As we enter month two of the Coronavirus Quarantine Routine, I wanted to share some thoughts about tackling adversity, managing your mindset, surveying your habits, and practicing positive practice strategies for going way beyond what you originally thought was possible. I’ve included links to other resources below, including a link to a special video presentation on thriving in a quarantine.
Habits, the good ones and the bad ones, are nothing more than a sequence of actions that your brain has decided to execute. These habits make up all the actions you take on any given day. The trick is to identify which habits are preventing you from succeeding and to then modify them so they no longer get in your way. It’s important that you understand that actions are the building blocks of habits, and you’re in control of your actions and therefore of your habits.
You also need to be ever-vigilant and on guard for habits that will prevent you from going after your chosen goals. The fact is that practice builds a habit, and a habit can be helpful or harmful when it comes to pursuing your goal. If you don’t pay close attention and give proper care to each practice opportunity, then you might very well find yourself going backwards, because the habit you build is hurting your forward progress. Read more in Practice Makes Perfect.
Adversity and benefits—since when do those two words co-exist? For most, adversity is not a welcome word, and why should it be? After all we’re human, and humans are wired to avoid pain and pursue pleasure—and adversity is directly associated with pain. There’s a silver lining to adversity that is critical to know. It’s the confidence you gain from overcoming it that can’t be earned any other way. Read more in The Advantage of Adversity.
We will all face adversity throughout our lives; the trick is not to fear it, but to learn from it. And to do this, you must create habits that enable you to keep your mind open to learning new things and to remaining positive so the storm never gets the better of you. I understand how important it is to keep your mindset positive. I’m not talking about being a cheerleader, although sometimes I find that useful. I’m talking about having a mindset of always looking for the positive, for what you can learn, in whatever you face. Learn more about Mindset Training.
The most challenging storms you’ll face aren’t those at sea; they are the ones that occur between your ears—in your mind. In Positive practice strategies, I speak about how to do the three Ps of practicing positive. I don’t believe you’re just born with a positive gene—I do believe it’s your choice. It will not happen all at once and you’ll make little mistakes and you’ll fall down, but that’s fine. Get up, every morning—it’s a reset—do it again.
Exercise helped me beat asthma, and it gave me the confidence to try out for my high-school rowing team. My success in rowing led to being recruited to the Naval Academy, where I gained the courage to try out for the SEALs. As a SEAL, I became a student of exercise and learned how to use it to unlock my potential. Exercise led me from the SEALs to business school to inventing the Perfect Pushup.
I use exercise to help fuel my belief in myself, which serves as the keel, the foundation, to keep me positive. I believe it’s a fundamental, life-changing habit that has many benefits: it gives you strength and stamina to work harder for longer; it makes you healthier so you visit a doctor a lot less often than those who don’t exercise; and it’s proven to fight depression. Not sure how to get started? Try the plan in Exercise to Execute.
Routine will help you not only keep your sanity while we go through this together, but more importantly, you’ll find that you’ll slingshot out of the quarantine way ahead of the game. I recently had the opportunity to share strategies for Thriving in a Quarantine. Watch it for free or donate if you can to The Guardsmen to help at-risk Bay Area youth. In case you missed it, you can replay the webinar at A Navy SEAL’s Guide to Thriving in Quarantine.
Put these positive practice strategies to work and go Be Unstoppable.