Transmuting Challenges Into Excellence
How can we start transmuting challenges into excellence? In this episode of Your Superpowered Mind, host Kristin Maxwell and guest Terry Tucker talk about transmuting challenges into excellence. During this process, the importance of having hope and believing that what you are going through will make you better is vital. You need to understand that looking at failure is a part of success instead of focusing on its opposite. Terry will also share the four truths that will change your internal narrative and lead to sustainable excellence. Tune in to find more inspiration in transmuting challenges into excellence.
Kristin Maxwell:
Hello, everyone. Welcome to Your SuperPowered Mind. I am Kristin Maxwell and in this show, we explore the process of transformation and give you tools and strategies that you can use to transform your own life. Today I am pleased to be talking to Terry Tucker about Transmuting Challenges Into Excellence. And let me tell you a little bit about Terry. He has definitely had an interesting life. He’s reinvented himself frequently, from playing basketball at the Citadel, to working in marketing, to hospital administration, to other businesses. I can’t even read my own writing. He was a police officer and SWAT hostage negotiator and went into school security consulting. However, his biggest reinvention came up when he was diagnosed with a very rare form of melanoma that required years of treatment, caused significant pain, and ultimately resulted in the amputation of one of his legs. He’s the author of Sustainable Excellence: Ten Principles To Leading Your Uncommon And Extraordinary Life. In this book, he talks about how he did not give up and become a victim of the disease and his challenges but learned to survive and become stronger. And wow, how is that something that’s hard to deal with?
Anyway, Terry, welcome to Your SuperPowered Mind.
Terry Tucker:
Well, thanks for having me, Kristin. I’m looking forward to talking with you.
Kristin Maxwell:
Yes, me too. Terry, my first question is always what superpower did you uncover as the result of mastering your mind?
Terry Tucker:
Yeah, that’s a great question and you’re right. I could probably go a lot of places with this just on cancer alone, but I guess the thing that I’ve learned or one of the things that I’ve learned, I think that’s really important, is that the obstacles that we face in life are more often than not the obstacles that we place in our own path and that our physical bodies could do so much more than we ever thought they could do. I’m reminded of a story actually I read about a professor at Johns Hopkins University back in the 1950s, who did a very simple experiment. He took rats and trust me, this is going somewhere. I promise. You’re like, “What’s talking about rats for?”
Kristin Maxwell:
No, I’m curious. I’m curious.
Terry Tucker:
He took rats and put them in a tank of water that was over their head and he wanted to see how long the rats could tread water. The average rate trod water for about 15 minutes and just as the rat was getting ready to sink and drown, he reached in, grabbed the rat, pulled it out, dried it off, let it rest for a while, and then he put those same rats back in that exact same tank of water. The second time around those rats trod water for 60 hours.
Kristin Maxwell:
No way.
Terry Tucker:
Think about that, 15 minutes, that’s all I can do. I’m going to sink and drown. The second time around 60 hours, which said to me two things. Number one, the importance of hope in our lives. We have to believe that what we’re going through or what we’re experiencing or what we’re working towards is something that’s going to make our lives better down the road. Number two, as I said earlier, just how much more our physical bodies can handle than we ever thought they could. I guess that would be my winded answer to your question.
Kristin Maxwell:
Wow. Right there, that’s really something that sticks with you. I do remember, there’s a part of your book where you talked about being in so much pain and remembering something that when you’re at the point where you’re going to give up, you’re only 40% of the way to your body’s inability to handle it or something like that?
Terry Tucker:
Yeah, the 40% rule. Actually, I learned that from a friend of mine, actually, a young man who works with my wife, who is a former Navy seal and some of the toughest men in the world, toughest men in the military. The seals talk about their 40% rule, which kind of goes along with the rats that whenever they get to the end of their rope and they don’t think they can go on, they don’t think they can swim another lap or run another mile or do another pushup, that they’re only at 40%. We’re only at 40% of our maximum and we still have another 60% left to give to ourselves. Again, whenever you get to that point where, “Oh man, I’m just beating up.” I certainly was when I was on interferon and I was on it for five years. I took an injection every week that basically gave me the flu for two to three days. Imagine having the flu every week for five years, and that wasn’t a cure for my cancer, that was as my oncologist used to say, to kick the can down the road. There were literally days I prayed to die. I just, I was like, “God, look, I’m so sick of being sick. Please take me out of this.” But He didn’t and I’ve come to realize that our bodies can handle so much more than we ever thought that they could.
Kristin Maxwell:
Wow, this is really powerful. Okay. I want to go into the layers of that, both also mentally, and how we do this when our challenges are mental, but we do need to go to a break. Can you let people know where they can find you and your book?
Terry Tucker:
Sure. The book is called Sustainable Excellence: Ten Principles To Leading Your Uncommon And Extraordinary Life and it’s available pretty much anywhere you can get a book online, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple iBooks, etc. Then I have a blog called Motivational Check, and that’s the easiest way to reach me, so motivationalcheck.com.
Kristin Maxwell:
Great. Thank you. Hang on, everyone. Do also remember that we have, if you’re looking for a community, an incredible community over at Super Power Experts, amazing support at all different levels of your life. Superpowerexperts.com. Hang on, we will be back and talking more about transmuting challenges into excellence.
For the best listening experience, download the Superpower Network App
Podcast: Play in new window
