When Do You Know You Are Ready to Go?
No Matter What the Challenge...
How Will You Know You Are Ready?
Being mentally and physically ready is more than just saying, "I will never quit" and passing a fitness test. While there are fitness tests that confirm you are prepared to enter special operations training, how do you know if you can handle the mental and physical demands of what comes next?
To assess whether or not you are physically ready for any endeavor, you can see lists like this Physical Assessment Tool for average scores on successful students who went before you. These are fairly straightforward and provide a good ballpark answer to your physical preparation. Much of this readiness is a combination of your athletic and work history, as well as your specific preparation for upcoming challenges that are tested during the selection process itself. This process can take a few months of specific training for well-trained individuals and as long as 1-2 years for athletes with significant weaknesses that need correction (such as overweight, swimming, water confidence, and load-bearing issues). Your durability will be a combination of a foundation of strength, flexibility, and mobility training. Your ability to work long hours is a combination of endurance and muscle stamina. All create the backbone of physical success in training.
While areas like injury prevention and physical resilience are a blend of the above specifics, there are not that many tangible methods to prove mental readiness. Sure, you can try a few gut check events to test your mettle and hope you do not injure yourself, but the ways to assess your mental readiness, confidence in yourself, or mental toughness can only happen if you are truly honest with yourself. I think I have created something that will help you understand the mind-body connection and unlock the hidden mental and physical toughness inside us all - the Never Quit Mindset:
There is a chapter titled: Chapter 7: How Do You Know You Are Ready? Focus on Weaknesses, Maintain Strengths, Build Confidence.
If you are not physically ready, you are likely also not properly mentally prepared. Run a complete battery of tactical fitness assessments. If you continue to ignore the events in which you are not skilled and focus only on excelling in activities where you are already proficient, you are neither mentally nor physically prepared for success.
If you are not taking your sleep, nutrition, and recovery seriously, you may not be mentally or physically ready to compete for jobs that boast 75-80% attrition rates.
It's okay to have doubts; we all do. How you handle doubts and the fear of failure is the difference maker. You must build good habits through consistency, even when you don’t feel like it. It takes discipline and willpower. How badly do you want it, and why do those answers need to work for you when you are tested to your limits?
Here are some things to consider:
1 - Consistent Training - Were you consistent with your training, even when you did not feel like it? Training when you do not feel like it is a mental challenge, and it happens nearly daily if you are training hard enough. You do not build mental toughness through a single event; you demonstrate your mental toughness through single events. You build your mental toughness and readiness by being disciplined and training consistently. The power of waking up early and training hard when most people are not, regardless of the weather or how you feel, cannot be overestimated in making you a more mentally ready person. Following that up with a long day of work, school, sports (or all three) creates a recipe for building the resiliency you need through a solid work ethic.
2 - Consistent Recovery - Not only does your training need to be consistent, but so does your recovery. Are you eating the most nutritious food options for optimal fuel and recovery? Are you avoiding activities that impede your recovery? Getting drunk, smoking, doing drugs, and eating junk food obviously interfere with your health, but they also ruin your sleep, which is the best recovery process we have for improving performance gains from hard training. If you want to engage in activities that require optimal performance, you need to be at your best. This requires understanding recovery. See Understanding Recovery
3 - Consistent Competitiveness (and Team Player) - Whether you are competing against yourself or others throughout your life, having the drive to improve at something you initially struggle with is a crucial driving force for success. Training to compete—not just to survive—is a lesson that must be learned early; otherwise, minimum standards become an acceptable level of effort.
Exceeding the standards IS the standard.
One thing is for certain, "You will never think about quitting, when you are thinking about winning."
4 - Consistent Support - This is a tough one, as you may have to turn the lack of support (or negative support) you receive upside down and use it as fuel. If you are challenging yourself with an uncommon goal, you will have doubters and haters from those not willing to work as hard as you are. Proving people wrong can be a good source of fuel when a long day's work turns into a longer night of the same effort. Hearing statements like, "You'll never make it." or "I bet you quit," are not the best things to hear from people you know well or even love as family members. Remember, hearing comments like that is NOT a reflection of you; it is a reflection of the person saying it.
Finding a group of like-minded people who are training for the same goal is worth a truckload of gold. You will see people ahead of you on this journey, and as they succeed, it propels you even more forward. Sometimes, "we all need to see it to believe it." Seeing people accomplish the goal you set out for yourself is often all the support you need, as it is that powerful. Taking the impossibility factor out of your mental bag of processes is what we gain when we see it done. Finding your own support network during your preparation phase is easier now more than ever with social media, web forums, and local/regional training groups.
5- Consistent Review - You need to have consistent self-checks along your journey of preparation for any goal. Be honest and assess yourself honestly; otherwise, you are just guessing, as you may be plateauing or even experiencing negative results in your progress. Evaluate yourself weekly through physical events, academic challenges, and by reflecting on your motivation. Why are you pursuing this? Is this goal truly deep in your heart and soul? If so, you will be difficult to beat. As Bath Ruth said,
"It is hard to beat a person who never gives up."
