Spartan Up!: A Take-No-Prisoners Guide to Overcoming Obstacles and Achieving Peak Performance in Life

by Joe De Sena

The Stoics of ancient Greece believed that the greatest obstacle was not death, not pain, not suffering, but cowardice. By training themselves to accept what they could not change and to be courageous in front of any obstacle, they eliminated their fear of death. Tibetan monks identified the lack of control over the mind as the greatest obstacle. So the monks spend days making sand mandala paintings, and when they’re done, they sweep away their work with a broom. It’s not about the destination; it’s about the journey and the process that gives them the opportunity to practice awareness, focus, and control. Kung fu students have to overcome the obstacle of fatigue. So the master has his students carry railroad ties to the top of the mountain and then carry them back down the mountain. There is no productive accomplishment, but the student will no longer find it challenging to run up the mountain carrying only his own body weight. Michael Phelps’s coach Bob Bowman identified the greatest obstacle as unknown challenges that might cause his athlete to lose focus. So Bowman prepared Phelps for the Olympics by picking him up late before a meet, so he’d have to skip a meal; or by breaking his goggles before practice, so that they’d fill up with water while he swam. When Phelps’s goggles broke during the 2012 Olympics, he was able to push through it to win gold.