akidd
02-20-2016, 20:16
This read might sound a little crazy, but bare with me because it's the truth. It opened a lot of insight to me once I realized this. I have two completely different points to prove as well. I hope some of you stay interested enough to read it all the way.
While looking at all the pipelines to these SOF I've noticed some strong similarities. From conversations and interactions with former/ active duty SEALs, SWCC, EOD, Green Beret's, Rangers, Marines, You name it, they all have something in common. It took me a while to finally place my finger on it, but I can now confirm it from time spent looking into the SF pipeline. It's not that their all in awesome physical shape, or have a high level of intelligence (and some don't) but everyone of these guys has incredible people skills. I don't mean they can all keep a good conversation, and are extroverts who can handle the center of attention at a party. By no means was one of the SEALs like that in anyway, most of them I know are actually rather quite and keep to themselves. It's more their ability to read people with an accurate judgment of others. I remember within not even 10 seconds of me meeting one of the frogmen, who is now a mentor of mine, he called me out and pin pointed what kind of guy I was right there. He didn't even know me. Same thing happened with the other SOF guys I met. It wasn't a bad thing either. It was always helpful, uplifting, and very much appreciated in the long run. By no means am I gullible to words just because I look up to somebody. I'm actually very stubborn. At some points in our conversations they would say things that literally went along with my life at the time and gave me advice I probably wouldn't find anywhere else. It has amazed me, and just inspired me even more to be like these guys every day. I don't think they developed these skills from the years of doing their job and deployments around the world, I can almost for sure say it was something they were born with. To be honest, I think it takes somebody with the same eye to recognize that. Not trying to boast by no means, but most of the guys who I saw them interact with, didn't pick up on this and it went right over their heads. Recognizing this now gives me a better idea of what kind of guy these programs are looking for. It's a reason they say it's all mental. Not all these guys I met were 6'3" 225. Yes, they were all strong, and durable, but not big (but yes, a few were). As of matter of fact the Master Chief Navy SEAL I met was about 5'7" 150 lbs. soaking wet fellas. But again, very good with people. The last thing I noticed was the second most important. ALL special Forces/ Ops guys had a incredible strong grit about them. Grit is key. You can tell how they carried themselves that there was a never quit, hard working attitude about them. You just knew it. Not because of their job title, but how they were. You can see it in there eyes. I know it sounds weird.
The second point I want to make, is my new perspective on going into SF. Before, and I'm going to get some hate for this I'm sure, but I wanted to be SEAL. Long story short, certain waivers couldn't be approved, and upon me getting selected for a contract to BUD/S I had to be turned down. Sucks. Sucks real bad. But I wasn't about to sit on a ship and wait 2-4 years to cross rate to still not be guaranteed a shot at BUD/S. No way dudes. So I moved on and now I'm here trying to join the army under an 18x contract. And I must say I'm pretty freaking excited. I got a good feeling about it. Anyways, while training for BUD/S I read every book (BREAKING BUD/S, Which breaks down almost every evolution at BUD/S), watched every movie, documentary, pretty much whatever had SEAL on it, I was about it. Well one day it all clicked. just like the paragraph above, while I've been looking into the SF pipeline. I had been developing this expectation of what training was going to be like. I thought I had it all figured out. Little did I know, trying to foretell what was going to happen in training was my biggest mistake. This caused me to overthink everything in my training. "How can I prepare for this, what kind of fins, boots, this and that do I need?" I was leaving myself no room to learn.
There's a story that goes like this. A young man wants to be a warrior, the best of warriors. So he goes to a Master. A decorated veteran. He says, "I want to be the best and most highly trained warrior, as you are sir".
The master says, "Sit down young man, I'll fix us some tea and we'll talk about this".
So the boy sits down, and the master brings them each a cup of hot tea. Already the boy is asking questions like, "What do I need to be doing? How much should I train, lift, run or swim? What kind of sword should I use? What's the best armor to wear?"
As the boy is talking, the Master continues to pour his cup of tea until it overflows onto the boys hands and onto the table. "What are you doing!? Have you gone mad"?
The Master replies, "Young man, your mind is like the cup, and the tea is all of your thoughts, come back when you have emptied your cup, and given yourself room to learn".
The boy thought the Master was crazy, and went on to train to join the ranks of other elite warriors with this mindset of knowing it all. As his body layed broken down, his mind and spirit fading away from his once high hopes, he quit. He went home to work in the fields with his father.
See I was that boy, and my mentors were the masters. Going into the army with an 18x contract, I'm not going to dwell on things as a civilian that I know they're going to teach us along the way such as Land Nav. Call me crazy. But I see a lot of people on this site begging for information that is making them overthink everything! I truly believe that the only thing we need to worry about as candidates is being in the best physical shape as possible. Everything else, I'm trusting the cadre to teach me. The biggest reason for not completely knowing whats coming, is because it will force you to take everything one step at a time. I mean damn, It's going to be overwhelming for some. A lot of information, mind games and evolution's. Thinking about how much more you got will bog you down faster than anything, and from what I've heard most quit because of that. Everybody I know whose quit through these SOF pipelines said it was because of that reason or just not being physical prepared enough. It's not about the best guy, its about them picking the right guy. Who can learn, adapt, suck it up, and take it one step at a time. I mean if I was a cadre this is what I would look for. Some of you might say to keep my two cents on this because I'm not there yet, so take what you want from this brothers. Good luck.
