Overcoming Extreme Stress
EPISODE 5
LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS | GOOGLE | STITCHER | SPOTIFY
These show notes are a very brief overview of the Podcast episode. So if you want to hear all the details, be sure to listen on your favorite player or watch on youtube.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:
THE INFORMATION ON THIS WEBSITE IS FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. FOR ALL WATER CONFIDENCE EVENTS, DO NOT PERFORM ANY WITHOUT A MEDICAL KIT AND A BUDDY WHO IS CERTIFIED CPR/FIRST AID. ANY ATTEMPT AT PERFORMING THESE DRILLS FOR ANY EXERCISE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. ONES READY LLC DOES NOT ACCEPT ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR DAMAGES OR LIABILITIES, PERCEIVED OR REAL AS A RESULT OF THE INFORMATION PROVIDED ON THIS WEBSITE. BE SMART.
Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means we get a small commission if you go through them to make a purchase. We only link these companies and their products because we believe in the quality and use these products ourselves.
WELCOME TO the EPISODE about overcoming extreme stress.
Today we are taking about how to get through tough times and the tools that each of us personally use when the heat gets turned on and we have to perform. You will be experiencing many situations like this whether it is in training or in real life. So buckle up we are about to talk about what scares us and talk about tools you can use to be successful in stressful situations.
Brian
What's up everybody? Brian Silva here for the Ones Ready podcast. Hope you guys are ready to get into some stuff because today we're going to be talking about going through tough times and the tools that we individually use when we're going through Indoc and then in the future when we're out there doing the stuff overseas, just the things that we reached back on and thought about and learn from Indoc so hope you guys are ready to talk about what we do in stressful situations. So first off, we want to thank you guys for listening to the podcast and you know, we're just starting out and everything, but we appreciate all the help that you guys are paying attention to us on Instagram and you know, watching the YouTube videos. We really appreciate all the comments and the discussion that we're having with you guys that are watching that. So please continue to comment and then rate our podcast on whatever iTunes Spotify, whatever you listen to the podcast on. And then keep in mind that you can always get a discount using CODE: ONESREADY from Alpha Brew Coffee Company. Awesome stuff. Nootropic coffee. And then also with the Strike Force Energy right here, you just comes a little package, you can pour it into whatever kind of drink that you like to sip on. So we're going to get into this podcast here. Like I said, we were talking about tough times and when we were going through selection Indoc and kind of things that got us through those difficult times. And we want to make sure that whenever you guys are training and you're going through these things and you're practicing like your, your underwaters, you're practicing your runs, you're practicing all the rocks and stuff, it's going to get tough. And you should put yourself through things that are a little bit tough before you show up and make sure that you're obviously training safe and everything. But we really want you guys to kind of have an idea of things that you can reach back and think about whenever you are, you know, gonna sit on the side of that pool where the first day you show up to the PAST test and the pressure's on and you're like, what am I going to do to perform? How am I going to get through this thing? So we're going to kind of share all of our experiences and just some of the things that we've went through and how it helped us. So let's go ahead and get into a, you know, I'm going to go with Trent first. Just, you know, he's has a lot of experience, you know, with SOWT and then now the SR stuff and then also instructor experience. So if you don't mind just sharing an experienced that you went through, you know, kind of extreme pressure and what you did to overcome it. I know you have a lot going on and you're constantly doing that, but just tell us a little bit.
Trent
Well, I mean, I think, I think the one that everyone wants to hear about, right? As a like first deployment, first time getting shot at and how to get past that and what had I gone through in the past thatuh and the training that allowed me to overcome that and what are the tools I used. And so I'll tell you that the first time that I found myself in that situation some dude is shooting at us and trying to kill us is what the training did for me is, is it allowed me to focus on what I needed to focus on. And what I actually did was I heard multiple peoples voices in my head telling me to breathe and telling me what to do and walking myself through that process and, and everything that they told me. Right. So like the training that helps you focus on one thing and kind of get rid of all that, the excess noise that you don't need to be focusing on. And then all the, the other training that tells me, okay, once you've cleared that target, you need to breathe, open your eyes and keep your head on a swivel. And then after that, once you kind of get past that initial thing is when you feel that that pressure that rises in your chest, you know, like that not natural, that everybody's going to feel on the way to the pool during the pipeline, like that panic start to build how to deal with that, how to get rid of it and how to move on to your next, next objective is that, that those are the things that really helped me get past that, that first super intense situation that I had in the real world.
