Fit for Life: Think Like a Navy Seal

Saturday, November 02, 2019

Matt Espeut, GoLocalPDX Health +Lifestyle Contributor

This past weekend I attended a fantastic self-development workshop and I didn’t need to leave the state for it.

The reason for that is because I hosted the event at Providence Fit Body Boot Camp.

I wanted to share with others the kind of high-quality education and development that I am receiving from the top of the food chain, the best of the best, the elite in the industry, and it is tough to find locally.

I personally like to learn from people that have experienced some of life’s setbacks and hard knocks, and are living and breathing what they are teaching, as opposed to someone that was classroom educated, and is just relaying information from textbooks.

Although you can learn from anyone, living testimonials have more credibility and real-life applications of the subject matter, which in turn makes them SME, or subject matter experts.

This particular workshop was focused on team building, leadership, problem-solving and communication skills, and was run by Navy Seal Raymond Care.

This guy is a living testament of what he teaches and carries a tremendous of credibility because he has experienced some of the toughest situations any human being can encounter.

From the time he was a kid to the present day, this guy has seen and lived through more adversity and difficult situations than most people you will encounter in your lifetime.

He took us in-depth as to what tactics make The Seal team successful and pointed out that we need to adopt some of the same skills and mindset to be successful in our everyday lives.

We had 20 people ranging in age from 16-71 years old, and from different professions.

Some were in the fitness industry and others had livelihoods such as the president of the RI teacher’s union to the owner of a Flower Shop to an Engineer to the head of the truck department at Tasca Ford.

A very mixed dynamic as far as occupations go.

What we all had in common was that the skills being taught had an effect that would elevate us to all be better of many different levels from work to fitness to better relationships.

The other thing we had in common was that we were all growth-minded, and wanted to be better leaders, teammates and problem solvers.

Another observation I made was that there were 6 people that had recently lost 50+ pounds.

That tells me that once you develop the self-improvement mindset, it will carry over into ALL areas of your life.

Losing that much weight requires a lifestyle change, and discipline that doesn’t stop with eating and exercising.

You get addicted to self-growth and want it to bleed in every area of your life.

Positive momentum is habit-forming and everyone that sees improvement in themselves, always wants more.

The workshop was run according to the high standards of a Navy Seal.

We all wore the same shirts, and we were all challenged to pay close attention to details and focus on communication with each other.

The instructor was fair, tough, and to the point.

He pushed the group both physically and mentally, and we all had a lot of fun learning new things about ourselves.

I wanted to share some key takeaways from the workshop, so my audience of readers can implement a few things in their everyday lives.

Here are just a few valuable nuggets of information that we absorbed.

The first acronym he gave us was T.E.A.M and it was broken down as follows.

T- trust. Whether you are a Navy Seal in combat, work for an organization, or are playing sports, you need to trust your team. There isn’t anyone person that can achieve as much success as a team of like-minded individuals all striving for the same result, and you need to trust that your team is as focused as you or you can expect to fail.

E- effort. We all need to be putting up 100% effort in all we do. If one person is lagging behind, it slows the whole team down.

A- attitude. This will always be a factor in success. Everyone on the team needs to have a positive problem-solving attitude in order to be able to work at full capacity. If one person has a bad attitude it is a cancer in your organization and hurts everyone.

M-Mission. Similar to attitude, we all need to be on the same mission, and that’s to win. Prioritize, organize, then monetize. That’s the mission all successful businesses need to acquire, and the whole team needs to relentlessly focus on that mission.

Have a list of Non-Negotiable items and live by them.

Fitness, Family, Finances, and Faith are the foundation of our existence, and when we are encountering problems or issues in our lives, it usually has something to do with one of them.

If your fitness is off, your health deteriorates, if you are involved in a bad family dynamic, you are not focused on your priorities, if your finances are off you suffer on numerous levels, and if you don’t have faith in yourself, you will not prevail in your efforts.

When you work on improving these 4 areas of your life, things get better on all levels, and you can approach life with laser focus and avoid outside distractions that will either slow progress, waste time, or set you back.

When you think deep enough and break down what those 4 subjects mean to you, you quickly realize nothing else in life matters as much or is worth investing your time and energy into.

You get what you tolerate.

If you tolerate mediocrity and less than world-class, then that’s what you will get for yourself.

If you tolerate people that are not nice to you or don’t bring out the best in you, then things will stay unfavorable for you.

If you tolerate a dead-end job, surrounded by people that don’t align with your vision and values, then you can expect to be miserable day in and day out while at work.

If you are a leader of any type and tolerate excuses for poor workmanship, then expect that to carry over in your company’s overall production and profit.

My suggestion is to have high standards of expectations and tolerate nothing less than world-class.

No plan B.

If you have a plan B, you are not all in with Plan A.

If you are thinking plan B, you are setting yourself up for failure, and not going to put 100% into plan A.

Think about that. If you are opening a business and have a plan B in place “just in case” things don’t work out, you are already contemplating failure, and thats the wrong mindset to go into any proposition that you are trying to succeed at.

If you are trying out for the football team yet thinking about joining the wrestling team if you don’t make it, then you already have diluted your thought process, have one foot out the door, and are setting yourself up for failure.

Most successful people don’t have a plan B.

They are too focused on Plan A and will channel all their attention and effort on making it work.

When you do this, you are telling yourself, failure is not an option.

If you do fail, then consider it a learning experience and use that data to create another Plan A.

Don’t settle for plan B.

The final takeaway I will share with you today, and one I need to learn the most, is to give yourself personal affirmation.

Now that doesn’t mean to be arrogant and cocky all the time, however, we need to give ourselves some credit for pushing forward through all the adversity that we face daily.

I am harder on myself than anyone else could be.

I am never satisfied with what I have accomplished.

I learned that complacency kills, and there isn’t a lot of time to stop and smell the victories.

I am always looking for ways to get better, and will never be satisfied with where I am.

I am always grateful, but never satisfied.

Satisfaction kills momentum and in order to grow, we can’t become complacent or satisfied.

However, what I have gotten better at is affirming that I am doing good things for people, and my intentions are always to help or better someone’s life.

From fitness and nutrition, to self-motivation, my intentions are to help create better people.

This is something that will benefit us all, and I pride myself in trying to do so.

I know that I am good at what I do, I focus on making my team better, and focus on living at world-class.

For that I can affirm to myself that I am a good person with good intentions, and that will keep me moving in the right direction.

So, after reading this, make a list of a few things that you can implement, look at yourself in the mirror, and say “I am a champion, and I am AWESOME”, then go out and attack your goals!!

Committed to your success,