kamala Chambers
Our guest today is Bill Wooditch. He’s a keynote speaker and a peak-performance business training coach. He’s the owner of a hundred million dollar company and a best-selling author.
We’re excited to have him on the show talking about how to burn the boats.
Bill, welcome to the show. Are you feeling ready to launch?
Bill Woodwitch
I feel ready. It is an honor and a pleasure to be on your show. Thank you.
Kamala Chambers
It’s great to have you here.
I know you do so much in your life. You do so much in your work. The thing that we’re excited to talk to you about today is how we can burn the boats and be the CEO and leader of your life. I’d love to hear what that means to you.
What does it mean to burn the boats and live your life as a leader every day?
Burn The Boats And Be The Leader Of Your Life
Bill Woodwitch
Let’s compare and contrast two things. Let’s compare life and existence.
Some of us choose existence because it’s safe. We think it’s safe and we believe there’s security in the safe. Others choose life, and there’s a risk-reward proposition when it comes to life.
If you are going to live your best life, you’re going to live right now, not connected to the past, not held hostage by the past, and not looking so far into the future where you’re not living in the present.
The primary responsibility of the CEO is to build shareholder value or to create value for the shareholders.
Who’s the biggest and most significant shareholder in the value proposition of your life? It’s you.
You got to take the personal responsibility, the accountability, and learn the way to be the CEO of your life.
Kamala Chambers
I love it. Go ahead, Luis.
Luis Congdon
Yeah.
What that reminds me a lot is something that Jack Canfield said in our interview and something that Anthony Robbins has said a lot in his talks as well. It’s something that I hear a lot from different people around. It’s taking responsibility for the results that you have in your life.
Bill Woodwitch
Yes.
I think I have experienced this and I’m sure you have as well.
Own The Process To Burn The Boats
Bill Woodwitch
This is one of the most important things I can say. You have to own the discipline in the process. You cannot always own the result.
You can influence the result, but you have to own the process.
That means your habits. It’s the discipline that forces and enforces the practice and then, doing everything possible to affect the favorable outcome.
Some things are beyond our control where there could be politics involved or could be outside forces, extraneous to us where we do not have the control. We have to influence our habits, our accountability, and our responsibility. First, have to look in the mirror and say, “If it’s to me, it’s up to me.” That’s ownership.
Kamala Chambers
What do you think the main advantages are when you burn the boats and live this way?
Bill Woodwitch
It’s like an analogy of a boat in a dock, and I was recently on the Steve Harvey Show, and I gave this analogy to the viewers.
Reason Why We Don’t Burn The Boats
Bill Woodwitch
Picture a dock. There’s a dock, and there’s a lot of people on that dock. It’s crowded. It’s the dock where people think it’s safe, look for comfort, and aren’t challenged because they’re risk averse.
There are two big buckets of fear in people when they burn the boats.
- Fear of loss.
- Fear of change.
Those are socially learned fears. We crave opportunity or want opportunity, but we’re resistant to take the risk to get that reward.
So that boat of opportunity is always leaving. Some people are on the dock, and they’re frustrated because they want to dive on and jump on that boat of opportunity, so they get right up to the edge of the dock. They have their one foot on the dock. They have their toes on the boat, and that boat is always leaving.
Do you know where they end at but they don’t make a choice? They end up in the water. And all there is are jellyfish and sharks. It’s cold and nasty.
Burn The Boats To Live Life
Bill Woodwitch
You got to make a choice. Get to the edge of that dock, and you got to jump. You jump when you’re prepared, when you know there’s risk, and when you’re willing to pay the price to get the gain.
The boat of opportunity isn’t always a safe harbor.
Bill Woodwitch
You got to get out there and live not just exist. Choose life.
The species does not support standing still and stasis. It’s all about choosing life and moving forward.
Luis Congdon
One of the things you’re talking about brings up for me when one of my coaches said to me, “Luis, you have to burn the boats. You have to make a decision.” This was when I was choosing through going to the entrepreneurial pursuit, and Kamala had been pushing me, but I was still one foot in and one foot out.
I was still going online looking for potential jobs I could take. I was working with Kamala, but I was sending applications to jobs because I didn’t know if this was going to work and I wasn’t sure if I was cut out for it.
I had complete trust in Kamala’s ability to coach me and take us to the next place of running our business, but I wasn’t sure if I have the skills, the knowledge, and the certain innate traits that are required of someone when they want to become an entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurs Need To Burn The Boats
Luis Congdon
As many people would want it, there are many people out of that group that just don’t have the particular intrinsic drive and characteristics. As entrepreneurs, we constantly have to take those big leaps and burn the boats, and I didn’t know if I wanted to take that.
My coach said to me, “Luis, you’ve got to burn the boats. You’ve made it on the island. You’re starting to do this business, but as long as you’re thinking about getting on the boat and leaving this island, you’ll never have the full success you deserve.”
