Seal Survival Guide Read online

  The world is a dangerous place and getting more so with each passing day. Yet, the United States is as soft as it’s ever been. It’s not a question of if but when the next man-made or natural disaster will occur. I don’t say this lightly, to posture as some crackpot doomsayer, but to give you the facts. If you want to make believe that all is just fine, then keep your head in the sand and put this book down right now. You’ll get nothing out of it.

  The cold, hard reality is that the vast majority of people are simply not equipped to successfully deal with impending catastrophes, which will claim hundreds or even thousands of lives. In addition, you must be prepared to face personal dangers from crimes, accidents, and potentially fatal mishaps, which are increasing and will surely get worse in these perilous times.

  I look forward to the day when this is no longer true. Until then, I will do everything in my power to teach you how to be a survivor and not a statistic. In this guide, I will provide a step-by-step plan for action to keep you alive during the most deadly circumstances.

  When the unthinkable happens, you will have a Navy SEAL as your personal guide.

  Be a survivor—not a statistic!

  PART ONE

  SEAL Mindset and

  Survival Psychology

  EXPAND YOUR COMFORT ZONE

  You know your current comfort zone, defined as the daily routine you do and the things that make you feel secure, content, and in control. However, most of our daily comfort-zone rituals will leave us unprepared to deal with even the smallest discomfort and will certainly render us incapable of handling an emergency or life-threatening challenge.

  Challenge Your Limits and Daily Routines

  Push the boundaries of your comfort zone at least once a day. There are so many opportunities to do this without attempting all at once to become an ultra-marathon runner, although this is a great goal. You must first expand your mind to the possibilities of doing certain things that you previously believed unachievable. Start with small steps and note progress by keeping track; make a list, and check off all the things you do each day to challenge yourself, both physically and mentally. Ultimately, by expanding your comfort zone you will increase both your physical and mental toughness, which are the keys to survival.

  I believe that if you first focus on changing small things, you can begin the process of thinking differently, and ultimately achieve the goal of acquiring the SEAL mindset of survival, which will allow you to endure anything. You will quickly see that doing things differently makes you think differently. Observe your current routine and then start by doing simple things another way. For example, use the stairs instead of the elevator to take you up only a few floors. Climb at a reasonable pace and know that when you reach the top, you have just expanded your comfort zone. When in your car, don’t fight to get the space closest to the store, but purposely look for one that will make you walk. Force yourself to meet three new people and learn at least five things about them. If you have to balance your checkbook, leave the calculator in the desk and make your brain complete this task. Open up the contact list in your phone and memorize five numbers each day. You must seek out ways to expand both mind and body. Start paying attention to how you think about things. If you expand your comfort zone in this manner, you will be better able to do the rest. If you already exercise or jog, for example, increase your distance or speed. Run that extra mile, or run it a minute faster. Do that one additional push-up. Try holding your breath for a minute, and then try two. When in the shower, after scrubbing down with the warm water you usually prefer, finish the last thirty seconds with a blast of cold water. By pushing your physical limits, you are also forcing your brain to expand its comfort boundaries, thus gradually making yourself physically and mentally tougher.

  Now that I am out of the Navy and getting older every day, I continue to push my comfort zone by engaging in activities I did when I was in SEAL team, including skydiving, shooting, climbing, and long swims. Instead of doing these things in preparation for a mission, I do them not only to maintain these very perishable skills, but also to keep my mind and body sharp—I still push the comfort zone and know that this will allow me to be every bit of the warrior I used to be.

  Everyone’s comfort zone is different, so for some of us, expanding it means starting with drinking one less beer or forgoing dessert. Yet all of these little daily victories will bring us confidence later, especially when our lives depend on it. It’s so much easier to do nothing, and it seems natural not to bother, but I tell you: These first exercises are essential in changing your mindset and eventually can be the very things that will separate the survivors from the victims.

  Here is a visualization I use: I like to imagine that pushing my comfort zone daily is similar to rolling a boulder up a hill. If I let it, the rock will always want to tumble back down, and I’ll have to start from the bottom again. Expanding the comfort zone on a daily basis will actually make it easier to get that boulder closer to the summit—and to our success or ultimate survival.

  COMFORT ZONE CHECKLIST (all answers need to be yes):

  Did I challenge myself today?

  Did I do something positive that my mind initially didn’t want to do?

  Did I do something positive that my body initially didn’t want to do?

  Can I do more?

  INCREASE YOUR PHYSICAL TOUGHNESS

  So I’m telling you to get in shape, but here’s a different motivation that should make you finally do it. Ask yourself, “Is my body at a state of readiness that will get me through whatever might come my way?” Don’t like to exercise? You tell yourself there’s no time, or some other excuse, and ultimately never begin. But imagine when the time comes and those whom you love depend on you. How would you feel if you were unable to drag your child, sister, or father from a burning building because you were out of shape? Imagine if you were unable to outrun a mugger or a rapist because you were too winded.

