Navy SEAL Mental Toughness

by Chris Lambertsen

  In a research paper titled What Is This Thing Called Mental Toughness? An Investigation of Elite Sport Performers, authors Graham Jones, Sheldon Hanton and Declan Connaughton declared that mental toughness is:

  Having the natural or developed psychological edge that enables you to: generally, cope better than your opponents with the many demands (competition, training, lifestyle) that sport places on a performer; specifically, be more consistent and better than your opponents in remaining determined, focused, confident, and in control under pressure.

  Lieutenant Commander Eric Potterat, Ph.D., a Naval Special Warfare Command psychologist, quotes Hamlet on the subject: “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

  Dr. Potterat relates this study to sports and described the difference between winners and losers:

  Physically, there’s very little difference between athletes who win Olympic gold and the rest of the field. It’s like the SEAL candidates we see here. Terrific hardware. Situps, pushups, running, swimming — off the charts, superhuman. But over at the Olympic center, the sports psychologists found that the difference between a medal and no medal is determined by an athlete’s mental ability. The elite athletes, the Tiger Woodses, the Kobe Bryants, the Michael Jordans — this is what separates them from the competition. Knowing how to use information.

  Just about every Navy SEAL who made it through agrees that, ultimately, what determines whether you succeed or fail depends on whether you win the inner battle that rages and makes you question “How much do I really want this?” This question will be one that will run through you mind several times if you decide to go through the Navy SEAL selection courses.

  Mental Toughness for Navy SEALs

  A Navy SEAL officer conducted interviews with several members of the various SOF units on the topic of mental toughness and how it results in successfully conducting missions and overcoming challenges.

  One of the questions asked of the operators was their definition of the term mental toughness. The SEAL responses are listed below. Keep in mind that because of the nature of their profession, some of their comments refer to loss of life during battle.

  While reading their comments, ask yourself which statements align with what you already believe about mental toughness and which are new; and how this information might apply to your outlook and philosophies regarding your goal of becoming mentally tougher, more resilient, and more self-confident.

  Navy SEAL Responses on the Meaning of Mental Toughness:

  Having unshakable confidence in your ability to achieve your goals.

  Knowing that you possess unique qualities and abilities that make you better than your opponents.

  Having an insatiable desire to succeed.

  Being resilient and able to quickly recover from adversity, disappointment, set-backs, etc.

  Thriving on the pressure of high-stakes events, including combat operations.

  Accepting that fear and anxiety are inevitable and knowing that you can overcome both.

  Able to remain fully focused on the mission.

  Remaining fully focused on the task at hand in the face of life-threatening situations.

  Being able to cope with high levels of physical and emotional pain, while still maintaining the ability to execute skills and tasks required to accomplish the mission.

  Quickly regaining psychological control following unexpected, uncontrollable events such as the death of a unit member during combat.

  Traits Specific to Mental Toughness

  Motivation, confidence, focus, composure, and resilience were among the most common traits mentioned by the men who were interviewed. These qualities, as you can imagine, are necessary for any operator to be an effective member of a unit; it is mental toughness and a high degree of emotional control, along with incessant special training, that enables Navy SEALs to remain composed, confident, and focused in order to be able to cope with fear and anxiety during combat operations.

  Motivation

  “Mission accomplishment” is the motivator that keeps you moving toward its achievement. Visualizing reaching that finish line will propel you to focus on the steps needed to get there.

  Ask yourself “Why do I want to be a Navy SEAL?” or “Why is it important that I achieve this goal?” Figuring out the answers to those questions, will enable you to better understand your motivations and desires, which can lead to an even greater desire to achieve your goal, and more clearly defined objectives.

  Confidence

  Confidence is the knowledge that you possess the skills necessary to confront obstacles and successfully maneuver past them. It also enables you to bounce back after setbacks, mistakes or poor performances.

  Because of their training regiment, Navy SEALs typically have an unshakeable confidence in their abilities. The harshness and intensity of the BUD/S training course, as well as all the subsequent training throughout a Navy SEAL’s time as an operator, gives them confidence in their skills and “game plan,” and in their ability to execute the plan during stressful, high-pressure situations.

  Developing any skill requires a great deal of practice. Confidence is gained through repeatedly putting yourself through difficult scenarios that force you to utilize your skills to conquer the objective. Knowing that you’ve put in the time required to train and study properly prior to any task is a great confidence builder that you will need in order to make it through the program.

  Focus

  The ability to home in on what’s most important at a given time and to be able to block out everything else, is a necessity for Navy SEALs to be able to carry out their missions.

  This state of hyper-focus during the “Fog of War” that occurs during combat means focusing on what’s most important at a given moment to accomplish the mission. It is a trait that will be very valuable as you ready yourself to undertake any challenge.