Brian
Yeah. So mostly, you know, that heart rate goes up, you start sweating and you're just like, Holy crap. You feel kind of like the walls are coming in on you cause you see the instructors come in or whatever. Like when you're at the pool and you're just like, Holy crap, are you gonna freeze the, that fight or flight thing? And yeah, like you're talking about getting over that little initial push and you're like, alright, keep on going. Don't stop myself. Like keep on rolling and then get through it and focus on the things that you need to do. Alright, cool. Let's go with Aaron. Can you tell us a little bit more about, you know, kind of situations that you've been in and what's been going on? What goes through your head whenever you're in those kinds of situations?
Aaron
Yeah, I'm glad you called on me buddy, because I gotta be honest. I'm a scary individual. Like when stuff starts getting heinous, like I'm the first guy to be like, Oh, what are we going to do? No, it's just one of those things. It's stress inoculation, right? Like if you expose yourself to it over and over again, even in small little stuff, and I'm sure you guys have seen it, you know you'll have a friend that that might not be part of the community and they started describing a stressful situation and you're just like, where's the stress? What are you talking about? Like this seems like a pretty easy job man. Like you go from, you know, the first five meter target, you can find, you knock that down and you go onto the next one. Well we kind of take that for granted because that's, that's what the pipeline is meant to do, right? It's meant to expose you to that stress over and over again. I was joking with my friends this week that we had a really, really boring free-fall jump. So we got together, we briefed, we went out, we just jumped our plan, we got to the ground and we kind of button stuff up and I went back to writing EPRs cause it's Saturday performance reports. Right. You know, to anybody else. That's the, that's the event of a lifetime going skydiving on a Wednesday. You know, that's their, that's their bucket list item and to me honestly like I could have used the extra couple of hours to write those EPRs man, I don't have that much time in my day. Like I could've, I could've gone without the jump. Right. But, but that's, it's just exposing yourself to over and over and over again. It's putting yourself in those uncomfortable positions where you're used to dealing with that stress and it just becomes another part of you like, okay, got it. Like some things are going to be layered on top. Like training isn't necessarily the most stressful thing that you're going to be involved in. I think combat is probably going to be the most stressful thing that you're involved in, but how do you get those combat reps without presenting yourself to real physical danger every single day? Well, you get as close as you possibly can and you start getting used to increased and more and more doses of stress. That's what we do with nutrition and fitness and everything else, right? We get ourselves close to our goal. We see how long we can stay there. Maybe it's only five reps at 225 today, but maybe next week you can get six reps at 225 you keep adding that stress to your life and you become, it becomes easier to deal with it and you kind of open those blinders up a little bit. Everybody remembers their first free fall jump at school. I wasn't thinking about anything. I was like, man, you packed the chute. I know who I am as a person. Please don't die when this thing opens. I hope that it goes the right way, but now you know you go from that very first experience of the only thing I was thinking about was pull on altitude, pull on altitude, stare at my altimeter and pull at the right time. Well now you know, you know, just this week I had a free fall jump that was run of the mill. It was just kind of like another part of my day. Like it's funny to see yourself. You just have to trust in the, in the process that you know you're going to get that far. Continue to expose yourself to stress, continue to expose yourself to those new environments. And pretty soon the performance piece of it is, it's all on you, but it's, it's always been all on you. It's just a perspective changes a little bit at the end.
Brian
Yeah. I think you know, I finished reading David Goggins book a while back and he talks about building a mental callus, just like building the blisters that you have on your hands from weightlifting kind of thing. It's just exposure after exposure the first time, you know, you might rip a little skin off, get a little blood on there and then you know, after a while you keep on doing the same thing over and over again. You'd have callouses on your hand and that way you can, you know, withstand whatever amount of weights on the bar. And it's a, it's a never ending process to make sure we build that mental Callis cause again, they heal. And if you haven't been in that Tufts situation for a long time, then it kind of goes away a little bit. You still have a little bit of residual kind of always cause you've been exposed to it so much, but you always got got to have that re-exposure and then reattach it. So yeah,
Aaron
It's always there. It's always that you always got one more good one and you're like, Hey listen, I know this one's going to suck. And I know maybe I haven't been there but I can go do this. But I gotta be honest. It's easier if you just work on it easier. It's easier if you don't have to bring it up from the past, you know?
