 The only easy day was yesterday Welcome to the only easy day was yesterday the official Navy SEAL podcast Senior Chief Omar Ozuna has spent much of his 25-year career in the Navy as a recruiter He has seen hundreds of successes and failures in his time working with special operations candidates And his words of wisdom are helpful for anyone striving to achieve lofty goals He discusses the important combination of work attitude and humility He also helps to break down the importance of keeping a vision of your what and why while balancing that with 100% Focus on the next step in front of you often in the face of great adversity After you listen to this one check out our mental toughness episode for a closer look First of all, we want to thank you for being here. I know this is a really big weekend for you Yes, it is but thanks for being here And if you want to start just by giving us a little context of how you got into this world Where did where'd you come from? How did this all start? Okay? Well, I've been in the Navy going on 25 years I'm originally from South Texas So most of my life I my adult life has been in the Navy. I've spent a little time I started off in the fleet then went into Recruiting and then I've also done mainly a lot of focus on special operation recruiting So I'm kind of spread out not just solely on one area I've kind of have a little bit of of everything and kind of smorgasbord of information when people come up to me I can somewhat relate to many different walks of life One of my most tours that I've really enjoyed is being a part of the Sealswick scout team They're really seeing the future generation of Frogman and and boat guys coming on board and seeing where the frogman of the 21st Century is going to take him and you also have a unique perspective as someone who maybe came in Not with any defined skillsets For example, you said you couldn't swim before you came in and then yeah, that's a good way of putting and I like How you put that I joined the Navy until my mom and dad came home show the berserk to my mom said mom I'm joining the Navy and the first words that came out of her mouth was boy. You can't swim and That's a true statement. I did not have any aquatic skills and of course my dad told me I was way over my head and Just keep moving forward with it I would end up going in going to boot camp passing I don't know how I passed my third class swimmers test got selected as a torpedo man out in the fleet Started off out there and they were looking for volunteers to be searching rescue swimmers And learn behold. I was the only one that raised my hand and they asked me the same question. Can you swim? I'm like well not really, but if you teach me I'll do it I would start training every day for it and Then opportunity rose again, and I took the shot. They send me off I crushed the course first time every time and now everything that was thrown at me and about 10 weeks later I was doing my first open ocean rescue. I think that's always a very interesting thing to bring up to anyone That's listening. It's not where you start It's where you end so I want to make sure I'm homing on that message right there that nothing's impossible Well, and you know that's a common theme in this podcast is that you you don't necessarily have to be the ice-cold swim team captain To even to be a Navy SEAL It's all about the attitude that you have coming in would you say that's your lesson learned from that? Wow either you reading my notes But you definitely just hit it on the head. I do I talk about three attributes Well, we're looking for ideal candidates and one of those attributes is definitely attitude definitely the attitude portion is is huge because Either if you don't check your attitude your attitude will get checked most definitely So I like how you say that everything is a state of mind If you're not coming in with a humble sense upon you often going to get trained wrecked along the way And that you know both from watching people come through and your own personal experience I think that gives you a really unique perspective It does a large portion of my career has been in recruiting and that's what I enjoy about the special operation community many walks of life I've seen some of my fellow brother-ins are with GEDs and some have more degrees in a thermometer I get that and everything in between But the diversification of the community is so amazing all walks of life That is one of the strengths that makes a special operation community so unique and continue to be extremely powerful That's amazing What drew you to this field do you think? Well, I think the passion when it comes to the community I go back to the thing that I talked about that I always admire is the brotherhood the camaraderie And I think part of that is just being in the Navy in general. I've always from being a little boy I could always remember, you know having this sense of service. I wanted to serve something It's something that I've always wanted to do and I plan on doing it when I retire as well Mm-hmm. I just realized we didn't set the stage for where we are. So let's go back So we're here in San Antonio. Yes, we are a little bit different Location for us. Can you tell us about what goes on here in San Antonio? Why it's a special place for recruiting? Texas is a great state and San Antonio is a great city home of the Alamo I think what's going on here in San Antonio? There's it's a family-oriented area It's a great place to raise a family in the Navy recruiting. We have what are called Naval special warfare coordinators and mentors So every recruiting district is assigned to look for the best the brightest and the