After that call, I said, “Okay. I’m going to burn the boats.” I stopped looking for jobs. I stopped responding to anybody who responded to me with my resume. And I just decided, “That’s it. I can’t do this anymore. I’ve made a decision, and I will not have one foot in and one foot out.”
But what do you say to your coach and clients? I know you work with people in all sorts of levels of success.
You’re somebody who had an incredible amount of success yourself, so I know you’re seeing individuals who are in the higher tier of where they’re at in all these different areas of their life. But all of us come to that point where we have to burn the boats, and we’re scared.
What do you say to people when they’re coming to you, and they’re saying “I want to be successful in my business and I want to take it to the next level.” And you’re noticing that they’re one foot in and one foot out?
Kamala Chambers
I just have to say first that when you did burn the boats, it was the happiest decision you’ve ever brought to my life.
Luis Congdon
Thank you.
Bill Woodwitch
After the show, I’m going to get your address. I’m going to send you my book, Always Forward! And the proceeds for Always Forward! go to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund so it supports the U.S military and I’m very honored to do that.
In the book, you’re going to find a session that’s in alignment with what you said. It’s called “Burn your boats.” The Greeks and the Spaniards, when they attack an island, they burn the boats to show the men all the way commitment.
Burn The Boats To Have Success
Bill Woodwitch
For you, that means immersion and investment. That means total immersion. That’s a key and critical success indicator. What you said, some people want it, but you gotta need it.
I remember I did burn the boats because I didn’t want to go back where I was before. I thought the only way is forward. To do that, I had to take all forms of “security” and burn the boats.
When I talk with people about fear, which is your question about “How do I talk with them about fear?” I want them to understand the difference between fear and danger. I want them to know that danger is an imminent threat from man, insect, reptile.
Fear is that part of the imagination that its tentacles can wrap around us and keep us right where we are because we go to a worst case scenario.
Coaching Process To Burn The Boats
Bill Woodwitch
So we need to take a dispassionate look at what fear is. Ask “What would happen? What’s the worst thing that could happen if I do this?” And then, take an intelligent risk that we have to line out and use the top part of our brain, the neo frontal cortex, to think of steps through.
It helps to get out of the emotional stem of the brain and get up to the top part of the brain, and say, “What’s going on here? What’s the downside?” And then, “What is it that I have to have?”
That’s part of the process of coaching.
Kamala Chambers
I would love to hear from you. What’s one way we know that we’re still clinging to that boat and that we didn’t burn the boats all the way?
What’s one way that we can see it and what’s one thing we can do today to make that change and burn the boats?
Luis Congdon
Before you answer that Bill, Kamala, something that Bill said earlier that I like is he talked about immersion. That’s something definitely for me is super important to be immersed when you burn the boats
Learning a language is probably the most accurate way to describe that experience of immersion for me because growing up, I spoke Spanish. Later, I lost all of my Spanish and came to The United States being adopted, and I was immersed in English, and then I forgot my Spanish.
Up until the time I went to Costa Rica and then went back to Colombia, I never fully was able to grasp my language again until I got fully immersed. Once I was able to burn the boats, I overcame those fears head on, and I didn’t have a choice but to move forward. I just love that word you were using about immersion.
Bill Woodwitch
You just mentioned a couple of key phrases that will answer the question.
Your Language When You Did Not Burn The Boats
Bill Woodwitch
It’s language, and it’s self-talk.
If you are still clinging and didn’t burn the boats, you are using language like this, “If it doesn’t work out, I will –” “If this doesn’t work, I will – ” “I think I want to do this.” So now, you’re dabbling. You not immersed. You are just dabbling. You’re wishing and hoping. Wish and hope will not cash the checks of a result.
You’ve got to look in the mirror. And sometimes, people look in the mirror, and they see denial and delusion. They see what they want.
You got to look in the mirror, and you got to use both of your head which drives, and your gut, which governs to ask the question, “Am I immersed? Am I fully committed? Or am I just kidding myself and hoping and wishing?”
If you’ve got plan B, you didn’t burn the boats. And I can argue that with entrepreneurs, and I do. You got to have a plan B.
If you have a plan B, you aren’t totally invested and immersed.
Luis Congdon
Here’s my next question to follow up with that Bill.
I’m going to get real vulnerable here with you guys because I know that you tune in on a regular basis and we’ve got to know each other.
I was earlier just talking about how I was able to burn the boats, and I know you have gone through that experience in your life at some point, and it’s an incredible feeling to make that level of commitment. But, what do you say to your clients?
Voices You Hear When You Try To Burn The Boats
Luis Congdon
And again, to get vulnerable, I did burn the boats with our business, but quite often, I have this nagging feeling like “Maybe I’m not good enough.” “Maybe I’m going to fail.” ”Maybe I’m not going to get the results that other people around me are getting,” that I’m just as amazed by it.
