Review: The Way Of The SEAL by Mark Divine

Shortly after reading Unbeatable Mind by Mark Divine, I picked up a copy of another book he wrote around the same time called The Way of the SEAL by the same author. The appeal of some of the tools in Unbeatable Mind made me curious about his second offering. While the books were not marketed as a series, there were some great tools and skills to be gleaned from both.

The author, Mark Divine, attributes his lessons to his SEAL training as well as martial arts training and discipline, but the wisdom he shares is not isolated to special operations or martial arts communities. The book is full of acronyms and mnemonic devices meant to help drive home lessons and tools, and with any book like this one, there’s nothing necessarily new about the offering except the way the author has put it together, and his personal stories to illustrate concepts.

And those stories, concepts, and strategies are incredibly helpful for anyone looking to live their life with greater productivity and purpose. One of the great tools in the book is a series of questions meant to assess your starting point to be able to know how much daylight there is between who you are and who you want to be.

Another great tool the book offers is examples of battle/weekly rhythms for moving forward. Over the last twelve months between personal fitness, leadership coach training and certification, taking class at Harvard, moving Nuru International’s mission forward, and striving to be a better husband and father, I have needed to develop a battle rhythm out of necessity. Mark’s book, among others, was incredibly helpful in thinking about and developing of that rhythm.

Looking for a solid book to help you map out a plan to move forward and take the next steps in your personal development, check out The Way Of The SEAL.

Review: Unbeatable Mind by Mark Divine

About a year ago, I started reading a book by a former Navy SEAL, Mark Divine, called Unbeatable Mind. The appeal of the book for me was it’s focus on developing mental toughness. I had just finished my third Marine Corps Marathon, and I really wanted to improve my mental game for running. There were two or three points during the race where I felt myself wanting to let up a little bit because they were mentally challenging, and, when I feel that desire to let up, I strive to find ways that I can push through and forge ahead. I also had been seeing a lot of talk about the term resilience, and the thought of developing resilience was also appealing to me.

With that in mind, I picked up the book. The book reads like a manual filled with tools to cultivate a better life and a better mindset for oneself as well as for other people in one’s life (family, coworkers, community, etc.). I really enjoyed the book, and felt like the author did a decent job of blending personal experiences and his own story of discovering calling with tools and techniques that are easily remembered and readily applicable.

Even though I read the book in 2015, one specific tool stuck with me over the last year, and with Jamie’s pregnancy well on its way, I had Jamie begin practicing and reading about the same tool—it was found in the chapter on mental toughness. In fact, while the entire book is solid, I found that chapter to be the best.  

The tool/technique was called box breathing, and I’ve found myself practicing it as I drive and walk, and even as I start and end my day. When I’m feeling a little overwhelmed, I pull box breathing off the shelf and practice it. And when Jamie saw that I was writing this review, she told me that the practices in the second chapter of the book really helped her during labor. In fact, although my wife is already an incredible warrior, I would say that her focus on breathing during labor really changed the whole experience for her.

The book was a fast read and I believe I might run through the whole thing again to see what other gems may surface for application. If you are looking for a book with practical tools to help improve mental toughness, I highly recommend Unbeatable Mind by Mark Divine. There are a number of books being authored by veterans who are sharing their lessons learned with a broader audience, and I found this book to be chock-full of solid tools that are ready for application, if you are ready to step into the arena and live more purposefully.

Review: Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin

Last fall on Veteran's Day, I mentioned a book I was reading that was written by two Navy SEALs about leadership called Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy Seals Lead And Win. The authors, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin also run their own leadership development and executive coaching firm called Echelon Front. To be honest, I probably would not have known about their book if it had not been for the fact that Leif and a number of his classmates from USNA class of 1998 rallied to the support of Nuru International CEO and classmate Jake Harriman as part of their 15 year class reunion gift. I had been following Leif on Twitter when I saw news of his book. As part of my ethos, I believe in supporting people who I have at least some degree of connection to as they work to bring good into the world. With Leif and Jocko, the connection was indirect. They were connected to Jake, and they had been supportive of Nuru's mission.

That being said, when I heard they wrote a book, I figured the least I could do was give it a read, and potentially write a review of it. So here I am, writing a review. And as I start, let me say this. I feel like most books on leadership are really just a repackaging of timeless lessons that are made more timely by their proximity to modern challenges, or by being etched into the minds of the author by the crucible of experience. In Extreme Ownership, we are presented with a book that comes from both.