talents in the warrior challenge program Which I'm sure you're familiar with and then that warrior challenge program We often try to find our seal candidates and our SWIC candidates as well Can you just describe it real quick in case someone hasn't listened to previous episodes about the warrior challenge? The warrior challenge program is broken into five categories And it's a guarantee for you to go to basic training then you're off to Preparatory training to whatever specialized school that is it could be EOD air rescue our SWIC our seal or Navy diver a lot of Special operators come out of Texas don't they if you were to just look at the Dallas area Houston and San Antonio You definitely got a good. I don't know if it's the hunting or what but You know a lot of good good operators I would say good good people come out of here both on the seal team and on the SWIC team Yes, ma'am. What are the misconceptions that are out there that that you would like to address about? Either recruiting or anything else really in this community that you've had exposure to good question Well, I would I would start by you know These are some things I tried to tell potential high potential candidates that are looking of joining one thing is Get your facts straight There's a lot of information out there and not all of it is true and sometimes it was true at a time But like anything else the Navy changes policy changes So those standards that were once available to us even a decade ago or two decades ago may not be an existent now Something I always let them know if it's not written It's not real I need to make sure that that they see the fine print and they understand what that means and the best Source is getting contact with a Navy recruiter and ask the questions and keep asking till you get the answers I'm probably one caveat to that would be if it's not written on an official Navy website It's not pretty pretty much. There's a lot of information out there and Every now and then we have a major policy change But the recruiters are educated and trained for that along with our mentors and coordinators to know any hard rudder shifts that we we make out Messaging wise is known and follow-up is always the your best antidote to that. Yeah That makes a lot of sense. Are there any others that come to mind? Even if it's just a myth of some sort that you've heard. Yeah, definitely the myth is You know, I find a lot of people on the fence about should I try out? Do I have what it takes and so on so far? It seems like they're in the treadmill of indecision making and they're going nowhere fast So a message that I would like to say to our potential candidates is see if you qualify Let the testing up to the instructor staff to the recruiting staff to see if you meet the merit There's a lot of steps involved in you becoming a special operator One of my Chinese proverb that my father actually wrote to me my first year didn't make a whole lot of sense then But it sure makes sense now. He says the journey of a thousand miles began with a single step And that was written by a Confucius if I'm not mistaken And I really didn't I didn't understand where that was going then and as I have gotten older And I was sharing before is it's not where you start is where you end And I want that messaging to go out is whatever it is that you're up against To take that one step. There's a thousand more steps. You must take but you ain't going nowhere fast If you're still in that treadmill of indecision What do you think holds people back? Oh For you know from personal experience is a the four letter word fear Yeah, you're afraid that you'll fail and reject it or you name it I think a lot of that holds. It's not just speaking to Special operations. Yeah, that's all life. That's all of life, right? That you just like what do I do? You know, I don't want to do that So I try to address that you know a lot of times and I ask them questions You know, what is your what and why especially for candidates that want to join? What is that drive that's getting them and why is it important to them? And I keep peeling back that onion because I really want to know are they really serious about this? This is not something that you dabble in, you know, you let me try this and let me try that It's it's going to require a lot of you so I definitely try to address that at my level What are the what and why's that are driving you to this point and to find those swim lanes right from the cuff? When they've made decisions, this is what they want to do Do you think that there are common what's and why is that seem to lead to the path to success? Or is it across the board? I think oh boy, that's that's another great one There was so many books and information out there There's some standard stuff I hear among the the candidates and they've either they read or heard and that's true I believe that's very very true of them to want to believe that a lot of it is just the sense of desire You know a former master chief and I don't remember his name but he really home didn't something to us a long time ago when I was inspiring to be a bud student is he said have you ever noticed that it says us Navy seal and All of us like a course. He says well, it's a pecking order It's first you serve your country through the United States then the Navy if given an opportunity if you do graduate you become a seal don't forget that and I always like to share that with everyone is like your first steps foremost is You're serving your country You're going to serve it through the Navy and if given an opportunity you can put any job you want seal torpedo men air rescue Swick it has the same theme in it He's