Brian
Yup. Exactly. And then a real quick on the freefall thing, I think we've all been in that same spot. And I think my, my video, like when I first did my first jump and made it on the, the class video or whatever, because I was scared. Yeah, exactly. Made it on the class video, not on the class. Yeah, I know. And the dude, he made me poison out backwards cause I was like, Oh I was super nervous. Like I'd never even thought about jumping out of a plane before. Like, I joined the military and then, you know, I jumped out and I was like, there's a little bit of kicks. I was like, Oh no, the ground out from underneath me, you know, kinda thing. And I was just like, Oh crap, a couple of flips. And then I went to this just stared. Yeah. So anyways,
Peaches
First jump went really, really fast, really fast. And in fact, probably the first couple, but now if I go out for a 10K, I'm just sitting here like, Holy shit man, I got all kinds of time.
Brian
Go listen to our podcast again in freefall,
Aaron
Man. Leave that review in case you don't want to like it if you're able to text.
Brian
Exactly. All right. So we got a pretty good perspective there. Let's go to Peach next if you want to share one of your experiences and what you do to just kind of overcome that little hump and that hard time.
Peaches
Well I, I got quite a few, but since we're already in the, the jumping vein, I'll, I'll continue this one. And especially because I, I kind of brought it up when I, we did the live event. But so a water jump on a lot of the water jumps, the, the minimum that we can jump is 3000 feet. I, I realized that you guys know that, but for the listeners, they don't know that. So 3000 feet above the water, right? We jumped out and and I was the jump master, so I pretty much threw everybody out. And then I followed, well as we jump out and I pulled my parachute or my ripcord, my parachute, my main parachute wraps around my legs, right? So I have a malfunction out of my main right. So immediately I realize what's going on. So then I do my cutaway procedures, which is ingrained in all of us, right? We do it second nature, we don't even think about it. Do that. And then the reserve then wraps around that chute and gets tangled up. So I have what they essentially call a horseshoe malfunction or a, you can kind of call it a dual dual canopy malfunction as well.
Aaron
I feel like I have to break in here like you're describing that you should've died on doing it. Like sort of like nonchalantly. All right, so you've only got two parachutes. Everybody. if the first one doesn't work, you go to the second one. When you irreparably and hopelessly foul the second one on the first one through no fault of your own. That's on the good, bad scale. So like good and bad. It's like, that's like the worst. He has it pegged at the worst possible way to gloss over this one,
Brian
Especially with only 3000 feet. I don't know when that's gonna play into this, but.
Aaron
I gotta be honest with you. That's a, that's not enough altitude 3000 is not enough for anything dollars in your bank account. 3000 better be a grownup. That's really that much money. 3000 feet below you until you die. Probably also not, great? Yeah.
Peaches
There wasn't much, there wasn't much time. Okay.
Aaron
Continue to gloss over this terribly emotional event.
Peaches
I think that's where it's coming from though. Stress inoculation. Right? So there I am with a a with a horseshoe tumbling, headfirst and every time, you know, so we, I jumped with a knife, right? So I, I bring out my knife and I'm like, okay, well I'm going to cut the main where it's where it's, you know, hooked around my legs, but every, so there's about a quarter, quarter of a parachute, quarter of my main and a quarter of my reserve that are spinning like this. Like almost was like the eggbeater right? Spinning. And every time, and I'm, I'm heads down, right? So every time I do a sit up to try and cut, they smash into each other and collapse even more. So I go faster. So I eventually get to the point like, okay, well, I'm not going to be able to cut these. So, and, and I'm getting the waters getting really close. And and I was like, well I don't want to stab myself. So I chucked the knife and I'm like, all right, well, here we go. Hopefully
Aaron
By the way, for everybody that's keeping track, the knife that he threw hit a terrorist, somebody from ISIS. So it wasn't a complete waste, so he got the knife back, so that's good.
Peaches
I went and took it out of this chest. That's a different story. Yeah. I a whole different one, I'm talking about that wasn't stressful stuff, but yeah. Yeah. So so yeah, I smack into the water head first. And, and I don't remember whether I blacked out or not. I don't think I did, but next thing I remember and, and you guys know him, Culpepper is on a boat, right? And he's on the bow of the boat. He's jumping into the boat from the boat into the water and he's like "are you okay?". I'm like, Oh, well I think so man. Like I guess, how about you getting me out of this chute? You know, so yeah, I don't necessarily know that I'm showing stress inoculation other than the fact that, look, I didn't panic during it. Right. So it's extremely extreme situation, but because of being stressed inoculated, whether it's in the pipeline or whether it's through years and years of jumping through shooting and being in other stressful situations though that's, that situation was, was not surprisingly not terribly crazy for me. Now where, where I hit problems though was that because it was a water jump, like okay, so if we're doing a land jump, you guys know this and you have a cutaway or you have a malfunction or something like that and you have another chute and a plane, it can take you right back up so you can jump out again. You get right back on that horse. So it's, that is preferred, you know, cause if not, you kind of get that mental block and you're worried about it and like, Oh no. As soon as I pull my ripcord, the chutes will do the same thing. Right. My problem is was a water jump and I didn't have another jump for probably a month or two after that. So those
Brian
Fear building up the worst.
