If I told you to drop down right now and give me 500 push-ups, what would go through your head?
A lot of you would think, “Screw you, Jason.” Some of you would say, “There’s no way I can do 500 push-ups.” A few might even say, “I can’t do five.” And a rare few of you would say, “Let’s go, I’ve got this.”
But here’s what’s fascinating about mindset: when we’re confronted with a big challenge, our first thought is almost always why, and our second thought is I can’t do that.
I’ve started running a drill at my speaking events. I get a crowd up and tell them we’re warming up with 500 push-ups. Watch the room. People immediately sit back down. “Oh no, I can’t do 500 push-ups.”
Here’s the reality, though: every single person reading this email can do 500 push-ups. I don’t care if you haven’t done a push-up in 10, 20, or 30 years. I don’t care if you’ve never done one in your life. You can still do 500 push-ups.
The only difference between you and someone who’s already there is time and effort.
Let me walk you through it. Say you’ve never done a single push-up. Day one, we get you down and you do a quarter of a push-up — just a little movement down and back up. That’s it. We work on that for a week. Week two, you’re doing half a push-up. Week three, three-quarters. Week four, congratulations — you complete your first full push-up on your knees.
Two months later, you’re doing one full push-up. Now add just one more push-up per week from there. In about five years, guys — you’re doing 500 push-ups.
The math always works. So you can’t say “I can’t.” What you have to change is your mindset.
I see this everywhere — in business, in relationships, in hard conversations. Right now on our team, we’re pushing to accelerate what we’re building, and I hear the same thing from people: “I don’t know if we can do that.”
Here’s the difference between average and elite. The mindset should never be “I can’t.” The mindset should be “how can I?” That’s how tier-one teams think — whether it’s a military unit, a business, or an athletic team. They don’t dwell on why they can’t. They ask: what training do we need? Who do we bring onto the team? What’s the plan to get there?
I didn’t come from wealth. I’m not 6’5″ and covered in muscle. If you looked at me before I became a SEAL, you wouldn’t have picked me out of a lineup as “future Navy SEAL.” It would’ve been easy for me to say, “I can’t do this — I don’t come from that background.”
Instead, I asked: why not me?
So here’s my challenge to you this week. The next time something catches you off guard — something big, something uncomfortable — and your first instinct is why would I do that, flip it. Ask why not?
Stop saying “I can’t.” Start asking “why can’t I?”
It doesn’t matter your race, your background, your gender, your height, your weight, your starting point. None of that determines your ceiling. Only your mindset does.
Let’s go. 500 push-ups. Starting now.
YOUTUBE LINK:Â https://youtu.be/0ZeTI1RvRhU