Keep Moving Forward: Burning The Boats So There's No Turning Back

In today's episode we discuss fully committing to change and conquer the fear of failure that can lead to half-commitments.  

Transcript

 Welcome back to the Keep Moving Forward podcast, your weekly dose of real talk about weight loss, personal transformation, and the mindset shifts that help us show up, stay consistent and stop living in the past tense. I'm your host, Eric, AKA, the used two guy, and today we're going to talk about something bold, something that sounds a little bit intense at first, but hear me out.

Because if you're serious about making a change, if you're tired of starting over, feeling stuck or losing momentum, this might be the mindset shift you've been looking for. Today we're talking about the idea of burning the boats. It's that moment when you say there's no turning back. Let's get into it.

Let's start with the story behind the phrase. In 1519, Spanish conquistador, Hernan Cortez arrived in Mexico with a fleet of ships. And a mission to conquer the Aztec Empire.

He knew morale was shaky. His member exhausted, outnumbered, and in unfamiliar territory. So what did he do? He burned the ships literally. He set fire to them, sank them. He destroyed the only way back. Why? Because he wanted to send a clear message. There's no retreat, no going home. We either succeed or we perish. Okay. Now look, I'm not endorsing 16th century military tactics or genocide here, but the metaphor is memorable because too often in life, and especially in the world of weight loss and personal transformation, we tend to leave a trap door open.

We keep the ships anchored just in case we say things like, I'll give it a try, or if this plan doesn't work, I can always go back or maybe be all too familiar. I'll start on Monday. But that mindset, keeping your ships intact makes it way too easy to quit when things get hard. Burning the boats means we fully commit.

We stop negotiating with ourselves, we go all in. So let's talk about what that concept of burning the boats looks like in real life. You're probably not torching an actual ship, but let me tell you what it looked like for me. When I started losing weight back in 2018, I had to confront a hard truth. I'd always left myself an out I'd start strong, clean up my diet, hit the gym, run for a while, and then life would get busy or stressful, and I'd fall back into old habits.

I'd tell myself this week was rough. I'll get back to it on Monday, but over time. I realized that this pattern wasn't about laziness. It was really about fear of commitment, because commitment means change, and change is uncomfortable. So this time I did it differently. I removed my safety nets. I committed to logging my food daily with no exceptions.

I committed to staying the course even if something went wrong, when I got sick with a bout of diverticulitis, about a month into my journey. That would've been the typical endpoint, but this time as I got better, I just got back on track. Now granted, these don't sound like they're that extreme, but I was committed unfailingly to these new steps, and that was my version early on of burning the boats.

There was no plan B, only forward no matter what. So let's be real partial commitment. Is more comfortable. It feels safer. It gives us wiggle room. It helps us to avoid the pain of failure. But here's the problem. Half-hearted efforts lead to half-hearted results. And if you've been trying to make a big change, whether it's weight loss, a career shift, or just breaking a bad habit, you've probably noticed that dabbling just doesn't get it done.

You have to go all in. And why is this so rare? Because it's scary when you fully commit. You risk failure, you risk being disappointed, but you also give yourself the only real shot at sustainable success. So let's talk about the fear of finality and what's on the other side of things. One of the hardest parts of burning the boats is giving up that old version of ourselves, even the one that wasn't working for us because there's comfort in the familiar.

Comfort in the foods that numb us, comfort in the identity we've carried, even if it's holding us back. But the,  hard truth is you can't fully step into the new you until you're willing to let go of the old you look. It took me a long time to put myself out there with my blog and this podcast, but for years I had this itch to share my story, though every time I thought about it, I found a reason to delay.

I found some excuse. What if I failed publicly? What if people just rolled their eyes? What if I ended up gaining all my weight back and looked like a joke? In retrospect, these were the same crappy excuses I'd used for years about committing the weight loss. And in the end, all it took was a simple commitment to publish one blog post each week and one podcast episode each week.

