When you are a pilot in the military you never know when the call for help will come. It’s not as if troops in distress schedule appointments for pickup in advance. If they contact you for your assistance, you must be prepared to be en route in seconds. It takes a very special type of training to have that kind of response time. You have to be physically agile, mentally alert, and emotionally prepared for any eventuality. All three aspects of your being have to align for you to be able to calmly and capably handle the challenge ahead of you.
There was a time during my father’s second tour of duty in Vietnam when several planes were downed in this one hot spot west of Da Nang, just on the border of Laos. Everyone was concerned about it. They didn’t want to lose valuable aircraft, and they certainly didn’t want to lose lives. My father was very fond of all the men in his unit. He often spoke about their skills. Some of the younger ones could make a plane spin on its tail. They’d compete to do all kinds of fancy maneuvers. When word came in one evening that a pilot who crashed in that hot spot needed rescuing, my dad headed out as part of the retrieval team. It was a dangerous mission and everyone was aware of that. Three flare pots burning in the darkness guided the team to the stranded pilot’s location, but they still had to clear a rough tree line in heavy winds in order to successfully pull the young aviator and the remains of the plane out. Somehow they managed. My dad explained that when you are close the way all the men in his unit were, you are motivated by that bond and you just get in there and do what you have to do without fear. He told me that he had an epiphany later that night. “I realized just how much we pilots were each other’s Gods in every challenge we faced,” he said. “It was miraculous what we were able to do for each other at times.”
It is apparent from this story that our troops need equal parts physical and mental strength to pull off a rescue like that. It’s also evident that they need a little faith too—faith in themselves, each other, their training, and sometimes in a force larger than them.
My dad, as you know, was taught to fly and maintain aircraft by the Army branch of the military. It was a highly specialized training, unique for the time and the war the United States was fighting back then.
The physical component to being a pilot is extremely important. The stress that flying an aircraft puts on the body cannot be underestimated, whether operating an attack helicopter, a transport plane, or a gunship. Add to that what was required once a pilot like my dad landed—everything from loading and unloading heavy munitions to trekking through rough terrains, scaling signal towers to make repairs, moving quickly to install communications equipment in the field, or carrying injured soldiers—and you understand why improving endurance, strength, flexibility, and mobility is so important.
To get a better sense of how pilots train to get ready today, it might be helpful to look at how the Air Force currently gets its members in optimal shape. Their training and the duties they perform are somewhat different from what my dad went through, but also wide-ranging and physically challenging. The process begins with boot camp. Passing the physical performance test at the end is key. A recruit’s final scores indicate his or her overall strength, stamina, and cardio-respiratory fitness. To pass this test you have to complete a targeted number of push-ups within one minute and a targeted number of sit-ups within one minute followed by a one-and-a-half-mile run and a two-mile run timed at the designated speed for your gender. Depending on the recruit’s level of performance, pull-ups may be added to the test as well.
Meeting the minimum graduation standard, which is tough by any measure, will land one in the Liberator category. Some recruits who do even better than that rise to either Thunderbolt level, or to the ultimate Warhawk status. I don’t know how many of you reading this book can do between forty-five and seventy-five push-ups, between fifty and eighty sit-ups, run a mile and a half between 8:08 and 11:57 minutes or two miles between 13:30 and 16:45 minutes. I have so much respect for the determination and commitment it takes to do this.
Every recruit also goes through weapons training, learns various combat and survival techniques, and engages in practical field simulations too. There’s rarely a time when recruits aren’t in physical motion, running or carrying out repetitive tasks or maneuvers until they are completed to satisfaction. This repetition is important no matter which branch of the military you are training for. The brilliance behind these drills is that while troops are building new skills and growing stronger every day, they are also developing muscle memory. That’s the training my dad always talked to me about when I was younger. You can be an expert marksman when it’s just you and the practice target at the shooting range—in other words, when there are no external pressures bearing down on you. But performing to that same degree of excellence when you are under extreme duress could never happen without constant practice and deeply ingrained muscle memory. He explained that panic acts like mental exhaustion. When you are really anxious and stressed out, as you would be in a live combat situation, your brain gets clouded. It’s actually muscle memory that triggers the mind to do by rote whatever it is that has to get done. Your physical test scores have to be really solid during basic training because it’s those abilities that support your mental acuity when it’s required. Essentially, the muscle memory that’s built up in training is what helps soldiers multitask even when they are totally exhausted.
