The Moment of Truth
Just You And Your Will
How Bad Do You Want It?
This question is not properly answered
until fully tested.
There is a moment that occurs when you are tired, over-stressed, body aching, heart pounding, gasping to catch your breath, muscles failing that a voice talks to you. The tone of what is said by that voice depends on only one thing - your will. That moment that a decision has to be made. That decision is - do I stay or do I go? Do I suck it up or do I stop this pain and misery? Do I quit or not?
There will be moments when you are left alone with your thoughts, aches, blisters, chaffing, and pain. For some that moment occurs in the comfort of their own bed when it is time for an early wake up with a hard day in front of them. I think this picture reflects one of those moments. Being cold, wet, uncomfortable knowing that the day has turned into night with no end in sight can lead to that voice in your own head to create THE MOMENT for you.
pic from https://dmcburnett.com/ - Navy SEAL Uncommon Grit (book)
This is that moment that does not care how hard you trained, where you came from, how you look, or your PST scores. All this moment cares about is how bad you want it and if you are tough enough to keep moving. That’s all.
How Tough Is Your Will?
There are no tips, tricks, or secret sauce for successfully getting through this moment - just a combination of your life's journey, preparation and determination to see this moment through. Somewhere along this journey in life, you have to have these moments of when you made a decision to not stop, to keep moving, keep working even when you did not feel like it. When you had an easy option to just stop, but you chose to continue on with practice and games with sports teams, school assignments, or your own work and training. You may have more moments like this during the journey of life and goal achieving, but you will build a habit of never quit trying as long as you don't try quitting.
pic from https://dmcburnett.com/ - Navy SEAL Uncommon Grit (book)
How bad do you want to do this profession?
Do you keep running? Do you keep rucking? Do you keep crawling? Do you keep your head under the boat? Do you keep the log on your shoulder? These are the tests that build you each day to one day really having the honor of a Team that depends on you and you on them.
pic from https://dmcburnett.com/ - Navy SEAL Uncommon Grit (book)
In the end, it comes down to just YOU and how bad do you want it? Do you want to work hard to prepare, work even harder to endure and with stand daily gut checks? Can you bring your A Game day after day to complete a very challenging goal? Make sure you have an answer for, "Why am I doing this?" Because, you will need it during that Moment of Truth.
Who Is The Tactical Fitness Coach / Author Stew Smith?
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I'm the former Navy SEAL that military recruits and special ops candidates go to for books, ebooks and online coaching to prepare themselves to get to and through intense tactical assessment and selection programs and qualify for service in their chosen tactical profession. See More at StewSmithFitness.com |
Check out the Complete List of Training Programs (Spec Ops, Military, Police, Fire)
We Have Answers For Beginners to Advanced Spec Ops Level Training Programs (see below)
DO NOT RELY ON THE MILITARY TO GET YOU INTO SHAPE AT BASIC TRAINING. You will get into better shape for sure during your training if you arrive in lower fitness form, but you need to arrive with a foundation of physical fitness that is specific to your future job in the military / fitness tests / training. If you show up out of shape, you could end up failing standards or injuring yourself causing longer delays or removal from training altogether.
For You Special Candidates (Get in Shape LONG Before You Join)
High Intermediate Military / Advanced Spec Ops
Building Programming:
Which Program is Right For Me?
It Depends...Special Ops Candidates



Navy SEAL Workout Phase 2 - 3 - Intermediate Weeks 1-12
Navy SEAL Workout Phase 4 Grinder PT - Four weeks before Hell Week
EBOOKS (Special Ops) – Most of my programs tend to focus on getting TO and THROUGH a specific tactical training program. So you may see a mix of all the seasons in some of these books, but if you are training long term, you can take advantage of Seasonal Periodization and save yourself some of the over-use, long term pains that tend to follow many of the tactical preparations - especially on the spec ops level of training.
Start training today with workouts that focus on the specifics of getting to and through tactical profession training from firefighter, police, swat, military to special ops. We have programs to help you get TO and THROUGH training. We also have training programs to help you with training as you age in these professions (Tactical Fitness 40+ series).
You may have seen my Winter Lift Cycle that I discuss in the Seasonal Tactical Fitness Periodization article as well as have our actual lift programs we have done over the years in the following books.
It is not all just calisthenics and cardio at Stew Smith Fitness
Tactical Fitness, Tactical Strength, Navy SEAL Weight Training Workout, Weight Vest Workout, Stew Smith's Fall Winter Cycle, Warrior Workout #2, Maximum Fitness
These programs as well as my online coaching programs have Winter Lift Cycles in them as part of our Seasonal Tactical Fitness Periodization System. But, do not get these lift cycles confused with ACTUAL strength / power lifting programs, these are strength / power programs that also have a focus on cardio fitness maintenance BECAUSE you need to be good at all the elements of fitness and develop into an all-round Tactical Athlete.
Get Weekly Unpublished Workouts Tested and Evaluated by local Stew Smith Training programs.
Join the Online PT CLUB:
One On One Coaching with Stew Smith
If You Need a More Personalized Approach to Fit Your Needs, Goals, Time per Day, Days per week, Facilities, Abilities, etc...Try Online Coaching
Questions? Just email me at Stew@StewSmith.com
At StewSmith.com - List of Products and Services
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