How do you eat an elephant? One bit at a time.
While looking at all the pipelines to these SOF I've noticed some strong similarities. From conversations and interactions with former/ active duty SEALs, SWCC, EOD, Green Beret's, Rangers, Marines, You name it, they all have something in common. It took me a while to finally place my finger on it, but I can now confirm it from time spent looking into the SF pipeline. It's not that their all in awesome physical shape, or have a high level of intelligence (and some don't) but everyone of these guys has incredible people skills. I don't mean they can all keep a good conversation, and are extroverts who can handle the center of attention at a party. By no means was one of the SEALs like that in anyway, most of them I know are actually rather quite and keep to themselves. It's more their ability to read people with an accurate judgment of others. I remember within not even 10 seconds of me meeting one of the frogmen, who is now a mentor of mine, he called me out and pin pointed what kind of guy I was right there. He didn't even know me. Same thing happened with the other SOF guys I met. It wasn't a bad thing either. It was always helpful, uplifting, and very much appreciated in the long run. By no means am I gullible to words just because I look up to somebody. I'm actually very stubborn. At some points in our conversations they would say things that literally went along with my life at the time and gave me advice I probably wouldn't find anywhere else. It has amazed me, and just inspired me even more to be like these guys every day. I don't think they developed these skills from the years of doing their job and deployments around the world, I can almost for sure say it was something they were born with. To be honest, I think it takes somebody with the same eye to recognize that. Not trying to boast by no means, but most of the guys who I saw them interact with, didn't pick up on this and it went right over their heads. Recognizing this now gives me a better idea of what kind of guy these programs are looking for. It's a reason they say it's all mental. Not all these guys I met were 6'3" 225. Yes, they were all strong, and durable, but not big (but yes, a few were). As of matter of fact the Master Chief Navy SEAL I met was about 5'7" 150 lbs. soaking wet fellas. But again, very good with people. The last thing I noticed was the second most important. ALL special Forces/ Ops guys had a incredible strong grit about them. Grit is key. You can tell how they carried themselves that there was a never quit, hard working attitude about them. You just knew it. Not because of their job title, but how they were. You can see it in there eyes. I know it sounds weird.
The second point I want to make, is my new perspective on going into SF. Before, and I'm going to get some hate for this I'm sure, but I wanted to be SEAL. Long story short, certain waivers couldn't be approved, and upon me getting selected for a contract to BUD/S I had to be turned down. Sucks. Sucks real bad. But I wasn't about to sit on a ship and wait 2-4 years to cross rate to still not be guaranteed a shot at BUD/S. No way dudes. So I moved on and now I'm here trying to join the army under an 18x contract. And I must say I'm pretty freaking excited. I got a good feeling about it. Anyways, while training for BUD/S I read every book (BREAKING BUD/S, Which breaks down almost every evolution at BUD/S), watched every movie, documentary, pretty much whatever had SEAL on it, I was about it. Well one day it all clicked. just like the paragraph above, while I've been looking into the SF pipeline. I had been developing this expectation of what training was going to be like. I thought I had it all figured out. Little did I know, trying to foretell what was going to happen in training was my biggest mistake. This caused me to overthink everything in my training. "How can I prepare for this, what kind of fins, boots, this and that do I need?" I was leaving myself no room to learn.
There's a story that goes like this. A young man wants to be a warrior, the best of warriors. So he goes to a Master. A decorated veteran. He says, "I want to be the best and most highly trained warrior, as you are sir".
The master says, "Sit down young man, I'll fix us some tea and we'll talk about this".
So the boy sits down, and the master brings them each a cup of hot tea. Already the boy is asking questions like, "What do I need to be doing? How much should I train, lift, run or swim? What kind of sword should I use? What's the best armor to wear?"
As the boy is talking, the Master continues to pour his cup of tea until it overflows onto the boys hands and onto the table. "What are you doing!? Have you gone mad"?
The Master replies, "Young man, your mind is like the cup, and the tea is all of your thoughts, come back when you have emptied your cup, and given yourself room to learn".
The boy thought the Master was crazy, and went on to train to join the ranks of other elite warriors with this mindset of knowing it all. As his body layed broken down, his mind and spirit fading away from his once high hopes, he quit. He went home to work in the fields with his father.
See I was that boy, and my mentors were the masters. Going into the army with an 18x contract, I'm not going to dwell on things as a civilian that I know they're going to teach us along the way such as Land Nav. Call me crazy. But I see a lot of people on this site begging for information that is making them overthink everything! I truly believe that the only thing we need to worry about as candidates is being in the best physical shape as possible. Everything else, I'm trusting the cadre to teach me. The biggest reason for not completely knowing whats coming, is because it will force you to take everything one step at a time. I mean damn, It's going to be overwhelming for some. A lot of information, mind games and evolution's. Thinking about how much more you got will bog you down faster than anything, and from what I've heard most quit because of that. Everybody I know whose quit through these SOF pipelines said it was because of that reason or just not being physical prepared enough. It's not about the best guy, its about them picking the right guy. Who can learn, adapt, suck it up, and take it one step at a time. I mean if I was a cadre this is what I would look for. Some of you might say to keep my two cents on this because I'm not there yet, so take what you want from this brothers. Good luck.
How do you eat an elephant? One bit at a time.