Brian Johnson explores persistence through Latin wisdom and a Harvey Dorfman passage about athletes who hang on with suction cups. He traces the phrase percussus resurgo (struck down, I rise again) through a 1936 Dorothy Fields lyric about picking yourself up and starting over.
Questions this episode answers
percussus resurgo ("struck down, I rise again").
1936.
Chapters
Hey, hero, if you're enjoying these daily ones, make sure you head to heroic us to check out all of the other goodness. We have to help you activate your best every day. And now, today's plus one. Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic plus one. In our last plus one, we mined some old school Latin wisdom and applied it to our modern heroic quests. As you may recall, Destitis ventus remos adibe percussus risurgo esse quam videre and salvatur ambulando translated into our modern lives. As if the wind will not serve, take to the oars. Struck down, I rise again to be rather than to seem. And it is solved by walking. To which I inquired, is today a good day to take to the oars? Rise again, solve by walking in B rather than seem. Well, is it? Now today I want to go back to that Harvey Dorfman inspired percussus risergo wisdom. We pulled that gem from our notes on his great book Coaching the Mental Game. But somehow I missed featuring the big idea from which I got that gem as a plus one, which is surprising because it features heroes hanging from suction cups. So without further ado, that'll be the focus of today's plus one. Now, in a chapter on the importance of persistence, Dorfman tells us, I quote, I've seen athletes who battled through adversity working to find a way to get it done. They appeared to be hanging on with suction cups. Japanese athletes described the quality as gambate, working hard, never giving up. Sometimes the suction cups don't hold. But as Lombardi was fond of saying, it's not about how many times a person falls, it's about how many times he gets back up. Dorothy Fields wrote the lyrics for the 1936 Jerome Kern tune that I first heard on the radio when I was a very young boy. The song begins, now nothing's impossible but I have found. For when my chin is on the ground, I pick myself up, dust myself off and start all over again. And it's at the end of that passage where Dorfman mic dropped the whole section with our new beloved Latin phrase, percussus resurgo. Struck down, I rise again and again. And that's today's plus one. Struck down, rise again and again and again. Remember, pretty much nothing is impossible when you know you have the antifragile confidence to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again. Today's the day. Grab your suction cups, hero. Hang in there. Let's go. We hope you enjoyed today's heroic one. For more ancient wisdom, modern science and practical tools to help you flourish in energy, work and and love, head to heroic US where you can get started on your heroic journey for free.
