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I recently had the honor of taking a two-day bootcamp from the most decorated Navy Seal of all time, Mark Divine.
I thought we were going to focus primarily on mindset. And, while we did, it turns out, it was also the most physically grueling thing I’ve ever experienced.
But, what I discovered in the process is what separates the upper elite-level performers like, U.S. Navy Seals, from everyone else isn’t primarily their physical abilities, it’s their mental abilities.
Navy Seals have unbeatable minds.
And, you can learn to have one too.
Mark instills that you can actually do 20 times more than what you believe you are capable of.
Imagine this…
After what seemed like the longest day of non-stop, cross-fit style training ever, you are suddenly summoned to run straight into the ocean when it’s pitch black at night and lay, floating on your back, arm-in-arm with your teammates while freezing cold ocean water keeps crashing, and crashing, and crashing over your face…
It feels like you’re going to drown, over and over again, every few seconds.
What’s crazy was that exercise ended up mentally “breaking” the guy in the group who was by far the most physically fit and he quit and went home early.
After almost drowning as a child, you can probably image how mentally challenging that particular activity was for me.
But, I pushed through it, along with the rest of the group (minus the one guy).
To be totally transparent, once I found out that we had signed up for something that was going to be incredibly physically intense, I almost quit myself before I even started.
I began to come up with excuses about how I hadn’t worked out and how I was feeling kind of sick, and in that moment, I caught myself…
I realized that if I was resisting going that much, that was exactly why I needed to do it.
Of everything that we learned, one of the most amazing techniques was simply how to breath better. As humans we slow learn many bad habit and bad techniques, and oddly, most people don’t breath properly.
Another giant mental shift came from the fact that they made us stay positive, upbeat, and happy by making us smile and yell out positive chants in unison. It sounds crazy, but it actually worked.
And, although the way it was being applied to me was through physical activities, it’s really no different in business.
I’m not talking about “faking it ’til you make it”, I’m talking about putting on a positive mental mindset and pushing forward with a smile on your face and a good attitude even when you don’t want to, even when you’ve been beaten down a bit, and even when you’re scared.
Next came visualizations. Another massively helpful action is to picture yourself having already achieved your goal. Your brain can subconsciously “see” the path of how to get you there easier if it has a clear picture of what your outcome is supposed to look like.
The fourth and final cornerstone of the teaching was the concept of micro goals.
We all know what goals are. We typically think of goals annually or maybe monthly.
But, what about daily? Or what about minute by minute if you’re doing a highly important activity like a long run where you want to give up, or making your sales calls that you know you need to make in order to grow your business?
So, the question is, what are you truly capable of?
What can happen when you leverage these techniques?
I would HIGHLY encourage you to read Mark Divine’s 3 books, all available on Amazon.com and challenge yourself to find a level of greatness that you didn’t even know was inside of you.
Episode Resources
Mark Divine Book – Unbeatable Mind
Mark Divine Book – Way of the Seal
