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<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
For the past several years, I\u2019ve coached my son\u2019s flag football team.<\/p>\n
A few seasons ago, he was feeling pretty upset about a loss that came about due to the team\u2019s lackluster flag pulling.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow am I going to get better, Dad?\u201d Gus asked me as I put him to bed. \u201cWe do flag-pulling drills every practice and you walk us through on technique. Why can\u2019t I pull flags?\u201d<\/p>\n
Gus was right. The first thing we do in every practice is go over flag-pulling technique and run flag-pulling drills. So I could see why he was frustrated. He was doing all the right things and yet it wasn\u2019t translating into success.<\/p>\n
As I sat there on the bed with my arm around my son, a phrase popped into my mind that I hadn\u2019t heard or said in nearly 20 years.<\/p>\n
Hay que echarte ganas, cuate<\/em>.<\/p>\n You\u2019ve gotta want it, buddy.<\/p>\n I lived in Mexico for a couple years in my early 20s. One of my favorite things about Spanish is the words they use to indicate desire or wanting.<\/p>\n To say \u201cI want to eat a taco,\u201d you say \u201cTengo ganas de comer un taco.\u201d<\/p>\n The literal translation is \u201cI have desires to eat a taco.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s something about the idea of having or not having desire that makes the idea of wanting more visceral for me. You either have the desire, or you don\u2019t.<\/p>\n Ganas<\/em> is also used as a way to encourage and pump people up.<\/p>\n A soccer coach in Mexico might yell \u201cEchale ganas!\u201d at his players.<\/p>\n The literal translation is something like \u201cThrow desires into it!\u201d Again, the idea is that desire isn\u2019t so much a verb, but a noun. It\u2019s a thing.<\/p>\n The more colloquial translation of \u201cEchale ganas!\u201d is something like \u201cGet cracking!\u201d \u201cPut some life in it!\u201d \u201cBe more enthusiastic!\u201d \u201cWant it!\u201d<\/p>\n When my then 9-year-old son was bummed about his performance in flag football, I knew his problem wasn\u2019t technique. He drilled it enough that his technique was fine.<\/p>\n The problem I saw as a coach and as a father was Gus just didn\u2019t want to pull the flag enough in a game. Sure, cognitively, he wanted to pull the flag. But he didn\u2019t really want<\/em> to pull the flag.<\/p>\n He was timid and hesitant when going in for the pull. If he missed on the first try, he\u2019d kind of just give up.<\/p>\n Le faltaba ganas<\/em>.<\/p>\n He lacked desire.<\/p>\n I told Gus as much.<\/p>\n \u201cLook, little guy, we can drill flag pulling and go over technique over and over again, but that\u2019s not going to do anything for you in the game.<\/p>\n You have to want it. Really want it.<\/p>\n And I can\u2019t teach you that. I can\u2019t drill you on that. I can\u2019t give it to you.<\/p>\n You have to get that desire for yourself.<\/p>\n Do you get what I\u2019m saying?\u201d<\/p>\n He wiped the crying snot from his nose and reluctantly nodded his head.<\/p>\n I tucked him in his bed, gave him a kiss on the head, and walked out the door thinking that what I had just said probably didn\u2019t land.<\/p>\n But I was wrong.<\/p>\n The next game something was different about Gus. I could sense it during the warm-up. There was a fire in him that wasn\u2019t there before.<\/p>\n Instead of timidly going after a flag, he\u2019d aggressively attack it.<\/p>\n He was diving for flags and getting turf burns.<\/p>\n He was getting in front of runners going full speed just so he could get his hands on the flag.<\/p>\n He was a flag-pulling machine.<\/p>\n Gus had ganas<\/em>.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the moment flag football changed for Gus. He understood that if he wanted to be a success, he had to really want that success. Not just an intellectual or cognitive want. A bodily and emotional want.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a lesson there for all of us, I think.<\/p>\n When I look back at the goals I\u2019ve accomplished or failed to accomplish, one of the deciding factors was how bad I wanted it. It wasn\u2019t the only factor, mind you, but an important one.<\/p>\n How did I graduate in the top ten in my class in law school? I had some great mentors and used some fantastic study supplements. But I also really, really wanted to do well in law school. That strong desire was what propelled me to study hours and hours a day and do practice exam after practice exam every semester so I could get straight As. I had ganas<\/em>.<\/p>\n How did I deadlift 600 pounds? I had some amazing coaching<\/a>. That was vital. But I also really, really wanted to pull 600 lbs. That strong desire was what compelled me to rarely miss a workout for four years. My coach could give me programming and offer corrections on technique, but he couldn\u2019t make me want to go after a 600-lb deadlift. I had to have the desire myself.<\/p>\n Last year I made a goal to learn how to play piano. I gave up after a month. Why? I didn\u2019t really want to do it. Me faltaba ganas<\/em>. I lacked desires.<\/p>\n I made it a goal to read Aristotle\u2019s Categories<\/em> a few years ago. I gave up after a week. No me dio ganas de leer<\/em>. It didn\u2019t give me desires to read.<\/p>\n Whenever I\u2019m struggling with a goal now, the first thing I ask myself is \u201cTienes ganas?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Do I really want this? Like really want this?<\/p>\n Usually the answer is no because if I really wanted the thing, I\u2019d already be looking for solutions and workarounds to make it happen instead of asking myself \u201cDo I really want to do this?