Today, we were warriors. Warriors of the mind engaged in psychological combat. Would the mind prevail over the duress of the body? Or would it crumble, defeated by a five hour torture training inflicted by the Navy Seals.
"I will not fail." Those are the last words of the Navy Seals Ethos. "I will not fail."
For common men with an uncommon will to succeed, defeat is impossible.
Was defeat an option for us today?
We laughed in the face of defeat.
They threw words. Smiles broke. They threw sand. Chests bellowed. They taunted. Laughter roared. They challenged. We ran. They challenged. We defied. They sought to break us. We proved ourselves. Unbreakable. With focused eyes and parted lips.
We ran beside the crashing surf, crowned by the weight of a boat. Our misery tamed by the melody of stupid songs - Macho man, Eye of the Tiger, Big Butts. We sang in unison. We completed the task. The weight pounding upon our necks; the weight placed upon our back. A long, soft-sand run. Conquered.
Teammates forged by adversity; self-inflicted adversity, struggle, and discomfort. Teammates forged to build, from the seemingly broken, to the invincible.
Today was about toughness and togetherness. Surviving, enduring, and strengthening. Finding motivation to overcome. Today was powerful. Physically grueling, and emotionally moving. But more than anything, today is over.
The accomplishment of today is over. There are no finish lines, said Chief Goggins. No end points. We completed a task. Complete the task, smile, and move forward. Inspired and confidently ask what's next?
Let's take a dive into the talent pool. America’s got talent. A lot of talent. What it doesn’t have though is time and a cohesive system to identify and develop that talent to maturity. The short timeline for the development of talent undermines the country's ability to succeed at the highest level. A multitude of factors play a role, yet the most influential is the win now mentality driven by the demands of college and youth sport. This mentality - and the money behind it - dominates the American sport landscape; it leads to early selection and deselection, myopic views of talent, and the narrowing of the playing pool before most athletes have time to emerge and fully develop. Recruiting accelerates the timeline. We expect more from athletes at an earlier age. We evaluate them at an earlier age. We select and deselect them at an earlier age. The consequence is that an abundance of talent drops out of the pathway, or goes unidentified and undeveloped. A number of factor...
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