The Power of Determination
How strong is the mind? If you have ever served in the U.S. Military, you have probably had a leader tell you, “your weakness is in your head!” What?
How does that make sense?
If you listen to any story about soldiers or citizens that accomplish a seeming impossible task, they typically say something about accepting a certain state of mind that drove them to keep going. What makes the military unique, in my opinion, is that training is specifically designed to put the individual in situations to test their determination.
At What Point Will You Quit?
I remember my former Platoon Sergeant telling us a story about determination. He was in Special Forces Selection, at the infamous ruck march. In this training, soldiers, carrying a full combat load, conducted a road march in which they were left in the dark concerning the required distance. They just kept pushing forward, kilometer after kilometer, until the Instructors told them they were done.
Everyone dropped the 100+ pound ruck sack off of their backs, and settled into the idea that the ruck march was over. As they looked at their Instructors, the noticed they were huddled up discussing something… but they couldn’t hear it. After about 10 minutes, the Instructors told them to “ruck up” (put your ruck sack back on), the actual end point was still down the trail a ways.
It is when you are about to break that you understand what you are made of…
Nearly everyone picked up their rucks and started to move out. A few, however, argued that the training iteration was ridiculous, served no purpose, and decided to quit. As soon as the group that complied made it 100 meters down the path, the instructors told them the training iteration was over.
It was a mind game! Who would “embrace the suck,” as we would say in the Army and continue the mission, regardless of how tired, hungry, or sore? My old Platoon Sergeant explained that if you made it to Special Forces Selection, there was not really a question about your physical ability but that the Instructors wanted to weed out the weak. This is something they did through tests of the mind by exhausting the body.
Quitting is something we make a decision to do. It’s a seed in the mind, that we nurture with negative thoughts, excuses, and plan Bs. As Congressman Dan Crenshaw discusses in his book “Fortitude,” (Amazon affiliate link) if you are conceptualizing an alternative to your main goal (accomplishing a difficult mission), you are providing your mind an excuse to quit.
What You Believe Matters
During my undergraduate study, I majored in Psychology. I always had an interest in how the mind works and why it is we don’t really emphasize understanding the connection between our mind and society, as we watch more and more Westerners prescribed with psychotropic medications. As the joke goes, it must be all those “1st World Problems.”
I remember the portion of study that was framed as “Abnormal Psychology.” What I found interesting about this is that one of the first lessons was about what we call the ‘placebo effect’. We learned about this as a strange thing that occurs when the mind believes a medication is taken to induce a certain physiological response. In laymen’s terms, the mind can be tricked and it can induce a real world physiological effect in the body.
Typically we read about this in the form someone being given a sugar pill and told it is something else so that researchers can record the result. However, what is being recorded is the effectiveness of the actual medication, not the sugar pill. An after thought of these experiments are the number of people that claim a positive response to the placebo.
Why?
We have this phenomenon where the mind can believe something that is not real but treat it as if it is. As of 2019, Harvard University is talking a closer look at how the placebo effect can play a role in healing. Professor Ted Kaptchuk of Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center wrote, “The placebo effect is more than positive thinking — believing a treatment or procedure will work. It's about creating a stronger connection between the brain and body and how they work together.”
What is even more fascinating about Kaptchuk’s research is that in studies where the participants knew they were taking a placebo, it was still effective. WHAT!? That’s right, during research concerning migraine prevention, 50% of people that knowing took a placebo (sugar pill) experienced the intended effect of headache relief. The mind is a strange thing!
I can hear it now, “What in the hell does this have to do with determination?”
“Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting…”
- Napoleon Hill
Remember my former Platoon Sergeant’s story? The belief that there was some unknown additional length of training left provided some soldiers all they needed to quit. Do you think they would have quit if the Instructors would have said, “Okay, troops. Listen up. Ruck up! The end point is 100 meters down the path. Once you get there, you will be finished?” Of course not! The end would have been in sight. The mind could have processed 100 more meters. It was the unknown that broke them.
You Can’t Buy ‘Intestinal Fortitude’!
Although we are all people, we are all different. I am not talking about how we look, that is irrelevant. Nor am I talking about our internal organs. There is something in certain people that make them different. They have a drive, a determination, that is unwavering. Science has yet to identify what this is.
In U.S. Army Basic Training, our Drill Sergeants would jokingly say, “you can’t buy intestinal fortitude at the PX (Post Exchange - shopping center on a military base).” This is that special part of you that pushes you to keep going when things suck! You can see it. When you are out in the field doing training in -25 degrees in Alaska, everything hurts, the cold saps your energy, you are never warm enough, the food you eat doesn’t seem to keep you full for very long, and you long for a hot shower! That inner fire is what drives you to Charlie Mike or Continue the Mission.
The drive you need is not in a bottle, its already inside you!
Some people quit. They mentally check out. They think about how bad the situation sucks and are unable to see an end to it. Motivation bottoms out and that's it! Conversely, there are those that find an extra gear. They are able to focus on a level that enables them to overcome ‘the suck’.
In the absolute worst of times, when its 100+ degrees in Iraq, you are in full combat kit, you haven’t had a shower in four days, and people are trying to shoot you or blow you up, this level of mental toughness kicks in. It is in these times when I was glad that the U.S. Army did an amazing job of weeding out those who couldn’t hack it.
Developing Your Drive!
There is a movie I like called, “Evan Almighty.” I am not a religious person myself but there is a great scene in the movie about developing personal strength. In the scene, Morgan Freeman, who played God, approaches the character that plays Evan’s wife. He engages in a conversation with her about prayer and God’s help. He asks her, “If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous?”
“Adversity will expose what you are made of...”
The point I am making here has nothing to do with religion or what you believe to be deity. It has to do with you! Opportunities to be better versions of yourself surround you everyday. If you want to increase the strength of your intestinal fortitude, chose something hard to do. Where you are weak, attack it with a self-created opportunity to be better.
As my Drill Sergeants used to tell us in Basic Training, “This is not your Mommy’s house! If you want easy, go home and have her tell you that you are special. If you want to become a warrior for the United States of America, overcome the lesser aspects of yourself.”
You can do it! You have to believe that you can do it. You have to prove to yourself that you can do it. Every little thing you accomplish has to be a step to the next hard thing to overcome. In this, you are no longer praying for determination, you are seeking out opportunities to be determined to complete your mission or goal.
