(The following story is a strong lesson that motivates
my daily life learnt from the SEALs trainings, I hope it inspires all of
you: story credits to Admiral William H. McRaven)
Commonly known as the Navy SEALs, are the U.S. Navy's principal special operations
force. The SEALs duty is to conduct small-unit maritime military operations
which originate from, and return to a river, ocean, swamp, delta or coastline.
The Navy SEALs are trained to operate in all environments (Sea, Air, and Land)
for which they are named. SEALs are also prepared to operate in climate
extremes of scorching desert, freezing Arctic, and humid jungle. All SEALs are
male members of the United States Navy. The CIA's highly secretive Special
Activities Division (SAD) and more specifically its elite Special Operations
Group (SOG) recruit’s operators from the SEAL Teams.
# 1. If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.
Every morning in basic SEAL training, my instructors, who at the time
were all Vietnam veterans, would show up in my barracks room and the first
thing they would inspect was your bed. If you did it right, the corners
would be square, the covers pulled tight, the pillow centred just under the
headboard and the extra blanket folded neatly at the foot of the
rack—rack—that’s Navy talk for bed.
It was a simple task—mundane at best. But every morning we were required
to make our bed to perfection. It seemed a little ridiculous at the time,
particularly in light of the fact that were aspiring to be real warriors, tough
battle hardened SEALs—but the wisdom of this simple act has been proven to me
many times over.
If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first
task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage
you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day,
that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your
bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. If
you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right.
And, if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed
that is made—that you made—and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow
will be better.
# 2. If you want to change the world, find someone to help you paddle.
During SEAL training the students are broken down into boat crews. Each
crew is seven students—three on each side of a small rubber boat and one
coxswain to help guide the dingy.
Every day your boat crew forms up on the beach and is instructed to get
through the surf zone and paddle several miles down the coast. In the
winter, the surf off San Diego can get to be 8 to 10 feet high and it is
exceedingly difficult to paddle through the plunging surf unless everyone digs
in.
Every paddle must be synchronized to the stroke count of the coxswain.
Everyone must exert equal effort or the boat will turn against the wave and be
unceremoniously tossed back on the beach. For the boat to make it to
its destination, everyone must paddle.
You can’t change the world alone—you will need some help— and to truly
get from your starting point to your destination takes friends, colleagues, the
good will of strangers and a strong coxswain to guide them.
# 3. If you want to change the world, measure a person by the size of
their heart, not the size of their flippers.
Over a few weeks of difficult training my SEAL class which started with
150 men was down to just 35. There were now six boat crews of seven men
each. I was in the boat with the tall guys, but the best boat crew we had
was made up of the the little guys—the munchkin crew we called them—no one was
over about 5-foot five.
The munchkin boat crew had one American Indian, one African American,
one Polish American, one Greek American, one Italian American, and two tough
kids from the mid-west. They out paddled, out-ran, and out swam all the
other boat crews.
The big men in the other boat crews would always make good natured fun
of the tiny little flippers the munchkins put on their tiny little feet prior
to every swim. But somehow these little guys, from every corner of the
Nation and the world, always had the last laugh— swimming faster than everyone
and reaching the shore long before the rest of us.
SEAL training was a great equalizer. Nothing mattered but your will
to succeed. Not your color, not your ethnic background, not your education and
not your social status.
# 4. If you want to change the world, get over being a sugar cookie
and keep moving forward.
Several times a week, the instructors would line up the class and do a uniform
inspection. It was exceptionally thorough. Your hat had to be perfectly
starched, your uniform immaculately pressed and your belt buckle shiny and void
of any smudges.
But it seemed that no matter how much effort you put into starching your
hat, or pressing your uniform or polishing your belt buckle—- it just wasn’t
good enough. The instructors would find “something” wrong.
For failing the uniform inspection, the student had to run, fully
clothed into the surfzone and then, wet from head to toe, roll around on the
beach until every part of your body was covered with sand. The effect was
known as a “sugar cookie.” You stayed in that uniform the rest of the day—cold,
wet and sandy.
There were many a student who just couldn’t accept the fact that all
their effort was in vain. That no matter how hard they tried to get the uniform
right—it was unappreciated. Those students didn’t make it through
training. Those students didn’t understand the purpose of the drill. You
were never going to succeed. You were never going to have a perfect
uniform. Sometimes no matter how well you prepare or how well you perform
you still end up as a sugar cookie. It’s just the way life is sometimes.
# 5. If you want to change the world, don’t be afraid of the circuses.
Every day during training you were challenged with multiple physical
events—long runs, long swims, obstacle courses, hours of calisthenics—something
designed to test your mettle.
Each event had standards—times you had to meet. If you failed to
meet those standards your name was posted on a list and at the end of the day
those on the list were invited to—a “circus.” A circus was two hours of additional
calisthenics—designed to wear you down, to break your spirit, to force you to
quit. No one wanted a circus.
A circus meant that for that day you didn’t measure up. A circus meant
more fatigue—and more fatigue meant that the following day would be more
difficult—and more circuses were likely.
At some time during SEAL training, everyone—everyone—made the circus
list. But an interesting thing happened to those who were constantly on
the list. Over time those students-—who did two hours of extra calisthenics—got
stronger and stronger. The pain of the circuses built inner strength-built
physical resiliency.
Life is filled with circuses. You will fail. You will likely fail
often. It will be painful. It will be discouraging. At times it will test you
to your very core.
# 6. If you want to change the world, sometimes you have to slide
down the obstacle head first.
