Brian Johnson breaks down Admiral William H. McRaven's lesson on accepting life's unfairness. McRaven describes a SEAL training punishment called the sugar cookie, where trainees get soaked and covered in sand, then must keep going. The point: stay dignified and move forward anyway.
You're listening to optimize with brian johnson. More wisdom in less time.
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another optimize +1. Admiral William H. McRaven is a retired US Navy Seal who served for 37 years and commanded at every level as a four star admiral. His final assignment was as Commander of all US Special Operations Forces. During this time he oversaw the COVID mission that killed Osama bin Laden. In 2014, he gave the commencement address to the graduates of the University of Texas at Austin. Millions of people wound up watching his speech on 10 lessons he learned from his Navy SEAL training. You could watch it on YouTube. We got a link in this plus one. He wrote a great little book expanding on those 10 lessons. It's named after the first lesson, make youe Bed, joining 5,000 plus five star Amazon reviewers. I highly recommend it. Check out the note. We'll talk about why. That's his number one tip. Make your bed. We'll talk about that soon. Today we're going to talk about lesson number four, Life's Not Fair Drive on, in which we get introduced to the SEAL version of a sugar cookie. First, the wisdom McRaven tells us, and I quote, it is easy to blame your lot in life on some outside force to stop trying because you believe fate is against you. It is easy to think that where you were raised, how your parents treated you or what school you went to is all that determines your future. Nothing could be further from the truth. The common people and the great men and women are all defined by how they deal with life's unfairness. Helen Keller, Nelson Mandela, Stephen Hawking, Malala Yousafzai, and Moki Martin. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, no matter how good you are, you still end up a sugar cookie. Don't complain. Don't blame it on your misfortune. Stand tall. Look to the future and drive on. So each chapter lesson features some wisdom gained from McRaven's SEAL training, along with some stories to bring the point home. This lesson features a story about him becoming a sugar cookie. In case you don't know what a SEAL sugar cookie recipe looks like, it goes something like Run into the pounding surf wearing your boots in full gear. Get yourself soaking wet from head to toe. Then roll in the sand until every inch of your body is covered in sand. Then go on with your day, cold, wet and sandy as you enjoy that sugar cookie. McRaven tells us about a time when he was forced to do a sugar cookie. He couldn't figure out what standard he failed to meet that resulted in the reprimand. Here's the dialogue with his instructor goes something like this. Mr. Matt, do you have any idea why you're a sugar cookie this morning? Martin said in a very calm but questioning manner. No, Instructor Martin, I dutifully responded because, Mr. Matt, life isn't fair and the sooner you learn that, the better off you will be. Imagine that. Imagine you do everything just right. Bed's made perfectly, uniform is nice and crisp, you've rocked all your fundies and executed your business or energy or relationship strategy perfectly. And even after doing your best, you fail. Then what? Then we remind ourselves of the fact that life's not fair as we stand tall, look to the future and drive on. By the way, McRaven's instructor in that story was a guy named Moki Martin. He was the quintessential super fit, perfect specimen of a seal. Then he got in an accident while training for a triathlon, paralyzed from the legs down. I quote. For the past 35 years, Moki has been in a wheelchair. In all those years, I never once heard him complain about his misfortune in life. Never once did I hear him ask, why me? Never once did he display an ounce of pity for himself. So here's to embracing the inevitable sugar cookies life serves up as we one more time stand tall, look to the future and drive on.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Optymyze with Brian Johnson. To find out more, go to Optimize Me.
Hey guys, this is Brian with a quick little P.S. i'm really excited to let you know about an event we're working on. Plan is to make it the premier self optimizing event of 2020. We're calling it Optimize 2020. You the modern hero. Basic idea. Five days, 101 world class luminaries. One million people. You can learn more and get your tickets to the online and offline event at Optimize Me 2020. Again, that's Optimize Me2020. Hope to see you there.