Believe it or not, this is just the bare minimum training some of our Air Force recruits will go through. The physical demands increase when some seek to become pararescuemen (also called parajumpers), combat control technicians, or special operations weather technicians.
The parajumpers are trained to rescue troops that are stranded, injured, or in any other type of distress, while the combat control technicians are trained to serve as air traffic controllers, monitoring and directing the arrival and departure of all aircraft and ensuring the overall safety of the airspace. They are also tasked with going behind enemy lines to set up drop zones and airfields, in the same way my dad did, before any of the other troops arrive. The special ops weather technicians are, of course, incredibly skilled meteorologists.
To fulfill these roles, it’s not enough for them to learn how to function and survive in the air; they must also be able to function and survive wherever they land, no matter what the geographic or climate conditions are.
And that’s not all. The mental requirements get tougher too. All of these troops will go on to attend Army Airborne; Army Combat Divers; Army Parachutist; and Air Force Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape schools, as well as Navy Underwater Egress training. Depending upon their specialty, there is even more specific training on top of that.
In the process, these pilots are also developing more subtle qualities. All of this military training reinforces a respect for tradition. It’s staggering to think about how these exercises have served countless other soldiers in past wars and conflicts. By extension, this hard work makes troops believe in the historical strength of our country. The United States has proven time and again that it is not going to settle for a mediocre military. When soldiers recognize how far they and their peers have come because of their instruction, they also recognize that America’s military is built on the expectation of excellence. These are all important mentally and emotionally fortifying aspects of the conditioning.
Another great facet of the training is that it helps troops know their purpose. And knowing their purpose gives them a sense of belonging. It teaches them to act in unison. From there, it is a short step to embracing a one for all and all for one spirit so necessary for group success—the kind that drove my father and the other pilots in his unit to be each other’s miracle workers in times of distress.
The more you think about the demands placed on these troops, the more you realize that they can only reach such a high level of performance if their mind, body, and spirit are working together.
ON MORE THAN A WING AND A PRAYER
The military cultivates its servicemen and-women to this degree so they aren’t in the thick of war when they first realize the many different kinds of human strength they have to summon in order to survive. Even the most intense crash courses are no match for the cumulative power you build up when you maintain ongoing, dedicated, and disciplined training in these three pivotal areas of personal development.
The concept behind “Stay Ready” applies to civilian life as well. We all need to be able to rely on ourselves, and we must be ready for those who rely on us too. We have to develop a regimen that keeps us physically, mentally, and emotionally resilient if we are going to be fit enough to face life’s many challenges. We also have to practice that regimen even when things are going well.
FIGHT OR FLIGHT
I was fortunate to be raised with a strong foundation in all three areas of personal development. I was surrounded by the example of troops engaged in physical and mental training while living on base. Both of my parents valued exercise and healthy eating habits and instilled them in me as well. I enjoyed school, studied hard, and had interests in many different subjects. Being surrounded by so many interesting people and living in so many different places also expanded my mind. And my family had a deep spiritual practice. We attended services every week at a local church so we could connect and spend quality time in worship and in community with our civilian neighbors. We tried to remain hopeful in tough times and relied on prayer especially when my father was deployed and we had concerns for his safety.
When I first devised the rule “Stay Ready,” I thought of it as making an appointment with your dreams. It meant that by preparing for something with diligence and commitment, you were showing yourself and others how much you believed you could accomplish those dreams.
It still means that; however, the rule’s meaning expanded for me when I was anchoring the evening news on weeknights in Kansas City. It was an exciting time in my career. But as often is the case, the good times were coupled with tough times. As I mentioned earlier, I was being stalked by a former boyfriend and coworker. He had terrorized me for more than two years. The incidents began with obsessive phone calls and escalated to having my car keyed with sexually explicit words. This stalker eventually broke into my apartment, which only had one way out. He blocked that exit and a violent struggle ensued. Neighbors on multiple floors could hear me screaming for help. The police arrived and I survived. Somehow, I mustered all the strength I needed in the moment and was fortunate that others came to my aid as well. However, it was not the last time that he would break into my home, even after I moved.
