Milestones (NQM001)
I am happy to write my first NQM post about Rob Jones (USMC, ret). There are few people on this planet who embody and live the Never Quit mindset as much as him. Rob was a USMC combat engineer, tasked with sweeping areas for IEDs and other explosives ahead of the main convoy or patrol. A pressure plate found him in 2009 in Afghanistan, and he woke up a few days later as a double above the knee amputee.
He has won a bronze medal in the 2012 Paralympics, biked over 5000 miles across the country, and just last year ran 31 marathons in 31 days in 31 different cities. He leads by example. Please check out his website and fundraising iniatives here.
Rob Jones On The Jocko Willink Podcast
Rob Jones is so badass, he has been on Jocko’s podcast not once, but twice. He shares a lot of great wisdom from his journal (a tremendous read). A couple of highlgihts from the podcast are below:
“Everything else I am trying to do I am trying to be an example. When I was trying to ride a bike again, I didn’t think it was possible at all, until I saw someone else doing it, and it made everything easier. Once you realize its possible, it makes it so much easier, because you know it can be done. I want to be an example for people to look at and they see me and they say well, they may not be trying to run 31 marathons in 31 days in 31 cities, or ride their bike across the country. But they can say, there is a double above the knee amputee who ran 31 marathons in 31 days, I can probably go walk on the treadmill.”
“The conscious is in control of forming habits. Every time we are faced with a decision of whether to quit, slow down and rationalize a reason why that’s ok, or keep pressing forward, one of these habits is strengthened. The more times we choose to push on, the stronger that habit will become. It takes time and purposeful effort for these habits to become ingrained, but once a person develops them in the gym doing something as simple as choosing to keep rowing hard for another minute they can apply what they learned to the rest of their lives. They will learn to take the harder path so that hey are challenged more They will learn to put extra effort into daily tasks. Who you are depends entirely on your influences, and the level of effort that is put into forging yourself into what you desire to be."
Rob Jones Journal
Rob’s journal (check it out here) on his website is a true treasure trove of knowledge and represents a manual of sorts for the motivational mindset. A few excerpts:
"It is easy to be motivated to succeed in the beginning of an endeavor, and when you are close to the end. The most difficult part, and the part where people quit, is when they are in the thick of it, and it is unclear whether they have the strength and the stamina to make it the rest of the way. While I never actually doubted my ability to walk again during my recovery, I am certainly subject to the inner monologue rationalizing why it is okay to quit, or to not push myself to the goal that I have written down on paper. One way that I have recognized to aid in shutting that monologue the F up is celebrating milestones. The hardest part of working towards a goal is when we are either making slow progress, or negative progress, and having the patience and the confidence to know that the improvements we make over the long periods as opposed to the short periods are what matter. Milestones are what remind us that we are making progress, even if it isn’t apparent every day."
"I can vs. I Can’t: I suggest removing the phrase, “I can’t,” from your lexicon and replacing it with, “I can’t YET.” Do this, so that you don’t risk being on your death bed saying, “I didn’t.”
"Use the weight: I am making a bigger difference on a larger scale than I ever would have expected. And it is all because starting from the moment I woke up in the hospital, I did one thing: I figured out how to Use the Weight"