At least twice a week, the trainees were required to run the obstacle
course. The most challenging obstacle was the slide for life. It had a three
level 30 foot tower at one end and a one level tower at the other. In between
was a 200-foot long rope.
You had to climb the three tiered tower and once at the top, you grabbed
the rope, swung underneath the rope and pulled yourself hand over hand until
you got to the other end. The record for the obstacle course had stood for
years when my class began training in 1977. The record seemed
unbeatable, until one day, a student decided to go down the slide for life—head
first.
Instead of swinging his body underneath the rope and inching his way
down, he bravely mounted the TOP of the rope and thrust himself
forward. It was a dangerous move—seemingly foolish, and fraught with risk.
Failure could mean injury and being dropped from the training. Without
hesitation—the student slid down the rope—perilously fast, instead of several
minutes, it only took him half that time. He broke the record.
# 7. If you want to change the world, don’t back down from the sharks.
During the land warfare phase of training, the students are flown out to
San Clemente Island which lies off the coast of San Diego. The waters off
San Clemente are a breeding ground for the great white sharks. To pass SEAL
training there are a series of long swims that must be completed. One—is the night
swim.
Before the swim the instructors joyfully brief the trainees on all the
species of sharks that inhabit the waters off San Clemente. They assure
you, however, that no student has ever been eaten by a shark—at least not
recently.
But, you are also taught that if a shark begins to circle your
position—stand your ground. Do not swim away. Do not act afraid. And if
the shark, hungry for a midnight snack, darts towards you—then summons up all
your strength and punch him in the snout and he will turn and swim away. There
are a lot of sharks in the world. If you hope to complete the swim you will
have to deal with them.
# 8. If you want to change the world, you must be your very best in
the darkest moment.
One of our jobs is to conduct underwater attacks against enemy shipping.
We practiced this technique extensively during basic training. The ship
attack mission is where a pair of SEAL divers is dropped off outside an enemy
harbour and then swims well over two miles—underwater—using nothing but a depth
gauge and a compass to get to their target.
During the entire swim, even well below the surface there is some light
that comes through. It is comforting to know that there is open water above
you.
But as you approach the ship, which is tied to a pier, the light begins
to fade. The steel structure of the ship blocks the moonlight—it blocks the
surrounding street lamps—it blocks all ambient light. To be successful in
your mission, you have to swim under the ship and find the keel—the center line
and the deepest part of the ship.
This is your objective. But the keel is also the darkest part of the
ship—where you cannot see your hand in front of your face, where the noise from
the ship’s machinery is deafening and where it is easy to get disoriented and
fail.
Every SEAL knows that under the keel, at the darkest moment of the
mission—is the time when you must be calm, composed—when all your tactical
skills, your physical power and all your inner strength must be brought to
bear.
# 9. If you want to change the world, start singing when you’re up to
your neck in mud.
The ninth week of training is referred to as “Hell Week.” It is six days
of no sleep, constant physical and mental harassment and—one special day at the
Mud Flats—the Mud Flats are an area between San Diego and Tijuana where the
water runs off and creates the Tijuana slue’s—a swampy patch of terrain where
the mud will engulf you.
It is on Wednesday of Hell Week that you paddle down to the mud flats
and spend the next 15 hours trying to survive the freezing cold mud, the
howling wind and the incessant pressure to quit from the instructors. As
the sun began to set that Wednesday evening, my training class, having
committed some “egregious infraction of the rules” was ordered into the mud.
The mud consumed each man till there was nothing visible but our heads.
The instructors told us we could leave the mud if only five men would quit—just
five men and we could get out of the oppressive cold. Looking around the
mud flat it was apparent that some students were about to give up. It was still
over eight hours till the sun came up—eight more hours of bone chilling cold.
The chattering teeth and shivering moans of the trainees were so loud it
was hard to hear anything and then, one voice began to echo through the
night—one voice raised in song. The song was terribly out of tune, but
sung with great enthusiasm. One voice became two and two became three and
before long everyone in the class was singing. We knew that if one man
could rise above the misery then others could as well.
The instructors threatened us with more time in the mud if we kept up
the singing—but the singing persisted. And somehow—the mud seemed a little
warmer, the wind a little tamer and the dawn not so far away.
If I have learned anything in my time traveling the world, it is the
power of hope. The power of one person—Washington, Lincoln, King, Mandela and
even a young girl from Pakistan—Malala—one person can change the world by
giving people hope.
# 10. If you want to change the world, NEVER ring the bell!
Finally, in SEAL training there is a bell. A brass bell that hangs in
the center of the compound for all the students to see. All you have to do
to quit—is ring the bell. Ring the bell and you no longer have to wake up at 5
o’clock. Ring the bell and you no longer have to do the freezing cold
swims. Ring the bell and you no longer have to do the runs, the obstacle
course, the PT—and you no longer have to endure the hardships of
training. Just ring the bell.
Conclusion:
To all the future graduating classes (all of you good people blessed to
be living and now reading this article), you are moments away from graduating.. Moments away from beginning your journey through life.. Moments away from
starting to change the world—for the better.. It will not be
easy! Start each day with a task completed. Find someone to help you
through life. Respect everyone!
Know that life is not fair and that you will fail often, but if you take
some risks, step up when the times are toughest, face down the bullies, lift up
the downtrodden and NEVER, EVER GIVE UP—if you do these things, then next
generation and the generations that follow will live in a world far better than
the one we have today and—what started here will indeed have changed the
world—for the better.
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