Mastering Fear Like a Navy Seal
Fear is beneficial. Fear can help you, and you can learn to master it if you choose to do so. In former Navy SEAL Brandon Webb’s essay “How to Master Your Fear Like a Navy SEAL,” you are taught how to master fear, to mentally control the situation, and to be successful. Webb begins the essay with a personal experience in mastering fear and controlling a situation and goes on to give the facts behind his methods including more experiences, and even statistics that reinforce the principles taught that prove this essay to be extremely helpful, and the strategies taught therein to be useful.
In his essay, Webb first sets the stage by describing a personal experience he had while in North-Eastern Afghanistan back in 2002 on a search-and-seizure mission. As they were searching through desert scrabble, searching for packs that had been left for them by another platoon, they looked up to see a crowd of 50 Afghan men, looking mad as ever, and fully armed ready for battle. In that situation Webb isn’t shy to say that he felt fear–anyone in their right mind would feel fear in a situation like that. The main reason for Webb sharing this frightening story is to help us understand that he used his fear in the right way. Instead of letting his fear take control of him and shutting down his thinking processes or doing something stupid, he took control of the situation and turned the fear on the Afghan men. Shouting words at them that he knew they couldn’t understand, and standing up inches from their face, and eventually the Afghan men backed off, Webb and his two fellow-soldiers made it to their vehicle, and they took off. It was the fear they felt that drove them to stand up, and to act in the given situation. I think that this is a reasonable claim. While some may think that fear will cause you to shut down, Webb goes on throughout the essay to explain how you can use this same fear to drive you.
In the essay, Webb uses many personal stories to illustrate the principles taught. This is powerful evidence that he truly believes and has experienced the reality of controlling fear. He also gives statistics given from his time training snipers in the Navy, and even goes as far as to create situational metaphors that illustrate the effectiveness of controlling fear and using it as a motivator; of controlling ourselves mentally.
A powerful metaphor given is that of a child stepping up to bat in a baseball game. The model given by Webb goes like this:
“A kid steps up to bat. His coach, or his dad, yells out, “Remember, Bobby, don’t strike out!”
“So, what happens? He strikes out, of course. What else is the poor kid going to do? The coach has made him so focused on swinging and missing, has so amplified his fear of striking out, that it’s all he can see in his head. He’s got a hamster in his head running on that hamster wheel full-tilt boogie: Strike out! Strike out! Strike out! So that’s what he does.”
In the model displayed by Webb, he demonstrates this important principle: what we focus on controls us. As the kid’s coach focused on him striking out and pointed the kid’s mind in the direction of failure, it was inevitable what the outcome would be. On the other hand, had the coach given him solid advice: Keep your eye on the ball, make connection with the ball and the bat, focus, or any other bit of positive reinforcement, it would have been as helpful as the advice given was detrimental. While I believe this to be a true principle of the affect that mentality can have on us, Webb may be taking it too far to be comparing this child’s baseball game to a combat-situation in the Navy. He does do an effective job however at relating the given topic to a real-life situation in a way that the average person can understand.
In the essay, Webb does a fantastic job at relating this simple model to a much larger scale, more important experience. Following his return from Afghanistan, Webb started training the Navy SEAL snipers, and was assigned to redesign the training program which at the time “was the gold standard of sniper training world-wide.” Among the many changes they made to the program were new technology, new skills such as one-man shooting teams or solo operators, and advanced knowledge in ballistics. All of this was insignificant in comparison to the main focus of this new program: They taught their students how to change conversations in their heads.
Instead of the snipers thinking of all the things that could potentially go wrong, they focused on what would go right. They became in control of the situation. They learned to flip the switch mentally. They were trained in the science of self-talk, and it had a tremendous impact. The attrition rate dropped from 30% to under 1%, and they had snipers turning out perfect scores on the shooting range for the first time ever. Webb’s stories are not only entertaining; they are informational and well demonstrate the power of the mind, and the statistics give strong appeal to logos. For the attrition rate to drop at such a steep amount gives reason to believe that this principle of mentality is true.
Webb’s essay also appeals on a pathos-level, as this story demonstrates. Webb said: “When I was 14, I came face-to-face with my first shark, a big blue off the Southern California coast. I looked at the shark, the shark looked at me — and I felt it: that static charge. Years later, as a sonar guy in the Navy, I studied how sound waves travel and propagate underwater. This was like that. An electric current running from the shark’s eyes to mine and back again.”
After relating this experience at such a young age-an experience that would even frighten men of great size and older age-he goes on to explain what was going on in the given situation or what the mental conversation may have been when he made eye contact with that big blue: “You do not want this to go down, my look said. Neither do you, said his. He moved on. So did I.” He explains that if we control the mental conversation, if we control our fear, we in a sense control the outcome of the situation. While engaging, this story seems to be nearly too good to be true. For such a young boy to face up to a large shark, and feel no fear seems rather unrealistic. It does, however, portray the point that he is teaching.
Webb also does a great job at demonstrating that this is not only effective for Navy SEALS and child-athletes, but for everyone. He states: “To me, that ability to self-monitor and change your interior dialogue is one of the most critical faculties that distinguishes a mature, adult human, someone capable of functioning fully in the world. It’s what takes you from victim mentality to being proactive, from blaming others to taking ownership of your situation and taking positive steps to change it.” He shows that this can have a positive impact on anyone who is willing to take control of their thoughts. It can positively affect every aspect of the life of an average adult human. It can make you someone that functions in the world.
Now this sounds easy, but it may be a bit more challenging in real life than it is on paper. It sounds easy on paper to control our fear and think positively–to “flip the switch”–but it is not as easy when you are in real-life situations and you need to act now. This is why Webb gave us two steps for when fear starts to creep in. They are 1) become aware of it, and 2) redirect it. Recognize what is happening in your mind before it has an effect on you and change it mentally-flip the switch-to the right mindset. This is a lofty claim by Webb to make changing our lives sound as easy as a two-step check list. Nevertheless, it may be worth our time to try it and see the effect on our lives.
Webb begins the essay in an exciting manner, and throughout the essay is constantly intriguing the reader as well as helping the reader learn to control their fears. We learn that through controlling fear, we can be proactive, we can control the situation and outcome, and we can become responsible, fully functioning adult. While making some rather drastic claims in the course of the article, Webb couldn’t have done a better job at explaining these principles in an easy-to-read, engaging, and interesting manner.