 Is it just me or do leadership books sometimes come across like self-healthy books? Hey, everyone, Dylan Schumacher, Citadel Defense, and we are back with another edition of Tactical Book Review. Today's book is The Way of the Seal, Think Like an Elite Warrior to Lead and Succeed by Mr. Mark Devine, Commander US Navy Seals, retired. And it looks like they might have had some ghost writing with Allison Edelhurt's machete. I probably butchered the daylights out of that. So I came across this book in a Barnes and Noble, wandered over to the business section, was looking for some books on leadership, stumbled across this one, and so that's how I ended up in possession of it. Overall, this is a good book. This is a book that I definitely think is worth reading. He has his seven principles here that he kind of goes through, like establishing your set point, developing a front-side focus. It just means like being intensely focused on something. Do today what others won't, so you can do tomorrow what others can't. I like that one. That one's a pretty good principle. Come out of this book. Forging mental toughness, how to break things, building your intuition, thinking offense all the time. So just kind of his eight main principles. And he bases this off his program that he does, which I think is called Seal Fit, or that's the name of his company. He seems to have his hand in a lot of kinds of pies like that, and this is his program that he's been running with his company for a while, and now he's dumped it into a book for you to read and kind of do it home. So overall, I think this is a good book. If you're kind of curious on different angles to be a better leader, I hesitate to say be a better person, because I think that's a pretty useless phrase in general, but how to have self-improvement, really. You're looking to help yourself be a more effective leader and thinker and understand yourself. Then I think this book definitely has some helpful points to you. And in that case, I would recommend it. It definitely is a little bit more of a slow read in the sense that it's kind of a slow cooking. You need to think about it, you need to take some time, you need to reflect on it, and I think that's really the way to get the most value out of this book and why I would recommend it in that case. Major issue that I do have with the book, however, is that this book is steeped in Eastern thought. And what I mean by that is big influences from the author that he tells you about in the book are his karate that he took back when he was a kid in the 90s, like we all did, right, and becoming a seal. And those are kind of his two, seem to be like his two guideposts. I don't know if that's how he'd articulate it, but that's kind of how I would, what I gathered from the book. And the problem is that I think Eastern thought in general, and I'm gonna define that in a second, is garbage. And the reason I think it's garbage is because at the end of the day, I use the Bible as my moral and spiritual guidepost and everything else is anathema. So that's a big reason I don't like that. And when I say Eastern thought, what I mean is this idea that the answer is within you, right, that you need to look inward to find the truth and morality and purpose and all that stuff, that's it within you. And he often talks about that in the book, how you need to meditate and think on this and look within yourself to find the answer. And I think in general that's garbage. I think that the history of humanity is war, depression and devastation, followed by war, depression and devastation, right? I really just read a history book, literally anyone. I find it ironic that a guy who was a Navy SEAL, I'm assuming killed a lot of bad people, would think that the answer is that people don't look into themselves enough. Again, philosophically, biblically, I just disagree with that. I think people are inherently evil and the only hope comes from outside. It's an alien help from Jesus that would fix things. You're not looking within yourself. So that is a huge issue I have with the book, but it's not a huge enough issue that I think it derails the book and it's a complete waste of time. It's a huge issue that I think you need to take with a big grain of salt. However, again, there are other helpful principles in this book that I think, yeah, you should do that. For example, his thing about do today what others won't so you can do tomorrow what others can't. I think that is a good principle to live by. I think anybody can incorporate that in their life and say, you know what? I'm gonna go out and I'm gonna run today. I'm gonna do my bench press today or I'm gonna read today or whatever. The thing is that you're trying to improve at so that over time you can add up all the little gains you've made over the days and you're in a totally different playing field. You're in a totally different level than other people because you've spent time to do that better. I think that's really good advice, right? Or he talks about how you can do 20 times more than you think you can and he talks about different ways to learn that about yourself and push yourself and really expand your own abilities there and realize that you're capable of more than you thought. I think that's really cool. So I think there are definitely some things in here worth reading but I do need to give a big caution and a big caveat on the Eastern thought stuff because I just think that will send people to hell forever. So take that for what you want but that's kind of my take on it. The Way of the Seal by Mr. Mark Devine. Do brave deeds and endure.