The Kansas City, Missouri (KCMO) police department subsequently placed officers outside my building and the local TV station where I worked. The court system in Jackson County, Missouri, saw me on many occasions seeking orders of protection and filing complaints against the stalker. Yet, he persisted. The Prosecutor’s Office, led by Claire McCaskill, who was then a prominent local attorney and is now a prominent US senator, assigned my case to be heard in an effort to stop this madman from continuing to invade my life.
During one of the fact-and-evidence-gathering interviews with the District Attorney’s Office about what was happening to me, we closely reviewed the stalker’s actions. The DA’s Office noticed a pattern: This guy had a huge jump on police and everyone else because he knew me so well. He was aware of my routine, eating habits, friends, and coworkers. He even knew my weaknesses. The stalking case was filed as a domestic case because we had dated in another city. Our former relationship left him armed with all sorts of information that aided his ability to terrorize me. When he crossed several state lines—expressly moving from North Carolina to Missouri to come after me—his sudden appearance meant that he had the element of surprise working in his favor too.
Looking at this profile and modus operandi, the DA’s Office told me that all of this allowed him to “stay ready” for any opportunity to wreak havoc in my life and in the lives of those around me.
I was the target of this man’s mission: If he could not have me, then no one else would either. His preparedness clearly played a huge part in how he executed his mission.
I decided to fight back against any fears or future threats by learning from his example. I upgraded my readiness. To do this, I leaned on the amazing local officers of the KCMO police department. They are not military, but they are a fighting force of sorts. I took a cue from their preparedness and learned to fire a weapon, took self-defense courses, and kept a log of every time I was followed or contacted by the stalker. And when things got particularly bad, I worked closely with a private detective so that I could learn the stalker’s patterns the way he had learned mine.
After spending time in and out of county jail, and after facing a high-profile trial covered by the local media, this stalker got what was coming to him and I finally saw justice meted out. That is when I extended this rule to mean: Stay ready so you don’t have to get ready.
Oddly, the stalker’s dangerous pursuit of me had been so efficient that it became both a lesson and a motivation for me to be strong in as many ways as I possibly could.
READY AND ABLE
After that ordeal, I designed a regimen to help me stay ready for whatever might help me fulfill my dreams and for whatever might arise unexpectedly to challenge those dreams. I contemplated again how the military conditions the body, mind, and spirit to be prepared for anything and I adapted this three-tiered approach to my own goals. I knew all about the training the troops went through to make themselves alert, responsive, and resilient. I wanted to accomplish the same outcome with activities that were feasible for my lifestyle. My thinking was that I’d be more likely to stick to the conditioning if the regimen included activities I already liked and engaged in from time to time. That’s why the regimen I developed and still use today involves running, yoga, and prayer. These are three practices I had relied on separately for body, mind, and spirit strengthening at earlier times in my life. But now I was consciously making an effort to do all three consistently in my life. The plan was and still is to stay ready. I practice all three to this day. Each is important for different reasons.
Hitting the Ground Running
In an almost Forrest Gump–like fashion, running suddenly became a staple activity for me during my freshman year in college. University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), is known for its majestic mountains that seem to custom-frame the beautiful Pacific Coast, so it was an inviting place to start.
That first year was stressful. It constantly challenged the young girl in me to step into womanhood, responsibility, and a new level of accountability for my actions and decisions. No more Mom and Dad to help me navigate situations on a daily basis. Of course, they were there for the big stuff, but now I was on my own to figure most things out by myself.
At first, my route began as a simple loop outside of San Nicolas, my dormitory building. It was a short jaunt from the lagoon situated next to the dorm to a bike path that I followed around the west side of campus. The whole run didn’t take more than thirty minutes to complete at a pace my now eleven-year-old daughter would consider slow! But it allowed me time to clear my head and to embrace my new role as an adult. I had worked summer jobs, traveled with my family on vacations, and certainly relocated to different bases and military towns before, but getting used to this new environment was different. I experienced an “aloneness” I hadn’t known before, which required discipline and focus to combat. I thought back to how my dad’s tennis matches with friends helped him stay centered after he retired from the Army and changes in his personal life occurred too. While I love tennis, activities involving other people seemed out of reach for me at the time. It was too early in my development of friendships on campus. So I began to jog.