If you genuinely want to have a never-quit mindset, you have to hate quitting more than anything in life, and that comes deep down from within your "how bad do you want this" piece of your heart. How do you measure a person's heart? Many think you cannot by conventional means, but you can look at a person's journey to see what tools he/she has picked up along the way:
Did your childhood offer you physical and mental challenges (life in general, sports, school, work experiences, tough schedule, consistent activity). This is the foundation of work for many people - if you do not have this, you are start building it now.
What have you accomplished in the past? How do you focus on goal achievement? Do you have a method? Complete focus? Tireless efforts to achieve that goal (straight A's, sports team, team captain, awards, work advancements, etc). Consistency wins - try it if you lack many personal accomplishments.
Why do you want to do this? Having a solid answer to this question will fuel you when the days turn to night, in hot or cold weather, when facing something you fear (like heights, darkness, murky water, or a stronger opponent), or when you feel physically uncomfortable. What is YOUR WHY?
I Am Ready....
At some point, you will say you are ready. Being prepared to bring your game face to challenging events is really what you need to do each day. You will continue to have doubts and wonder if you did enough to prepare—that is natural. But knowing when you need to bring your A-Game to the party is part of being mentally ready for any event in your future. After a lifetime of work and "preparation," you will be ready for these moments as you have built up confidence in yourself and the ability to remember your WHY.
Bonus Section
" If you cannot stop thinking about it - don't stop working towards it."If you notice there are two steps to this one as thinking about doing something is not the same as working towards it. In fact, we can break it down even more to help you: You have to Know WHY you want it. You have to Believe you can do it. You have to Have Faith that you are going to get it. You have to Take Action – Thoughtful consistent action – aka WORK
|
New Book / eBook / Audio Book
Unlock Your Hidden Potential with Proven Strategies of Tactical Fitness Pioneer and Spec Ops Coach Stew Smith
There is More To StewSmithFitness.com than You May Know
(In fact, there are more than 40 books, 1000+ articles, online coaching, and more)
Who is Stew Smith CSCS? Coach, Trainer, Writer, Podcaster: I'm the former Navy SEAL that tactical candidates go to for books, ebooks and online coaching to prepare themselves to get to and through intense tactical assessment and selection programs and qualify for service in their chosen tactical profession. See More at StewSmithFitness.com
Where to Find More Information About Optimal Performance Training Programs
When you start training again, consider the seasonal tactical fitness model. I call it A WAY to train and obviously not the only way to train. But it offers the opportunity to never neglect your weaknesses, helps with flexibility and mobility, but will also put you at a level of physical abilities where you are happy with your overall ability to do just about anything. We have a system where the seasons dictate our training. When it is nicer outside, we tend to run and do more calisthenics. When it is colder and not so nice, we lift more, run less, and still maintain our outdoor activities with shorter runs and rucks. Check it out: Seasonal Tactical Fitness Periodization System.
These Seasonal Tactical Fitness BLOCK Periodization programs will walk you through 4 x 4 weeks cycles with 16 weeks of each season in two programs. (32 total weeks)
Increase Strength & Crush the PST / PAST
3 Weeks Strength - 1 Week PT / Cardio Focus
(16 weeks)
These programs will walk you through 4 cycles with 12 weeks of each season in two programs.
The Specific Military / Special Ops Physical Fitness Workouts
Navy SEAL Workout Phase 1
Navy SEAL Workout Phase 2 - 3
Navy SEAL Workout Phase 4 Grinder PT
Navy SWCC Workout
Army / Air Force Advanced Fitness / Special Ops
Army PFT Workout (Prep For Rucking, OPAT, ACFT)
Army Special Forces / Ranger Workout
Army Air Assault School Workout
Army Airborne Workout
Air Force Special Warfare IFT / OFT / Selection Prep
Advanced Running Program - Special Ops Supplement Plan
USMC RECON / MarSOC Workout
USMC OCS / TBS Workout
USMC IST and PFT
The Combat Conditioning Workout
Air Force PJ / CCT Workout Battlefield Airman Prep Course
The UBRR Upper Body Round Robin Workout / Spec Ops version
The Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer / Navy SAR Workout
The Service Academy Workout (West Point, Navy, Air Force Academy)
The Navy, Air Force, Marine Corp Boot Camp Workout
-
The Law Enforcement Physical Fitness Workouts
The FBI Academy Workout | FBI Workout Vol 2
The DEA Workout
The FLETC Workout - Ace the PEB
The PFT Bible: Pushups, Sit-ups, 1.5 Mile Run
The Fire Fighter Workout - Ace the CPAT
Online Coaching Options
Online PT CLUB - Weekly Workouts created personally for you.
New Member's Only Content / Services Program!
If you want access to years' worth of workouts (500 weeks of workouts), weekly favorite workouts, a free fitness app, a closed Facebook group, a video and picture library of exercises, and more access to live Q&A sessions, check out the Stew Smith Fitness Members Section.
The dashboard below has the links to all the information, archives, videos, and links to workouts, podcasts, and live Q and A lessons.
Consider this! - A Membership Program and Gain Access to Exclusive Content
(click for Fitness Club Dashboard - members only)
Questions? Just email - Stew@StewSmith.com
At StewSmith.com - List of Products and Services
- FREE Articles
- Podcasts and Swimming Videos (Youtube, TikTok, Instagram)
- eBooks
- Books and eBooks in PRINT
- Stew Smith Fitness Club membership site
- Online Coaching
Stew Smith Fitness