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| Navy SEAL Special Warfare Insignia or the Trident Pin |
Before one earns that highly rare Navy SEAL trident pin, one has to pass tests for mental ability, ability to learn, mental toughness and resilience and unimaginable physical tests. How unimaginable? During what they call the hell week of BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL), trainees have to endure 110 hours without sleep, carry a log over one's head for hours and get passing scores for a 500-yard swim and 1.5-mile run, among many others.
The kind of grit Navy SEALs have is just mind-blowing, right? Even their abilities are mind-blowing... they sound like real-life superpowers to me.💪
So what can commoners like us learn from the Navy SEALS? What do people with grit like this have that makes them keep going when it gets tough? Positive self-talk.
The book says that in our head, we say between 300 words to 1,000 words per minute to ourselves. They can be positive like I can do it, or negative like I can’t take this anymore. It turns out when these words are positive, they have a huge effect on one's mental toughness and one's ability to keep going. The book cites that when the Navy started teaching BUD/S applicants to speak to themselves positively combined with other mental tools, BUD/S passing rate increased by nearly 10%. Getting through BUD/S is a lot of physical hardship but quitting is mental, Barker said.
Then there's the pool competency test - you're underwater in scuba gear and the instructor yanks the regulator from your mouth and ties your air house in knots, and antagonizes you relentlessly as you struggle for air. Your brain is screaming - you’re going to die.
How can you even think straight if you're running out of oxygen, right? 😠But in order for you to pass, you must follow the correct procedures and be able to put your equipment back in proper order while the instructor continues to put it in the wrong state! Waaa... And the purpose of the exercise is that it simulates what a SEAL might deal with when facing the wild undercurrent of the ocean.
BUD/S are given 4 tries to pass full competency. Less than 20% can pass this test the first time. And after all the 4 attempts, more often than not, only a single digit percentage pass. In the example in the book, only 6% earned the Navy SEAL trident pin or the Special Warfare Insignia. 😱
The kind of grit Navy SEALs have is just mind-blowing, right? Even their abilities are mind-blowing... they sound like real-life superpowers to me.💪
So what can commoners like us learn from the Navy SEALS? What do people with grit like this have that makes them keep going when it gets tough? Positive self-talk.
The book says that in our head, we say between 300 words to 1,000 words per minute to ourselves. They can be positive like I can do it, or negative like I can’t take this anymore. It turns out when these words are positive, they have a huge effect on one's mental toughness and one's ability to keep going. The book cites that when the Navy started teaching BUD/S applicants to speak to themselves positively combined with other mental tools, BUD/S passing rate increased by nearly 10%. Getting through BUD/S is a lot of physical hardship but quitting is mental, Barker said.
There you go - at least we are capable of doing one thing which Navy SEALs are gifted in - that of positive self-talk to develop grit. 😜