  Composure

  Composure is your ability to remain calm and in control and able to continue to perform at optimum levels, regardless of the situation. It is important that you understand that the brain and mind are two separate things. Your body obeys the brain, but the brain obeys the mind! There are certain emotions and reactions that are being produced by your brain’s automatic responses to certain situations. Knowing these responses will occur enables you to cope with them by overriding your brain’s signals and allowing your mind to control your actions.

  Composure enables SEALs to have clarity of thought and focus during the heat of battle, and it promotes sound decision-making when the tactical situation requires rapid adjustments to established battle plans and mission orders.

  During the initial SEAL training, candidates will constantly be confronted with situations that require them to use their minds (mental toughness) to overcome what their brains are telling your bodies. Their brains will sense that they are too cold or hot, or too injured to possibly pass the next graded event, etc. The men who quit are those who lose focus and composure and succumb to the messages the brain is sending, Those able to use their minds to remain composed continue to focus on the task at hand and simply do the very best they can at that moment. They use their minds to reach deep within themselves and find the strength to hang on and keep moving forward.

  You will surely encounter situations during your personal and professional life in which your brain will tell you that you simply cannot continue on. You must resolve to ensure that your mind remains in control and enables you to stay focused and moving forward until you have overcome whatever challenge is facing you at that moment.

  Resilience

  Simply put, resilience is your unwillingness to give up. The obstacles and challenges Navy SEALs face in combat are difficult at best. The situations and environments their missions entail are often brutal. Having the ability to face them, bounce back from setbacks, and go on to succeed is paramount for mission accomplishment.

  In order to succeed in life and accomplish challenging goals, you have to be will
ing to push through hardships, pain, and self-doubt. You simply have to be willing to never give up!

  Life-long Mental Toughness

  Once you begin to develop mental toughness for the purpose of achieving a specific goal, such as becoming a better business leader, student, parent or perhaps becoming more physically fit, it is a skill that will grow and continue to positively influence and benefit you throughout all stages of your life regardless of the environment you are operating in.

  Mental toughness will also aid anyone struggling through “personal battles”—health issues, difficult situations at work; dealing with family or personal relationship problems; coping with depression, drug addiction, alcoholism or obesity. These types of situations require a great amount of mental toughness in order to push past limitations, deal with the challenges facing you, and follow whatever steps are necessary to achieve your goals.

  Essentially, mental toughness is a quality that is as critical to achieving your goals, assuming they are associated with a high-level of difficulty, stress and perhaps even various forms of risk. The most important thing to remember is that mental toughness can, in fact, be studied, developed, practiced and mastered!

  Understanding Fear

  The special operations community spends thousands of dollars as well as several years in order to train each individual to the level of proficiency required of their missions. For this reason the SOF leadership has become much more proactive in ensuring that this effort is not wasted, and that the members of their units remain physically, mentally, and emotionally fit for world-wide operations at a moment’s notice.

  These efforts include the study of various methods and techniques that are focused on the psychological well-being of Navy SEALS and other special operators. In order to develop these methods and design the appropriate training programs for their adaptation, the Navy leadership has dedicated teams for the purpose of studying fear, how it affects the human brain, and ways to combat these effects.

  Studies conducted by psychologists reveal that “emotion” involves the entire nervous system. There are two parts of the nervous system, however, that mainly control our emotions and how our bodies react to them. These two parts are the Limbic System and the autonomic nervous system.

  The Limbic System and Fear

  The limbic system is a set of brain structures located on top of the brainstem and buried under the cortex, which mainly control our emotions—such as fear and anger—and motivations, particularly those that are related to survival.

  Certain structures, the amygdala and the hippocampus, are limbic system structures that play important roles in memory. The amygdala is responsible for determining what memories are stored and where the memories are stored in the brain. It is thought that this determination is based on how huge an emotional response an event invokes.

  The amygdala are two very small almond shaped masses of tissue on each side of the brain, which regulate emotional responses, hormonal secretions, and memory. The amygdala is responsible for fear conditioning or the associative learning process by which we learn to fear something.

  The Autonomic Nervous System

  The autonomic nervous system is made up of two parts, whose functions oppose or cancel out each other. The first is the sympathetic nervous system, which starts in the spinal cord and travels to a various parts of the body. It is responsible for preparing the body for the “fight or flight” reaction produced by awareness and fear of danger or threat.

  The other part of the autonomic nervous system is called the parasympathetic nervous system. It extends from the brainstem to the spinal cord of the lower back. Its function is to bring the body back from the emergency status that the sympathetic nervous system puts it into.

  The Physiology of Fear

  Fear stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for the actions that our brains are programmed to execute when facing danger or threat. When the brain registers a situation that induces fear, it begins a chemical reaction in our bodies, sometimes referred to as the “fight-or-flight” reaction. The first thing that happens is an almost immediate release of a hormone called adrenaline (also known as the fight-or-flight hormone).

