When Do You Know You Are Ready to Go?
No Matter What the Challenge...

Pic Credit - D.McBurnett

How Will You Know You Are Ready?

Being mentally and physically ready is more than just saying, "I will never quit" and passing a fitness test. While there are fitness tests that confirm you are prepared to enter special operations training, how do you know if you can handle the mental and physical demands of what comes next? 

To assess whether or not you are physically ready for any endeavor, you can see lists like this Physical Assessment Tool for average scores on successful students who went before you. These are fairly straightforward and provide a good ballpark answer to your physical preparation.  Much of this readiness is a combination of your athletic and work history, as well as your specific preparation for upcoming challenges that are tested during the selection process itself. This process can take a few months of specific training for well-trained individuals and as long as 1-2 years for athletes with significant weaknesses that need correction (such as overweight, swimming, water confidence, and load-bearing issues).  Your durability will be a combination of a foundation of strength, flexibility, and mobility training. Your ability to work long hours is a combination of endurance and muscle stamina. All create the backbone of physical success in training. 

While areas like injury prevention and physical resilience are a blend of the above specifics, there are not that many tangible methods to prove mental readiness. Sure, you can try a few gut check events to test your mettle and hope you do not injure yourself, but the ways to assess your mental readiness, confidence in yourself, or mental toughness can only happen if you are truly honest with yourself.  I think I have created something that will help you understand the mind-body connection and unlock the hidden mental and physical toughness inside us all - the Never Quit Mindset:

There is a chapter titled:  Chapter 7: How Do You Know You Are Ready? Focus on Weaknesses, Maintain Strengths, Build Confidence.

If you are not physically ready, you are likely also not properly mentally prepared. Run a complete battery of tactical fitness assessments. If you continue to ignore the events in which you are not skilled and focus only on excelling in activities where you are already proficient, you are neither mentally nor physically prepared for success. 

If you are not taking your sleep, nutrition, and recovery seriously, you may not be mentally or physically ready to compete for jobs that boast 75-80% attrition rates. 

It's okay to have doubts; we all do. How you handle doubts and the fear of failure is the difference maker. You must build good habits through consistency, even when you don’t feel like it. It takes discipline and willpower. How badly do you want it, and why do those answers need to work for you when you are tested to your limits? 

Here are some things to consider:

1 - Consistent Training - Were you consistent with your training, even when you did not feel like it? Training when you do not feel like it is a mental challenge, and it happens nearly daily if you are training hard enough. You do not build mental toughness through a single event; you demonstrate your mental toughness through single events. You build your mental toughness and readiness by being disciplined and training consistently. The power of waking up early and training hard when most people are not, regardless of the weather or how you feel, cannot be overestimated in making you a more mentally ready person. Following that up with a long day of work, school, sports (or all three) creates a recipe for building the resiliency you need through a solid work ethic.

2 - Consistent Recovery - Not only does your training need to be consistent, but so does your recovery. Are you eating the most nutritious food options for optimal fuel and recovery? Are you avoiding activities that impede your recovery? Getting drunk, smoking, doing drugs, and eating junk food obviously interfere with your health, but they also ruin your sleep, which is the best recovery process we have for improving performance gains from hard training. If you want to engage in activities that require optimal performance, you need to be at your best. This requires understanding recovery. See Understanding Recovery

3 - Consistent Competitiveness (and Team Player) - Whether you are competing against yourself or others throughout your life, having the drive to improve at something you initially struggle with is a crucial driving force for success. Training to compete—not just to survive—is a lesson that must be learned early; otherwise, minimum standards become an acceptable level of effort. 

Exceeding the standards IS the standard. 

One thing is for certain, "You will never think about quitting, when you are thinking about winning."

4 - Consistent Support - This is a tough one, as you may have to turn the lack of support (or negative support) you receive upside down and use it as fuel. If you are challenging yourself with an uncommon goal, you will have doubters and haters from those not willing to work as hard as you are. Proving people wrong can be a good source of fuel when a long day's work turns into a longer night of the same effort. Hearing statements like, "You'll never make it." or "I bet you quit," are not the best things to hear from people you know well or even love as family members. Remember, hearing comments like that is NOT a reflection of you; it is a reflection of the person saying it. 

Finding a group of like-minded people who are training for the same goal is worth a truckload of gold. You will see people ahead of you on this journey, and as they succeed, it propels you even more forward. Sometimes, "we all need to see it to believe it." Seeing people accomplish the goal you set out for yourself is often all the support you need, as it is that powerful. Taking the impossibility factor out of your mental bag of processes is what we gain when we see it done. Finding your own support network during your preparation phase is easier now more than ever with social media, web forums, and local/regional training groups. 

5- Consistent Review - You need to have consistent self-checks along your journey of preparation for any goal. Be honest and assess yourself honestly; otherwise, you are just guessing, as you may be plateauing or even experiencing negative results in your progress.  Evaluate yourself weekly through physical events, academic challenges, and by reflecting on your motivation. Why are you pursuing this? Is this goal truly deep in your heart and soul? If so, you will be difficult to beat. As Bath Ruth said, 

"It is hard to beat a person who never gives up."

If you genuinely want to have a never-quit mindset, you have to hate quitting more than anything in life, and that comes deep down from within your "how bad do you want this" piece of your heart.  How do you measure a person's heart? Many think you cannot by conventional means, but you can look at a person's journey to see what tools he/she has picked up along the way: 

Did your childhood offer you physical and mental challenges (life in general, sports, school, work experiences, tough schedule, consistent activity).  This is the foundation of work for many people - if you do not have this, you are start building it now. 

What have you accomplished in the past? How do you focus on goal achievement?  Do you have a method? Complete focus? Tireless efforts to achieve that goal (straight A's, sports team, team captain, awards, work advancements, etc). Consistency wins - try it if you lack many personal accomplishments. 

Why do you want to do this? Having a solid answer to this question will fuel you when the days turn to night, in hot or cold weather, when facing something you fear (like heights, darkness, murky water, or a stronger opponent), or when you feel physically uncomfortable. What is YOUR WHY? 

I Am Ready....

At some point, you will say you are ready. Being prepared to bring your game face to challenging events is really what you need to do each day. You will continue to have doubts and wonder if you did enough to prepare—that is natural. But knowing when you need to bring your A-Game to the party is part of being mentally ready for any event in your future. After a lifetime of work and "preparation," you will be ready for these moments as you have built up confidence in yourself and the ability to remember your WHY. 

Bonus Section

I think I have created something that will help you understand the mind-body connection and unlock the hidden mental and physical toughness inside us all - the Never Quit Mindset:

Your Mission Starts Now

Let today be the day you refuse to quit. Let today be the day you adopt a mindset that transforms setbacks into comebacks. Join the Never Quit Mindset revolution and discover your limitless potential.

Act now—seize your $100 savings and begin the transformation that will last a lifetime.

Buy Now!
Never Quit Mindset Book, eBook, Audio Book, and 
Online Video / Audio Course