you know, this is where I'm at and don't forget that and that's to this day 20 some years later You know, I'm still able to regurgitate that. Yeah unknown to me at the time. It's powerful. It was very powerful So for people who end up going in the seal-swick direction Mm-hmm Do you think there are what's and why is that seem to Distinguish them from other since you've kind of you've had experience with recruiting for Various different jobs, right? Yeah, dad. Are you getting the feeling that there's kind of a what and why to that community? That's different or you know, how would you describe that? I try to to describe that is you know, I try to find the sense of purpose of serving What is it that you you come here to do? You know, the only job that you've ever started at the top is obviously digging a hole as they say you got to start somewhere and Explain that one. Well, the only the only job you'll ever do can start at the top You can't walk into any business and say I want to be the CEO I want to be the marketing director town acquisition director. You got to start somewhere Yeah, and it's at the bottom. It's the only job that you start at the top is just digging a hole Do I need to go back on that one? But I guess I'm digging myself a hole I just went over my head for a second Apologies so go on about the the what's in wise the what's in wise a lot of them is you know I'm always trying to dig deep and in that sense of what is that you really want and why you want it I want to make sure that a person that is is going to these programs have a sound idea what they want out of life And how to go about and accomplishing it whether they see success or failure That's their business But I would rather have them experience one or the other than never experiencing it all And enter the sea of regret that's not a good place to be and often the greatest teachers I've ever had are failures many tremendous amount of setbacks But with that I always let them know a lot of setbacks lead to the setups for the home runs in life If you come in with an attitude of being known as a finisher just finish what you started Do you think that when you ask that question, you know, there's an answer That sets off kind of a green light in your head You know when you start digging deeper are there certain answers where you're like, okay You're gonna make it or is it really just an individual thing? It is definitely an individual thing I mean if somebody's out there that can look at a person say, you know what you're definitely destined to greatness You're gonna make it, you know, there'll be a multi-billionaire at this point. Yeah, that's what makes this this Community somewhat of a mystery is that only few are selected and if you are chosen and you just don't know You just don't know what's inside of a person I often say, you know, some things are meant to be broken and it's in the brokenest that you find That energy where you find that source where you never thought you had it never thought you can be a non-swimmer to a swimmer never thought that you can be with somebody that has more degrees than a thermometer and Just be a South Texas or Utah boy serving with a GED it's pretty amazing to see that there's such a contrast of individuals and At the end of the day those individuals are there serving side-by-side Worlds apart from each other, but they have that common theme of being the best they Believe themselves to be I'm just curious. What about your job inspires you? I was just talking about this with my wife You know as I'm winding down 25 years What inspires me to this day is seeing the young men and women the look on their faces of coming in being afraid and going into the unknown and Coming back and just transforming their lives Whatever it is that they go after I hear their dreams their aspirations their goals everything and it being in that this type of Environment it it makes me feel like a kid again. I'm like I remembered that when I was 19 I remember that I was you know, whatever age and that always it seems like it's just a Cycle of that or when somebody's just not doing well, and I'm like I've been there I get it a totally can relate it not that I'm gonna throw him a lifeline all the time But I understand that I always tell him I said adversity is good. It's it's teaching you something embrace it So those little things always invigorates me that I quite frankly I probably love doing it another 20 years When you look back is there is there something in particular? You know if I'm a candidate sitting across from you that you would tell me That you wish you would know it on the first day. Oh, yeah You got definitely besides looking at our website looking at all the information Things that I would definitely do is besides getting your information Get yourself a good mentor Getting contact with people that either have completed or have done something that can help you achieve that Which you're looking after and do you mean that really early on like how early can you do something? I say the earlier the better, you know if you're while you're thinking about while you're thinking about it You know you you want you want to throw some some counseling out there You know with many counselors success comes with it you want to hear some feedback and you want to hear you know How was your experiences? You know whether in the military in general you can start there and then start peeling it back because not a lot Of people are gonna be open up to that if you're further up the chain and you've already made a decision You're in the process and you this is what you want our mentors and our coordinators That's what they're there for to