People who have gone through Hell Week often ask me if and when they should do one again. There’s no single right answer to the question, except to say that it’s time for another Hell Week when your life has developed enough slack, in the form of creeping bad habits or loss of focus, that it needs to be whipped back into shape. In my experience, this works out to roughly every twelve months or so, which is why I recommend an annual Hell Week. But that’s meant to be a guideline, rather than a hard-and-fast rule. I have one client who does Hell Week every year right before his birthday as a way to frame the year to come. Another client with some pretty deep-seated health issues decided he needed to do Hell Week every six months. And I’ve worked with many people for whom just one Hell Week was enough, at least for now.
As you approach the one-year anniversary of your first Hell Week, I encourage you to put your life into fresh perspective, with at least the possibility of going through the experience again. A good starting point in the reflection process is to check back on the yearly plan you started during your initial Hell Week, as well as the goals you set for yourself. How much does life today resemble the life you imagined all those months ago? Have you reached some or all of the goals you laid out? Or do you find you’ve slipped back into a state of complacency?
As you’ll recall, one of the principal exercises of Hell Week is writing down the values that carry the most meaning in your life. While some of these values will be absolute, based on the way you were raised, the political affiliations you’ve developed, and the social circle you run in, I also believe in the evolution of a personal value system. That is to say, values change over time. The experience of Hell Week should have had a profound impact on your life, and so as you approach the one-year mark, I want you to reassess your list of key values.
Think back over the last twelve months. When were you the happiest? Which achievements made you the most proud? Answering these questions will help reveal the values that matter most at this particular juncture in your life. These core values, in turn, will lead to meaning, which I believe to be the single greatest indicator of fulfillment, satisfaction, and high performance. In the words of Steve Jobs, “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
During Hell Week, I also asked you to listen hard to your inner self and focus on the positive. How have you kept up that campaign? Have any negative voices crept back into your daily dialogue? As I’ve said many times in this book, people with a strong sense of personal conviction will outperform the doubters and naysayers every time. If your positive mind-set has started to waver, or if you detect an increase in energy leakages in your life, it’s time to consider another Hell Week.
Now is the time to do a gut check on your resilience. In the military, Hell Week is all about toughness, both mental and physical. It’s designed to weed out the weak so that what’s left is an elite battle corps. My version of Hell Week is aimed at you the individual, but it uses the same “survival of the fittest” model, in that only your best and strongest habits and attributes make it through. Weeding out the negatives in your life should equip you with incredible resilience.
Is that the case? As you think back over the last year, have you taken on more challenges, in both your personal and professional lives? Has your risk tolerance gone up? Have you pushed the limits of what’s possible and encouraged others around you to do the same? Remember the opening message of this book: You can take a lot more than you think.
That’s been my life’s mantra since the age of eighteen, when a man I’d never met before stood at the head of a class on survival training and dared a roomful of soldiers to believe what he said was true. Many among us would not believe. Some gave up that very same day. Others made it to the end of basic training before waving the white flag. And there were some who started Hell Week but didn’t see it through to the other side. Finally, there were those of us who persevered. We proved our commander right by taking on more than we ever thought possible—and in doing so we took our lives to a whole new level.
My life has been propelled by that accomplishment ever since. Sure, there have been setbacks and downturns. I have experienced more failure than I care to admit. But each time, I’ve come back stronger, because I know what I’m capable of. My life’s work has been to help others discover their best and truest selves. I’ve become the officer at the chalkboard daring people to take on more. And more. And more. In some cases, the result has been Olympic medals, championship trophies, and Fortune 500 awards. Other times, it’s simply been a father learning how to spend more quality time with his children.
The rewards are nice, but the real fulfillment comes with knowing that you’ve pushed your life not just to the brink, but beyond it. That goal must always be your single focus and most relentless pursuit. And if, somehow, it does start to slip away, another Hell Week stands by to serve you.