It’s the goals I’m looking at other people and going, “I want to get there. They have this astounding $100,000/month.” For me, that’s like “Oh my gosh. I want that.” I see people around me, and one of my coaches is doing that.
I go to work, and I go, “Man. I don’t feel like I’m going to get that result.” It’s a voice and a sensation that I have inside me that I know it’s taking away energy, inspiration, and my ability to get that result because there’s that doubt which is not letting me burn the boats. And I have a tough time knowing what to do to engage that voice.
Bill Woodwitch
First of all, forgive yourself for being human because we all have that voice. It’s the volume you have to turn down the voice.
Here’s how you do that.
Measure Success In Your Own Way When You Burn The Boats
Bill Woodwitch
You have to understand that the external measurement of success by comparing to other people is a relative standard of comparison. It’s a zero-sum game because you’re always looking to compare yourself by lack and want instead of appreciation and gratitude, first, for your health, then for the ability to burn the boats and to do something like living your life of value.
The first thing is to measure success in your own way.
It’s liberating to know that you do have shadows of doubts but you can use the fuel from that uncertainty in a positive way to recoup your energy stores which are needed to burn the boats. Then you can say, “This is normal. This is part of being human. This is what it is. Now, let me just keep stepping forward.”
The more action you take, the lesser that fear has a chance to percolate through your brain.
Kamala Chambers
That’s beautiful.
I want to talk a little bit more about action. What are the things that you would say go out and do right now to apply this today?
Bill Woodwitch
I think this is crucial when I was coming up through my career, an obvious observation about one. Sometimes, we can’t see the things we do that others have to point them out. They said, “The difference with you Wood is you’re able to think something and then do it in a very short period. So you’re following your thought with a very decisive action.”
This is the key.
Take Action To Burn The Boats
Bill Woodwitch
The first I think you need to do is go back to the ancient Greeks. Go to the Oracle of Delphi and Socrates and know yourself. That’s the first part. Before action, you got to know. This is crucial for your listeners.
You got to know what it is you want, what it takes to get it, and what you’re willing to give up to get it.
Then, your actions are going to follow up from there.
Know What You Really Want To Burn The Boats
Kamala Chambers
I love that. I think knowing what you want is such a big piece of it that people often overlook.
They look at what they don’t want more than what do want in the very core of who they are.
Kamala Chambers
Absolutely, yeah.
Luis Congdon
Something beautiful about what you just told Bill about people know what they’re afraid of. But they don’t fully know what they want that is a big one for me.
I know that growing in my life, I’ve had certain teachings that have been handed down to me that I’ve adopted through submersion and being indoctrinated by other people around me.
I know, for example, growing up, I didn’t date very much. And then at one point, I got to this place where I wanted to have a girlfriend. I wanted to date and to fall in love. And I had to become okay with the idea that I wanted to experience an intimate relationship with a partner, and then all the stuff that came with that because I didn’t think it was okay for me to want that.
Later on, I decided that “I want to make a really good living. I’m tired of being paid $10/hour and work hard. I appreciate the work that I’m doing now at $10/hour, but it’s very hard to live off of this.”
Then, confronted the fears around that like “What if I started making $1,000/week or $3,000/week?” Then becoming okay with that and saying “What I want is I want financial abundance and financial freedom, and I’m afraid that that’s not all right. I want this, and it would feel great.”
Getting in touch with that desire and saying “This is what I want, and it’s okay for me to want that,” is another level of burning the boats for me. Because once I got clear with that, it became very easy for me to hone in and do the things necessary to have those results or those experiences in my life.
Bill Woodwitch
That’s an excellent point.
You have to have laser clarity, and you have to be all right with the sacrifice, what it takes, and the feeling that “This is okay to want more for myself to provide lifestyle options for my loved ones and me.” That’s got to be okay.
Kamala Chambers
This is all such great stuff, and you’ve given us many gems to walk away with.
Before we close here, is there any last little treasure you want to leave us?
Bill Woodwitch
I’ll leave you with a pen. I’m going to give you metaphorical pen. I want your listeners to know this.
Burn The Boats With Purpose
Bill Woodwitch
Every day, you are writing the story of your life. The ink is your thoughts. The bold strokes you make on each page get bolder every day when you burn the boats, move forward, and own the maxim. If it’s to be, it’s up to you. Make it a story that you’d want others to learn from, to read, and prosper from. That’s legacy, and to me, that’s about contribution, collaboration, and the furtherance of the species. And that defines my purpose.
Kamala Chambers
Bill, it has been such a pleasure to have you on the show.
Thriving Launchers, thanks for tuning in. I invite you all to go out today and look for a way to burn the boats down.
It’s been great to have you all tuning in and keep thriving everyone.
MUST HAVE RESOURCES