listen to their stories to help you and train you and develop you and get you Where you need to be that's their job to do that and they're located every recruiting district throughout the nation 26 out there, so there's definitely people out there We also have our scouts as well along with our scout team So you can definitely glean on that and the one thing the last thing and I kind of chimed in earlier is Have a follow-up mechanism in your plan Nothing ever happens unless you follow up and that's where assumptions come into play Well, I assume this and I assume that you want some feedback on your process Am I doing the right thing is this good? Am I moving in the right direction if you're not having a feedback mechanism in your goal setting? You really don't know you're doing your honest work and not knowing that you've been doing the wrong work all along So I think feedback is very important a follow-up mechanism from other people or is this a self-engrained? I would I would do both from yourself and from others outsiders looking in as a sort of piece of advice for Building that internally. I think that a lot of people both military and non-military struggle with Building systems so that when you're put under stress you're able to have a ingrained Feedback right loop Do you have any advice on how to build that how to you know create that within yourself? well, there's a saying that says success leaf clues and That's true, and I also believe success is intentional So things like that you have to be intentional of what you're doing. You got to be focused Obviously what you're up against and having the right mental attitude and with why I say about the following mechanism is feedback is Extremely important because it tells you what you're doing and what you're not doing The why I say that too is what if a person gave you bad gouge and you did qualify and then you find out later I could have been on the teams or could have done this could have done that But I listened to somebody tribal knowledge as I call it because back in the day and you never even took the shot Never give yourself the one thing most people don't want to do is give themselves an opportunity so that means there has to be a pretty important balance of internal checkpoints and Trusting external feedback. Yes, and definitely. It's you keen on another word and trust, you know I'm kind of gonna branch off on that is in the community. We that you often hear the total man concept Total man the total man concept is making sure you know not only you physically sound mentally sound but having being a person of character person of integrity and Trust is everything trust is absolutely everything if you can't trust somebody, you know, what good are you? You know, it's at the end of the day. Did he did he not pack to gear? I have no idea You know and so on and so forth. So those those things are very that one word that trust is extremely important as well As far as what you're talking about what I'm gonna tell potential candidates is that can I trust you? Can you do the little things the little things always lead to the big things and don't go the other way around kinds of little things small things showing up on time having your gear ready have a process of improvement in place You know, you did only 45 push-ups, but where they saw that 45 push-ups Can I inch it to 50 now? little things like that Stem and they you can use that as small principles that will lead into bigger principles and Doing something a little bit more dangerous a little bit more high risk and may potentially even save their lives in the future They're not paying attention in detail that also goes back to your journey of a thousand miles starts with one stuff because it sounds like that's an Easy piece of advice to give someone who's just trying to figure out, you know what this is something I want to do But I don't know how to get started. It sounds like there's a you know, it's just paying attention to the very small things It's you know, it doesn't have to be a lot of push-ups, but they just have to be really well done I like how you put that the the quality and quantity, you know, a lot of times we concentrate on I can do X amount of this and out some out of that But is it proper? Are you doing it properly? Are you doing it right, you know, or is it sloppy? I think with what I try to ingrain in the high potential candidates is I try to give them their vision from day one Is this what they want and why they really want it and I need them to ask that every day of themselves Every day you got to ask yourself. This is a total commitment. This isn't a half commitment This is it's gonna require all of you Not just part of you and some I think from my personal failures is because I wasn't committed I wasn't focused. I wasn't committed Why I failed at any most things is because I was invested in it So that's the things I try to tell them This is one of many steps because when you get to prep game on when you get to to buds and selection phase Game on and guess what you make it through that you got sqt game on get to the teams and you you cat on the block Game on after that. What is a constant proving ground for them? Well, that's I mean anyone should strive to live their lives all in right? Yes, you should so that's quite a you can extrapolate that for any career or any life choice I suppose most definitely those are inspiring words to hear for you know Just every morning getting up and saying why am I doing what I'm doing, right? You're what in your mind and define it and the more you define it the more you can work towards that you really want And would you say the first question that