Everyday you will be faced with moments where you must Win the Seconds…
I was a highly driven young man with one goal. I wanted to be a Royal Marines Commando. I’d been in military training for about 8 months and I did whatever was thrown at me. At that time, I didn’t care about anything. Just getting to the end so I could earn my Green Beret and start my career.
Week 31 of Commando training is test week. It’s the culmination of our training and something everyone had known about before even showing up on day one. The tests themselves are not that difficult:
- 6 Mile Endurance Course
- 9 Mile Speed March
- Tarzan Assault Course
- The 30 Miler
All of these tests are done carrying a minimum 21lbs of equipment plus a rifle. The 30 Miler is a bit more with added safety equipment and food. They are timed tests and must be passed in order to Pass Out as a Commando.
It’s safe to say you turn up for week 31 in pretty terrible physical condition after 8 months of being on beat down, but mentally you’re dialed in! There was nothing going to stop me. Except maybe my knee.
The 6 mile endurance course consists of running 4 miles through swamps, crawling through disease infested tunnels and a 2 mile run back to camp to test your shooting skills (and if you can keep your weapon clean in all that mud).
That was done on the Monday of week 31. In one of those tunnels I cut open my knee on a sharp rock. It didn’t seem too bad at the time but each day it got more swollen and red with infection. I knew if I went to the medical center they would pull me out and I’d have to go back a few weeks with another intake of recruits.
That was not happening.
The 30 Miler is done over rugged terrain in a place called Dartmoor. This is a beautiful, mostly untouched area in the south of England. To civilians it’s a nice place to drive and go for walks with the dog, to us recruits – it’s closer to hell.
My knee had grown to the size of one of those small kids soccer balls by the time Thursday came and we got off the coach to get ready to start those 30 miles. The start line is at the bottom of a steep incline and our instructor set off at a blistering pace. I couldn’t keep up, I was hobbling as it was, but this pace was too much. I saw a ditch at the side of the road and thought about falling into it. My knee was big enough that once I showed it to someone they’d pull me out and the pain would stop…
I had to win those seconds.
Those thoughts weren’t going to help me get the job done. The magnitude of those 30 miles seemed so far away that all I wanted to do was quit.
I committed to getting to the top of the hill, I looked around and everyone was struggling to keep the pace. We were all in a bad place. As one of the fittest members of the troop I had to pull through.
Winning those seconds of self doubt, negative talk and thoughts of quitting enabled me to complete the 30 miler and earn my Green Beret. There were many more challenges throughout those 30 miles and the whole thing was pretty miserable. But I clearly remember the start, the fast pace, the doubt and how I won those seconds and kept going.
People don’t fail to achieve their goals because they don’t have a plan or because they don’t want to be successful. They fail because they don’t win the seconds.
You don’t need to be motivated all the time. Motivation is like smoke in the air. It’s there but if you wave your hands a little bit it’s gone. You need to be disciplined when those seconds of weakness creep in.
When the alarm goes off at 5am for your workout and you feel like clicking snooze
When it’s cold outside and you don’t really want to go for your run
When you want to eat 5 cookies instead of stopping at one.
It doesn’t matter what it is – you can look back and trace your failures by not winning various seconds throughout the process. If your reaction was different to whatever temptation you gave in to, then you may have had a different outcome.
You need to have a plan of how to win those seconds – a default that helps you.
Many people have success with doing a set of max push ups when they have food cravings. Really you’re just craving an endorphin kick, the push ups will give you that too.
Other people can have a script they say to themselves to beat the moments of weakness.
Whatever works for you, find a way to Win the Seconds