Embrace The Suck
I have only had one Navy Seal friend, and that was the late Glen Doherty who was killed at Benghazi. He was tough and could do anything, but when I first knew him he was a happy guy who played tennis, spent time in a boat, told good stories and later moved west for the skiing - not an obviously military kickass kind of guy. But he was a bright spirit at camp and we thought of him often. So imagining Glen going through the Navy Seal training that author Brent Gleeson describes is not that hard. And picturing Glenn holding out at the top of a doomed position in Benghazi - well, that just confirms what kind of a guy he was. Whatever he learned from his training is a gift to us.
So here we go, armed with a Field Manual to help us move from unbearable and unwinning positions - in work, in physical training, maybe even a pandemic - despite the urge to quit, to walk away, to take it easy. The author tells us how Seals do it, and its got to do with mental fortitude. He breaks it down into Challenge-Commitment-Control as the approach. And he says that resilient people - Seals! - look at difficulties as the Challenge. Commitment is the emotional power behind drive to complete - "I think I can, I think I can, I can..." And finally Control is what holds us on the path.
Not everyone is going to want to tackle Navy Seal training, but for sure we have all been faced with over a year of disintegration of "normal" life - schools shut, businesses shrinking, GDP falling accompanied by a nutsy stock market. For an individual just looking to keep on going, its been hard. We've been forced to take on big life challenges and this is where Gleeson's approach proves valuable, because when he says "Embrace The Suck," he's really coaching us, in fact, to see the reality and make a plan to deal with it. Gleeson says that pain is a leading indicator, in fact a pathway. Along the way he is urging us to clear the deck and remove temptations and distractions, to suffer with a purpose, fail occasionally as a gift - a lesson leading us forward - and knock off one good goal.
And it never ends. Chapter 6, "Do Something That Sucks Every Day," from David Goggins, tells the story of a Gleeson friend who rose, but also experienced big failures that drove him further. He was described as "an intimidating beast of a guy who didn't smile much.. Okay, never." He had already been through Hell Week twice due to injuries. And later, after David had decided to join the US Air Force Pararescue group, he failed his vocational aptitude test twice before he finally passed and started training - nothing but big goals, many of which were not achievable on the first go-round. But when he finally concluded his Air Force career and headed into civilian life, it was a disaster - deep depression, fifty pounds overweight and rising, and flashbacks - all in all not a promising future.
But again, Goggins could not accept this as final. The Navy Seal recruiter was not encouraging, but fifty pounds and two months later Goggins got in, his third pass at Hell Week. His next moves, Army Ranger school and long distance runner were equally challenging, but again, he succeeded. Sure as hell beat being an exterminator back in civilian life!
Each chapter concludes with decision tools Gleeson offers to help us attack the basics and get clear on motivators, along with how much pain and discomfort we are prepared to endure. His illustrations from Iraq and other war zones are persuasive, and while we may not see ourselves as military high-performers, we've all learned that careers and families often require these very same plans and effort.
Patricia E. Moody
FORTUNE magazine "Pioneering Woman in Mfg"
IndustryWeek IdeaXchange Xpert
A Mill Girl at Blue Heron Journal, on-line resource for business thought-leaders and decision-makers, patriciaemoody@gmail.com