arises is you know, is it okay if that changes? Of course, and that's part of the decision-making I think that's part of why you have the process of recruiting and selection and prep and whatnot Is to find out, you know, is this what I really really want to do But maybe you know, I'm even saying perhaps you you know, you want to be a Navy SEAL For one reason and then as you go through the process it kind of evolves into something else. Is that okay? I think so. I think a lot of life is is about change You know every day we get older every day we get wiser or dumber one or the other, you know I've seen a lot of old people not so wise So and I've also seen a lot of young people that are just phenomenal The most successful people that I've been around is because they define what they want and why they want it Yeah, and we're clear about it So when the storms of adversity would arrive, which they always do they knew they stood on that bedrock Knowing this is the reason why I'm here Wow, that is powerful. Do you write these things down? Is that how you do it? How I Yes, I've been journaling since 1999 wow not every day, but pretty much every day You really want to walk out after putting the page down saying my god. I can do this. What have I been doing? I don't have my why defined or my what and then once you get that you start putting the pieces together and Formulating a plan and doing it Can you break down the top three most important things someone should know if they're considering a career in special operations? Top three things that I would consider if you're looking at special operations special being a new potential Applicant or recruit I'm going to use the four letter word work There's a lot of work involved And if you're not used to that you better get used to it pretty quickly I wish there was a microwave bag of success I like to say that and I just pop it in and pops and there it is walla But everybody that I've seen go through training go recruitment side and especially It's a lot of work. It's a lot of work of dedication on yourself And you're holding yourself and your teammates accountable at the same time So that work at having a good work ethic is good. The other one I would say is be trainable You want to have a training attitude? I've seen a lot of good people that are runners and swimmers and weight lifters cross fit and they do phenomenal out there They're crushing it and the one thing I kind of key onto that is is are they there spending extra time helping those that are not Good, are there they're taking the time and being just a sounding board and Helping those I'm very keen on that on the high performers in the water and in there Are they're allowing themselves to be trained or they're allowing themselves to let their gifts be trinkled into others There's also something I key into and the last thing is having a spirit of humility There's a saying that the way to the master's chambers is through the servants quarters You want to be humble you do you definitely want to be humble that goes a long way? Not only starting your career in the military, but especially in NSW you may be very smart and talented But you want to make sure you have a sense of humility and don't pretend like you got it all figured out That might be surprising to people who have you know seen the Hollywood movies and the television shows That one of the top three most important characteristics is humility right definitely having a sense of heat this again This is my opinion from the ground level of a person who's looking. What are some three things? That's definitely yeah one. I would would like you to think about am I humble to this approach How do you think someone cultivates humility? It's hard. Yeah, it's it's hard because you figure you're looking in an environment that you got to have a type a personality and You're hugging the board of arrogance Often that is not the word arrogance, but it's confidence in yourself and your abilities in which you can do But being humble especially at the ground level is want to make sure that you're being receptive to the training That's being provided to you and not making assumptions based on what you read and what you hear There's a reason why it's called basic underwater demolition seal training. It's at the basic level It's teaching you the grassroots of what special ops is all about and then building from there They often say it's a crawl walk run method and that's a great approach You know if you're looking at I'm gonna I'm first crawling You know, then I'm gonna learn the walk and then I'm gonna learn the run the high-speed low-drag approach to whatever it is So definitely have the spirit of humility which would be hard for someone who's a you know, maybe high school track star or Swim captain or someone who's used to being the best thing about the spec ops community when you're screening for this I believe it x-rays your soul. Oh, wow So what I mean by that is any imperfections that may arise and it may some of them may not even be physical It may be a character flaw that you personally may have you got to face your enemy that devil and wrestle it now Wow, I've never heard it described that way, but I get what you're saying Would you say that's a lot because of the types of environments you're placed in that kind of bring you not necessarily that I'm placed in but I speaking in generality for People that are on the fence and people that are in the process, you know, what's the program about? It's not just about running swimming and shooting and all that other stuff That's great and all but we're talking about going deeper and that's that deep phase You know where that