1. Wake up at 5 am
According to Jocko Willink, a retired Navy SEAL commander at SEAL Team 3's Task Unit Bruiser, waking up early in the morning gives you an advantage to get more things done, than most people who are still asleep. Jocko wakes up at 4:30 am and jumps straight away to doing his body work out and finishes before 7 am. He said having breakfast with his kids and saying goodbye to them before they leave for school, on top of the physical workout he has already done in the morning, makes him feel very productive and accomplished for that day. Willink lives on the principle of "Discipline equals, freedom. If you want freedom, you need discipline". Waking up as early as possible is the best way to practice self-discipline.
2. Make your bed
US Navy Admiral William McRaven, believes that if you want to change the world, you can always start off by making your bed. By making your bed after waking up, you will have already accomplished the first task of the day and this will give you a little sense of pride. By accomplishing that first task, it will encourage you to do another task, until you build momentum to do as many tasks as you can for the day. McRaven said that by doing this simple task of making your bed, you are constantly reminded that the little things in life do matter, and if we can't do the little things right, we'll never be able to do the big things right.
3. Cold showers
Clint Emerson, a former Navy SEAL and now author, believes that cold showers in the morning will give you incomparable alertness and focus to start your day. SEALs are constantly exposed to cold water as part of their long training to keep their bodies going at peak performance. Cold water causes vasoconstriction or tightening of blood vessels which helps push lactic acid out of your system. This habit, which is also practiced by athletes, is proven to counteract inflammation in joints and muscles and helps in recovery from training.
4. Maintain a good hygiene
Good personal hygiene is strictly practiced in the army as a way to prevent infection and other contagious diseases. The army also prescribes very neat hairstyles as a part of their hygiene regulation and believes that this reflects cleanliness and orderliness instead of chaos. Military men are deployed to places with extreme temperatures, and sometimes places without water, which sometimes makes it impossible to stay fresh and clean. However, training yourself to be consciously aware of maintaining a good hygiene, will not only protect your health from diseases, it will also boost your confidence to interact in social situations.
5. Go for a morning run
Jason Bourne, the action-packed CIA sleeper agent played by Matt Damon in most films, can always be seen jogging or running at the beach in the morning. Going for an early run is always cooler than the other times of the day and is good for cardiovascular health. It also gives you a big dose of oxygen after waking up which in turn gives you a boost of energy for the day. When you run, your body releases chemicals called "Endorphins" which interacts with receptors in your brain, reducing your perception of pain and gives you a positive euphoric feeling, making you happier.
6. Do what sucks
David Goggins, former Navy SEAL and author of the New York Times Bestseller "Can't Hurt Me", believes that the best way to practice self-discipline is to find out what you hate doing, and do it anyway. Goggins, who is now an ultramarathon runner, says that by doing something that is uncomfortable everyday, you are constantly training yourself to be mentally tougher and pushing yourself to become a better version of yourself each day. The former SEAL commander says that he hates running, which is why he does it everyday. If you do what sucks everyday, then you are doing what you think is the worst for you everyday, which means that there is nothing else that can scare you or shake you up that is worse than what you are already doing. This philosophy in itself is the secret to mental toughness in the army.
7. Make checklists and protocols
In every nation in the planet, the military has always been given the duty of being in charge of logistics and operations in a massive scale. Armed forces have always been famous for being extremely organized, methodical, and are well-known for making protocols for emergencies and other complex situations. In terms of productivity, having a checklist allows you to complete repetitive tasks more quickly and efficiently without even thinking about it, as the list is always pre-meditated to cover everything and miss nothing. Protocols, on the other hand, which are also pre-made in nature, saves time and decision-making dilemmas, when faced with complex situations that requires quick action or movement.
8. Pre-plan your days
The British S.A.S, or Secret Air Service, simulates and plans an operation days to weeks ahead, before the day of execution. These highly trained and highly disciplined individuals will repeat a certain training routine for a specific operation, non-stop, for the entire day until everything becomes muscle memory, to which they often joke, "until we can do it in our sleep". By planning or pre-meditating your days ahead, you can strategize on how you can carry out the tasks that you are planning to do on those days, and to create contingencies for certain situations. By planning ahead, you can have some sort of a bird's eye view of everything that is transpiring during that week, making yourself more effective and productive.
9. Reverse planning
Reverse planning is determining what intermediate or sub-goal you want to happen after carrying out the completion of your big goal. In short, this is defining what you want to achieve, then work your way backwards to achieve it. Backwards planning, according to military generals, will illuminate many steps that are necessary to achieve a certain goal. For example, if you're planning to write a paper, rather than focusing on what to do first, you would start thinking about the paper's due date and identifying the last action that you would take before submission, then work your way backwards and identify the steps.
10. Never give up
On top of every bone breaking physical training the army receives, the most important mental training that they get is to never give up and never surrender. The dropout rate for the BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) training which is roughly 75%, ensures that the participants left are the ones that have the toughest mental stamina and don't quit when the situation gets really hard. The military trains individuals to become mentally tough and motivated to carry out a mission, whatever it takes. Learning from this philosophy, by training your own mental toughness, you can achieve anything that you want to achieve if you live on a principle of never giving up.
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