  Imagine you are driving along, and suddenly two cars ahead of you collide forcing you to quickly slam on the brakes, dangerously change lanes, and decide what you are going to do—stop and help or say a prayer and keep driving. You will notice that your legs are suddenly shaking, your heart is racing, your palms are sweaty, and you are breathing very fast.

  All these reactions in your body are the result of epinephrine, also known as adrenaline, having been released into your bloodstream. Adrenaline also causes a surge of energy or “arousal.” Almost at the same time as adrenaline is released, the adrenal glands also release another hormone called norepinephrine. This hormone causes you to become more aware, more awake and better able to react to a stressful or threatening situation. It also shifts the blood flow from areas that may not be quite as necessary, like the skin or some internal organs such as the liver or kidneys, to others, such as your lungs and certain muscles, which would be essential for fleeing from danger. This is why you would probably feel a tingly feeling all over your body after a close-call-type event.

  Finally, we have a chemical chain-reaction, which takes a few minutes, and that results in the release of cortisol into the blood. Cortisol regulates the fluid flow and the blood pressure in our bodies. All of the following reactions occur in our bodies as a response to fear or stress:

  Heart rate increases – in order to deliver more oxygen to the larger organs so they are ready to act.

  Pupils dilate - for better vision blood flow to the eyes is increased which also helps to open the eyelids wider.

  Bronchial tubes open up – in order to increase the intake or air and therefore oxygen so it can be delivered in the bloodstream to the bigger organs.

  Sweat glands are stimulated – in order to regulate the increase in heat your body is generating as a result of the increased blood flow to large muscle groups.

  Blood vessels in non-essential parts of the body become constricted - blood flow is being rerouted to the major muscle groups so fine motor skills become compromised, which causes tremors and shaking; the salivary gland are deactivated, which causes dry-mouth; secretions in the digestive system become inhibited, which causes a fluttering sensation (butterflies) or nausea; speech can become slurred; and dizziness may occur due to the increased breathing speed.

  The natural response to fear can cause men in combat to lose the ability to perform the simplest of tasks (reloading their weapon, relocating to a covered position, etc.) and to become physically weak to the point that they cannot remain standing, or muster the strength to operate equipment or perform tasks that they’ve done successfully hundreds or thousands of times in the past. The Navy SEALs undergo extensive training to learn to overcome the effects of fear.

  You should consider the fact that as you tackle difficult challenges, you will likely experience periods of great stress, anxiety, doubt and various degrees of fear. Understanding how fear affects the brain, and furthermore how your brain and body will react to fear and stress is essential to acquiring and developing methods to enhance the mental toughness and mindset necessary to override these natural reactions.

  It is important to realize that your body never changes in this regard; it will always respond to threat-stress situations in the same way, producing some or all of the physical responses listed above. Through training, you can learn to anticipate these ever-present physiological and psychological responses and use various methods and techniques to control them.

  Conquering Fear

  The world has changed drastically since men lived in caves, hunted for their food, and fought for their daily survival. But despite the many ways our world has changed and the way we do things has changed, the body’s physiological reactions to fear are much the same as those that our primitive ancestors experienced. No pill ha
s been invented, and no technology has been created that can extinguish fear.

  It is erroneous to think that Navy SEALs are able to function as they do because they are immune to fear. In actuality, it is the ability to anticipate situations that will initiate the body’s coping mechanism for fear (the physiological responses listed in the previous chapter), that allows for the proper steps to be taken to negate the effects of these reactions.

  Most situations that Navy SEALs face during combat will require that they be able to remain focused as they operate highly technical equipment, make rapid decisions and execute physical tasks that require both fine and gross motor skills. All SEALs must condition their minds to expect the fear-induced reactions in their bodies, and know how to neutralize their impact on human performance.

  Mental Processes

  There are some automatic processes that occur immediately upon becoming aware of a stressful event or situation; and they occur regardless of prior knowledge of the event. This is where the amygdala comes in and utilizes its memory storage and emotion regulation functions to decide whether to activate a “fight-or-flight” response.

  First, we assess the situation and how it will affect us; then we assess how equipped we are to deal with the situation; and finally, we judge the consequences of either failure or success in handling the situation.

  All of these processes occur almost instantaneously, in fractions of a second. After the processes have been concluded and our assessment has taken place, then the physiological responses to fear occur.

  It is very important—for the purposes of controlling fear—that you clearly understand that a situation does not cause the emotional reaction, but rather it is the interpretation or meaning that our mind “assigns” to the situation that provokes the chain of events and reactions that result when fear is sensed. It all depends on whether the mind perceives that the individual is capable of coping with the situation or not.