No White Flags
What can you accomplish when surrender is not an option?
“Disgraceful: for the soul to give up when the body is still going strong.” - Marcus Aurelius
If you listened to the podcast Wednesday, you heard the inspirational story of former NFL player Steve Gleason who was diagnosed with ALS following the end of his playing career. Gleason was an undrafted free agent who played his way onto a roster and managed to spend eight seasons in the NFL before his retirement and diagnosis.
To work so hard to become an elite athlete, only to have your physical abilities taken away by a rare and fatal neuromuscular disease would have caused many to wallow in self-pity and give up. But not Gleason. Shortly after his diagnosis he formed a foundation to push for the advancement, innovation and development of lifesaving assistive technologies for others suffering from ALS and similar neuromuscular diseases. At their first meeting Gleason stated plainly: “There will be no white flags.” Through more than a decade of living with ALS, Gleason has kept his promise and stayed in the fight, helping to pass critical legislation in 2015 and 2018 that made those technologies medicare and medicaid reimbursable.
Gleason is a powerful example of what can be accomplished when you refuse to give up. He is the living embodiment of what President Calvin Coolidge called the supreme character trait a man can possess: persistence.
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence,” Coolidge said. “Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
Persistence is a skill that develops over time through consistency of action and sheer force of will. It requires intensity and commitment, but more than anything, it requires us to set a powerful intention, outwork our self-doubt, and create successful outcomes by pushing until we reach a point where it would be unreasonable to fail.
Unfortunately, most of us wave the white flag before we reach our goal. We allow the mind and soul to falter when the body still has the capacity for more. And that, Marcus Aurelius reminds us, is disgraceful.
For most men, the white flag is always there, ready to be waved the second things get uncomfortable. It keeps us poor. It keeps us fat. It keeps us unsatisfied. It keeps us self-loathing.
But what if we said “No White Flags,” and meant it? What if surrender was not an option? What would that look like?
It would look like getting up earlier, staying later, eliminating distractions, setting goals, embracing fear, prioritizing action over motion and keeping promises to ourselves, because we would understand that the clock is ticking and we are made for so much more. It would look a lot like Steve Gleason.
There’s no magic formula. When we refuse to waive the flag we march forward. One more mile. One more rep. One more brick in the wall. Patient, consistent, relentless execution.
To again quote President Coolidge, “The slogan 'Press On!' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” What could you accomplish if you refused to surrender when you still had the ability to persist?
You can support Team Gleason and give yourself a powerful reminder that surrender is not an option by buying a “No White Flags” t-shirt here.
[For more on persistence, tenacity and other Stoic virtues pick up a copy of In Valor: 365 Stoic Meditations for First Responders today! The ebook version is available as of May 28, 2024 and the paperback edition will release on June 18, 2024.]
