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Top Navy SEAL Sniper Mental Mindset Practices For Personal Growth Hacks

BY Brandon Webb

1. Mental Rehearsal Practicing in your mind can be just as powerful as practicing in the real world. An Olympic Gold Medalist taught me this, and it works. Every beginner has a low self-image until they prove competence in their learning skill. So practice building competence, including closing your eyes and practicing in your head. […]

1. Mental Rehearsal

Practicing in your mind can be just as powerful as practicing in the real world. An Olympic Gold Medalist taught me this, and it works. Every beginner has a low self-image until they prove competence in their learning skill. So practice building competence, including closing your eyes and practicing in your head.
TRUE STORY: There was a navy pilot who was captured in the Vietnam war. He played golf in his head for over four years in brutal captivity. When he was released and played golf for the first time, he shot par. People were stunned. “How is this possible?” He replied, “I’ve been playing perfect golf in my head for four years. Have been hitting perfect shots in my head the whole time!”

2. Positive vs. Negative Reinforcement

We’ve all been in meetings where Negative Ned rains on the idea parade. Or you’ve had a teacher or boss who LOVES pointing out the negative. Can you remember a time that this inspired everyone? Unfortunately, fear is not a great motivator and does not inspire (e.g., President Trump’s lack of team. Sorry, not sorry.).
Sample Boss talk. Negative vs. Positive. “Don’t mess up the customer brief!”—all you can think about is “mess it up.” Vs. “Kick ass butt during the customer presentation. One defeat and one inspires. This also goes for self-talk. Be careful of the little voice inside; we all deal with this—even Navy SEALs.

3. Self Talk

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We all deal with negative self-talk, which is the root of limiting behavior. Identify, correct and create reminders that eliminate negative self-talk. Negative self-talk creates a barrier to personal growth. Fix this and watch yourself soar.
You can be your worst enemy or your best advocate with how you talk to yourself. (e.g., I really suck at chess. I’m not good with numbers. I can’t remember names. I’m not a good public speaker.) If we think about it, we become it. Change how you view yourself and develop a growth mindset (e.g., I’m becoming better at remembering names. I’m starting to learn how to be a great public speaker.)
This also has to do with your environment. Hanging out with negative people or a work culture of negativity can be the difference between growth and stagnation.
Look at these two airlines. Jet Blue versus United Airlines. Can you guess which has the better culture?
Analyze your friends and family. Who is reinforcing negative patterns, and who among them is encouraging you to spread your wings and soar?

Summary

I also wrote about this extensively in my book, Mastering Fear.
I always try and teach something in every book I write. Even in my Thriller series with my co-author, John Mann, we always try and imbed lessons. For example, our Novel STEEL FEAR (soon to be a tv series!) could be a leadership case study.
Thanks for listening and for my friend James Altucher for creating the NotePD platform for sharing where this post was originally published.
If you enjoyed this and found value, please follow me on social media and share this.
Did you notice this AI-generated image has four arms? Crazy!
“The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday!”
Thanks!
Brandon
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