What Runners Can Learn from a Navy SEAL

I had to do some research on Navy SEALs this week and I came across the paragraph below. It is from an excerpt of the book SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy Seal Sniper by Howard E. Wasdin and Stephen Templin that was published in Vanity Fair May 2011. (Go HERE for the complete article.)

I’m not comparing running to the extreme training these people go through. But “tough” is relative, isn’t it? All I’m saying is that if you BELIEVE you can do it, you can. (Oh, and don’t think about it too much.)

“Deprived of support in our environment and the support of our own bodies, the only thing propping us up was our belief in accomplishing the mission—complete Hell Week. In psychology this belief is called self-efficacy. Even when the mission seems impossible, it is the strength of our belief that makes success possible. The absence of this belief guarantees failure. A strong belief in the mission fuels our ability to focus, put forth effort, and persist. Believing allows us to see the goal (complete Hell Week) and break the goal down into more manageable objectives (one evolution at a time). If the evolution is a boat race, it can be broken down into even smaller objectives such as paddling. Believing allows us to seek out strategies to accomplish the objectives, such as using the larger shoulder muscles to paddle rather than the smaller forearm muscles. Then, when the race is done, move on to the next evolution. Thinking too much about what happened and what is about to happen will wear you down. Live in the moment and take it one step at a time.” (From SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy Seal Sniper by Howard E. Wasdin and Stephen Templin that was published in Vanity Fair May 2011)