That initial thirty minutes on the bike path quickly evolved into ninety minutes. I was covering miles now—and at a faster pace. I was running. If you choose to pursue a cardiovascular workout too, try to persist. I understand why the best runners say no postponements, cancellations, or excuses allowed. You will see a marked improvement if you stick with it. The people at Nike are right: “Just do it.”
What I also love about running is that it doesn’t require much: Just me, a good pair of shoes, and time. At UCSB I ran in the rain. I ran in heat so dry I had to hydrate just to sweat. I ran when things were going well at school and when things weren’t. The sounds of nature and my own breathing as I tackled the uneven ground on nearby hiking trails and the mountainside became my friends. Before long I was running half marathons in Santa Barbara and neighboring communities.
My first full marathon didn’t come until years later. When I got a post-college job working as a temp for a legal firm, those same stressors I felt at UCSB during my freshman year instantly returned. But this time, I realized that I was more than ready to assume the autonomy, responsibility, and accountability my new environment demanded (especially because I was being paid for it!). I was also ready to train for races—10Ks, half marathons, and yes, once a year for a while I ran the Los Angeles Marathon.
Because staying in that peak condition takes time, I tend to speed walk the longer races for charity these days. In September 2015, when my aunt Mary was diagnosed with breast cancer, I entered the AVON 39. It was a long challenge consisting of 26.2 miles on day one and 13.1 on day two, but I persevered.
What I find amazing about this particular exercise—especially if you do it in a city like New York—is that it not only benefits you aerobically, it also helps you develop the ability to hold two or more thoughts in your head at once. Although it can appear as if we runners are tuning out the world when we’re in the zone, we are actually operating on several levels simultaneously. We’re listening to feedback from our body about how hard we are pushing it and we’re also paying keen attention to everything else around us including curbs, potholes, dog-walkers, pedestrians, delivery trucks, buses, cars, and of course the bicyclist that always seems to come out of nowhere. In fact, if we’re not that attuned to the world around us, what we’re really running is the risk of getting seriously hurt. In my experience, this sport not only provides good fitness training, it helps you practice and perfect your multitasking skills, which in turn gives you the confidence to overcome whatever challenges you face. I find it to be the perfect sport for my mission to Stay Ready.
In fact, the more I run, the more I realize the military is right: There is a very strong mind-body connection at work when you are physically active. The idea that repetitive exercise develops a kind of shorthand with the brain that enables the mind to function automatically even under stress makes more and more sense to me, not just as I become an increasingly proficient runner, but as I also read about the subject. There are a number of scientific studies in the area of neurogenesis and neuroplasticity that support the notion that physical exercise has a positive impact on our cognitive abilities and performance. For instance, researchers at the National Institute on Aging in the United States have found that exercised muscles generate a protein called cathepsin B, which triggers baby neurons to form in the hippocampus of the brain. Other researchers have also found that when you exercise, the blood flow triggers new pathways to form between neurons.
Is it possible that those new pathways are speeding up the conversations between the mind and body to improve the quality and nature of both our physical and mental response times? I guess you will just have to keep active to find out.
Striking a Pose
Yoga is another wonderful practice to help me stay ready for both opportunities and challenges. One of its many benefits is that it teaches you how to slow your heart rate and empty your mind enough to be able to take in new material. The deep and controlled breathing that is so integral to yoga is what induces this calm state and is also what enables you to be more perceptive and rational when you apply the same type of breathing to difficult situations in the world outside of the gym or yoga studio. How often have you been told to just breathe deeply when you’ve been nervous or tense? It’s a technique that is universally believed to help keep you relaxed and focused.
