Mindset - Intentionality
From the 9/11 attacks in 2001 until 2021, the United States was at war. 20 years of war. During these 20 years of non-stop combat, more SEALs died from suicide than from being killed by the enemy. Thousands upon thousands of operations. Constant fighting and life-or-death threats. And yet – when all was said and done – suicide killed far more SEALs than combat. For a long time, being “hard” was seen as the most important attribute one can have in the Special Operations and Intelligence community. Being hard means you can be calm and effective in any challenge. It means you can endure breathtaking amounts of pain, suffering, and brutality without complaining, quitting, or failing to accomplish the mission. This relentless, obsessive focus in the Special Operations and Intelligence community of being “hard” has, unsurprisingly, created a community of extremely hard people. But the sheer amount of people who’ve taken their own lives has revealed a critically important lesson: Hardness is ...