How to Mentally Prepare for Special Operations (ULTIMATE Guide)

In sports, victory is often won before the event begins. And the same is true at selection

More often than not, candidates quit in anticipation of difficulty, not during the actual task.

This is a reminder that selection success isn’t solely determined by your performance but also based on your mental toughness and the preparation and sharpening of the mind leading up to it.

So what can you do to avoid crumbling in a moment of weakness? How do you ensure that you perform with focus, confidence, and complete control of your emotions?

Let’s walk through a mental toughness framework for special operations I’ve coined WITS, and at the end, I’ll share the most damaging training mistakes candidates make and how to overcome them.

Identity

The I stands for identity.

Identity matters because your actions fundamentally proceed from it. A runner runs. A swimmer swims. And a businessman goes to work.

They do these things every day in alignment with their identity. For a runner, running every day is not a chore, it’s simply an extension of them, and naturally proceeds from who they are.

When your actions are in alignment with your purpose, the ancient Greeks had a term for this called eudaimonia, often translated as flourishing or fulfillment.

The problem arises when you have a goal like joining Special Forces or Special Operations, which requires actions that do not align with your current identity.

Why is this a problem?

Well, identity is the most powerful impetus for behavioral change. 90% of those who undergo a diet regain all, if not more, of the weight back. Or perhaps a more relatable example is that 93% of people fail New Year’s Resolutions.

But of the small percentage who beat the odds and transformed their actions, the common denominator was found to be a change in identity – how they see themselves.

And you see this in great athletes as well, they truly believed they were the best – and their actions and training reinforced that identity

But before we talk about HOW to change your identity to reach your goals, I want you to ask yourself, who are you? I mean, really, who are you?

It’s easy to say you’re a tough guy who will never quit, but in your weakest, most vulnerable moment where you’re tired, exhausted, and every organ in your body is screaming at you to quit, who are you then?

Yes, you can have multiple identities. A father, a son, a student. But there are more pernicious identities that lie deep inside us, which may be covered in dust, and you want to forget about – the procrastinator, the bum, the quitter in you, he’ll be loudest in those vulnerable moments

Creating an Identity

The way you destroy the worst aspects of yourself and forge a new identity starts with understanding who you need to become – and a few traits come to mind – hardworking, disciplined, and courageous.

But you don’t just snap your fingers and become that way. Like anything in life, it’s something you earn through hard work.

Dorothy Rowe stated “Depression is like a prison where you are both the suffering prisoner and the cruel jailer.”

In many ways, life is that way. Today, you are confined like a prisoner by your own beliefs, fears, and self-perception. You can be coached and guided to freedom, but only you have the ability to change your life.

After you’ve identified who you need to become and that your most significant obstacle is, in fact, yourself, your next step is earning, yes earning, the responsibility to take on that identity.

The reason I say earning is because transformation and liberation from your own mental prison is not a right. Instead, it requires purposeful action that will prove to yourself, more than to anyone else, that YOU are capable of overcoming the barriers you’ve constructed

Training

These purposeful actions are the T in ITWS for Training.

I recommend you start with small wins – aligning your daily habits with the type of person you want to become. Simple ones:

1. Sleeping 7 hours minimum each night
2. Eating right
3. Sticking to a train schedule

These are all bare minimum activities to align your actions with your desired identity.

After you’ve done this for months, even on days when you didn’t want to, one day. One day, you will wake up and realize you’re not training because it’s a chore, but instead because it’s an expression of your new self.

Every day you train beyond then will reinforce your new identity even more. During this time, you reach a flow state, and you’re progressing from session to session. You feel confident in what you’ve achieved and the continued progress you’ll make. Each great training session compounds and it only increases your desire to do more and improve.

But to reach that state of eudaimonia, or flourishing, it requires taking your first step. And when you’re starting at step 0, going from 0 to 1 feels like a massive leap. But it’s one you need to take. As long as you stay 0 and do nothing, you’re only going to get worse.

For this reason, the Bible verse, “To those who have everything much will be given, and to those with nothing everything will be taken,” is particularly salient.

You need to take your first step. Once you do, it will have a snowball effect. If you do nothing, you will not only maintain, but your scenario will actually get worse.

The best day to start was yesterday. And then next best is today.

Why

As you continue with your training, or even in the pipeline, you may experience a moment of existential questioning and ask WHY.

You plan your sleep, train 10 – 15 hours per week, suffer in the gym and put in hard work while others are relaxing, and for what?

During this moment, when you question YOUR purpose, you need a WHY – this is the W in ITWS.

I’ve worked with a few candidates who dropped their contracts within weeks of their ship date. Both were physical studs. One, in particular, I think about who had phenomenal stats

• 5-Mile Run – <35 minute
• Ruck – <12:30 minute mile ruck
• Deadlift – 315 for 10+ reps

There was no doubt in my mind he was physically prepared. But beyond the physical side of training, he was also, far and away, one of the most consistent guys I’ve worked with.

Ultimately, he decided the Army wasn’t for him. And while I was personally, was momentarily disappointed, I do recognize his WHY wasn’t enough.

And I’m not saying he quit. I’m saying he weighed the pros and cons and realized it didn’t make sense for him.

I want you to make this decision now while you’re preparing, so you have NO QUESTIONS about your why once you get to actual training.

It’s ok to decide the military isn’t for you. It’s far from the only path to fulfillment. But, it’s essential to make your decision in a moment of calm and clarity, and not while you are exhausted and in a moment of weakness.

Segment

You must practice segmentation throughout every aspect of your training – the S in WITS.

Segmentation means dividing something into component pieces. In the context of selection, or training, this is valuable because it allows us to take a gargantuan task like going from fat to selected, or even a challenging workout, and breaking it into smaller, achievable pieces.

The truth is, no matter how confident you are in your identity, training, or your why, you will be challenged physically and mentally.

You may line up for that unknown distance ruck, and the devil on your shoulder will say it’s too hard, you didn’t train enough, give up now. And if you approach the task at hand as an unknown distance ruck – your mind will assume the worst.

It’s during these moments you need a mental strategy, like segmentation. Could you ruck 500 miles in one go? Probably not. But remember, thousands of candidates have succeeded, you can too. Have trust in yourself, and rather than focusing on the unknown distance, just ruck to the next landmark, count your steps, and stack small wins to build your confidence.

Bonus Tip

My bonus tip for this article is to take special forces training seriously. Because the consequences of quitting your everyday workouts is much greater than you think, here’s why:

We all know the old man who wakes up at 4:30 am every day out of habit – this was developed from years working in the mines, farming, or other work. And we all intuitively understand he grew to become that way through habit. At the start, it wasn’t easy, but over time he adjusted.

For whatever reason, we don’t recognize your habits and instincts – when you wake up, your mindset, whether you quit or persevere in hard workouts, all of these are muscles – and if you consistently give up on yourself in training – your training yourself to quit

Conclusion

I hope you found the WITS framework for Mental Toughness and Special Operations Training helpful. If you enjoyed this article, check out The SMARTEST Way to Train here.