How Navy Seals Build Their Resiliency

By Amina Hedayat Khalil

Leadership and Think Global Coach and Consultant

The Navy SEALs Ethos states:

“I persevere and thrive on adversity…If knocked down, I will get back up every time. I am never out of the fight.”

As a regular citizen, living life as it comes, creating what I can create and flowing with what I have no control over, this makes me feel excited. When I read this ethos, I looked at my life and knew that I persevered, got back up every time, and I kept on fighting for my values and my principles.

The Navy SEALs are taught that when they become worried, fearful, or frustrated, to use that energy and turn it into aggression to complete their mission. One mission after another, their resiliency becomes stronger. The purpose behind their missions, to make sure they all come back alive and no one is left behind, leaves no room to worry or think twice if their mission will fail.

As a regular citizen with aspirations, dreams and goals, how would I learn this technique to achieve in life what I’m propelled to do?

One of the most important points to know is that developing any new habit, attitude, or behavior needs practice, perseverance, and drive. So the mission towards my aspirations and goals must have a meaning or an underlying purpose. The Navy SEALs know the purpose of their mission and that gives them the drive because they believe it with their hearts, minds, and souls.

The purpose is so strong that it makes any disruption seem like a bump on the road that will be managed. The drive fuels that forward movement and instills a sense of confidence and certainty that this bump will be handled in a way that will make the journey worthwhile. If I ever face a similar obstacle, I’ll know what to do. If it’s a new kind of bump, I’ll maneuver until I learn how to handle this one too.

In learning about the Navy SEALs’ way of directing their triggered energies towards aggression, I’m learning how to focus all the negative energy that’s produced when facing those bumps towards the end result, my goal. Fueling my purpose with those energies and having it right there in front of my mind’s eye or even on a vision board, to be a constant reminder, is a factor in helping me push forward. This is one of the ways of how I’m practicing building my resiliency.

Honing on the energy of worry and stress, directing it towards my own mission in life, leaves no time to worry or feel defeated if a bump appears out of nowhere. I push forward with perseverance and a powerful drive towards my end goal.

What to keep in mind:

1. The energy produced by fear, worry, frustration, etc. is directed towards the goal and is shifted to become a powerful drive forward.
2. Every goal, aspiration, and plan has a purpose behind it. Get to know and own your purpose behind what you do. Keep it always present in front of you, on a vision board, on your desktop, on your phone, anywhere you can instantly see it and get fueled by it.
3. Always learn from others about how they build their resiliency. The world is a huge school, with any kind of life lesson you would want to learn.

So, you see, there are so many techniques to learn how to build your resiliency.

1. Read how others built their resiliency.
2. Come up with mock situations and visualize how you will manage it and what you will learn from it.
3. Be coached on how to build your resiliency.
4. Attend any course that teaches more techniques on building resilency.

Following these guidelines and others to come, you will be able to build your resiliency and to face any bump on your path.