Overcoming Challenges

22 Most Impactful Lessons from Seal Training

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The follow is shared from Alan Stein Jr’s post.

It has been exactly ONE YEAR since my 26-hour Navy SEAL Training experience (July 2022). Here are the 22 most impactful lessons I learned:

  1. “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.” Take your time, pay attention to detail, and be precise. Rushing increases mistakes. Add speed after mastery.
  2. Everything we did had a purpose. We didn’t do anything just for the sake of doing it. Everything had a deeper reason.
  3. Trust systems/processes. They lead to the most favorable outcomes in the long term.
  4. Always have a plan but always expect adversity.
  5. When it comes to training, you need to “Crawl, Walk, Run.” Start with ideal conditions to set the standard, then add in adversity/challenge, and then work to block out distractions.
  6. Focus on what is right in front of you in the moment: You can’t get to hour 26 without going through hour 1.
  7. “Don’t fight the water” (because you can’t win). Water it the ultimate equalizer. The worst thing you can do when compromised in the water is panic. Stay calm. Breathe. Relax. (This applies to life: don’t resist reality! It’s a fight you’ll lose 100% of the time!)
  8. Good leaders also know how to follow.
  9. Anticipation is usually worse than reality. Stay present. No sense in fearing something that hasn’t happened yet (and may not even happen at all).
  10. When you struggle, step outside of yourself and look to pour into others. Take the focus off of ‘me’ and put it on ‘we.’
  11. “If it isn’t written down, it isn’t real.”
  12. The 3 most important questions a leader can ask their team: 1) Who are we (identity)? 2) What do we do (purpose)? 3) How do we do it (strategy)?
  13. “1 is 0, 2 is 1.” Don’t go through anything by yourself. Always involve a teammate.
  14. “200/1 vs 200/5.” A 200-pound log is unmanageable for one person to carry. But 5 people working together (each carrying 40 pounds) makes it doable!
  15. Aim to work SMARTER, not HARDER. Brains beat brawn in the long term.
  16. You can’t be anywhere other than where you are. The more you resist that, the more you suffer. Be present.
  17. Effective communication is clear and concise. Ambiguity and complexity create confusion.
  18. Effective communication needs to have cadence and candor. Consistency and compassion increase compliance.
  19. Even great leaders don’t have all the answers. But they have the humility to acknowledge that and ask for help.
  20. Strong teams use adversity to increase cohesion. Weak teams use adversity to erode it.
  21. When you feel strong, lend a hand to a teammate. When you feel weak, reach out to ask for help from a teammate.
  22. We often have to make important decisions with imperfect information. Do the best you can with what you have. Things will never be perfect!

As powerful as these lessons are, the MOST impactful lesson was a reminder of the immense gratitude we should have for those that have served in our armed forces to protect our freedoms.

Moral Leadership – James Stockdale

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“The educated man, particularly the educated leader, copes with the fact that life is not fair. The problem for education is not to teach people how to deal with success but how to deal with failure. And the way to deal with failure is not to invent scapegoats or to lash out at your followers.

Moreover, a properly educated leader, especially when harassed and under pressure, will know from his study of history and the classics that circumstances very much like those he is encounter­ing have occurred from time to time on this earth since the beginning of history. He will avoid the self-­indulgent error of seeing himself in a predicament so unprecedented, so unique, as to justify his making an ex­ception to law, custom, or morality in favor of himself.

The making of such exceptions has been the theme of pub­lic life throughout much of our lifetimes. For 20 years, we’ve been surrounded by gamesmen unable to cope with the wisdom of the ages. They make exceptions to law and cus­tom in favor of themselves because they chose to view ordinary dilemmas as unprecedented crises.”

from Moral Leadership
By Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale, U. S. Navy (Retired)

Be killing sin or… Richard Baxter

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“Be killing sin or sin be killing you” –
Richard Baxter

My Pondering

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:23

Unless you are fighting with the Holy Spirit’s supernatural power, you are fighting a losing battle no matter what.

As a disciple of Christ, you can win plenty of battles and rest assured, our Commander in Chief, none less the Jesus Christ has already won the ultimate victory.

The question is how will you and I play it out. Yes we fight physically, mentally and most importantly is spiritual war.

As the great warrior, the Apostle Paul stated:

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin
and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body,
to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness,
but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

For sin will have no dominion over you,
since you are not under law but under grace.

Romans 6:11-14

Friends, he is playing high-level chess here, not a kids game of checkers. He is referring to multiple dimensions including Christ’s propitiation of our eternal spiritual state of grace and the active present physical & mental battle.

Yes, we can by the Spirit’s power check sin. By strapping on our spiritual armor as explained in Ephesians 6 as a courageous commitment Christian soldier we shall slay our share of sins and demons.

Slay sin or it shall be slaying you.

Pull sin by its roots or it will be pulling you down.

Atrophy sin or it will be paining you.

Eradicate sin or it will be eradicating you.

Squeeze and choke sin out or it will be squeezing and chocking you out.

Poison sin or it will be poisoning you.

Kill sin or it will be killing you.

Sin to our faithful good works is a lot like weeds in a garden. Weeds, their propensity to appear, are always exist so long as there is dirt, so long as we are in the flesh. Good gardeners use proven methods to remove the weeds. Let’s be good gardeners for God.

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

Romans 7:18-19

Thus the sinful weeds are always present in some shape of fashion, We can’t totally expel them but we can indeed control and minimize them.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

Wretched man that I am!

Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind,
but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Romans 7:21-25

For if you live according to the flesh you will die,
but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body,
you will live.

Romans 8:13

Life is hard at times, but God is good all the time for our future glory is all bright. No more sin, struggle, sourness or sadness.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Romans 8:18

Let’s no longer be victims but victors!

Hebrews 12:1-2a

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My Pondering

This is such an inspiring verse with and athletic tone. Those who have gone before us and angels in Heaven are cheering us on. So let’s ditch whatever might slow us down. These aren’t limited to outright sins but even too much of decent or even good things can weigh us down.

Are are wise to put and keep ‘first things first’ by keeping focused on Jesus and the important stuff to earn and receive the five crowns.

The pessimist complains about the wind… John C Maxwell

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“The pessimist complains about the wind.
The optimist expects it to change.
The leader adjust the sails.”
– John C Maxwell

My Pondering

What a wise pithy statement by Maxwell.

In a way, a different one, winners need to be all three:

1. Reality aware

2. Optimistic optimizer

3. Clear leader-shifting

The winner anticipates the wind changing so he quickly recognizes the headwind.

The winner, being an optimist with a positive mindset, knows it won’t be too hard for too long therefore maintains a steady confidence as hope floats.

The winner takes decisive action, clearly communicates with his crew, and they work together in unison to change the sails promptly.

Kirk Booher