There are other ways to condition yourself to breathe deeper and to use that practice to remain calm under pressure as well—Pilates and tai chi both come to mind. What also comes to mind is a sedentary alternative my parents have used to excellent effect for years. It’s the practice of sitting still. Those who live in the southern regions of the United States do it all the time when they porch sit. I’d go so far as to say that Southerners have raised sitting still to an art form. While it sounds so country, I think city dwellers should try it sometimes too. Every home my family lived in while I was growing up had a screened-in porch for this purpose and if the house didn’t come with one, then my father built a porch himself. He and my mother would sit outside for hours taking in the silence. I remember begging them to turn on some music or to play a board game with me because in my restless youth I just couldn’t stand being idle like that for so long. But those respites from all the bustle and noise definitely served a purpose. Both of my parents were heart-stoppingly relaxed. And though I protested it then, I recognize now how necessary it is to have stillness in your life.
So much vies for our attention in the quick-paced world we live in that we all need to carve out some time for peace and quiet at least once daily. I cannot have electronic devices constantly buzzing around me at all times. As someone who has worked six days a week, I especially look forward to having a calm home on days off. Your brain needs to regenerate, and while sleep provides you with rest, sitting still can repair the frayed edges and reconnect you to the things that tend to get pushed aside by more immediate demands.
The key to sitting still is just letting thoughts wash over you. There is no need to act on them in the moment. Just recognizing them is enough. Saying to yourself, “Yeah, okay I see that. I’m not going to address it right now. I’m just going to acknowledge that it’s there,” is really all you have to do.
Because constant interruptions tend to scatter thoughts, I truly believe that silence is necessary to take in the goodness and blessings that are coming to you.
By the way, if you’re skeptical about the power of sitting still the way I once was, there are studies to reassure you of this as well. According to the scientific journal Brain Structure & Function, scientists found that two hours of sitting in silence a day leads to the production of new neurons in the brain too. These scientists hail from the Center for Regenerative Therapies in Dresden, Germany, where they are making many more exciting discoveries related to neurogenesis. Once I read about their findings I knew for sure that both of my parents were right about porch sitting. If time spent relaxing—including sitting in silence and/or doing yoga—can make you more mentally agile and alert, then it is definitely time well spent.
I never saw my dad do downward-facing dog, and he certainly didn’t have porch-sitting opportunities while he was deployed—that’s for sure. But he did say that the military cultivates the discipline of stillness in its troops for its own reasons and in its own way.
“In battle you cannot be in constant motion because when you are, it’s impossible to hear the enemies’ footsteps,” he explained. “For this reason, soldiers are trained to relax in battle, to really take in the moment, to make sure that they are focused on executing the plan they’ve constructed in order to succeed. You simply cannot do that with a cacophony of dialogue and movement going on at the same time.”
A commander may not use yoga per se, but what he is really teaching his unit is the same skill: A way to be at peace while indefinitely waiting—a way to maintain supernatural patience. These are common principles of both yoga and meditative prayer and they are also traits in some of the most effective and responsive soldiers. It was clear to me after my father returned from Vietnam that he brought the benefits of both his physical and stillness training home with him. The techniques and lessons he learned in the Army helped reduce his stress levels and gave him greater clarity of mind. I don’t think I ever saw him get riled about anything. Even at age eighty, he still maintains a wonderfully calm demeanor.
Keeping the Faith
Prayer, the third component in my regimen, can take the form of focused meditation, reading spiritual text and literature, or communing with nature. It can be whatever it means to you.
Although it is different from the other two components—even from sitting still—I find that it sometimes follows one or both of the other activities, which is why I believe they go hand in hand. If I’ve gone running, for instance, and I’m just sitting still afterward or I’ve done some yoga and have ended in my favorite position, Savasana—where I am basically lying down with my eyes closed, thinking about nothing in particular, letting the ground catch my weight and just feeling open—I will often say a prayer. It could be as simple as a word or two of gratitude, or now that I have ordered my thoughts, it can be a concise request for assistance in some matter. Then I wait quietly a little while longer before I get up and go about the rest of my day. Strong faith teaches you that when you do all of the talking, there’s no way God can help you, because you’re not listening. So I try to create moments when He can really speak to me and I am prepared to hear Him.