Peaches
So I never, I would never hesitate whenever I'd come out, but those first probably 10 jumps when it would, when it would come to pull it, I'm like, all right, here we go. They're very methodical, very deliberate, you know. But but again, I couldn't get right back on the horse so that Brian, that would be my stress inoculation story that I would choose simply because we were talking about jumping.
Brian
Yeah. And I think the important thing to remember for guys that are going to be going through selection, or if you are selection right now and you're listening to this, you know, we had guys that would, if we did buddy breathing, you know, they would just destroy their world and stuff and they'd be choking and then they'd have nightmares about it. They'd tell me about it. They're like, I really don't want to go in there and do buddy breathing again. And I'm terrified to go in there and choke on water again. So it's kinda the same concept, but you know, buddy breathing, you're not actually gonna die doing that. You know, we have people and safe for the most part. So you're not going to just not in that extreme of a situation, but it's the same kind of thing. And the same concept is if you're kind of thinking about it every single night when you go to bed and you're just scared of screwing it up again, then it's just going to haunt you and is going to be in the back of your mind when you're doing anything else. And it's just gonna you know, ruin the progress that you've made on your runs or anything else. Cause you're like, man, okay, I might be able to run six 30 miles or whatever, but I cannot do this buddy breathing thing. So a lot of guys that I've seen a, you know, as an instructor just kinda ended up failing out because they can't do that one thing that's stuck in the back of the head. And most of the time it was buddy breathing. So
Peaches
That does seem to be the big one buddy. Breathing people freak out about it.
Aaron
Yeah. And the one thing I want to stay away from too is just because we're telling stories like, you know for the listeners out there like don't put yourself into some weird thing where like, Oh my God, like Jared almost died on this free fall jump. His stress is more than my stress. And like it's not saying man, I've been terrified just to get out of bed in the morning and like at 4:30 in the morning just be like, ah, do I want to go do this again today? Like that stress and that moment, that might be as much stress like you have a cup, right? Like our cups are way bigger now for the stress that we can take. But it's because we've been doing the stress inoculation for years and some of his decades and for Jared 45 years, we all have different amounts that we can take, right? Like we're going to give you a smaller cup to start. So don't look at buddy breathing. He would just be like, Oh I shouldn't feel like dead. Cause Jared almost died on a free fall jump over water. All these guys got in firefights up. I gotta be honest with you, man, at that moment, that was as much stress as I could take at this moment. Getting off that ramp for the first time at free-fall school or just going back to that buddy breathing session, that might be as much stress as you can take and you're making good gains by going back and getting in that fight. So
Brian
Absolutely. And you know what we do as instructors, when I was an instructor, we would make it, you know, that stressful thing in a safe situation where we can kind of analyze the things that they're doing and make sure that they're acting the way that you know a person that is going to be out in the battlefield and then be in situations like, you know, Peach and you guys were talking about to actually do the right thing and make sure that you grab your knife and you do your thing and you do the right procedures. You remember your cutaway a sequence and you're not just like panic mode. That's it. I'm just going to die. And then let yourself, you know, fall to the wayside because, you know, in those kinds of situations, I'm sure we've all been in a situation where we had to save her own life and we had to have our wits about us enough in that stressful situation to get ourselves out of that situation. So that's kind of the whole purpose and what we're looking for as far as you know, instructors. And that's kind of my thing. I'll share my stuff for a later date. But just from the instructor standpoint, that's what guys are really looking for and what you're is gonna get you selected. Ultimately keeping a cool head and staying calm in those really difficult situations where it's, it's difficult to do that. It's difficult to be like, all right, take a deep breath. Just like Trent was saying, get over that, that hump and then start thinking about what you need to do to get yourself out of that rut and then keep moving forward because it's going to happen at some point in your career. You just got to figure out how to do it. So we went over a couple of different things in situations you guys been in. I want to talk about like why you guys think it's important for these guys, cause I kinda tied mine in right there. Why do you think it's important for these guys to be placed in these stressful situations? So we'll start in reverse order this time just cause Peach on the floor again, we'll go back to Peach and then we'll go back up and cycle through to you guys, the rest of you guys that are sitting there,
