Why YOU Need a Burled Arch—It’s Not What You Think

Pro tools for decreasing burnout and finishing strong 

All Iditarod mushers know the words “Burled Arch.” What sounds like a strange landmark to anyone else is excitement—and relief—to their ears. 

The Burled Arch means victory. It’s the term mushers use for the long-awaited finish line. 

The destination each team hopes to see at the end of their strenuous trek. 

The term “Destiny” comes from the same word as Destination. Destiny is not “Fate” (“Well, whatever happens to me, that’s my Destiny.”) No, Destiny is a pre-decided Destination that I am determined to reach!

With “Burled Arch Destiny” all we need is the map, the skill, and the will to get there! Maps are createable. Skill is teachable. There’s only one question left—do you have the WILL?

Finding and honing the will is easier than you think. What I would tell people is this: “Dream big and then learn the steps to get you there.”

It starts with these questions: 

  • Where are you now along this trail?
  • Why do you want this Destiny?
  • What will you need to Learn?
  • What skills will you need to develop?
  • What role will others play in helping you reach this Burled Arch?
  • What are measurable steps along the way?
  • What is the NEXT step? (And then take it!) 

If you continue to ask these questions and then take the next step, nothing can stop you from reaching your “Burled Arch Destiny.”

As you prepare for your destination, here are some “pro tips from the trail” that every leader needs if they really want to make it to the finish line. 

These mental checks help guard against frustration, burn-out, confusion—and when you’ve wandered, they put you back on the path to success. 

It Might Get Messy

No one gets it right the first time. No one reaches their potential in one day, week, or year. 

It’s not going to be perfect, but that’s okay. Because anything worth doing is worth doing UGLY! 

Ugly is real—and it leads us to continuous improvement!

Remember how bad we all were when we first started learning to play sports as little kids?  Eventually, if the will persists, the skill improves—and you make JV and then on to varsity! 

It takes talent, but as my mentor John Maxwell says, “Talent is NEVER enough!”

Every Checkpoint is a Victory. 

After each Next Step, celebrate small victories like crazy!

Celebrate any progress—yes, any—toward your Burled Arch Destiny. If you learn a new skill, take a new class, spend 30 minutes in dreaming and mapping, whatever it is, mark it down and celebrate the wins!  

This is the fuel needed to keep it up! Why keep running if you think you’re not going anywhere?  

Mark your progress, even the small steps, and celebrate!

Find the Right Belief 

What the roots drink, the fruits think! Our beliefs as leaders, as team members, and as people have a lot of power over what we actually accomplish. 

Before 1957, some athletes believed that a sub-4 minute mile was impossible. They kept trying, but after so many failures, it was easier to chalk the record up to fantasy—a goal potentially just too strenuous for the human body. 

Then came Roger Bannister. He started his running career at 17 with an already impressive 4:24 mile/minute pace. Eight years into his career, still no one else had broken the 4-minute mile. 

But on May 6, 1954, during an Oxford meet and winds of up to twenty-five mph—that just happened to die down right before his race—Roger Bannister completed the mile in a crowd-rousing 3 minutes and 59.6 seconds.  

What’s more astounding?

He held the record for only three weeks. 

And within three years of Roger’s ground-breaking physical feat, 16 other runners also cracked it. 

Once they could visualize the path to victory, it seemed like anyone could achieve the “impossible.” 

Check yourself: where could beliefs be limiting you and where are they advancing you?

Partner up with Inspiring Individuals

Lastly, make sure to find an encouraging friend, accountability partner, or coach. When you start to doubt (which we all do!), when you want to quit, you’ll need them to cheer you on!

Fight the self-defeating voices with everything you have! Saturate yourself in can-do positivity!  Find a voice, someone that lifts you up, and listen to their positive beliefs. 

I listen (almost daily) to speakers that are highly positive and motivational. Why? Because I need it too!

Read, listen, watch anything you can to make sure your tank stays full of the belief in possibilities!