The authors are honest in an admission that there are already plenty of books available on leadership, but they believe (and I agree) that their unique contribution to this sphere comes in the fact that they learned these lessons in the tumult of combat and have sought to extract from their experience the important principles and also worked to apply them to more conventional contexts in the workplace. The lessons and experiences are written vividly, and as one reads, there is a certainty that these memories and lessons learned were hard-fought, and life-changing for the authors. I highly recommend giving the book a read, not just for the leadership wisdom, but for the concrete way these two men have been able to write about their experiences in combat and bring the realities that most of us only experience through the filter of news channel pundits into the forefront of our own understanding. While the book is a great book about leadership, it is also a history lesson on the very real challenges that men and women who are my age have encountered over the last several years in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other conflict zones around the world.

The three biggest reminders I took away from the book were these.

1) The person who bears ultimate responsibility for any mission, any project, or any objective in my life is me. We live in a world caught up in working to assign blame to others and displace responsibility from ourselves. If something in my life is not working out the way I want it to, I need to own it. I need to accept responsibility for my own failures, as well as my failures when leading others. I need to own it.

2) When I'm feeling overwhelmed, the most important thing I can do is prioritize and execute. We talk a lot about multi-tasking, but the reality is we will fail if we try to tackle several tasks simultaneously. It is up to me to determine the highest priority task and then begin there. If there are several tasks, I need to keep my head and do as the authors say, "Relax, look around, make a call."

3) Discipline equals freedom. Not only is this a great little mantra, but the premise is that increased discipline results most often in greater freedom. If we master a certain level of discipline, we can easily adapt. As we standardize and create routines, it helps us to be mindful and creative in our approaches to other areas, and by creating discipline around a few standing areas, we can easily adapt and create linkages when necessary. I like to think about this principle as the means through which I achieve results. If I want to attain mastery of my fitness, my spiritual formation, etc. I need to apply a level of discipline on an ongoing basis. At least this is my personal application of the principle.

So, if you are looking for a solid book on leadership, or if you are looking to learn from the stories and experiences of a couple of people who have been taught from the crucible of experience on the frontlines of combat, I recommend giving Extreme Ownership a read. Also, Jocko has started a podcast too. I was able to listen to a little bit of his first one, but I'm hoping to give these segments a listen on some future road trip or flight.

Review: The Heart And The Fist by Eric Greitens

Over the last several months in a wide spectrum of contexts I've been seeing the name Eric Greitens come up. He's an author, a Rhodes Scholar, a Navy SEAL, a humanitarian, founder of The Mission Continues, and currently a candidate for governor of Missouri. Because his name has been popping up in a variety of different contexts, I decided I would do a quick Google search.

When I did, among the top hits were a couple of books, one called Resilience, and the other was The Heart And The Fist. I decided to start by reading The Heart And The Fist because of its subtitle, The Education Of A Humanitarian, The Making Of A Navy SEAL. This title intrigued me on a few levels. First, given Nuru CEO Jake Harriman's background as a Force Recon platoon commander, I wondered what similarities may exist between the genesis of Nuru in Jake's mind and Eric Greitens' own experiences and conclusions. Separately, I find myself encouraged by the lives of others who have sought to work for a better world, and Mr. Greitens seems to be a person who has sought to do that with his life. I figure any time I can read a book where a person is willing to open up their life and share some of their personal lessons, I am usually made better through it.

And so I picked up The Heart And The Fist. What I love about the book is that there is a mixture of these biographical sketches from different seasons of the author's life that each include both humor and nuggets of wisdom. In even the most serious moments of life it seems there can be an occasion to smile, to experience gratitude, and an opportunity to learn and grow as a person. In the preface of the book, Eric succinctly articulates his thesis. The stories he shares reflect this truth, "...without courage, compassion falters, and without compassion, courage has no direction...it is within our power, and that the world requires of us--of every one of us--that we be both good and strong...For each of us there is a place on the frontlines."

In each chapter of the book, Eric focuses in on key experiences and individuals who helped him learn important life lessons, and who inspire him to bring his best into whatever he does. Although the book is a story about moments that shaped his life, it is just as much a testimonial and tribute to individuals who gave him inspiration and who by being written about, may have the opportunity to give us inspiration as well. In this book, he communicates with a vulnerability and an honesty that does not attempt to paint any of these individuals (including himself) in a perfect light, but rather to show that even amid our imperfections, we each have valuable life lessons to impart, and we each have a unique contribution on the frontlines, wherever they may be.

I highly recommend picking up a copy of his book, and soaking in these stories of hardship, heroism, and simple truths in the hope that it might help you to bring your best to wherever you have been placed, and further, that it might inspire you to be both strong and good. In the words of the philosopher John Stuart Mill (also quoted in the book), " The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."  May we be a people who are willing to fight for good, who are relentless in standing strong, and purposeful in laying down our lives and our comforts for the good of others.