Peaches
Whoever you guys are. Yeah. So I mean I don't have anything, you know, very concrete and specific, but I think, you know, Aaron touched on a little bit, but everyday life life happens. And you guys have heard me say that and I know some of the people listening have, have heard me say that life happens, right? Whether you're in this kind of career field or not, you could, you could be in a car accident or you could come up on a car accident and have to pull somebody out of a car. And you get that adrenaline going and that's, that adrenaline is great because you can do some amazing things on adrenaline, but at the same time that like that is also stress and it goes with that fight or flight thing, right? Some people like it is just they're gonna shut down and they can't handle the stress. Whereas if you, your natural instinct is to fight, right? That is still a whole bunch of stress on you, but maybe you're still able to, to perform to a certain point. And and I think that is one of the key reasons why we do it is just so that we don't want people to shut down. Because if you know, our lives or, our buddies lives depend on it or the mission needs to press on, we can't afford to just shut down. Like once you've already gone across enemy lines I mean you're there, you're essentially surviving until you get back. So there is no shutting down. You just got to keep going. I mean, for me that's what I would say. But what do I know?
Brian
Don't try and play it down though. That was awesome. You're like got really into it and then you're like, nah, I'm just kidding.
Aaron
But no great sound. I'm going to be able to delete that later part and we're just going to be able to keep the first part. It's going to be good technology. What a time to be alive. You know what I'm saying?
Brian
But we're not really going to do that. No, I, yeah, totally appreciate you talking about like the mission starts when it starts. Once you get on that bird and you're taking off the dude salutes you you're like, boom. All right, here you go. We're not coming back until you're back. I mean, and even then you still got to reconstitute. Get ready for the next one. So, yeah, totally agree. All right, so let's go to Trent, cause I know you're sitting there and you're going to give me that impatient look. So go ahead.
Trent
It's just my look. That's just the way I look.
Peaches
Or it's that stash. I don't know the mustache.
Aaron
I gotta be honest with you. That stash is something fantastic.
Brian
It is. Ned, Ned Flanders.
Trent
I would say the most important part about stress inoculation is learning how to move towards stress and, and not ignore it. So like when you're having those nightmares or you're thinking about it all the time, there's a difference between thinking about it and running through those checklist items and figuring out how you're going to get past it and embracing it versus a avoiding it and trying to push it down into your soul. And then it just festers and it becomes this toxic thing. Whereas as you go through over and over and over again, you learn how to deal with it and then you move, how to learn, learn how to move towards it and what you need to do to get past it. Like all of our stories are, Hey, I just ran through the checklist, right? I ran through the checklist. I kept repeating it to myself. I know what I'm going to do, I know what to do in this situation. I visualized it and instead of like avoiding it instead of being like, I mean you might wake up in the morning and be like, I really don't want to do this, but then you just, you'd get past it and just keep going and you figure out what you need to do and the stresses, it just is what it is and you get used to living with it. So to me that that's a, the difference is once you've been inoculated to a certain extent, you just start moving towards it and getting better and better at handling the stress and figuring out what you need to do to get past it to be successful.
Brian
Yeah, absolutely. Once you start actually implementing those tools, that figure that you figure out help you get through that thing, then you can pretty much reach any goal. And I think that was one of the main things that I kind of learned from indoc was after I finished that hell night, I was just like, Holy crap, I actually did this. Like I was able to get through those difficult pool sessions even though I was super tired, super sore. And everything. You know, I went to that chow hall with my, my chest out. I was all proud of myself and I was like, yes. I finally like I did it. And then you know, you keep on going after whatever goal is come up in the future and you kind of reach back and use those things that you did in the past in order to make yourself progress into the whatever goals you are, you're, you have right now.
Peaches
Isn't it funny that you bring it up, Brian, is that after you've already passed it, you look back and you're like, well actually that I kind of want to handle that.
Aaron
I mean, I did great.
Aaron
I'll tell you what, like I think that is like, I think we uncovered the number one reason why people think AFSPECWAR dudes like beret wearing guys are just a little bit more cocky. I'm sorry, I almost died right before I came to lunch, man. Like how do you expect me to feel in this chow hall? Right? Like of course I'm going to get extra dessert dog. I almost got drowned for a living. Get outta here.