\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s that old cheesy Mall-Ninja story about the student who goes to the master asking for some sort of esoteric knowledge. The master then dunks the student\u2019s head in a bucket of water and holds it there, nearly drowning the student. The master then says, \u201cWhen you desire my knowledge the way you desired air, then you will have it.\u201d<\/p>\n Yeah, it\u2019s cheesy, but it gets to a kernel of truth. You have to really want something if you want to get it. You have to have ganas<\/em>.<\/p>\n So what do you do with the knowledge of the centrality of desire to goal-achievement?<\/p>\n Well for one thing, it should be a call to be more discerning in your choice of pursuits.<\/p>\n Sometimes we choose a goal because we like the idea<\/em> of it. But, we don\u2019t actually like the reality<\/em> of it<\/a>. We\u2019re not into the process and practice it involves; we want the end but don\u2019t have desires for the means. Such goals should be abandoned; if you don\u2019t want it, all of it, you will never achieve it.<\/p>\n You have to know yourself, and be self-aware and realistic as to what you really want, and what you just think you want.<\/p>\n But what about instances where you don\u2019t want something you actually should<\/em> want? I\u2019m not talking about instances where the \u201cshould\u201d is some kind of subjective imperative that\u2019s externally-imposed by society<\/a>. But cases where the should is based on the inherent good of something. You should want to lose weight. You should want to exercise. You should want to get a handle on your temper. So what do you do if you don\u2019t?<\/p>\n This is a truly difficult question to answer.<\/p>\n A lot of goal gurus will tell you that you need to find your \u201cwhy\u201d for doing something \u2014 your deeper, overarching purpose for going after some aim. This can sometimes help. But cognitively locating such, I\u2019ve found, often doesn\u2019t seem to do much. If it isn’t already emotionally, viscerally salient, if it isn\u2019t yet lit up within you, you can\u2019t think it on.<\/p>\n Sometimes an event will trigger a new want, or animate a latent one. You see an embarrassingly unflattering picture of yourself and finally feel motivated to lose weight. You get let go from a job you loved and finally feel the desire to change your work habits. Such events, of course, can rarely be planned, and are hard to willfully desire to happen.<\/p>\n Sometimes, a conversation from the outside aligns with a psychological shift that\u2019s already happening on someone’s inside; when this confluence occurs, it creates a catalyst that can birth a new or stronger desire for something. I don\u2019t think it was my pep talk with Gus that solely changed his desire for flag pulling \u2014 we\u2019ve all been on the receiving end of pep talks that left us entirely unmoved. But my pep talk connected with something inside Gus that was already trying to come to life. He needed a nudge, to then flip the switch himself.<\/p>\n This is part of why, as Kyle Eschenroeder argues, when you\u2019re trying to change what you want to want<\/a>, it\u2019s important to embed yourself in a community that\u2019s pointed in the direction of those desired desires. When you\u2019re surrounded by people who want what you want to want, you\u2019re much more likely to have the kind of conversations that finally flip the switch for you. Being part of a community that embodies certain ideals also shapes what you want more indirectly; observing the examples of others invariably changes your own orientation \u2014 that\u2019s the power of mimetic desire<\/a>.<\/p>\n Reading good books and consuming good media has a similar effect.<\/p>\n Yet, while it\u2019s possible to \u201ceducate\u201d your desires in this way, to nudge yourself towards wanting something, how desire is ultimately formed and inflamed remains something of a mystery. I\u2019m not sure how it works, exactly, and I\u2019m not sure anyone really does.<\/p>\n But, what I do know, is that if you don\u2019t truly desire something, if you don\u2019t really, really want it, you\u2019ll never get it.<\/p>\n Tienes ganas?<\/em><\/p>\n Si?<\/em><\/p>\n Entonces, echate ganas, cuate con todo tu alma, mente, y fuerza.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For the past several years, I\u2019ve coached my son\u2019s flag football team. A few seasons ago, he was feeling pretty upset about a loss that came about due to the team\u2019s lackluster flag pulling. \u201cHow am I going to get better, Dad?\u201d Gus asked me as I put him to bed. \u201cWe do flag-pulling drills […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":169111,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[502,6,42269],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-169109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character","category-featured","category-self-improvement"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2022\/02\/ganas_blank-538x280.jpg","aom":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2022\/02\/ganas_blank-372x230.jpg","reactor-320":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2022\/02\/ganas_blank-320x197.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169109"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169122,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169109\/revisions\/169122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169109"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=169109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Tienes ganas?<\/em><\/h2>\n
How Do You Get Ganas<\/em>?<\/h2>\n