Laughing In The Face of The Quit Demon
Navy UDT / SEAL Museum Inside our heads, we have a voice. This voice is not just a thinking voice but also a survival voice. It urges us to stay alive and focus on our survival as a species. Sometimes, we can hear this voice overthinking and worrying about things beyond our control, and that alone can halt us in our tracks. Similarly, the survival voice in our heads is meant to help us live another day. Experiencing pain, feeling threatened, being uncomfortable, tired, hungry, and cold can cause that internal voice to work overtime, prompting you to concentrate on your own safety and to stay away from anything that jeopardizes your survival. Before the modern era, it was clear that this survival skill was quite useful. For many people, these stresses are often self-imposed through work, hobbies, sports, and especially in rigorous military special ops selection programs.
Call it the survival voice or Quit Demon, it is real and you have to learn to turn it off when physically pushing your perceived maximum limits. The survival voice is going to work full-time if you do not know how to evict it from the penthouse in your head. What helps you do that? Laughing does. You have to keep your sense of humor. A good answer to the voice just in case you hear it talking to you is required when your will is being tested. Many call this the Moment of Truth.
If you are successful, you will find humor in some of the silliest, most painful, and tedious events, and this, along with being well-prepared, can help you get through tough times. These “tough times” may be either real or imagined; regardless, you should still find a reason to laugh at yourself and others during these painful moments.
Funny Books About Navy SEALs / Training
Check out former Navy SEAL Billy Allmon’s books about humor in BUDS and in the Teams. You will see what I mean that having a sense of humor is an absolute requirement. Another funny Navy SEAL book is Jesse Itzler's story who paid Navy SEAL David Goggins (LIving with a SEAL: 31 Days Training with the Toughest Man on the Planet) to live with him for a month and beat his ass everyday. VERY FUNNY. Get your practice at laughing at this man's pain because it is funny - especially if it isn't you getting beat. Another one is When a Bullet Hits Your Funny Bone - by Billy Allmon
Hell week is one of the toughest weeks in all military training. It is hard as hell, but it is also funny as hell. From watching people sleep standing up, making fun of instructors under your breath, hallucinating, talking gibberish, to comparing chaffing square footage on each other's body, finding humor throughout the week will be shared for the decades that follow between you and your brothers that endured together.
It does not matter what Spec Ops guy I meet, 99% of the time, we have the same sense of humor and find things funny that most people would find odd or not funny at all. A shared respect for each other's painful journey, skills at practical jokes, and healthy natural defenses to successfully handling all things that suck are some of the common threads of any Spec Ops member.
There is even some science behind the ability to laugh in the face of pain, danger, and even at the stress threatening you to make life changing decisions (aka quitting). You have to keep laughing PERIOD.
Quote from MentalFloss.com: Another camp believes that fearful laughter actually represents a denial of fear. We’re scared, but we’re trying to convince ourselves and the people around us that we’re not—that everything is okay. Alex Lickerman writes in Psychology Today, “We're signaling ourselves that whatever horrible thing we've just encountered isn't really as horrible as it appears, something we often desperately want to believe.” Lickerman calls this a “mature” defense mechanism (as opposed to “psychotic,” “immature,” or “neurotic”). He notes, “being able to laugh at a trauma at the moment it occurs, or soon after, signals both to ourselves and others that we believe in our ability to endure it.”
Laugh More and Believe in Yourself More.
New Book / Action Plan
Book or eBook
What is the Never Quit Mindset?
The Never Quit Mindset project serves as an action plan to understand the ongoing growth process required for never giving up on anything. The book delivers the tools necessary to conquer doubt, manage stress, and thrive under pressure by helping you with options to build mental toughness each day. By stepping outside your comfort zone, you'll build resilience, harness an unstoppable mindset, and inch closer to living a life where “never quit” is your mantra.
Building a Never Quit Mindset is Possible…
With this action plan, you'll learn to understand the growth process required for physical and mental toughness. You'll learn how never to fear failure again and build the freedom from doubt to move through obstacles, setting you on a path whereby your growth knows no limits. We do this is dozens of actions you can add to your day and thought processes to make you tougher.
Related Articles:
Four Steps to Get Prepared for Spec Ops Selection
Be a Better Recruit
You Never Think About Quitting, IF...
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I'm the former Navy SEAL that special ops 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
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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 just about anything. We have a systems 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.
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