Brian
Yup. Yes, I'm having a beer tonight. Exactly. I'm enjoying, I'm enjoying my life cause I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. Yeah. I didn't die today one time and I might've should've, but I didn't. So we're just going to keep going.
Peaches
It's all about perspective.
Aaron
It's all about perspective.
Brian
Alright, so let's just go to Aaron then since you're kind of up right now anyway.
Aaron
Yeah. I don't know. I just think that constant exposure to stress and Trent hit hit a great man. Like he's just like, man, what's next on the checklist? I think that's the difference between people that are really, you know, inoculated distress and people that kinda just kinda just pretend as like, you know, what to do next. Like that's the difference in a stressful situation that you see is, you know, there, you can call it being a sheep dog and running towards battle. You can call it, you know, being, you know, burn the boats, whatever things that we want to, you know, through our tribalism. We want to kind of espouse and we want to say, this is what it looks like, but it's really, it's you want to be the person that knows what to do next. You can't possibly be the person that knows what to do next. If you're so worried about this moment right now, how stressed am I in this moment? I'm trying to get through each second. When you see that true combat leader in any situation, that person knows what to do next. We just had a truck go down. We just had a plane go down. We just had one of our team members land off target. What are we going to do? You look to that leader, that person knows what to do next and I think that comes, I think those people are just really good at stress inoculation and being in that moment, being like, okay, well what, Ugh, this happened, but what comes next? I think those people are always the people that we look to. Like those dudes are switched on. Those guys know what to do and assessment selection is no thing you can do this at every single level, right? Like you always look towards, I always look towards my, my team Sergeant, I always look to those guys that were older than me in the career field. When something crazy would happen, I would look to them and I'd be like, Oh, what are they going to do? And when I saw how they reacted, you know, especially calm breeds calm, like I'm a cliche guy, calm breeds calm. Okay, Hey, I know the situation is terrible, but what are we going to do next? Let's start coming with a plan. I think stress inoculation is really where that starts. And I think that's one of those things. The big question about leadership is, you know, is it taught or, or is it one of those things you're born with? I think it's a little bit of both. And I think stress inoculation is where you can really train somebody to be a good leader because they're always thinking about, okay, well what's next? Right? And that stress inoculation that starts with Indoc and even before that. I'm sorry, you know, assessment, selection. But even even before that, you start to learn, I feel like this when I'm stressed, I always, and you know, good on Trent for bringing it up, but I always resort to checklist. What's the, what's the emergency for this? What's my algorithm? You know, Brian, I know you know this, but I do it with patient care. Are they bleeding or, you know, are they, are they bleeding anywhere? Can I stop them from bleeding? Can I get them breathing? And then can I make that patient leaving? That's really a pretty simple thing. But if you stick to that, you know, you're good. And you just really rely on those stress inoculation of the previous, I always loved the quote from fight club where he talks about the volume getting turned down after fighting, right? Like you go through a couple of nasty pool sessions, you go through a couple bad free fall jumps, you go through some bad firefights. I gotta be honest with you. Standing in line at the Safeway really isn't that big of a deal. And all that is, is stress inoculation, right? Like somebody cuts you off on the road, you'd be like, that's okay guy. A helicopter did the same thing to me the other night and complete NVG considerations and it turns out it was fine. So I guess I'm not mad about that at all, you know, so, but I think that's all stress inoculation. That's where start.
Brian
Yeah, I think the important thing that you were talking about there was the stress inoculation breeds leadership and that's really a thing that starts honestly from childhood as when you were talking about that. I was thinking about like being a parent and kind of like, you know, those guys that are like, Oh my gosh, you freaking, you cut your leg, let me bandage it and do all that stuff. It's kind of the same thing when you're a team member versus you know, you're looking at your team leader, you're like, Oh my gosh, there's a car crash right there. Just happened in front of us so you can a freak out or what is it going to do? And then you kind of the team leader because he has that stress inoculation. He's kind of like, alright, is there any other dangers? Crash team members. You're like, Oh crap, let's grab our tools and go prove me just staring at this one problem that's in front of you. So anyway, just, yeah, the stress inoculation, like you said, breeding leadership. I think that's a really important aspect. And you know, that's kind of what we're expected to do whenever we go on a teams because you know, as PJ's, we have the team leadership role and then as JTAC and SR, you're kind of out on your own, you know, for the most part, doing your thing and running your show and you're kind of talking to guys and your specialty to direct guys and make sure that they know what's on the battlefield and you have to be kind of a, a self starter and have that awareness to just kind of be stress inoculated and not be heads down because the team's going to be counting on you to do your specific task whenever you, you know, stuff happens.
