Marcus Luttrell, the U.S. Navy SEAL that was the lone survivor of Operation Redwing in Afghanistan, in which just four Navy SEALS held off and/or killed a large group of Taliban fighters, wrote about the difficulty of the SEAL program training.  At one critical point in the gruelling routine, in which all but the most resolute fail out or resign, Luttrell's mentor gave him some advice:

"Marcus, the body can take damn near anything.  It's the mind that needs training.  Can you handle such injustice?  Can you cope with that kind of unfairness, that much of a setback?  And still come back with your jaw set, still determined, swearing you will never quit?  That's what we're looking for!"

In the book, Lone Survivor, Luttrell explains in great detail the unbelievably harsh training all SEALS must go through in order to call themselves by that name of honor.  Just reading about it is exhausting.  One instructor told Luttrell, "You're going to hurt while you're here. That's our job, to induce pain; not permanent injury, of course, but we need to make you hurt.  That's a big part of becoming a SEAL.  We need proof you can take the punishment.  And the way out of that is mental, in your mind."

Luttrell explains why some men just couldn't make it through the training: 

"Judging by the one guy I knew, I didn't think any of the ones who quit were in much worse shape than they had been twelve hours before.  They might have been a bit more tired, but we had done nothing new, it was all part of our tried-and-tested routines.  And in my view, they had acted in total defiance of the advice handed to us by Captain Maguire.  They weren't completing each task as it came, living for the day.  They had allowed themselves to live in dread of the pain and anguish to come.  And he'd told us never to do that, just to take it hour by hour and forget the future.  Keep going until you're secured.  You get a guy like that, a legendary U.S. Navy SEAL and war hero, I think you ought to pay attention to his words.  He earned the right to say them, and he's giving you his experience.  Like Billy Shelton [the other mentor mentioned above] told me, even the merest suggestion [should be listened to]."

Point #1:  Both comments were from instructors who were also SEALS, who had been through it before, who knew what they were talking about.  For advice givers, this should be the only kind we listen to; those with fruit on the tree.  Luttrell did listen to those men, realizing that every little thing they said was important and for a reason. 

Point #2: Success is more a matter of mental toughness than physical strength or intellectual prowess.  Battles are always first won in the mind.

Point #3: The only way to make it through difficult circumstances is to take each blow as it comes, to focus upon the day at hand and not worry or be overcome by the burden of the days still ahead.  One step at a time, you can get through almost anything.

These three points are very important.  They apply not just to the incredibly tough life of a United States Special Forces Officer, but to any of us that want to achieve significance in our lives.  There will always be difficulty, opposition, and obstacles.  Getting through them is a game of mental toughness, forcing the mind to take things one at a time, and listening and adhering to the best advice available from qualified mentors.

During Operation Redwing, Luttrell and three other of America's finest, most highly trained, tough-as-nails, fighting machines were betrayed by an act of kindness they showed to three goat herders.  Within about an hour of sparing their lives, the goat herders alerted an entire Taliban army to the prescense of Marcus Luttrell, Matthew Axelson, Michael Murphy, and Danny Dietz.  Although the odds were overwhelming, four men basically holding their own against an army of over a hundred armed with explosives and RPGs, the mental toughness was on hand to even the tables.  Far away from home, cut off from any back-up, on unfamiliar terrain, surrounded by enemies, and always concerned about the "liberal press" back home in America which would crucify them for their tiniest error, these four young men used every ouce of their training and combat experience.  For hours and hours they kept up a continuous fire fight, three times falling off cliffs to establish new defensive positions.  Wounded and dying, the American guns continued to eliminate their enemy. 

How could it be possible that with odds of 35 to 1the Taliban could not even kill one of the American soldiers for hours and hours? How did these fine young men stand up to such terrifying horror?  What was the substance they summoned deep from within that pushed them to fight even when mortally wounded? 

The answers are many, and worth taking a quiet moment to ponder. 

The valor, patriotism, honor, courage, and mental toughness of these men is a credit to the country they represented.  I salute them.  I admire them.  I thank them.  And, I am committed to learning from their example.  We should all learn from their example.

It's the least we can do.