Chapter 1: Pushing Beyond Boundaries
“Dream big and dare to fail.” —Norman Vaughn
High on a mountaintop in the Himalayas, a lone climber slowly scrambles up a steep slope. Strong winds buffet his body as he struggles to stand upright, snow swirling around him, obscuring his vision. His legs burn with exertion and his lungs struggle to provide the oxygen he needs in the increasingly thinning air. For a moment, he stops as a voice inside his head tells him that this would all be a lot easier if he just turned around and headed back down. He allows himself the briefest of moments to consider that possibility. Below him is warmth and sunshine, a comfortable tent, and the camaraderie of friends and family. Above, is only pain and suffering. He sighs deeply, drawing in even more oxygen before looking over his shoulder at the way he has come. Ultimately, he turns to continue upward. He hasn’t finished what he has come here to do just yet. He hasn’t reached the summit.
Somewhere on a desolate, sandy plateau in Afghanistan, a soldier ducks for cover behind an armored vehicle. A dozen rounds whiz past overhead as chaos breaks out all around him. He can see the other members of his squad scrambling for safety as bullets rain down from multiple directions. He takes a fraction of a second to collect himself, allowing his breathing and heart rate to stabilize. Adrenaline courses through his veins and yet he remains calm. “This is what we’ve trained for,” he tells himself, glancing around to take stock of the situation and assess where his skills and experience are needed most. Without hesitation he begins scanning the area for signs of the enemy, conveying vital information to his fellow soldiers as the firefight escalates around him. Even in this life or death situation, he is calm and collected.
On a lonely trail in the Alps a runner pushes on through the night. She is sixteen hours and seventy miles into one of the longest and most difficult endurance events in the world. The route ahead is illuminated only by the light from her headlamp and it has been a long time since she has seen another living soul. Exhausted, hungry, and in pain, she presses forward, long after most other human beings would have stopped. The steepest and hardest part of the race is yet to come, but she refuses to give up now, as there are many miles to go before she reaches the finish line.
These grueling scenarios may sound like something out of a work of fiction, but they are the kind of real life challenges that men and women undertake all the time. Some choose to push themselves to their absolute physical and mental limits while others have intense, life-altering situations thrust upon them unexpectedly. But knowing how to embrace those moments, compartmentalize the suffering, and stay focused on achieving your objectives can be the difference between success and failure—and in some cases life and death.
I’ve spent the last forty years of my life vigorously preparing my mind, body, and soul to take on some of the most intense challenges imaginable. I’ve gone through arduous training so that I could defend my country against lethal threats from around the globe. I’ve conducted missions in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, El Salvador, Bolivia, Korea, Panama, and Colombia, often in conditions that were brutally demanding, both physically and mentally. To my SEAL teammates I am known as Warrant Officer Manslaughter, Sweet Satan, Don Maniac, and Dr. Death. All nicknames that I wear like a badge of honor, having served multiple tours of duty with SEAL Teams One, Two, and Six throughout my career.
My story starts in Methuen, Massachusetts, where I grew up a skinny kid from the wrong side of the tracks. As a teenager I was a hell-raiser with no interest in school or organized sports of any kind. Like most of my friends, I was on a one-way path to becoming a criminal or drug addict. It was then that I realized that if I didn’t find some purpose in my life, I’d end up in prison, or dead. A number of my tough-guy friends—and even one of my girlfriends—had proceeded me to an early grave. I was constantly getting into fights and running into trouble with the law. Needless to say, the prospects for my future weren’t particularly bright.
To make matters worse, I was a terrible student. For me, school was nothing more than a place to hang out and have a good time. Some years I never even bothered to study at all. When our textbooks were issued on the first day of class, I’d stash them in my locker, and wouldn’t look at them again until the last day of school when they needed to be returned. Once, as the end of the school year drew near, a teacher asked for her textbooks back and I remember telling her, “I’m sure they’re in good condition, but they’re in my locker, and I don’t remember where my locker is.”
After barely finishing high school, and graduating near the very bottom of my class, I wasn’t really sure what my next move should be. But, I knew I had to do something, so I decided to enroll at a community college in Waterbury, Connecticut. I thought maybe I’d be well suited to becoming a policeman, telling myself that cops saw lots of action and got to carry weapons. I could be like my hero Evel Knievel who had switched from black leather to white, telling kids to stay in school and not do drugs, while still managing to remain a complete badass at the same time. So I signed up for a course in criminal justice and prepared myself for what I thought would be a good career path.
On the first day of class, the professor came into the classroom, looked around and asked, “How many of you here think you want to become cops?”
Practically everyone in the room—myself included—raised our hands. Then he said, “You want to be cops because of what you see on TV. The car chases, the shootouts. Isn’t that right?”
A bunch of us answered, “You bet!”, while shaking our heads enthusiastically.
“Well, those things will never happen,” the professor told us. “You pull your weapon from your holster, and you’re in court the next day defending yourself. The hours are terrible. So is the pay. The divorce rate is the highest of all civilian jobs. You spend most of your time writing parking tickets.”
It was if all of the air had been left out of the classroom. We all looked at each other confused and dumbfounded. This wasn’t what we had signed up for at all. Writing parking tickets for a living sounded mind-numbingly boring. My dream shattered, I had to find another profession, but the question was, what could that possibly be?
At that point in my life, I had been racing motocross bikes for several years and had demonstrated a real passion and knack for the sport. At one point I’d even been able to attract a sponsor in the form of Dave McCullen, the owner of the New Haven Suzuki motorcycle dealership. During a hotly-contested race in New Hampshire, I accidentally crashed headlong into Dave, breaking his leg in the process. Needless to say, that was the end of the sponsorship.
That wasn’t the only motorcycle mishap I experienced while racing. I also managed to break all of the ribs on my right side, gotten bone fragments embedded in my liver, fractured my skull and right arm, broke several bones in my face and suffered a major concussion that left me in a coma for a week. It didn’t take long to realize that racing motorcycles wasn’t a career choice with a lot of growth potential.
Deciding that discretion was indeed the better part of valor, I abandoned my plans to become a professional motocross rider and enlisted in the Navy instead. It seemed like the right outlet to channel my energy, and it gave me a chance to go out and potentially do big things. It also allowed me to follow in the footsteps of my father who had also served in the Navy.
A few months prior to joining the service I had taken up running and weight lifting in order to get into better shape and to become a better motocross racer. I got off to a bit of a rocky start with my exercise regime, but before long I was working out every day and it soon became part of my daily routine. I’d even run several marathons, getting my time under two hours and fifty minutes. As I embarked on my training for the Navy, I was not only in great shape, but I was quickly starting to realize that if I pushed yourself, I could accomplish great things in life.
It was about that time that I saw a training film about the Navy SEALs. I learned that SEAL stood for sea, air, and land, and that these elite warriors worked in small units and trained to perform the most difficult missions that the military had to offer. They went through intense training that allowed them to conduct operations in any type of environment—from deserts to frozen mountain peaks to jungles, and even urban settings. I thought, Now that’s the job for me!
(To be continued...)
This excerpt is taken from “Reaching Beyond Boundaries: A Navy SEAL’s Guide to Achieving Everything You’ve Ever Imagined” by Don Mann and Kraig Becker.
To read other articles of this book, click here.
To buy this book, click here.
The Epoch Times copyright © 2023. The views and opinions expressed are those of the authors. They are meant for general informational purposes only and should not be construed or interpreted as a recommendation or solicitation. The Epoch Times does not provide investment, tax, legal, financial planning, estate planning, or any other personal finance advice. The Epoch Times holds no liability for the accuracy or timeliness of the information provided.