Peaches
I've gotta be ready to perform.
Brian
Exactly. so let's move into just the last thing. I just want to hear you guys thinks, we talked about it a little bit, but with stress, stress, inoculations, you're building those callouses and everything, is there a point that you think that anybody's going to be like fully stress inoculated and you're just like, Nope, I think I'm a, you know, for the most part, good. I don't have to hit this anymore and I could just coast on whatever thing I'm doing right now. It's kind of a loaded question a little bit, but Peach, let's go ahead and hit you up first.
Peaches
Okay. So you mean I can't rest on my laurels? Okay. Yeah. What are laurels? So no, it doesn't end. Which I think is, is really important. So not to make this a, Hey, education doesn't end, but even now, whenever I do a JTAC evaluation on a guy, even if he has been a JTAC for a long time, I will still put him under a significant amount of stress. Whether that is, you know, with a whole stack of aircraft or I cause a multi-axis troops in contact situation or I take away some of his equipment because whenever we're creating or developing training events, right, it does me and it does the men or women no good for me to just give them a kind of okay-ish scenario to where Hey, they win at the end. No. What I want to do is I want to create a scenario that causes so much stress, so much chaos that it, that they almost fail or fail.
Aaron
I think they could. They think they could cause that's an, that's a decisive part of any battlespace man I don't, this might not go my way.
Peaches
Oh yeah. Hey, the enemy's got a vote and life environment has a vote. Right. So if I, when I do it, I plan scenarios or situations that they are going to fail or they are going to come close to failing. It does them no good. I'm not doing them any favors if I just give them some pansy ass uh scenario.
Brian
Absolutely. Cause that's what you're preparing for battle. So, I mean, stuff's going to happen whenever you actually go down range and radios go out or whatever. That's number one thing. So, okay, let's go with a Trent.
Trent
Well, to me this is like the can you ever be too smart question. Are you ever too educated? You know,
Brian
Like I told you, it's a loaded question. Yeah.
Trent
It's a stress inoculation is It's just increasing your bandwidth of your problem solving ability or whatever within a certain spectrum of stress. So why do you think that that is ever large enough to cover down on every situation that you could ever be in a, it might be for every situation you could, you're going to be in, but you're, you're never, you've never made it. You're never there. You're never 100% inoculated to everything. You're never, you know, you, you've never made it. I dunno. I don't know how to explain it. Like there's always more to learn, more bandwidth to gain and, and more you can to improve yourself to be a better version of you.
Peaches
It's never enough. It's never enough.
Brian
Absolutely.
Trent
That's the stress is that it's never enough.
Brian
Everyone's got that 24 hours in a day and I thought I was really busy when I was like, I don't know, 17 and I was working a part time job and going to school and I was like, man, I'm so busy all the time and I have to work out and I, you know, I have to go watch this movie with my friends and now you know with all this other stuff that's kind of added on with doing this kind of thing. Kids, other school work, working out, there's just so much that you kind of learn and like you said, train your bandwidth for, you know, your capacity for actual performance kind of increases as you go on and on. And I think it's the same with physical, mental, all that stuff. Your bandwidth increases as you kind of experience life and you have to work around that kind of stuff. All right, let's hit up Aaron, go ahead.
Aaron
Yeah, I think you can totally be stressed inoculated. I think you can totally win this game as long as you're okay with mediocrity, as long as you're okay with staying where you are and never be in better. Yeah. I mean, you can get ready for the stresses that you encounter every day, but man, it's just like warfare, right? Like if you're training for this war, if you're not trying to fight the war that's going to happen in 10 years, guess what's going to happen when that war pops up? You ain't going to be ready for it. Right? So, man, I don't feel like I'm ever I'm ever fully stressed inoculated because if I am, I'm not pushing myself hard enough. I'm not finding those new challenges. I'm not finding those new situations that I need to go, you know, be the best, the best PJ that I can be in the best senior NCO that I can be. Like, if you're not, if you're not being stressed, you're not putting yourself in uncomfortable positions. And that's not what we do. So yeah, I think you can totally, there's totally times. For me it's a funny thing, but if I ever feel like I'm like, man, I'm, I'm crushing this, the number one thing that I immediately hear, Holy crap. You are, you're, yeah, you are. You are crushing this. And I gotta be honest with you, it's because you're probably not trying hard enough. So yeah, that's one man's optic on it,
Peaches
Or complacency which is also extremely dangerous.
