There’s a Russian proverb that says that you can’t cross a chasm in two leaps. Depending upon the challenge that you face — what you’re up against — sometimes the best way to proceed is to go for the whole shebang in one shot.

Suppose a professional boxer who’s had a fairly good record gets a big break. The promoters decide that he gets a shot at the champ. This opportunity sometimes is out of sequence in the boxer’s career, but it happens. If he loses badly, he may not get another chance. If he handles himself well, he may get a second chance, but no one can say when.

So, his goal becomes clear — to knock out the champ and to go whole hog for the grandest of goals in his weight category, to be the World Boxing Association champion. The boxer decides to up the ante and go for the gold now, this year, at this fight, coming up in two or three months, not later in his career.

He’ll put all his energies into this effort. Never mind the career path; the time to shine is now.

Filling in at Quarterback

The same thing happens when one athlete replaces another when the first goes down with an injury. The back-up football quarterback who gets his big chance knows on many levels that he may not get another shot at being the starter. So, he’s not content to merely fill in, to merely do a good job, or to merely help his team win.

Instead, he wants to make a statement. He wants to show that he is major league caliber, that he can run the team from start to finish, win the game, and then go out on the field and do it again next Sunday.

The same phenomenon occurs when an interim coach is appointed to take the place of the ailing regular coach. While everyone hopes for the best, it is a possibility that the regular coach won’t make it back. The interim coach, if he wants to be more than just the substitute, changes his procedures.

He begins working around the clock. He analyzes the team roster. He carefully looks at the team’s strengths and weaknesses and at which plays have worked in the past. He talks to the players one-on-one. He analyzes previous game films. In short, he pulls out the stops. He wants to indicate to the top management that whether the head coach comes back or not, he can do the job. Should the head coach come back, the interim coach wants to demonstrate that he ought to be the next coach when the time comes.

If his organization can’t see it, perhaps another organization will take notice. The interim coach has upped the ante in terms of his own goals.

The Ivy League

Such sudden ascension is not limited to sports. When the president of a university dies, becomes incapacitated, or is otherwise not able to perform the functions of the job for some period of time, another individual is appointed as acting president.

During this time, the acting president sets to work immediately so as to convince the Board of Regents that he or she is the logical choice for next president of the university.

Fake It ‘Til You Make It

Mary K. Ash, who founded the multimillion dollar empire bearing her name, used to tell her staff, “Fake it ’til you make it.” Did she mean that you proceed with a facade, trying to con people into believing you have capabilities you don’t? Not at all!

“Fake it ’til you make it” means that you act the part that you intend to assume. You engage in the behaviors, read the literature, interact with others, and conduct yourself in a manner so that you are already where you want to be.

Soon enough, this becomes your natural approach to life, and others around you can easily see that you deserve to have the job title, position, acclaim, or whatever other kudos come with your ability and achievement.

Professor Stanley Davis, in his book, Twenty-twenty, coined a term called “managing the beforehand.” Davis says that if you study world leaders who assumed their position via revolution, invariably you find that long before they actually held the reins of power, they already knew that their supremacy would become a reality. Everything was in place, it was all but inevitable, and they only needed to move into position.

The Ocean of No Return

What would you like to achieve right now that represents an upping of the ante, for which it makes sense for you to go whole hog — to fully immerse yourself in whatever it takes, to take the leap and make a commitment from which you cannot return?

There’s a wonderful scene in the movie Mutiny on the Bounty, whether you’re watching the 30’s version with Clark Gable and Charles Laughton, the 50’s version with Marlon Brando and Trevor Howard, or the 80’s version with Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins. Fletcher Christian, the hero of the tale, decides to burn the ship, The Bounty, so that he and his men will become fully settled on Pitcairns Island with no possibility of departure.

The late Earl Nightingale once said that you can’t get to second base if you won’t take your foot off first. You can’t get what you want if you remain “one of the timid feeders in the lagoon” who fears to venture out into the deep blue sea.

If you’re psyched up at this point, here are some ideas for upping the ante and jumping into the fray:

• Get on the phone right now and make a call to whomever you need to speak to for setting your big goal in motion.
• Buy the plane ticket, train ticket, or boat ticket to go see the person or people you need to see.
• If your quest involves spending some money, take a look at your bank account and move the requisite funds into place. If you don’t have the funds, start listing all the possible ways in which you can get them.
• Identify what needs to be dropped because it’s no longer valid, or perhaps is in the way. Then, without remorse, remove it from your life.
• If it works for you, go announce your intentions to somebody else.
• Commit yourself on paper.

Deadly Sin or Divine Aspiration

Invariably, when you decide to up the ante, someone will come along and tell you not to do it.

• “It can’t be done.”
• “It shouldn’t be done.”
• “You can’t do it.”
• “You shouldn’t do it.”
• “You’re going to fail.”

Don’t be surprised if you hear these kinds of admonitions. The typical person does not embrace change, doesn’t see the possibilities that you see, and can’t envision a successful conclusion. Hence, you can’t take a quick survey of others and expect to get any kind of meaningful input.

It is valuable if others whom you trust and who know you well point out specific hazards to your vaulted goals. For example, if others are able to offer poignant, factual information that you would logically need to know to have a realistic notion of what it will take to achieve your goal, then more power to them and to you.

If you understand the impediments that you face, you’re far better off than if you proceed blindly. When you understand the pitfalls and are still committed to proceed full speed ahead, then the choice is indeed yours, and it’s a grand one.

Let’s Get Unreasonable

I read once that nothing of lasting value is accomplished by reasonable men (and of course, women too). It is the unreasonable people in society, the discontent, the dreamers who nevertheless have their feet firmly planted on solid ground, or the visionaries, who improve peoples’ lives or in rare instances help to advance society.

The reasonable man or woman can talk himself or herself out of anything, no matter how great the merit of the venture or cause.

You probably could stand to be bit more unreasonable when it comes to your goals.