Building the Elite Podcast

In SOF selection, you'll often hear instructors say "Don't set yourself up for failure." From your viewpoint in the pushup position with wet sand abrading every inch of your body, this might seem like yet another form of casual derision. But it's an important reminder. Many of the little tests in selection are assessing for conscientiousness and long-term planning, or the ability to account for second and third-order effects in our behaviors. In other words, the ability to process "If I do X now, then Y will happen as a result, and then Z will happen like this." How well we do this determines where our actions fall on a scale between setting ourselves up for success or setting ourselves up for failure. Think of a drop of water. You want it to get from point A to point B. You’re not going to expect the water to get there because that’s what’s good for it. You expect it to get there because that’s where gravity will take it, and if that environment were to change, so would the path of the water.We’re not as different from that drop of water as we may like to think. Our control over our future actions is limited. What we can control, however, is what we do right now to shape our future environment so that the path of least resistance is the one we want ourselves to take. This episode is about this concept - that if we change the upstream drivers that affect our behavior, we'll be better able to do the right thing in the future when doing the right thing is hard. 

Metacognition is a fancy word for “thinking about thinking”.⁠⁠To borrow definitions from research with Olympic athletes, metacognition can be broken into 3 forms:⁠⁠- being aware of goals and how those goals relate to specific situations;⁠- using specific psychological strategies (such as goal-setting, imagery, self-talk, relaxation, and activation) to manage and control your thoughts and visualizations;⁠and⁠- being aware of how past experience might shape your present perspective and future predictions.⁠⁠We learn by making and correcting mistakes at the edge of our ability. This means that metacognition is an essential tool for recognizing our errors, rapidly correcting them, and continuously improving during training. ⁠⁠In this episode, we discuss how that works, and one method for doing so that you can use today. ⁠

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.