Yes, there is proof that prayer impacts the brain too. Dr. Andrew Newberg, from the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has conducted decades’ worth of research and is a prolific author on the subject. What his studies reveal is that brain chemistry changes when we pray for an extended period of time. One of the most significant changes occurs in the part of the brain associated with the self. Whether he was studying the brain patterns of Buddhist monks, Sufi mystics, or Franciscan nuns engaged in meditative prayer, he noticed that this part of the brain began shutting down. The same result occurred when he observed a Methodist minister engaged in intercessory prayer—a type of prayer that focuses on the needs of others.
As interesting as the suppressed awareness of self is, it is not proof that the subjects in these studies are actually connecting with God or becoming more at one with the Universe while praying. What can be confirmed, however, is that as these neural pathways become less active, others are becoming more developed. As Dr. Newberg explains it, “The more you focus on something, whether that’s math or auto racing or football or God—the more that becomes your reality—the more it becomes written into the neural connections of your brain.”
It could be said that for many people, prayer is a statement of intention. Putting a wish before God or out into the Universe is a way of focusing on that desired goal. Seeking help from a higher power in achieving that wish indicates its importance to you. It may just be that once your intention is inscribed into your neural pathways you are more likely to find ways to help that desire come to fruition. Or it may be that another powerful being is listening and helping too. Either way, it seems as if prayer could be a very useful tool for us when we want to gather all the help we can get from ourselves or from outside sources.
Of course, prayer is not a part of military training. As a government institution, the armed services must keep church and state separate so as to respect the many and varied beliefs of our troops, including the beliefs of atheists and agnostics. But what the military does provide is a strong sense of moral duty. This is most evident in each military branch’s mottos. The Air Force’s mantra, for example, “Integrity first. Service before self. Excellence in all we do,” speaks to the larger good each member seeks to accomplish during their enlistment. In many ways, these mottos are the military’s nondenominational creed. They represent shared core values and a belief in the ideals they are fighting for—most notably for democracy and the preservation of freedom. Oftentimes, the pep talks my dad and other leaders gave to their subordinates before battle reminded our troops of such purposes larger than themselves.
And though it wasn’t often spoken about, I know there were times when my dad and many others found themselves privately calling upon their respective gods to watch over them because they felt a higher power was needed to protect them from danger or to help them win a tough battle. My father is not a particularly religious man, meaning his faith isn’t heavily guided by the routines or traditions of an institution. But he is a spiritual man—one who knows that war can humble even the most highly skilled soldiers into calling for backup. There are some men and women in the Special Forces who might also refrain from talking about spirituality, but whom I suspect recognize that because they are often asked to do extrahuman things, they may sometimes need extrahuman help.
At the end of the day, I’m very glad I engage in running, yoga, and prayer on an ongoing basis. They do what I intended them to: They train the different parts of me—my mind, body, and spirit—to work in tandem toward achieving whatever my goal may be. I am also encouraged to know that there is some scientific study to support these ideas and that there is military precedent as well.
TAKE ON THE CHALLENGE
One thing that might help you customize your own practice for staying ready is to look around and see how other people do it. It probably won’t surprise you to hear that those who are the most highly skilled at reacting on a dime to an opportunity or a challenge are military spouses and their children. No matter what is happening in their lives, they accept that disruption is always a possibility.
When I was speaking recently to military spouse Paola Harrell, a family friend and the widow of Major General Ernest James Harrell, she told me that staying ready for her often meant having the new quarters she just moved into fully primed for entertaining within two to three weeks of arrival. That included having the home completely furnished and decorated with pictures hanging up on the wall. It also meant being prepared to receive a call from her husband asking if he could bring a few of his officers home for a meal that same evening. She said she always had a standing rib roast, a ham, or a leg of lamb in the refrigerator waiting to be made. These were hungry lieutenants and captains she would be feeding. And if there were too many people for dinner, she had to be able to pull together enough for a cocktail party.
In many ways, the role Paola played cannot be underestimated. Because she stayed ready, what her husband and those other officers were able to discuss over a home-cooked meal or a glass of wine very likely helped them to stay ready in the field. She acknowledged that it was a special skill, but she told me that she also knew civilians who had to stay ready to meet similar demands. She had a neighbor who was an executive for JCPenney at the time who also had to move a lot and who entertained guests many times too. It was just something you had to do if you wanted to get ahead.
