Image from Rocky Balboa (2006)

In one scene from the movie “Rocky Balboa,” Rocky, who’s now a couple of decades past his prime, is listening to his trainer Duke talking about his strategy for his upcoming fight against the world heavyweight champion. Duke says to him:

“To beat this guy, you need speed. You don’t have it. And your knees can’t take the pounding, so hard running is out. And you got arthritis in your neck, and you’ve got calcium deposits on most of your joints, so sparring is out.

So, what we’ll be calling on is good ol’ fashioned blunt force trauma. Horsepower. Heavy-duty, cast-iron, pile driving punches that will have to hurt so much they’ll rattle his ancestors. Every time you hit him with a shot, it’s gotta feel like he tried kissing the express train. Yeah! Let’s start building some hurtin’ bombs!”

I think there are at least a couple of lessons here. One lesson is that even when things change, and what used to work no longer does, that doesn’t mean there’s not another way. You just need to figure out how to adapt.

But the lesson that I want to talk about now is the importance of building some hurtin’ bombs. So what does this mean anyway?

Simply put, if you’re going up against a formidable opponent, and the smart money says you have no chance, you can’t win by putting up a ho-hum effort. You’ve got to tip the odds in your favor by taking those thunderous shots that show the world you mean business. You don’t beat the 1980 Russian Olympic hockey team by playing conservatively, you don’t defeat the Nazis without D-Day, and you don’t defeat Sauron without throwing the One Ring into the Cracks of Doom.

Let’s look at some more practical examples. In writing this blog, I know I have lots of stiff competition in the personal development arena, and I’m not going to get noticed by only writing posts that are merely “fair” or “good.” Now realistically, such posts will have to be my bread and butter, but I’d rather write one post that really strikes a nerve with my readers and has the potential to be considered lifechanging, than write ten posts that are fine but really not that special in the grand scheme of things.

Depending on your situation, a hurtin’ bomb could be many different things. It could be your decision to change your career field. It could be the first steps of starting a new business. It could be learning a new skill that you can leverage to your advantage. It could be having a breakthrough session in marriage counseling. It could be deciding to make a particular investment. Whatever it is, the point is that to get out of a rut and make significant changes in your life, you can’t be blasé about it. You have to have the courage to dig deep and take those thunderous shots that mean the difference between winning and losing.

Don’t just jab your way through a mediocre life. Go for the knockout by throwing some hurtin’ bombs.

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