The Way of the SEAL

Think Like an Elite Warrior to Lead and Succeed

A former U.S. Navy SEAL Commander, Mark Divine integrates the ancient warrior traditions with grounded, practical virtue and 21st century get-it-done effectiveness in a way that I find incredibly inspiring. Big Ideas we cover include the power of front-sight focus, how to DIRECT your mind, going Yoda on your commitments and creating micro goals when things are tough.

The Trident marks you as someone special, a rare modern-day Spartan who trains harder, works smarter, and is courageous in the face of all challenges. To me, it also represents the Way of the SEAL, a mind-set and attitude that allows the wearer to be victorious on both the inner and outer fields of life’s battles. Let me teach you how you can earn your own Trident now.

Mark Divine

Listen

PNTV

Big Ideas

Ancient Values

For modern times.
Front-Sight Focus

Keep your attention there.
DIRECT Your Mind

Thank you, Sentinel.
How’s Your Commitment?

Do or do not.
Things Tough?

Go micro w/your goals!
Quit Poisoning Yourself

With TV news.
Discipline = Spark

That ignites habit fire.

“The Way of the SEAL is a new look at leadership and personal excellence—one forged in the deserts, jungles, burned-out cities, and oceans of the murky special operations world. I’ve taken my twenty years of experience as a Navy SEAL officer, flavored it with twenty-five years of martial arts and fifteen years of yoga training, and pulled lessons learned from six successful multimillion-dollar business ventures for a unique, highly effective, and accessible combination that anyone can use to become an elite operator. …

I believe that though not everyone has the physical ability, opportunity, or even desire to become a Navy SEAL, anyone can develop the same mental toughness, leadership qualities, and winning attitude. If I could sell a bottled elixir that would give you the mind-set of a SEAL, I would. I haven’t figured that out yet, so this book is the first shot across the bow.”

~ Mark Divine from The Way of the SEAL

As I mentioned in our Note on Unbeatable Mind, Mark Divine is a living superhero. I think he should have his own action figure.

A former U.S. Navy SEAL Commander, Mark integrates the ancient warrior traditions with grounded, practical virtue and 21st century get-it-done effectiveness in a way that I find incredibly inspiring.

If you’re into that kinda thing, I think you’ll enjoy the book. (Get a copy here.)

As you’d expect, the book is packed with Big Ideas. I’m excited to share a few of my favorites so let’s jump straight in!

Ancient Values for modern times

“To think and act like a Navy SEAL is to pursue integral development and whole-person growth within a warrior context. Though this has an inherently militaristic flavor, I consider the term ‘warrior’ to have a broader, more figurative meaning as one who is committed to mastering himself or herself at all levels, who develops the courage to step up and do the right thing, all while serving his or her family, team, community, and, ultimately, humanity at large. To achieve SEAL-worthy success, you must:

establish your set point, turning a deep sense of values and purpose into a touchstone that will keep your feet in the sand and your eyes on the goal
develop front-sight focus so nothing can derail you on your way to victory
bulletproof your mission to inoculate your efforts against failure
do today what others won’t so you can achieve tomorrow what others can’t
get mentally and emotionally tough, and eliminate the ‘quit’ option from your subconscious
break things and remake them, improving them through innovation and adaptation
build your intuition to utilize the full range of your innate wisdom and intelligence
think offense, all the time, to surprise your competition and dominate the field
train for life to develop mastery of your physical, mental, emotional, intuitional, and spiritual selves.”

Those are the 8 principles of the Way of the SEAL. They form the 8 chapters of the book. Before we take a quick look at a few of my favorite Big Ideas, I’d like to shine a light on Mark’s definition of a warrior—a definition that includes all of us.

He tells us that: “I consider the term ‘warrior’ to have a broader, more figurative meaning as one who is committed to mastering himself or herself at all levels, who develops the courage to step up and do the right thing, all while serving his or her family, team, community, and, ultimately, humanity at large.”

→ One committed to mastering himself or herself at all levels in service to his or her family, team, community and world. Amen.

Lest you think the “warrior” energy is too strong, remember Socrates, Rumi and the Buddha.