When I look around today at people with similar aspirations, I see them traveling and entertaining as well. I also see them participating in athletic activities that expressly challenge the body, mind, and spirit to the level some warriors do. Many male and female CEOs gravitate to competitions like the IRONMAN Triathlon precisely because they are physically, mentally, and emotionally rigorous challenges. Forbes magazine frequently features articles about industry titans who do this to test and prove their competencies across several disciplines. Participants have to have more than a goal. They have to have a vision and a strategy to achieve the desired results under extremely stressful conditions. It takes skillful planning, preparation, and execution—the same skills required in the boardroom. Practicing these skills in different settings assures that they will become second nature wherever and whenever they are applied. Engaging in these challenges is another way of staying ready.
Another popular challenge high-achievers are taking up to help condition themselves on multiple levels is The Murph Challenge. This is a test of mental and physical stamina named for Navy SEAL Lieutenant Michael Murphy, who lost his life while serving our country in 2005. He and three fellow SEALs were conducting a reconnaissance mission when they found themselves outnumbered by the Taliban on a steep and rocky mountainside in Afghanistan’s Kunar Province. The team was drawing heavy fire from more than fifty anti-coalition militia positioned above them on higher ground. When Lieutenant Murphy sensed he was all out of options he stepped into the clearing long enough to call for a helicopter extraction. He knew leaving his cover was risky but he did it anyway in an effort to help save his peers. Sadly, gunner mate second class (SEAL) Danny Dietz and sonar technician second class (SEAL) Matthew Axelson perished with him, as did eight additional Navy SEALs and eight Nighthawk Army Stalkers who attempted their rescue. Only the fourth soldier on the mountainside with them that day, hospital corpsman second class (SEAL) Marcus Luttrell, lived to tell the story of his and the others’ bravery.
Lieutenant Murphy’s favorite CrossFit workout of the day included a one-mile run followed by one hundred pull-ups, two hundred push-ups, three hundred squats, and another one-mile run, all completed while wearing a twenty-pound vest (aka body armor). Since the lieutenant’s death, many people have trained for and endeavored to complete this same physical challenge. It’s actually become a Memorial Day tradition. Taking on The Murph Challenge not only raises your game, it also commemorates the life and valor of Lieutenant Murphy and other war heroes like him and raises much-needed money to provide scholarships to the children of fallen soldiers. Celebrities Chris Pratt and John Krasinski are just two of the well-known, highly accomplished people who have attempted and completed the challenge. The training no doubt helped them stay ready for their next demanding acting roles.
As it turns out, many military veterans participate in the IRONMAN and The Murph Challenge too. This type of training is familiar territory to them. They often miss the advanced level of physical achievement and purposefulness they had when they were in the armed services. These events reconnect them to both.
By the way, if you are already a physically active person and are looking to take your training to the next level, are contemplating joining the US military and want to train in advance, or are a vet who wants to maintain a regimen like the one you had kept while in the armed services, check out Military.com. It’s one of the most comprehensive sites for those interested in all things military. Among its many features, it lists some of the best veteran-owned businesses established to help you get in optimal shape.
Bear in mind, though, that you don’t have to train like a warrior or conquer the IRONMAN, The Murph Challenge, or Mount Everest tomorrow to stay ready. Maybe a combination of swimming, tai chi, and meditation would work well for you. The objective here is to find activities that strengthen the mind, body, and spirit, and the way the three work in sync to help you accomplish your goals. Start out at a level you feel comfortable with and push yourself beyond that stage one step at a time. Set realistic goals for yourself, and when you reach each interim goal, raise the bar a little higher until one day you realize you have far surpassed the maximum level you thought you could accomplish.
As I’ve said before, I do not have military-caliber training, so what I aimed to do when I first conceived my regimen was to find a way to help me become stronger in all the ways I believed I needed to be in order to succeed, especially when challenges to my success arose. The combination of running, yoga, and prayer was a great way for me to accomplish that goal.
What basic conditioning will you pursue? What further special-tactics training could put you over the top and help you achieve great things in your professional, personal, and communal life? Let’s get specific right now.
