Going ‘All In’

Take a little lesson from James Bond and go “All in!”

Last week the legendary Sean Connery passed away at the ripe old age of 90. Wow, what a life. I’ve always been a huge Bond fan. As far back as I could remember I was a little obsessed with the character and the movies. Again, back to the old, “I was a weird kid,” thing. As soon as I found out what the theme song was for whatever new Bond movie was coming out, I would run out and buy the record. Then the cassette. Then the CD. Now I download it from the comfort of my yoga pants.

Chris Cornell’s You Know My Name, was my all-time favorite Bond song. It was the theme song for Casino Royale, also my favorite Bond movie. (Have we been here before? Have I said that before? I think I started a post once about life lessons from Casino Royale. Remind me to finish it. And you’ll want to click on that video because it’s kind of hard to find for some reason. On YouTube they only have the movie’s opening not the original Chris Cornell video)

Anywho, no disrespect to Connery’s Dr. No. There had been nothing like it when it came out. Then, through the years the Bond movies moved from campy to pretty much silly. I still loved them. So when Casino Royale arrived on the scene, the second one with Daniel Craig, they redirected the entire franchise history from being campy to holy hot hell! Again, it was nothing that we had seen before.

One of my favorite scenes in the movie is the last hand of poker being played in the high stakes game in Montenegro at the well, Casino Royale. Duh. Up to this point Bond’s already lost all his money and had the rebuy his way back into the game thanks to Felix Lightner the American CIA agent. Then someone tried to poison him and he had to run out to his car to restart his heart. In between when he had to kill a couple of baddies.

It was a long night.

They are down to the final hand and the tensions are high. As they are after you’ve committed murder and survived an attempted murder. It’s down between Bond and Le Chiffre, played beautifully by Mads Mikkelsen. My daughter loves him. She went as him for Halloween once. I can’t imagine where she gets her weirdness from.

When you watch the movie you think Bond is going to win. Right? He’s gonna win, right? (*bites nails.) And that’s the moment when he does it. All in.

via Gfycat

Ohhhhhhh, there’s no going back now. Bond’s done gone all in! The stakes are high. Really high. Here is a little life secret for you. The higher the stakes, the higher the reward. But with confidence, he goes all in.

There’s only one way to achieve what you want–all in!

When it comes to achieving our life’s goals and dreams there’s really only one way to do it. And that’s to go all in. You can’t dip your toe in the water to test it out and see if it’s going to work or not. You jump in with your whole damn self. You burn the ships so you have no other option. Have you heard that phrase before? When explorers were out conquering the new world, the commander would scuttle his ships so that the crew had no other option but to move forward. There is no going back. You commit to doing whatever it takes to succeed with what you want.

Have you noticed that when you give yourself an out, then a lot of times you’ll take it? I do that all the time when I’m cycling or running. Achieving goals, even a small one, require a “no looking back” attitude. Burn those ships, baby! We’re committed now.

Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.

My man

There’s a phrase my guy uses concerning his mountain bike racing and it applies across the board to pretty much everything. He says “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” Trust me, getting the life you want is hard work. But, that’s what makes it worth it. High stakes, high rewards.

“But what if I fail,” you say.

“What if you succeed,” I say.

Here’s a little pro-tip for you. You will fail. You’re gonna fail loads of times until you figure out how not to. Every failure moves you one step closer to success. Show me a person who has never failed and I’ll show you a person who has never succeeded.

Show me a person who has never failed and I’ll show you a person who has never succeeded.

This is the high-stakes poker game of life. You can play the hand you are dealt. You can play your opponents hand. You can even bluff your way to a point. Just don’t be afraid to go all in. When it comes to your life’s goals and dreams it’s truly only way.

Oh, and Bond won that game. Of course he won the game! So can you.

Now the posts come with a matching video! In the event you’d rather listen or watch instead of reading.

Disclaimer: My apologies for the outside noise, the fact that I kept hitting the camera, and an abundant use of the word “so.” Pretty sure I’ll get better at it as I go along!