“The Thirst” (Episode 139)
Interview with Sebastian Sanchez, MD at Heineken in Panama.
Have you ever wondered why most people give up and some continue? It’s true for endurance sports like triathlon and it’s true for creativity. People give up in marathons, but some people don’t, and people give up creative projects, and some people don’t.
So can we learn something about persisting with creative projects from endurance athletes? I decided to find out.
It started with an observation: Some people quit even though they shouldn’t have.
And some people endure.
The ones who endure have “The Thirst.”
The Thirst can be defined as “When you feel like you want to quit – but you do not – because you shouldn’t.”
I learned about The Thirst from Sebastian Sanchez who is both an innovator (he has been the Director Global Innovation at Heineken and is now MD at Heineken in Panama), but he is also ranked as one of the Top 1% Triathlon Athletes in the world. (He has done 75 half-marathons and countless marathons during his endurance career.)
Sebastian explained that people look at endurance athletes and think: “These are people who never give up!”
But that is a myth that Sebastian learned about the hard way: During a marathon in Frankfurt he collapsed after pushing himself too hard.
Great endurance athletes do give up sometimes.
The secret to endurance is not “never give up” – it’s “do not give up when you shouldn’t, even if it feels like you should.”
According to Sebastian the mentality that endurance athletes have is the ability to be pushed forward when they feel that they should give up – but ONLY (and this is key!), when pushing forward really is the right decision.
Sebastian calls this “force” that pushes endurance runners past the instinct to stop for “The Thirst”.
And this mindset is just the same for creativity. Some people keep pushing on with creative projects that are futile, or should have been killed long ago. But even more people quit creative projects just because they get that feeling of wanting to quit – even when they should really have been going.
They lack The Thirst.
But truly creative people have the ability to push themselves past that feeling of wanting to give up but ONLY when that push is the right thing to do.
They have The Thirst.
So what is the secret to being able to push through when you should?
According to Sebastian it’s; “When I hit that wall of wanting to give up I tell myself, ‘Yes, it’s hard, but I can do it’. I remind myself that I have a higher goal. And I have trained myself to stay calm and not be over-run by bursts of wanting-to-give-up-feelings.”
JK Rowling was rejected 12 times before she got a publisher. She shouldn’t have given up, and she didn’t. She had The Thirst.
Be inspired by endurance athletes like Sebastian and learn from their ability to push through with something even when they feel like giving up – but only the times when they know that is the right thing to do.
The next time you contemplate killing a creative project you love, ask yourself: “Do I have The Thirst?”
Should you really give it up, or should you actually keep going?
27
Aug