A good first step if you are not someone who is presently active is to speak with your doctor, consult a trainer, visit your local fitness center, and/or do some additional online research to help you determine your overall fitness goals. Be sure to write those goals down and post them somewhere you are apt to see them. Reminding yourself to make good on your personal promises can really help.
Next, think about what might be your equivalent to running. As you try to key in on the best sport for you, think like a journalist and ask the who, what, where, how, and why questions. In other words:
For the who question, ask yourself: Are you someone who enjoys team sports? Someone who is more attracted to lone activities? Or are you someone who enjoys working out at a gym, having access to a trainer and perhaps to scheduled classes?
Sometimes a commitment to teammates is what keeps us regularly participating in an activity. They not only rely on us to be there, but they drive us to be better, to improve, to keep at it. It’s very similar to the way the other members in a military unit drive their fellow soldiers to be their best.
Other times the flexibility of exercising whenever and wherever you want to is what helps us maintain our commitment.
It’s okay too if you are someone who really likes to mix things up. There are people who golf, play tennis, and run because the first two allow them to exercise with different friends who like those same sports and the latter is an alternative for those times when no one else is around.
And because fitness centers with trainers are everywhere, their convenience makes them a great option to be considered as well. Sometimes we all need trainers to bring out the best in us, just as recruits need drill instructors to do the same for them.
Once you know who will inspire you best—a team, yourself, an instructor, or a mix of different players—you will have already made progress homing in on the right type of physical sport or activity for you.
To answer the what question: Think about all of the activities and sports you’ve enjoyed in the past. Reach as far back as grade school if you have to. The aim is to help you identify pursuits you really like, have fond memories of, and may already have a capacity for. Remember: If it is something you like doing, there is an increased likelihood that you will have the discipline to keep on doing it. What we are looking for is ongoing commitment.
The where and how questions demand that you investigate places or organizations where you can participate in your sport. Yes, fitness centers are everywhere. Paths for running and biking are everywhere, and depending upon where you live, trails for hiking are too. But if you are resuming your childhood passion for figure skating or jujitsu, you’ve got to know where to find the nearest rink or dojo and their hours. If basketball, football, or baseball is your thing, then check out where the nearest leagues and fields are. They’ve got to be accessible for you to stick with your goal, unless of course your passion for the sport will take you miles out of your way.
The why question centers on what core strengths—physical, mental, and emotional—you hope this sport will help you develop. The good news is that many sports work on all three levels. They condition you while also lifting mood and clearing brain fatigue.
Hopefully these questions will guide you to doing something you love as much as I love running. I’ve heard of people who swear by the cardiovascular benefits of salsa and make time to dance three to four times a week.
Once you choose a physical sport or activity, pursue it several times each week for a minimum of three weeks. Committing to this period of time will help you establish a habit. Re-up your commitment every three weeks until you no longer need to make that kind of contract with yourself because exercising has become an integral part of your life.
Now determine what your equivalent to yoga might be. Will you take up tai chi, qigong, walking, or cycling to clear your mind? Or will you try some form of sitting in silence too?
Record your scheduled quiet times and any important thoughts or ideas that came to you in a diary if you wish. When you see how helpful this practice is you will want to continue it. Again, pursue this for at least a half hour daily for three solid weeks to help an ongoing habit to form.
Lastly, what will be your equivalent to prayer? Meditation? Community service? Keeping a gratitude journal? Or maybe you prefer reading inspiring literature? Speaking or writing daily affirmations? Attending a house of worship? Practicing wonderment or, as some people call it, communing with nature? Stargazing, taking in the sunset or sunrise, walking along the beach, are all awe-inspiring experiences that lift the spirit. Did any intentions or insights come to you during your time of reflection? If so note them so you can remember to follow through on them.
Again, pursue these spiritual activities or conversations daily with yourself, your neural pathways, your guardian angels, your God, the Universe, or whomever else you turn to for help fulfilling your most important goals. As with all the other suggestions, maintain this practice consistently for three weeks to help a habit of earnest dialogue to form.
I’m wagering that getting your mind, body, and spirit in good enough shape to act in tandem with each other can help you accomplish three times whatever you had hoped to before reading this book. Want to take that bet?