Socrates saw the path to mastery as the greatest and most important battle and told us: “I desire only to know the truth, and to live as well as I can… And, to the utmost of my power, I exhort all other men to do the same… I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict.”

Rumi gives us this gem: “The lion who breaks the enemy’s ranks is a minor hero compared to the lion who overcomes himself.”

While the Buddha tells us: “One who conquers himself is greater than another who conquers a thousand times a thousand men on the battlefield.”

Let’s own our warrior spirit in pursuit of the self-mastery that will most powerfully enable us to serve as profoundly as we can.

Front-sight focus

“Maintaining a front-sight focus has a calming and confidence-building effect. A SEAL knows he must simply engage one target at a time and not shift focus until he’s dispatched that target. SEALs don’t like to waste ammo—we try to make each round count. This is far more effective than trying to engage multiple targets (or worry about them at the same time!). Admittedly, our training allows us to do this very fast and with incredible precision, making it appear as if we’re tackling multiple targets simultaneously. Ultimately, all great successes follow this exact process: Identify a goal, and then achieve it by knocking down one target after another, each one the right target for that shot. When you learn to do this with the focus and precision of a SEAL, understanding which targets to engage and how to avoid distractions, your success will skyrocket. …

Without front-sight focus, you’re bound to get derailed and end up mired in common, day-to-day activities and thinking. Common thinking in combat can get you killed, but in everyday life it will simply kill any chance of your operating at the high level we expect for the Way of the SEAL.”

Front-sight focus. I LOVE this idea.

This is Principle #2. After we “Establish Your Set Point”—aka get clarity on your purpose and values (check out the Notes on Unbeatable Mind for a deeper look at this)—it’s time to identify your next most important goal and KEEP IT IN FOCUS as and until you crush it.

Front-sight focus. How’s yours?

When you set a goal do you start off towards it all fired up and then kinda sorta forget about it as things get a little tough? That’s not the Way of the SEAL.

Get clear on your target. Establish why it’s so important to you. KNOW you can achieve it (and if you can’t create that level of confidence, then shift it so you CAN—remember: challenging, meaningful AND feasible), then eliminate distractions and create immediate micro goals in pursuit of the big one.

That’s how we rock it. And, that’s basically a break down of Piers Steele’s award-winning formula (see Notes on The Procrastination Equation) breaking down hundreds of research papers on the science of motivation.

M = V x E / I x D ← Remember his equation? (You got the tattoo right?)

Motivation = Value x Expectancy / Impulsivity x Delay. Translated: Motivation = How much you want something times how much you think you can have it divided by how distracted you are times how far away the goal is.

Check out Conquering Procrastination 101 for more. For now, walk through that equation with your #1 goal right now. Where are you strong? What needs work? Keep your front-sight focus.

P.S. In terms of eliminating distractions, remember the Russian proverb that kicks off The ONE Thing (see Notes): “Chase two rabbits and catch none.”

DIRECT your mind

“This is your express train to mental control. Now that you’re developing the capacity to observe the inner workings of your mind, we want your sentinel to start directing your thought traffic. Return to your quiet spot. This time, as random thoughts bubble up, implement the DIRECT process below. When you feel comfortable with this powerful method, try to DIRECT your thoughts during the day, especially those destructive to your wellbeing and front-sight focus.

Detect. … Every thought distracting your front-sight focus depletes your energy and must be dealt with. …

Interdict. If your sentinel detects a negative or useless thought, interdict it with a simple command such as ‘Stop!’ or ‘No!’ …

Redirect. Once you stop a negative thought, you have to redirect your mind to new, empowering thoughts. …

Energize. Solidify the new thought by getting your whole being to support it, entering a new physiological state that matches your mental shift. …

Communicate. This step is an insurance policy. You must talk to yourself in a new way to override any lurking negativity and prevent new destructive thoughts from creeping in. In SEAL training, I used the mantra, ‘Feeling good, looking good, ought to be in Hollywood!’ to maintain my energy and focus in the grind. …

Train. Your mind can be a powerful ally or a slothful friend. Practice the DIRECT technique daily like you would exercise your body, and it will not only give you control in the moment but also train your mind to function at an elite level permanently.”

