Building the Elite Podcast

Dr. Doug Kechijian is a physical therapist and CEO and co-founder of Resilient Performance Systems, which has locations in Manhattan, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Resilient seeks to systematically explore the continuum between acute rehabilitation and athletic performance. Their clientele includes athletes and operators from Major League Baseball (MLB), the NBA, professional mixed martial arts, the X Games, the Winter and Summer Olympics, Major League Lacrosse (MLL), the NCAA, federal law enforcement tactical teams, military special operations forces, and those with a history of persistent pain and extensive surgical backgrounds. Before beginning his sports medicine practice, Doug was an Air Force Pararescueman. He deployed throughout the world to help provide technical rescue capability and emergency medical care to U.S and allied forces.On this call, we cover a wide range of subjects, ranging from Doug’s experiences in PJ selection to how his background in special operations has influenced his approach to training and rehab in the civilian world.

When our secondary emotions work out well, we call them instincts. When they cause us to do stupid things, we shrug and say "I was in a weird place I guess" or "It seemed like the thing to do at the time."If we understand how secondary emotions work, we can shape them over time. With training, our secondary emotions can help us to think and react better under stress. ----------Here's the process that we outline at the end of this episode: The next time you’re in a difficult situation in which you struggle to manage your emotions well, run through this quick sequence:Identify your stress response - What are you feeling, what is your body doing, and what is happening in your mind? Use a specific skill to regulate your stress response (start with controlling your breathing, with a focus on deep, slow exhales. From there, you can consider other mental skills like segmenting or compartmentalization.)Identify the secondary emotion triggered by this situation and your stress response - What do your impulses drive you to do at this moment? If your emotional impulses are pushing you in a direction you don’t want to go, think of them like bad weather. You can feel the wind blow and watch storm clouds pass overhead, but you can still do what you need to do anyway. The weather will pass, it doesn’t have to change your actions. Acknowledge what you’re feeling, and then recognize that a temporary feeling doesn’t have to be in charge of your actions. You don’t have to feel like doing the right thing to do it anyway. Once the moment has passed and you’ve got some perspective, your final step is to run a feedback loop:Ask yourself how it went, how well you were able to regulate your stress response, and how effectively you were able to act in the way you had planned for. Remember that we learn by making and correcting errors at the edge of our ability, so look for mistakes and places to improve. Refer back to the principles of stress inoculation and keep in mind that you may have to adjust the intensity of the situation to keep yourself just on the edge of your ability where success is challenging but possible. 

Stress makes us age faster, but not always. Some people remain healthy and capable throughout remarkably long lifespans, even when they undergo incredibly difficult circumstances. The difference in how we're impacted by stress comes down largely to how we think. In this episode, we discuss several variables and strategies involved in managing our stress responses and becoming more resilient. 

Those with a more internalized locus of control - who believe that they determine their path in life through their own decisions - are less susceptible to learned helplessness and are much more likely to succeed in SOF selection. 

Some sled dogs will put just enough pressure into the harness to appear to be working while they’re actually taking a break. “Honest dogs” throw their full weight into the straps no matter how tired they are or how much further there is to go. These dogs take the lead positions in the harnesses so that they can set the pace for the rest of the team.Much of SOF selection is separating the honest dogs from the dogs who are going home.

On this call, we’re speaking with Chris Merritt, a human performance coach at a tier-one special operations unit. Chris has developed a set of principles that guide his training process: modular, mobile, and ready.Chris’ goal isn’t to make the operators he works with good at exercising. It's to make them good at doing their jobs and to stay that way for the duration of their careers. This is an important distinction. The purpose of their training does not come down to run times or deadlift numbers. It’s about leaving on a helicopter at midnight, executing a dangerous and difficult mission, and then being ready to do it again when you get back home, for years on end. This kind of career means a hectic schedule, constantly shifting access to training facilities, and a lot of mental and physical wear and tear.This is why the concepts of modular, mobile, and ready are so useful as guiding principles. During this call, we’ll talk about what each of them means, and why they’re important in this environment. ----------If you’d like to stalk Chris, you can do so on his Instagram, @chrisbeyondstrength, or at @itsbeyondstrength. The website for his civilian-side training facility is bspnova.com, and if you’d like to learn more about his career as a subway sandwich artist you can email him at chris@beyondstrengthperformance.com.

Contrast feeds appreciation. We value warmth a lot more when we've just come in from the cold. Food tastes better when we're hungry. We're better able to enjoy the company of friends and family when we know what it's like to wonder if we'll ever see them again.In this episode of the BTE podcast, we discuss the inherent tradeoff in doing difficult and meaningful things: Without risking and accepting the lows, the highs become empty or unattainable. If you've chosen a challenging path in life, you have to want the entire range of experiences - to know that hardships are inevitable - and the pain of those experiences is what makes success so meaningful.

A common mental feature in successful SOF candidates is that it's not just about them.When they reflect on their reasons for being there and suffering for the sake of a long-term goal, their thoughts often go to other people in their lives: people like their close friends, their teammates, and their loved ones back home. This helps them to view the world through "self-distanced perspective-taking," which shifts their perspective toward long-term goals, rather than reactive short-term logic. In the ultra high-stress world of SOF selection, this helps to reduce impulsivity and keep people from making a rash decision and quitting when they hit low moments. Researchers as early as WWII came upon this phenomenon while they were seeking to understand what motivated soldiers in battle, and it still holds true today. In this episode, we look at some of the factors that make good teams, and good team members. These characteristics of effective teams are part of the reason that special operations units are so effective. They're made up of highly capable individuals who become even more capable as part of a tightly-knit team.  

A recent study on BUD/S students looked at the roles of mindsets around stress, willpower, and failure.The primary focus of the study was "stress mindset." This is whether you view stress as either enhancing (stress helps me perform) or debilitating (stress is bad and should be avoided).Those who view stress as a necessary and welcome part of coping with challenges did better. They had greater persistence through training, faster obstacle course times, and fewer negative evaluations from peers and instructors.A second focus was on the perception of failure. Researchers made a test with questions like “Experiencing failure improves performance and productivity.” Students who scored highly on the "failure-is-enhancing" assessment had lower persistence, were less likely to complete first phase, and were slower on the O course.That second finding may seem odd - that people who thought of failure as a helpful tool didn’t perform as well in BUD/S. In most settings, those who seek to learn from failure and embrace negative feedback are more successful, especially in the long term. However, when we look at a career, most of the time we're not in a testing setting. We're practicing, training, and developing. We can learn from failure, come back, and try again.Embracing failure is beneficial in *learning* environments. But, it can be harmful in *testing* settings.In this episode, we discuss differences in psychological strategies depending on your environment - whether you're in a setting of testing or training. We look at this through the lens of an idea we've been talking about lately with our clients, that pain during intensely difficult events comes in three stages, and that how you manage those stages plays an important role in your mindset, coping mechanisms, and resilience. 

Edith Eger, an Auschwitz survivor turned author and trauma therapist, has a saying:"Trying is lying. You're either doing it or you're not.""If you say, 'I'm trying," she writes, "you don't actually have to do it. You're letting yourself off the hook. Stop trying and start doing."With that as our foundation, we'll discuss how to reframe the concept of effort and to more effectively think about making changes in your lives.