I’ve just spent an interesting hour casting my eye over John ‘Lofty’ Wiseman’s book, the SAS Survival Handbook: The Ultimate Guide to Surviving Anywhere.
What I found most interesting was the pyramid diagram he had in the introduction. At the top of the pyramid there’s a little triangle and inside is written the word ‘kit’ (right clothing, right tools, etc.). Underneath that, a big chunk, right across the pyramid is ‘Knowledge‘ (your skills, your know-how, knowledge of the terrain and what’s edible, etc.). Then at the base, is the third chunk ‘The Will to Live.’ This is the one he says is the most important.
The Will to Live – Having What It Takes to Keep Going
Wiseman says, if you’ve got the will to live, you can make all sorts of mistakes and still come through because you’ve got what it takes to keep going. I think this is equally true in somewhat less extreme conditions, when in our ordinary lives, things are tough, or on a knife edge. It’s why Churchill famously said at one point, “Never, never, never, give up.” And why is that so important? Because that kind of perseverance produces endurance – and with endurance comes staying power to see it through, even if you don’t know quite how you’re going to make it through. This ability can be the difference that makes the difference in everyday life.
If you’re running a business or challenged in some way, it may take you time to find a way through. It may also take time to find the right people to help guide you through a transition or a change. If you don’t have ‘the will to live’, to just keep going and go on, you may give up prematurely. In the wild maybe you get sleepy and lie down, in ordinary life maybe you stop trying and just start going through the motions.
Can You Cultivate a Will to Live?
Is this a learnable skill? From my work with leaders, I can tell you it is. Why? Because you can learn to become more resilient, you can learn to endure and you can learn to persevere. If you can do these three things you get to stay alive in every sense, physically, emotionally, economically – and then you have the chance to come through, sometimes in quite unexpected ways.
I think it’s worth recognizing that this is true not just in extreme weather conditions at the North Pole, but in life as a whole. It’s true in a relationship, it’s true when facing personal challenges, it’s true in a health crisis, it’s true in a business. So whether or not you ever get around to reading the SAS Survival Handbook, the will to live is something I think all of us might want to cultivate.
Here’s What You Can Do:
- Learn how to build your stamina to keep on keeping on
- Learn how to persevere and endure
- Learn how to become more resilient
Ultimately each of these has much more to do with your mental rather than your physical state. That’s why knowing how to train your brain is so important. This is true for you and it’s true for a team.
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