Aaron
Gotta get outta here, man. I'll tell you what, complacency, complacency and a, what's the other one that kills you twice? So, denial, complacency, and denial. Kill you twice because you thought you were fine and then you weren't. And then denial kills you because you couldn't believe it. And complacency kills you because you're already dead. Right. So there you go.
Brian
All right. That is a perfectly in, so, you know, I'm going to go with kind of my overview of the, what we talked about and that kinda thing. But you know, exactly like you said, we have the option of, you know, going to Starbucks in the morning and sitting at an office and doing our little computer work going home and being comfortable on our little couch sipping our whatever hot cocoa or tea or something before we go to bed in our Tempur-Pedic beds and our whatever. Like have the option of just,
Peaches
What are you drinking at home?
Aaron
Where are you living your life. Right. I'm just saying I got to get into PA school.
Brian
Take it. Easy.
Aaron
Trip in the morning. I've got a Tempurpedic waiting for me at night, man.
Peaches
I got some chamomile at the end of the night.
Brian
Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. You're the one that's over here with the Ghost Bed or whatever you're talking about. Oh I was just bringing it off the Drinkin Bros.
Brian
No, I don't actually drink tea but I do drink coffee but not Starbucks. I make my own stuff. Anyway. Alpha Brew Coffee Company. Yeah. Alright. So, but anyways, you have the option of doing that. I talked to a lot of people that, cause I am in, you know, medical school right now and that's kind of what they do. They don't like put themselves in difficult situation. I invite them to work out and they're like, nah, I don't really nothing cause I don't really want to go where. Yeah, because you know I have all these things to do over lunch. It's like all that stuff's going to be there. Whenever you're done with your workout, go put yourself in difficult situations and push yourself. Go around people that are going to be better than you to make yourself better and learn from them, compete and make yourself, like you said, calloused, talking about all the things that you've experienced. Building that up go through a difficult time. You, if you're doing like a AMRAP or whatever, you have the option to sit back and not do as much as some of the other guys. That's your choice. But if you put yourself out there and actually try your hardest to do the best on the team or whatever, then that's going to increase your, your callousness and be make you be able to push forward and work harder next time. So keep that in mind whenever you go and do your next workout. Or if you're too tired to get out of bed and do the workout in the morning cause it's five o'clock and you just had a long night the night before or whatever. Those difficult experiences are going to help you, you know, form the person that you're going to be in the future. And like I said, it's a process that takes a long time to build. So make sure that every single day you're going out there and you're making something of your life, putting yourself in those difficult situations. Socrates once said that "no man has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the strength of what his body is capable". So don't let the talents and the things that have been given to you, cause you have the opportunity. Like you said, you have you live in America, there's a gym right next to you. There's a pool, there's somewhere for you to go and train and be better. So utilize those opportunities. Go out there and earn each breath. We appreciate you guys listening to the podcast today. If you guys have any comments down in the YouTube, go ahead and drop it in the comments. You can always get in touch with us over at the Instagram, shoot us a message and we'll make sure that we get back to you guys as soon as possible. You can always go to onesready.com and just check out the website, check out some of our Spotify playlist and these sweet shirts that just came in are also available down at the website.
Aaron
I was going to ask you about that shirt. Yeah, no. Oh, don't worry. Yeah. Hey man, what is that a medium you're filling that thing out nicely, my friend,
Brian
It's real clean. This is this medium.
Aaron
Yeah. That's gotta be like an XL on you.
Brian
Look, but it is a tri blend, so it's, you know, super stretchy, super soft and comfortable. All right, you guys know this awesome shirt. So go over there to onesready.com check it out. And then if you guys have any comments or anything, make sure you leave him down there. Subscribe like us on iTunes and we'll see you guys next time.
LEARN MORE ABOUT our sponsors: Strike force Energy & Alphabrew coffee!
PROMO CODE: ONESREADY
LEAVE A REVIEW
It’s our collective goal at Ones Ready to help Special Warfare candidates get through Selection and become better Operators than we ever were. By leaving us a review, it helps our podcast get in front of more candidates just like you.
So thanks in advance for leaving a review, we truly appreciate it.