x-ray comes upon you good indications hell week, you know can you can you not? You know what comes out of that? Are you able to move forward with it? You're looking at the right person to make this happen. So I'd like to let them know, you know This is something that you may be You may be putting that fake facade, but at the end of the day, it's gonna x-ray you They're gonna find out who's who in the zoo and you get exposed, okay? So carry that spirit of humbleness and prayer to work. Let's get after him. Let's go and crush it Have you you've seen a lot of people come through and a lot of people succeed and a lot of people fail Are there's just certain kinds of people that you know can make it many are calling only a few are chosen And it almost sounds like I'm trying to be religious and coming from the Bible But I think that's also applicable to the special operation community I always tell the young men and women that are screening for special ops is trying to be known as a finisher Finish what you start and the story that I will share with that is when I was in middle school I was tasked to run the 3200 meter race. I said hell I can do it. Let's do it I wasn't much of an athlete so I went out there and tried to knock it out First couple labs I gave them all I was spreading out there And I know as everybody was running in a snail's pace and Lord be whole I realized that 3200 meters was a long way to go Yeah, and it wasn't long before those that I was running against Started lapping me and I had to make a decision The race was over everybody had come in and I hadn't finished my course I was still out in the course running and my track coach was calling was saying just come on in and I said no I got to finish what I started. It wasn't about me placing at that point It was about me just completing what I said I was going to do and bearish. Yes You know talk about humiliated definitely But I went out there and I finished it and I crossed the line and I reflect on that Because I want everybody to know that it's not where you start. It's where you end be known as a finisher Whether you see success or failure It's better than living with regret of the shoulda coulda woulda and you can learn a lot Every sense everything that you see any type of failure that comes upon you It comes with it a seed of greatness if you allow it to teach you instead of being bitter and being Harshal it wasn't meant to be or the staff was against me take ownership you own it you own 100% of it and Once you start doing that and having that attitude of just doing the small things and finishing them lead to bigger things And that's probably what I want to tell them that the essence of it People when you experience failure. Mm-hmm. This is not just about the active finishing. It's the attitude that I am going to finish this That's probably there you go a pretty big factor. Yes, there's clearly a lot of hurdles as you've mentioned. Yes So first if you want to point out any hurdles You know of that, you know is important for someone to know coming in and then you know I have some specific questions about you know maps in particular Okay, it was kind of a nitty-gritty of getting through because I know there's there's just some things from the outside looking And that might look a little complicated on a website. I would say you know is the The swimming a lot of people kind of say you know what I am I cannot do this because they're judgment based on I can't swim very well I like to throw that out there. I'm like, you know what give it a shot You know that the staff is outstanding. They will show you how to do the proper side stroke Often people like that don't have any bad habits. So it's easy to teach them And they become very fluid in the water almost better maybe than someone who thinks they're good But almost almost better or give them a fighting chance to qualify Yeah, and you apply that with that four letter word of putting the work into it You reap what you sow you get what you put into it and success usually accompanies that you know I always want to encourage them to try and let the the staff help you Cultivate you and where you ultimately want to be and then when it comes to some of the more You know the clerical part of getting through do you have advice on so in particular? It seems like meps keeps coming up meps is a good one because the process, you know, that's something, you know It's govern. It's it's not just a Navy thing army thing Air Force and Marines Meps is the gatekeeper the physical doesn't go as planned, you know, it's not something we did It's something that we have to either get documentation to justify To show that your eyesight is good or you don't suffer from depth perception or you're not colorblind So there's a lot of little things that may stop that hurdle. I also encourage Applicants I said, you know setbacks are good. It's teaching you something It's teaching you that what and why do I really want this and why I want it and that one little hurdle Am I shutting down because up it wasn't meant to be and are you ready to mount up again and move forward? So I try to spin it around when I see scenarios like that Not all of them are favorable and that's part of it and that's okay You know always go back to United States Navy and then whatever job that they're wanting to serve And kind of remind them the whole purpose of this is you want to serve your country and you want to do it in the Navy I think the the question I'm trying to channel for people that write in is they just sort of get stuck in that process a Lot where it's not necessarily about them and their medical Right record or anything. It's more about just