This is from a chapter all about how to “Forge Mental Toughness.” Mark wrote an entire book about this which I HIGHLY recommend. Again, check out the Notes on Unbeatable Mind.

For now, it’s time to get our Sentinel on active duty—standing on guard at the gates of your consciousness. (I love that image.)

Imagine YOUR Sentinel now. Strong. Dignified. Absolutely (!) resolute in his or her commitment to protect your mind from all negativity.

Salute your Sentinel and thank him or her for their service. Now, let’s identify the precise means by which our Sentinel protects us. Remember: DIRECT.

Detect. We must NOTICE when our mind wanders to the negative. (Sounds easy but it’s not. This is why we meditate—training our minds to observe the contents of our consciousness rather than get mindlessly swept up by it!)

Interdict. You observed some enemy thoughts trying to take root in your mind. Now it’s time to interdict them. A good “Stop!” or “No!!” does the trick. The Sentinel is in charge.

Redirect. We’ve detected and interdicted. Now it’s time to redirect our minds to something positive. How can you swap out that negative thought with a more positive one? Do that.

Energize. Now we need to FEEL it. Smile. Strike a power pose. Seriously. Stand like a sentinel. POWERFUL. Take up space. Put your hands on your hips, your chest out and your head up tall and strong.

Might sound corny but Amy Cuddy’s research (see Notes on Presence) shows that holding “power poses” like that for as little as 2 minutes dramatically shifts your physiology in the right direction (testosterone up, cortisol down = more power). (And, of course, standing like a wilted flower does the opposite—reducing your power as your testosterone goes down and cortisol up.)

Communicate. Time to talk to yourself positively. “I’ve got this!!” “Let’s do this!!” Whatever fires you up. (In our interview, we joked about how much I love Mark’s mantra from his SEAL training. These days at the Johnson house, you might hear Emerson cruising around saying, “Looking good, feeling good, I should be in Hollywood!” Hah. (Of course, he has no idea what/where Hollywood is but super fun + funny. :)

Train. We’ve detected, interdicted, redirected, energized and communicated with ourselves. Now it’s time to train it. Not till you get it right. Until you can’t get it wrong. THAT’s mastery.

I salute you and your Sentinel. Let’s do this.

How’s your commitment?

“True commitment, the type your teammates can rely on as if their lives depended on it, requires you to burn the boat upon the shore of action. You must then press forward because you have removed the way out, igniting the fire of challenge. …

Certainty is a powerful energetic force essential for breaking inertia and developing momentum. The seed of certainty is found in commitment, a one-way street. You can’t partly commit or potentially commit. When you deliver a ‘Yes, I’ve got this!’ you inject a positive intent and energy into a project that is palpable. Conversely, ‘I’ll give it a try’ is a dull thud of defeatism. …

Have you noticed how the value our society places on commitment has slid? We’ve crept from insisting that ‘you do what you say, period,’ to honoring ‘I tried and gave it my best’ to accepting ‘I meant to get to it, but something else came up.’ Take a cue from Yoda, who forcefully mentors Luke: ‘Do or do not; there is no try!’ You must commit with everything you have; otherwise say ‘no’ or ‘not now.’”

That’s from Principle 6: Break Things—all about applying total commitment, failing forward fast, seizing opportunity and innovating + adapting quickly.

Let’s get right to it: How do YOU commit?

Do you inject the uber-powerful energy your team and family and world can count on →
“YES! I’ve got this! #DONE.”

Or, a more wobbly, “Well, I’ll (*insert whiney voice with wringing hands*) try.”

The Way of the SEAL is all about #DONE. You say you’re going to do something and it’s DONE.

Period. That’s self-mastery. That’s the way we want to roll.

Remember: “Do or do not. There is no try.”

Things getting tough? Go Micro w/Your Goals

“The tougher things get, the smaller your goals should become. These ‘microgoals’ should be laser-focused on achievement of a target or a refined subset of your overall mission—this is benchmarking at work. While my trainees’ arms are shaking, I don’t encourage them to focus on holding their push-up position for forty-five minutes but for just one minute. During Hell Week, I didn’t focus on getting my Trident but on finishing the current physical training round safely with my team intact.