And once I'd made these simple steps and bought into my commitment, I was off and running. And you know what happened next? I gained momentum, not perfection, not immediate results, but movement, direction and focus. Let me share a quick story. As I mentioned a few times, my son and I have completed two 50 K races.

For those of you not familiar with the metric system, that's a little over 32 miles. It's the shortest of the ultra race,  distances, which is beyond a marathon. And now, once upon a time, back in my twenties and my early thirties, I'd run several half marathons, but I'd never run farther than 20 miles in my life.

And that was years ago when I was training for a marathon. Ultimately, I never got to run because I got sick. So as I lost weight and got back into running, I decided I wanted to run a 50 K. Why that distance? First and foremost, I wanted to accomplish something that I considered monumental. I. And once my son realized what I was doing, he got interested.

So it became something I wanted to do with him too. And so we began training. I would go out every Sunday and run three or four hours just trying to get in shape. And to be honest, I had no business thinking I could run this distance. It was well beyond my capabilities, my comfort zone, um, anything that I had done before.

But I did two critical things. I kept going out there and training for it, and I kept smiling When I was training, I didn't let stress or pressure, or even the idea of finishing it. Well, my goal was to cover the distance. I didn't care if I had to walk most of it. I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do it.

And the funny thing is we had a really good time. Was it hard? Yep. Did it take us a long time? Yeah. Was it the best run I've ever had? No, probably not. Um, we came back the next year and beat our times from the year before and it was even harder and, but it was also super rewarding. I just decided with the 50 K to go all in to do something that I thought really was different.

From what anyone else was doing, and that mattered a lot to me. So what I'm saying is there was no room for half measures committing to that long distance and everything that came with it, it helped pull me through days when motivation was low and progress felt slow. I was working on something. I was building towards something bigger.

So let's talk about some tools that can help you go all in if you're ready to burn the boats. Here's some things that help me stick with it. Anchor your why. Write it down. Say it out loud. Repeat it often. Why are you taking on this huge challenge? Whatever it is that you're taking on, what's at stake?

What will change if you don't do it? Number two, set visible commitments. Make your commitment public. When I would go out running for that 50 K, people would talk to me and they would ask, what are you doing out here for four hours on a Sunday? I would tell them exactly what I was training for and what I was doing.

It was putting myself out there telling the world this is something I'm trying to do. So I'm telling you, share your journey with someone you trust. Put it down in writing. Sign up for something, let it feel real. Three, remove escape route. Delete the apps off your phone. Clear the pantry of things you don't need to be eating.

Reschedule those distractions, burn the excuses. You know, you lean on Number four, once you take away those old routines and those escape route, create replacement roots. Don't just remove the habits, replace them. And Fred and I used to be mean Pizza and tv. Now, maybe it means a walk and a podcast on your earphones, or try a new recipe that's healthier.

Do something that replaces the old habit. Number five, celebrate consistency, not perfection. I say it over and over again. Good enough is good enough. You will stumble. That's human. But burning the boats isn't about being flawless. It's about not retreating you stumble forward. So let me give you your weekly challenge this week.

Identify one area in your life where you've been halfway in. Maybe it's how you eat. Maybe it's your commitment to moving every day. Maybe it's how you talk to yourself and ask yourself, what does it look like to burn the boats here? What safety net do I need to let go of? What action will make this commitment real?

Then do it, not just for a week, not when it's convenient. Do it now and keep doing it. Now. Look, you don't have to change everything overnight, but you do have to stop Waiting for the perfect moment right now is the perfect moment. Some closing thoughts. Burning the boats. That can be scary.  It's about being vulnerable.

It's about being uncomfortable. But it can also be empowering. It sends a message not just to the world, but most importantly to yourself, that you're done settling for less, that you're choosing the path of growth, even when it's hard. 

So whatever you're facing, whatever boats are floating in your harbor, like the match, and then go all in.

 📍 Thanks for hanging with me today. If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who might need to hear it. And if you wanna read more or dig deeper, head over to use two guide.com for more stories, strategies, encouragement. Until next time, keep moving forward.