not the process just stops, right? It's it's they're the gatekeepers maps you in order for you to even apply you have to have a good physical and A good physical with a qualifying as Vap score in order for your training to begin Some people do get caught up in that and it's not something we do as recruiters It's the process that's something that totally out of my hands and Whatever the doctor is asking for we try our best with the help of our applicants to provide the information to see if It's justification to either get an exception of policy or a waiver for them to continue the process So it sounds like the best piece of advice is to come back to you or someone like you someone someone in the in the getting contact with the coordinators and Recruiters and usually that's the recruiters are the ones that are going to get the information saying hey I need a history of whatever it is. Everybody's a little bit different. It's a privacy act statement So it's very it's based on individual circumstances, but you guys are going to be a little more familiar with how to respond and yes We definitely have the the guy the procedures the people we know the waiver So don't that's another thing just don't think that that's where the line stops Yeah, you know you want to take that next step and push forward and until the answer is no It's no and then let the dust settle from there and reassess I think that was that's what I was kind of getting at it seems like it's important to let them know that They're not on their own at that stage that they have right they have a support system They do have a support system and there's people up and down the chain of command Trying and they're very best to get them in favorable Conditions for them to either continue training or just to be a part of the Navy all together. Mm-hmm Do you speak to people at the early stages about the actual job itself? Or do you usually focus on Given that your model and your theory is all you have really to think about is the step in front of you I I would have to say the step in front of you. Yeah, it's like starting college and you're thinking in my master's program That's not that's not you you be overwhelmed. Yeah So you want to keep the main thing and be focused on I need to make sure you're 100% At that point let's move you to this segment the coordinators the mentors are going to cultivate you get to your Contract and then we get you off to prep and prep does with prep You know got to learn how to be a say the first and foremost and prep takes over at that point And then you got that other vetting process and so on and so forth you try to eat that whole Elephant at one shot, you know, you might gag yourself or psych yourself out altogether. Yeah How do you merge the two my takeaway from this is that there's the two most important Visions to keep in mind are the big picture umbrella of the what and why right and how you're gonna get through today That's well said well put so how do you merge those two because those are I mean it is it Essentially cutting out the middle part. Is that all not not necessarily you can like any journey You know like we talked about taking that one step, you know, there's a thousand more steps But after that one step it's now 999 left and then another one and so on and so forth so you kind of set your goal and Get yourself slowly in that mindset is this is what are ultimately where I want to be but nor for me I need to concentrate on this and this Master that I move forward this and this and always reminding yourself It's very easy to get distracted in this day and age You just got to worry about you focus on you as a candidate trying to get through Meantime, you know have a spirit of humility have that work ethic be a teammate be a shipmate and will help others That's what the community's about yeah, like that lesson in terms of it's really hard to focus in you know When you have any career decision to make or any kind of daily grind that you're a part of To decide what to pay attention to right, you know, there's there's just a lot of options Especially now when you're you know your emails constantly coming in and your texts are constantly coming in So the idea that you know step two through 999 don't matter Is really nice. It's a nice way to simplify it, right? It I like how you put that, you know, you can be easily inundated with so much information Or who do I trust or what do I do? Like any anything you're doing is it's a step-by-step Crawl walk run. This is what I'm responsible. This is my area of responsibility This is what I need to do for me today and that's it and then tomorrow will take care of itself And the next day we can really get ourselves wrapped around the axle when we're just trying to take everything in at the same time And and psych yourself out. I know I've psyched myself out many times by thinking I had to do this this and this Just getting here today, you know, I had a lot to do We appreciate it. Well, yeah the way that Translates for me is you know, you don't have to worry about being an expert in swimming You don't have to worry about being an expert on weapons or if it's you know, just in regular civilian life You don't have to worry about being an expert in anything except today For the most part everything stems on the little things if you're disciplined on small things Then the big things you be ready for and so on and so forth You can't just wake up one morning say I'm going to the NBA or NFL There's been a process the whole thing is a process even right down to the food we eat It's first a seed then a plant then the fruit so it's all a process It's not microwaving or going from zero