Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Forging Mental Toughness 2-of-2

“Soft Sand Conditioning Run” is the term used by Naval Special Warfare for training Navy SEAL wannabees (Students) to develop greater mental strength.
How does running strengthen your mind? By voluntarily repeatedly facing the unknown during times of discomfort, enduring and persevering through to the conclusion.
In this run, a Class of Students is lead by an Instructor who nimbly snakes his way through the slippery foothold sands. Running in formation, the Students need merely to keep up as a Class… while singing. When individual Students fall behind, additional Instructors share (not-so-kind) words of encouragement. When a Student runs the same pace as his class, but 5-steps behind, it’s becomes obvious to the Instructor Staff that he has the ability to keep up but isn’t exercising his mental toughness. As incentive, the Instructor may have the student stop and execute a set of push-ups as his class runs away. This further exhausts the tired Student who must now exercise greater mental toughness and catch-up with his Class. When too many Students fall behind… well the Instructors have plans for them too! An impromptu remedial training dubbed the “Goon Squad” most likely because of how the Students look while enduring the bonus exercise session. Eventually the Goon Squad reunites with the Class and the whole cycle is repeated.

I remember one particular Soft Sand Conditioning Run. We had run in the soft sand for at least 8-miles by the time we returned to our starting point. At this point in our training, we had become “comfortable” with the idea that our starting point was also our finish line because of the frequent previous runs that started and stopped at this location. Motivated by the previous hour-and-a-half of surviving “Goon Squads,” struggling Students reached deep inside themselves to stay together with the Class for the final ½-mile. In soft sand, 1-mile may take 10-minutes to run. The experience for these exhausted men, telling themselves they were giving it their all, was an extremely challenging few, final minutes!
But the Instructors have the Students’ long-term best interest at heart –not their immediate desire for comfort! There was more to come!
When we crossed the point we saw as the finish line… the lead Instructor continued running his demanding pace.
At first we Students were in disbelief. We questioned if maybe he made an error and didn’t notice that we’d made it “home”? Then the horrific painful reality set in: he had no intention of stopping.
With that awareness, numerous Students abruptly slowed down and fell behind. Each man was greeted by an attentive Instructor, eager to “forge mental toughness” within the student –or to inspire him to choose another profession!
I had personally fallen behind earlier in the run, but had recovered and learned my lesson in the Goon Squad. I do not know how I stayed with my Class during the additional 2-miles after we thought the run was over. I think I was blinded by the pain and simply kept going. What I do know is that as difficult as it was, the additional attention from the eager Instructors was many times worse –Students running in to the ocean so that clothes & boots would become weighted down with water, adding to their challenge. Running drills with short deadlines, failing these drills and repeating until digging deep enough to succeed. Bear crawls, chase the rabbit, push-ups, sprints… and so much more while the Class still running with the lead Instructor snaked and circled. These Goon Squad Students who’d quit in their minds earlier were now paying the price.

Over the days, weeks and months –most of them found new professions. A rare few chose to pay the price up front to forge mental toughness.

You won’t forge mental toughness by sitting in your comfort zone. You won’t forge mental toughness by jumping into an icy lake or from an airplane one-time. You won’t forge mental toughness by confronting your fears once. And you won’t forge it alone.

You will develop mental toughness only through repetition. Like any other muscle, this is how you will strengthen your mind.
And this mental toughness, my friends, is something no one can ever take away from you without your permission.

Call to action:
What can you begin today to increase your mental toughness? Where can you get help?
All the best, TC Cummings

3 comments:

  1. That was absolutely EXCELLENT. I was tired just reading it! Many were the days sitting in my beach chair, sipping a beer, listening to Jimmy Buffett while chuckling to myself as the BUDs trainees were killing themselves off in the distance. Little did I know that, someday, I would have to learn the same kind of mental toughness - confronting and overcoming the same psychological temptations for comfort and relief - in order to realize extraordinary success. I'm no longer laughing, but applauding. Great post!

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  2. I recall doing a run to the elephant cage during the first week of first phase in the soft sand. It just plain sucked. I asked the guy running next to me if he ever thought of quitting. He said it wasn't an option for him. I asked what he meant and he said he'll either make it through BUD/S or die trying. From that point forward I took the option of quitting off the table. The runs still sucked, but the alternative sucked more.

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  3. We are called to live BRAVE lives...not "safe" lives. TC First I loved that you quoted me....err....Walt Disney.
    Second, I remember a run up to the lifeguard tower where Chief Richardson saw me 'struggling' He came up to me and had some consoling words "Disney, it looks like you are struggling a bit today? HOOYAH Chief!" He disappeared for about a minute, then came back with a shot put sized rock and tossed it to me. "Here, this should help." (CHAHHHHHH!) Well, it pissed me off such that I started to shadow him as he ran around the class. I got on his ass and would not let go of that rock. He picked up the pace. Nobody liked it, but it made us stronger. The next run was 'smoother'. The more we sweat in peace, the less we bleed in war!
    Thanks for sharing the 'good stuff' TC!
    "For the glory of God and the service of mankind!"

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