Identify as a BUD/S Student Who Never Quits - It is Not Even a Thought

The Evolution of Success When Challenged with Hard Goals

There comes a time when being "wet and sandy" is normal.

Recent studies on U.S. Navy SEAL training - Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) reveal that psychological, mental, and identity traits often serve as better indicators of success than physical strength alone. Research shows that candidates who cultivate a new identity as a successful BUD/S student quickly, maintain their humor, and practice a "never quit" mindset are less likely to give up, even in the face of pain, cold, or exhaustion of the day-to-day grind that is SEAL training, thereby significantly increasing their chances of completing the training.

The Process of Building an Identity

Inspiration - We all get inspired to do things throughout our lives. Whether it was a person, a book, a movie, or just an idea, inspiration finds us and helps us to get started on the path. 

Motivation - It is easy to be motivated to start your preparation for your future goal when you are inspired. During this period, make sure you build good habits with a clear focus on what you want to do, because one day the motivation will not be there, and you will need to rely on these habits. 

Habits Become Discipline - On the day you don't feel like preparing for your goal, but you do it anyway, you have evolved from being an inspired student to a disciplined student. This is the moment identity is made, as identity is based on disciplined action, not inspired hope. 

Mental and Physical Toughness - Once you start training, "even when you don't feel like it," congratulations, you are taking discipline into the realm of mental and physical toughness. You build confidence in yourself. Goals do not seem like pipe dreams anymore, and the realization of getting TO and THROUGH the goal is becoming clearer and clearer. This is the mental, physical, and character identity that needs to take place.  

Then, in your first month of SEAL Training, the identity of being a BUD/S student who finishes is developed. For most, this identity does not develop largely due to a lack of preparation for the above process and for the specific events you are enduring. 

Key Findings on Success in Training

Identity and Mindset: The core determinant of success is a psychological commitment to not quitting. It becomes who you are, and you do not waste time or energy thinking about not making it through training. In fact, "you will never think about quitting when you think about winning." Winning as a team, winning a race, or staying in the top 10% of any event puts you in this mindset. 

Candidates who adopt a personal mantra and a mental identity as "a person who finishes what he starts" navigate the extreme stress of the first 4 weeks of the first phase of BUD/S, including Hell Week, better. Most class attrition will occur during the first four weeks of the 25-week BUD/S training. While building the identity of a successful BUD/S student must occur at BUD/S, the foundation on which that level of ability and confidence is built throughout your life. Here are some steps a student should follow during the preparation phase, long before BUD/S starts:

"Stress-is-Growth" Mindset: A study of 174 Navy SEAL candidates found that those who view stress as growth and make you tougher rather than debilitating performed better, were more persistent, and received fewer negative evaluations. Another strength is the ability to view failure or setbacks as a learning experience - not a failure. To fail once and come back stronger and smarter is what this mindset is all about. 

"Not Quitting" Over Talent:  People who select to join special ops programs are often high achievers. Many have never failed before in their lives. However, when failure occurs, or negative feedback from a demanding instructor staff is singularly focused on you, even the most physically fit candidates often quit if they lack the mental commitment and ability to learn from failure quickly. Whereas those who identify with never quitting will push through the "40% rule", the point where your mind tells you you're done, but your body can still go much further.

Goal Setting: Successful candidates focus on the immediate future (such as getting through the next 30 minutes) rather than the entire 6 months, breaking down the overwhelming challenge into manageable chunks. During hell week, many graduates said they broke the 120-hour event into 6-hour segments, each meal. “Make it to the next meal” was the goal of the day.

Mentorship/Role Models: Candidates who had someone in their life who allowed them to see BUD/S was not impossible were able to strongly identify with a "person who does not quit" or "warrior" mentality, often inspired by stories of past SEALs or a personal commitment to the cause, are better able to handle the immense pressure and pain. Often, “seeing is believing,” and knowing people who went before you helps students identify and say things like, “if he can make it, I can do this too.”

Key Findings on Identification and Mindset

Identity and Social Connection: A study involving 89 successful SEAL candidates found that perseverance is driven by an interaction between self-driven identity and socially-driven components. Candidates who lead themselves and identify with a resilient "will to win" are more likely to persevere through the 85% attrition rate.

Stress-is-Growth Mindset: Research following the survey found that 174 candidates who believed stress enhances their performance (rather than debilitating it) showed significantly greater persistence. This "stress-is-growth" mindset was associated with faster times on the obstacle course and fewer negative peer evaluations. This helped create a mindset in which, even when they failed, they learned from it and came back stronger on the next attempt.

Language and Commitment: Instructors have observed that words that suggest less confidence, such as "try," often signal failure. Candidates who stop using "try" in their speech completed tasks 2.6 times more frequently and reduced their quitting rate by 47%. Replace with “I will” or some other performance cue like “let’s do this,” to be more self-confident in your abilities. Positive self-talk matters significantly in your success. 

Other Predictors of Success

Physical Benchmarks: Physical tests can be highly predictive, or just statistically improved odds of graduating if you can hit many of these scores in runs, swims, lifts, and calisthenics. Scores too high in any one thing usually come with a weakness in another area. For example, the best swimming student is usually one of the worst running students.

Humor: A near-universal trait among graduates is a good sense of humor, which helps manage the extreme psychological pressure of training. At the end of the day, laughing at each other’s bad day, or about an instructor who said something funny, would be just the right medicine to get you in the right mindset – that you belonged there.

The studies suggest that while physical fitness is necessary to enter training, mental fortitude and a self-identity of "not quitting" are what ensure completion.

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