to sixty and often if you miss step and you do the shortcuts That's when you are exposed with character flaws So if you have sudden success and some this and some that because you didn't learn Had that fundamental base truth. What is supporting that and I seen a lot of things Falter because they did not have the foundation from day one. We missed the step. That's really Interesting to think about some of the one-hit wonders and you know quick successes that suddenly just disappear. It's like that's my My look on my take on it. Yeah, that's a really good way of looking at it Can you tell me a little bit about what the ethos and the culture are for special operations? Once you're of course, it's gonna influence this whole training part of it But once you're in the community full-fledged. What does that look like you know? We touched a little bit about attitude and attitudes everything in the community having the right attitude on being focused and and ready to crush it under extreme Circumstances become very Infectious with everybody and be trainable with a good attitude humbleness, you know a lot of these things are echoing from coming in you know being in there and I Said you know if you don't have your attitude check you will get checked of any imperfections The other one is that adversity it's in our ethos It's talks about the ethos of adversity in both in buds and seal training You are gonna be put in through a lot of different types of adversities and stressful situations And that's the things that I always ask my high potential candidates. What is adversity? In your words and give me an example of something that you overcame adversity with Again, I'm trying to get that wheel moving for them to talk about what does adversity mean? I don't know and so on so forth trying to go into that second layer. We talked about and the last portion is actions Your action will always speak louder than your words. I mean we say that a lot be a person of your word and follow through You heard me say just be a finisher finish what you started Doing the small things will always help you leading to the big things and the details are extremely important Especially if you're pursuing a career in special operations and your word tends to be your bond your currency How do you define adversity? I define an adversity is a undesirable situation that occurs Without your consent hmm And how do you define? What you would consider the proper response to adversity? proper response for adversity Questions I asked myself, you know, what did I do to make this happen? You know, was it my fault? Notice I talk about ownership piece. What did I do? What did I try to start with me first and foremost? Accountability, what what can I do to change this? Is there something I need more training more development? Is it me lack of follow-up lack of of something that I might have missed in the steps of my position? Mm-hmm is important I need to understand that the other one if it's something out of my realm I can only control what I can control at that point I don't I try not to let it shut me down, you know If I didn't do so well on my test today, well tomorrow's a new day. I'll start again. I got a fresh start I can make this happen. I try to stay away from the the woe is me parties I know I've thrown grand old parties of feeling sorry for myself with mariachis and cake and little peanuts instead of essence That's all grand, but I have to get over it then I noticed and this is as I became older I realized the faster I can overcome a situation things get better faster So instead of me dwelling on something that I cannot change for the life of me I have to get over it as quickly as possible and that energy allows me to look at a solution or Prevent that from happening again further down the line to someone else or to myself Mm-hmm, and that's how I kind of look at things So just to summarize adversity is a huge part of being in this community right from day one It's anything, you know, we talk about we always try to put in special operation But it's from day one from being a part of the Navy being a part of the military You're gonna face some kind of adversity things that you're not used to or accustomed to You have to learn that art of adapt and overcome in getting over whatever situation that has occurred and Can you summarize for me your your steps for facing it just to the questions you ask yourself to feel quickly Question I always ask myself. What did I do to contribute to this? Did I do something? Did I cause this to happen? Did I fail to follow up? And the other one is what can I learn from it? Well, a lot of times when we're experiencing trials and tribulations like oh And keep in mind this coming years of setbacks and just getting bad deals I start asking so what can I learn from it? What can I possibly learn from this type of adversity that I'm facing? financially physically mentally morally ethically you can go down the list and then the the other one is in process of improvement in that is how can I learn and teach it to somebody to make sure that hey This is what happens to me. These are the things I was doing. That's not the right way to do it You know or maybe you have a better take on it than I do and give me some insight go back to that train ability You're you know ten years in the Navy. Show me tell me what the ladies and greatest Yeah, those are those are some words of wisdom that really apply across the board Well, I just want to thank you so much for being here today It's been so interesting and inspirational to learn from you honors all mine. Thank you Find out more at seals wick comm and join us again for the next NSW podcast