Succeed By Working Harder – How To Win A Canoe Race In A Crocodile Infested River!
By John D Watson
The word ‘work’ has almost become a forbidden word in some self-help articles and books. The phrase ‘work hard’ or ‘work harder’ is regarded with some cynicism as a relic of the Victorian age. I disagree with this negative view of work as you will see in the following account of a crocodile race in a river which is still full of crocodiles.

In early 2008, the BBC ran a TV series called ‘Last Man Standing’. In this series, six young athletes from the ‘civilized’ West took on an exciting but frightening challenge – to compete against remote tribes at sports in which the tribes excelled. They also competed against each other for the title of ‘Last Man Standing’ i.e. the westerner who came first most often amongst the westerners.

In the eighth and final program, the young athletes were trained in just five days to race their canoes upstream and then downstream in a crocodile infested river, the Sepik, in Papua New Guinea. Their main problem, at first, was just managing to stand upright in their dugouts.

I once spent a few seconds sitting in a narrow racing canoe in the sea off the coast of Scotland. I started to paddle but my balance went almost immediately and I soon found myself upside down in the salt water while I tried to struggle out of the canoe. This is not easy if you are both large and overweight! I had no safety equipment on so it was a case of get out or drown.

I was not that worried as I could probably have kicked my way out since the canoe was fairly flimsy. In the end I wiggled my way out without damaging the canoe and could breathe in fresh air again.

The athletes’ problem was much tougher. I did not have to worry about nearby crocodiles and I was able to sit down in the canoe. They had to stand up in primitive dug out canoes and paddle for hours in the broiling sun. If they fell in, they might find they were swimming with at least one hungry crocodile!

There were croc spotters out in their dug outs to help but there were not many of these croc spotters and the race was over 7 km up stream on the first day and 14 km down stream on the second day.

The first day’s training was spent laughing and falling into the water. One of the tribesmen commented:

“They need to try harder. When they get in the canoes, they just fall in the water.”

Richard, from Oxford, did try hard and climbed back into his dugout as soon as he fell out. A younger tribesman noted this: “Richard is the best. He paddles well.”

Even his Western competitors noticed his efforts. “He is trying hard.”

Paul, their champion teacher, was not convinced about any of them: “When I watch them paddling they look like a bunch of five or six year olds.”

Brad, the American strong man, commented: “Boy was it tough. I never imagined it was going to be so hard just to be able to stand up in that piece let alone being able to actually paddle.”

Even Richard, the most successful canoeist so far, found the paddling difficult:

“It is kind of like standing in a drain pipe. And it’s not great for balance. It is going to need a lot of practice and I am really hoping to practise as much as possible. I’m really going to train myself after school. “

Paul, the instructor, wisely decided to forget the narrow racing canoes and put his ‘childish’ students into more stable dugouts. He explained his thinking to them:

“What happened yesterday was not good enough. You can’t balance the small canoes so you keep falling in the water. It wasn’t good. So today you will all use bigger canoes that are easier to balance. Why? Because the river is not safe. There are many crocodiles.”

Richard accepted his criticism: “He’s honest which is the important thing. He doesn’t try and pretend that we are any good!”

Mark,

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from Birmingham, agreed: ”Paul has spelt it out to me from an expert’s point of view –basically that I was absolutely cr*p.”

Jason, the cocky BMX champion from Florida in the USA, at first tended to fool about but was impressed by Richard’s example and eventually decided to get serious.

When the others were given a special secret word to help them win the race, he was left out and decided to choose his own word which he wrote on his arm. His key word was “Harder!”

“Doesn’t matter what the hell I’m doing, just go harder!”

When I was at school in the Isle of Man, we had to go on cross country runs in the early part of the year. I have never been a good runner but, to avoid total embarrassment, I kept repeating the one word “Faster!” over and over again as I ran or rather jogged along.

I never achieved ‘fast’ but managed to avoid ‘dead slow’ and was even cheered in on one occasion by the waiting spectators as I raced another competitor to come in at forty!

One powerful and meaningful key word can inspire you and block out the doubts as you aim for victory and success. Just keep repeating it so that negative phrases like ‘I’ve had enough of this’ do not get a chance to creep into your consciousness.

On race day one - 7km upstream - the villagers disappeared into the distance in minutes and the westerners were left to battle it out amongst themselves. The big surprise was that one of the overall leaders in the Last Man Standing competition, Brad, was eliminated, along with Corey, the endurance expert.

Rajko deserves great credit for risking his own chances in order to help Brad who found paddling upstream especially difficult. Brad would have provided a large and tasty meal for any crocodiles in the vicinity!

On race day two – 14km downstream - the villagers again vanished in a flurry of waves. A villager called Eddy won the overall race but the four remaining western heroes fought out a tough race between themselves. Eventually, Jason glided in first ahead of Rajko, Richard and Mark, to a standing ovation.

He even came in ahead of some of the locals who had learned how to canoe from their childhood days. Jason now joined Rajkot and Brad on two wins in the overall competition.

Three of the westerners, then, had tied first in the overall competition for the best in the eight competitions of the series. Jason was one of the three. A deciding ballot was held amongst the team members as to which of the three had grown most in the series and the result was unanimous: Jason, from Florida in the USA, was the final winner.

Jason, then, was the last man standing. His keyword ‘Harder’ had worked!

The harder you work, the more likely you are to be a success. Hard work is not a popular idea with many self-development gurus who keep telling you to work smart rather than hard.

However, there usually comes a point when you’ve been as smart as you can be but you still have to work hard to stand tall in that canoe or come first in that race. You may also have to work hard before you learn the skills necessary to work smart!

Maybe, more of us should write the word ‘harder’ or ‘faster’ etc on our right arms or a prominent poster and just keep repeating the word as often as possible.

John Watson is an award winning teacher and 5th dan martial artist. Check out his website at www.motivationtoday.comand his new product launch atwww.midasmethodmillionaire.com Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site but please include the resource box.