  Achieve a Better State of Physical Fitness

  No matter what physical condition you are in now, it can be improved. Running and swimming will improve your cardiovascular fitness and will definitely pay off if you find yourself being chased or having to run from something like a wildfire. Pull-ups, push-ups, and weight training will obviously improve your physical strength and could come in very handy if you have to remove rubble from an earthquake that has collapsed on a relative. Rock climbing or surfing will not only improve your balance but make you more comfortable with heights and being in the water, two things that are incredibly useful during a high-rise fire or flash flood. Take up some type of fighting or martial art, because not only will you will enjoy the physical fitness benefits it provides, but you won’t be shocked and unprepared if you find yourself in a situation where fighting is the only option.

  There are numerous training programs available that can guide you and help you achieve a better physical condition. No matter if you begin by taking a daily walk or joining a gym, your motivation is more than weight loss, per se (though that is good); you are also working to be better prepared to survive whatever may come your way. Improve your physical endurance, and it will provide the confidence that you can and will survive anything, under any circumstances. Expand your physical comfort zone, and you will become physically tough.

  When I was training to go to BUD/S, I put a pull-up bar in my bedroom door. Every time I entered or exited the bedroom—ten pull-ups. Every time I went into the bathroom—twenty-five push-ups. Simple, a little masochistic, and very effective.

  SEALs stress great physical fitness because it is an absolute necessity for mission success. The average person will never need to run with a hundred pounds of equipment through the desert for several days, or jump out of a plane only to have to swim three miles in the freezing ocean before making it to the designated target. Then again, maybe you will. The sailors of the ill-fated USS Indianapolis never thought they would have to tread shark-infested waters for several days. Nor did the Uruguayan rugby tea
m that survived a plane crash ever imagine that they would have to make a hundred-mile trek over snow-covered mountains to get out alive. In both cases, these brave people were able to survive not only because of their incredible mental toughness, or mindset, but also because they possessed the physical ability to do so.

  SEALs say: “It’s hard to stay hard—dying is easy.”

  PHYSICAL TOUGHNESS CHECKLIST (all answers need to be yes):

  Did I physically challenge my body today?

  Did I elevate my heart rate and breathing today?

  Did I exercise longer or faster today than yesterday?

  Will I exercise longer or faster tomorrow than I did today?

  INCREASE YOUR MENTAL TOUGHNESS

  How do you achieve a SEAL mindset, which is what I call mental toughness? For me, I reduced the goal of changing my mindset to a simple phrase that I repeated over and over during Navy SEAL training in Coronado, California: “Never quit!” It actually really simplified things for me. Instead of being mentally consumed by every nuance (cold, heat, exhaustion, stress, fear), I just kept repeating in my mind, “Never quit!”

  SEAL training has remained largely unchanged for more than forty years because it simply works. It continues to produce some of the finest future warriors of any school in the military by using a very basic blueprint:

  1. Break (beat) the individual down.

  2. Build them back up, achieving a both physically and mentally tougher trainee.

  3. Repeat . . . repeat . . . repeat.

  As a senior SEAL instructor, I used to tell my students, “SEALs are formed like a sword is forged from a piece of steel—by constantly heating, hammering, and cooling by submergence in water. In the end, both weapons are ready for battle.”

  Attack Your Fear List

  Physical toughness and mental toughness are branches of the same tree. By pushing yourself physically, you will be pushing yourself mentally, but as I said earlier, the brain is the strongest muscle in the body, and it requires an expanded workout program. Here is the quickest and most effective way to “exercise” your mental toughness, something that I call the Fear List.

  Start by making a list of five things that make you nervous or scared. It could be heights, fighting, small spaces, or the water. Let’s take public speaking, for example. I’ve seen some of the toughest guys in the world become Gummi bears when required to speak in front of a group of people. Next, create a five-minute presentation based on something you are very familiar with. Practice this several times by yourself, speaking out loud. Finally, you must organize a group of people, be it coworkers or an assemblage at a public event, and give your presentation. It may not be perfect, but you have just conquered a fear and in doing so made yourself mentally tougher. Continue down your Fear List, and you will see how quickly you can remove other fear-induced limits. This will give you more confidence in all other areas of your life. Remember that living in fear is not really living.