Keep dreaming. Keep moving. Keep growing. Keep doing! 

The Burled Arch is ahead. 

Do These 4 Things to Establish a Winner’s Mindset

You may have heard that no one can affect your thoughts on a situation or event…unless you let them. 

But that’s only empowering so far as you know how to secure a positive mindset, one that sees clearly, evaluate honestly, and can problem solve for success. 

If a proper mindset helps separate the tenacious competitors from the casual competitors, how do we plot the right path to victory?

Here are 4 mental disciplines to practice every day that will keep you focused and moving forward with a Winner’s Mindset. 

1. Check Your Pack

If a dog on the Iditarod trail is getting sick, tired, or injured, the musher has to catch the problem early or risk losing the dog—as well as the race. 

It might look tough to push through. 

It might look tenacious to pass the rest-stop. 

But they risk losing more than time if they don’t check their pack when problems arise. 

Your thoughts are like your dog pack. They pull the sled. (They can also derail it.)

 Check them early; check them consistently! 

When you are in the middle of an obstacle, pause and ask yourself “What am I thinking about this situation?” 

It may seem silly—to think about what you’re thinking about. But the purpose of the exercise is to give you momentary pause to “check your pack.” 

It will interrupt your anxieties or opinions about the situation and allow you to evaluate more clearly: Are they the right thoughts? Are they true thoughts? 

You’ll be surprised at how many misconceptions slip in to throw off your whole day. 

light-dogsled

2. Keep a Light Sled 

Keeping the sled light means I don’t over-pile it with negative self-talk—otherwise that weighty sled will start slipping down the slope. 

I have the most trouble with my mental game whenever I find myself connecting unrelated events of the past to my present mom. Faced with an obstacle or failure, I immediately start to fight thoughts tying every other failure in my life to this situation. 

If the thoughts are spiraling you into rehearsing all previous failures and short-comings—STOP THE RUN-AWAY SLED.

IF (and it’s a big if) you discover some bad patterns or choices that do connect some repetitive obstacles—then work to identify the pattern. Lighten the load by choosing an opportunity to grow instead of dooming yourself to repetition.  

Identify the pattern and work to correct that pattern. 

Your “lot in life” is not to ALWAYS be the losing sled. 

Start owning the mindset that you can win—even if you’ve never won before—there is always a first!

dogsled-trail-image

3. Evolve the Trail

If you remember, the Evolve stage is where we look at the lessons learned, understand the needed course corrections, and immediately work to implement the changes into our daily running. 

John C. Maxwell has an incredible book called Failing Forward and it one that I recommend to all leaders. 

One of the take-aways from this book is that when people fail they usually hold onto the emotional pain of the failure instead of the lesson that they could have learned.  

He goes on to counsel that we should forget the emotional hit from the failure and work to remember what the failure will teach us. 

This has led to an internal mantra for me that echoes “Learn the lesson; forget the pain.”

Of course, that’s easier said than done. And this doesn’t mean that we don’t remember the hit—we just don’t allow it to become emotional baggage that weighs us down. 

(Remember point # 2–keep the sled light!)

I am a firm believer in pain being one of the chief teachers in life. We want to avoid the pain, so we don’t do whatever action caused us the pain last time. 

It doesn’t mean we choose not to race again. 

It means we improve—we get better and we try not to make the same mistake twice.

4. The Winner’s Mindset

In order to change the outcome we have to change our actions. In order to change our actions – we have to change our thoughts and beliefs.

Identify the best and brightest and don’t be afraid to copy some of their awesome! 

Ask: What would the top competitors be thinking in this same situation? 

Consistently identifying the best practices of proven success stories can lead you to elevated thinking, action, and outcomes. 

But the first step is to take ownership of this area (your thoughts are your thoughts). Remember: a thought cannot be removed—it can only be replaced with another thought. 

Whether that thought is good or whether that thought is self-defeating is up to you.

Choose with me to “Own” the winning mindset today!