“Being a warrior is not about the act of fighting. It’s about the ability, courage, and commitment to end the war within oneself and not quit until the job is done.” — Richard Machowicz
The Navy SEALs are the premier special operations unit in the United States military. Only 15 out of every 1,000 navy enlistees who take the screening test to enter the SEAL training program get in. Of those who do get into the initial training program–which is called Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL Training (BUD/S)–, more than 70% don’t make it through.
Hell Week takes place during the sixth week of BUD/S; it lasts six days and five nights. During Hell Week, trainees are tested to their limits: they’re constantly in motion, soaking wet, cold, and hungry. It’s a continual 132 hours of physical labor. They lose all concept of time because they don’t get a moment’s break. Everything is made into a drill.
They can give up at any point: all they have to do is ring a shiny brass bell which is always kept in plain sight. Of course, if they do ring the bell, they’re out of the program. That is, they’ll have failed to achieve their goal of becoming a SEAL.
All throughout Hell Week the instructors repeatedly taunt the trainees:
“All you have to do is get up and ring the bell. You know you want to . . . why are you putting yourself through this? Everyone will understand if you don’t want to do this anymore. Go ahead, ring the bell.”
The trainees don’t just have to ignore the instructors’ taunts; they also have to ignore their own inner voice, which is constantly screaming at them to go ring the bell already. A BUD/S instructor at the San Diego facility had the following to say:
“The belief that BUD/S is about physical strength is a common misconception. Actually, it’s 90 percent mental and 10 percent physical . . . (Students) just decide that they are too cold, too sandy, too sore or too wet to go on. It’s their minds that give up on them, not their bodies.” (Source).
In order to complete something as intense as Hell Week, you have to be able to put your personal stuff aside; that is, your mental baggage, your doubt, your second-guessing, your hesitation, and the dialogue in your head – especially that little voice in your head that says, “I can’t go one step further.” You have to learn to manage that in order to be successful and make it through.
Even though most of us will never have to go through Hell Week, just like the SEAL trainees, in order to accomplish our goals we have to learn to direct our inner voice toward the thing that needs to get done in the next moment. We can’t give in when the inner voice is trying to pull us away from what we’re trying to accomplish.
The War Within
Richard “Mack” Machowicz, a former Navy SEAL, is the author of the goal setting book, “Unleash the Warrior Within: Develop the Focus, Discipline, Confidence, and Courage You Need to Achieve Unlimited Goals”
Mack explains that you need to understand that the real war is going on within yourself. In the end, it’s about mastering yourself. It’s not about being the fastest, the smartest, or the strongest, it’s about being the one who does not quit. It’s about being able to silence the voice that urges you to stay in your comfort zone, that is full of excuses, and that tries to tell you that you’re not good enough. Mack explains the war within as follows:
“On one level, we believe we’re capable of great things. We see ourselves as heroic figures. But at the first sign of stress, fatigue, and fear that diminishing voice creeps in. Our mind begins to work against us. That tiny voice grows in intensity and volume. We hesitate. We begin to doubt our abilities. Now that internal voice is so loud that we can barely make any sense of it. We second-guess ourselves. We believe there is an inherent scarcity with regards to what might be possible. It is in that moment that the inner war is raging.”
Dealing With Fear
Mack argues that fear is the perception of an unknown threshold; the more unknowns you think you have, the greater your perceived fear. Fear is what you think you know projected into the future. Instead of focusing on what you have to do right now, in this moment, you’re thinking of all the things that are going to go wrong in the future. However, you have no idea what’s going to happen next year, next month, next week, tomorrow, or even a minute from now.
Therefore, Mack explains that you have to stop pretending that you know what’s going to happen, and start focusing on what’s in front of you. That is, if the unknown is what causes fear, take your focus off of the unknown and place it on what you do know; that is, place your focus on what’s right in front of you.
Mack indicates that in order to conquer fear you have to move into it and through it. Imagine that it’s like a mist or like fog; just walk into it, keep putting one foot in front of the other, and then, suddenly, it’s gone. Once you walk through it, it’s clear on the other side.
Two excellent suggestions which Mack makes in his book for learning to deal with fear are the following:
1. Write down how you begin to react when you’re afraid. Maybe you start talking really fast, or you lose your temper for no apparent reason, or you feel a tightening in the pit of your stomach. What does your inner voice say to you when you’re afraid? The purpose of this exercise is to help you to recognize your inner dialogue and the telltale signs of fear. Once you know that you’re afraid, you can deal with it.
2. Create an action trigger. This is a command that propels your mind and body into action. For example: “Just do it!” or “Showtime!” You can also use Mack’s favorite command: “Not dead, can’t quit!”
Conclusion
In order to achieve your goals you need to create the mind-frame that you will continue moving forward in spite of naysayers, your fears and anxieties, your mental baggage, and any obstacles that might get in the way. Stop yourself whenever you hear the conversation going on in your head which leads to quitting. That’s the war that we each have to fight, each and every day. You’ll find great tips on how to win this war in “Unleash the Warrior Within”
“To accomplish your goals, you have to be unreasonable. You can’t find a reason to stop.” — Richard Machowicz
(Log Physical Training at SEAL School courtesy of DVIDSHUB).
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