  When confronting each of your fears, remember how SEALs train: Break down, build back up, and repeat. When you repeat these actions, even if you don’t succeed completely the first time, the next attempt will make you mentally tougher. There are also some other simple tools for acquiring mental toughness. First off, I absolutely forbid whining or blaming others—both are completely antithetical to achieving mental toughness. For example, the next time you go into a store and there is a long checkout line, don’t moan. Instead, monitor how you can control your mind and force yourself to be patient. In fact, if impatience is your weakness, then that is your personal impediment to mental toughness. Instead, let the person standing behind you get ahead of you, until your impatience has no power over you. Break, build back, and repeat. If you get a flat tire, get out of the car and fix it. If you run out of gas while driving because you didn’t check your gauges or equipment, blame no one. Learn as you walk to the nearest gas station and back with a gas can in your hand, doing so without saying a word. If you get caught in the rain, remind yourself it’s only water and endure it until you have an opportunity to change into dry clothes. This is how you achieve mental toughness on a daily basis.

  SEALs say: “The only easy day—was yesterday.”

  (Because yesterday is over.)

  MENTAL TOUGHNESS CHECKLIST (all answers need to be yes):

  Did I identify a fear?

  Did I make preparations to conquer this fear?

  Did I conquer this fear?

  Did I move on to my next fear?

  Hell Week occurs during the first of several weeks of BUD/S training. It consists of six nonstop, hypothermia-filled, sleepless days and nights and is the time when most of the DORs (drop on request), or quitters, ask to go home. This training is the ultimate test of mental and physical toughness. We were trained to suffer in silence—we may have been cold, tired, and hurting, but nobody wanted to hear it. I will never forget when a nationally ranked triathlete in our class, who had barely broken a sweat in the previous weeks of training, quit on the third night of Hell Week. He decided he just didn’t want to go back into the water. As naturally gifted as he was athletically, he had never truly been mentally pushed like he was during Hell Week. But I also remember another member of my class, a 135-pound, skin-and-bones-looking guy who was one of the slowest runners and barely said a word. He continued on the rest of the week determined and made no sign that he was enduring hardship. I later learned that he had lived his entire life being put down for his size. Hell Week was just another week for him. That’s mental toughness.

  MENTAL PREPARATION

  Again, the brain is the strongest muscle in the body. You’ve heard stories of how combat soldiers have been shot repeatedly but were not aware of it until the fight was over. These stories are true, and the power to do such things comes from the mind and can be tapped into by practicing mental preparation. This practice can allow you to far exceed your physical limitations. Just as you train other muscles, you can train the brain with mental-preparedness exercises—and you don’t need to go to the gym to do it! It’s an exercise you can do anywhere. I can’t stress enough how important mental preparedness is for surviving and enduring any life-threatening situation that you could encounter. This is how you practice it.

  Emergency Conditioning (EC): Make the Unknown Familiar

  Using visualization techniques is a good way to practice what we call emergency conditioning (EC). I will highlight this phrase throughout the guide and explain the types of visualizations that are most effective in survival scenarios. It means conditioning the mind in advance of emergencies, thus producing psychological strength in times of crisis. This is also referred to as “battle-proofing” or “battle inoculation” by military personnel. Example: A soldier lying on his cot imagines a nasty firefight with the enemy, including what it will sound like and smell like, the heavy breathing, and the utter exhaustion.

  If the brain imagines something in deep and vivid detail, it will become part of a person’s “experience files.” This visualization exercise will actually fool the brain into believing that you have already experienced this event. You can tap into these files at will by hitting the play button that starts the “movie” of what you have already visualized and planned. It will seem more or less familiar if ever you are confronted with a similar experience. This internal battle-proofing gives you an incredible advantage.

  Visualization: Make a Movie in Your Mind

  No matter if you are going to work or are in a mall, boarding a plane, or anywhere else, look around and take mental notes of the particulars of the place—try to describe the exact details of where you are. This is the setting for your mental movie.

  Now, imagine what you would do in this fixed environment if something were to go wrong. In this book, I will explain the specifics for each situation, but for now, remember this key step in changing your mindset to one that puts you in SEAL mode. In your mental movie, play out various scenarios from start to finish. Begin by imagining the most likely scenario t
hat you may find yourself in, focusing on what to do during a life-or-death situation, such as a home invasion, a fire at work, or being lost in the mountains.

  When I was a platoon commander, after receiving a “tasking” (mission request), this is how I would do my entire mission planning: I would visualize every detail, starting with my men, the equipment, the time of day, and the weather, and slowly start my movie. I would hit pause or even rewind when I came to a place that I saw as a flaw or obstacle to success. I would play out all the various contingencies in my head until I could visualize any number of versions of events that might take place, working through every possibility. I would often rewind to make a correction, such as add or change equipment or alter an action. I would then continue forward to a point where ultimately my mental movie was a successful mission from start to finish—one from which all my guys would come back safe!

  SEALs say: “Plan for success and train for failure.”

  The movies we see on the big screen about Special Ops make it all seem flawless. However, more often than not, our best plans went out the window once the bullets started to fly. This is when the training and diligence during our mental-preparedness and visualization phases paid off. They give you backup plans to deal with any contingency.