The world of special forces can seem like light years away from what we are hoping to achieve in life. But it’s important to remember that there are so many transferable skills but also mental and psychological lessons the armed forces possess that can help us to be better versions of ourselves. These include the following:
Flexibility
One of the biggest issues we all have is not wanting to deviate from a certain path. The life of a special forces operative is about embracing everything that can and could happen. This is why they are trained for a variety of outcomes, but they also get trained in the basics that provide that foundation.
From learning how to wear a battle belt correctly to knowing how to make their bed properly in the morning, the biggest lesson in the life of the armed forces is that when an individual has the bare basics and foundations underpinning their day, they can face anything. Flexibility is one of the hardest things for us to adapt to. But there’s always going to be a problem and therefore we have to understand the various solutions. Having a variety of solutions in place means that we’re not going to sweat the small stuff as much.
Focusing on Your Strengths
If you’re not playing to your strengths, you are playing to your weaknesses. Therefore, we must understand that when we have an abundance of strengths we should always be using these to our advantage.
There is a time and a place to address the weak points in the chain, but when we look at how special forces or army operations always have a team mentality, ensuring that everybody is as physically, mentally, or emotionally tough as the person next to them gives them a far better sense of confidence and inner strength. This is something that we can use, but also remember that strength is far better quality than weakness.
Doing the Best You Can Do
The hardest thing for anybody starting out in an army career is having to work harder than they’ve ever had before. This only increases in intensity when they are put in real-life danger. The only way out of these issues is about putting in enough hard work to ensure that you will always get the best out of it.
There are certainly many people that talk about hard work being anathema to productivity, but sometimes you’ve got to peel through that inner onion of yourself to understand what it is you really want out of yourself. The whole notion in the army of breaking them down to build them back up again applies here. It may require a lot of soul-searching and a lot of difficult questions to ask yourself but if you want to learn to overcome many personal setbacks in life, you have to go through the hard parts.
If you are looking to be the best version of yourself you can turn your head towards the special forces and see that they have a number of tools and tactics that can get you started.