Avoid creating too many goals at one time, which can defuse your front-sight focus. Remember, SEALs focus on one mission at a time—both at the macro, or overall mission, level and at the micro, or target, level. An unrealistic time frame can also lead to frustration. Unwillingness to modify your goals to meet reality (remember that no plan survives contact with the enemy) can indicate inflexible thinking, the opposite of innovation we’re trying to cultivate. If you lack process goals or a ‘being’ purpose, you can become absorbed in achievement without enough focus on actual, lasting improvement (but understand that it’s often necessary to include achievement goals on the way to a bigger ‘being’ purpose). Finally, I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to check with yourself daily, measuring and probing your progress. This ensures you stay on track, maintain momentum, and hold yourself accountable!”

First: Yes, Mark has his SEAL trainees hold a push up position for FORTY-FIVE minutes.

It’s an exercise in 20X-ing their thinking—proving to them they can do way more than they think they can. But he doesn’t tell them to focus on the 45 minutes. He narrows their focus to the next ONE minute like Joe De Sena advised in Spartan Up! (see Notes), we need to focus on the next telephone pole—not the iceberg of pain of the ENTIRE project in front of us.

So, if you’ve got a big goal that’s freaking you out, break it down. Go Micro with your goals. What’s the smallest little tiny domino you can knock over next? Go crush that.

And, the rest of that Idea is goal genius. Simplify your battlefield (another Big Idea) by reducing your # of goals. Line up your dominoes. Check in daily to keep Mr. Mo on your side. #repeat.

Quit poisoning yourself with TV news

“I encourage you to eliminate TV. …

Why avoid TV news? The thing is, most people are addicted to a constant flood of what is passed off as news but is mostly just superfluous nonsense about celebrities, politicians, and minor events. Additionally, because of the ‘scare factor’ necessary for keeping eyes glued to the screen (which in turn attracts advertisers and income), TV news is notoriously negative and will have a big impact on your subconscious over time—as with any high-functioning computer, the output of your mind is shaped by what you put into it.”

TV news is toxic. Period. (Actually, exclamation point!)

Two quick things: First, as Alberto Villoldo tells us in One Spirit Medicine (see Notes), we’re exposed to more stimuli in a WEEK than our ancient ancestors were exposed to in a LIFETIME. Our nervous systems simply weren’t built to absorb *that* much information. It’s toxic.

As Alberto advises, “Nature designed the brain to deal with only one lion roaring at us at a time, not the entire jungle turning against us. … The media bring us news about wars and devastation happening in distant lands, but our fight-or-flight response operates only with local coordinates, and doesn’t understand far away. When we read about some catastrophic event, the thinking part of our brain grasps that it’s happening at another time and place. But the brain perceives images nonverbally and much faster. So when the hippocampus, which regulates the fight-or-flight response, is presented with streaming video of an atrocity, it registers it as happening now and nearby, and goes on high alert. The more damaged the hippocampus is by stress and toxins, the closer and more threatening the danger seems to be.”

Research confirms that. As Kelly McGonigal tells us in The Upside of Stress (see Notes): “One shocking study found that people who watched six or more hours of news about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing were more likely to develop post-traumatic stress symptoms than people who were actually at the bombing and personally affected by it.”

Turn off the TV. And definitely quit watching TV news. (!!!)

Discipline = Spark that ignites habit fire

“Discipline is the spark that ignites the fire of habit. Those fires must be lit daily, and discipline provides the original source energy. The word discipline literally means to be a disciple to a higher purpose. Developing the discipline to train hard every day means you become a disciple—not to the training itself, not just to looking good or stroking your ego, but to the higher purpose of developing yourself fully as a human being and as a leader. … Remember, when extraordinary efforts become commonplace, extraordinary results follow.”

Two genius lines: “Discipline is the spark that ignites the fire of habit.” + “When extraordinary efforts become commonplace, extraordinary results follow.”

Amen. Here’s to the discipline that makes the extraordinary possible as we master ourselves, optimize, actualize and give our greatest gifts in greatest service to our families and world.

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