Personal Safety, Awareness, Self
Defense and Firearm Training

I’m lucky enough to be the person at Sealed Mindset who receives emails from our past clients who are willing to share their stories about how our training has affected or changed their lives. Many write in to tell me that they no longer live with nagging concerns or the feeling of vulnerability that can arise when we walk from our offices to our cars at night. Their emails inspire me every day because I see the impact and proof that what we teach builds a stronger, more aware person who isn’t fearful or paranoid.

One of our first clients ever has taken the time to share her story with us. She doesn’t worry anymore that she wouldn’t know what to do if something unexpected were to happen.

Here is her story.

Jeanine, Online Student in our 15 Seconds to Safety Course

I didn’t even notice that it was that dark until a chill ran through my spine and my “Sealed Mindset” switch flipped on almost simultaneously.

I pulled back my hoodie and looked around.  Two men were approaching me from the left.  I turned right and started walking down the sidewalk.  I kept moving my head so I could see them.  Then I stopped at a corner in the path and turned to look at them directly.

They stopped, turned away and went up the street.  All the while talking in soft voices to each other.  I decided to walk a little further along the cliff to where there are some parking spaces.  They were empty of course, and so was the beach (beach patrol was not allowing people on the beach).

Again I was alone, now just a little further away from the harbor.  The men were gone and I tried to go back to looking at the ocean waves and relaxing with the sunset.  My gut seemed uneasy though and I thought I should probably head back.  As I was thinking this over, a large SUV sped into the space closest to me and jammed on the brakes.  I took off in a full sprint when the car sped into space.  Four men jumped out after me, two of them were the same men as before.  When I turned my head to look, the guy closest to me was almost  6 feet away with a long pipe of some sort in his right hand.

I ran as fast as I could.  I have never run that fast in my whole life and I didn’t turn around again.

I got to the down slope part, hoping that I would see some people.  No one was there.  No one was in their houses along the cliff either b/c of evacuation warnings.  As I approached the upward slope part, I heard one of them yell “forget it, forget it” and it sounded farther away, but I didn’t stop.

I thought it best not to believe their words, so I kept running.  I didn’t stop until I got to the other end of the beach. On that farthest cliff side were some folks hanging out by their cars.  We didn’t see the men who were chasing me from where we were standing.

The training I did in your online class has saved me from many potentially bad situations – this one just the other day.  I am very grateful to you and to all of the Sealed Mindset staff for that.  Not only has it made me a safer person, but it has also made me a more confident person.  Words could not fully express my gratitude. Please thank everyone at Sealed Mindset for their hard work and dedication to making us all safer here in the States.  If I hadn’t been practicing my “Sealed Mindset” for over a year now, it wouldn’t have kicked in almost unconsciously that night to save my life.

Image via Wikipedia

How do you plan the mission to kill Bin Laden?

As much as it pains me to admit it, SEALs are not super human. Short of having a higher pain tolerance than most and an over developed need to protect, we are not that much different.

What separates us and what helps us to successfully pull off incredible operations, is our specialized training and planning. This type of training and planning was seen in the SEAL Sniper’s at sea rescue of Capt. Phillips and in the Osama bin Laden raid.

The planning process that is used by Navy SEALs was developed in the muddy jungle during the Vietnam War and has constantly evolved since then. This planning process is referred to as contingency planning and is used to varying degrees across the corporate world as well.

Most planning processes focus on the “perfect operation.” A plan is put together that describes the operation as you would want it to unfold in a perfect world. Once this plan is developed, than you practice it and conduct many dry runs. As SEALs we view this traditional contingency planning process as only the very beginning of the planning process. For those of you who have attended a Sealed Mindset Date Night and have seen our emergency plan, you know what I mean….

In contingency planning we as SEALS not only plan for the “perfect operation,” but we also spend a great deal of time planning for contingencies. Another word for contingencies would be problems. Everyone has heard of Murphy’s Law, “What can go wrong, will go wrong.” As SEALs we want to make it as uncomfortable for “Murphy” as we can.

We do this by breaking the mission down into individual sections. Each section represents one part of the overall plan. For example, we may break a mission down into insertion, actions at the objective, and extraction. In layman’s terms, this means getting there, what you do when you are there, and getting home.

After the mission is broken up into phases, we discuss (as a team) every problem that may come up during that section of the mission. The top three most likely problems (contingencies) will be decided upon and assigned to individual team members. Each person will them be tasked with preparing three plans that solve his assigned problem. After all of these “contingency plans” are finished, the plans are presented to the team as a whole. At that point, responsibilities are assigned and the required equipment is prepared.

Interestingly enough, most of the time the problems that occur during a mission are rarely the same as the problems planned for during this contingency planning process. But, one of the most important benefits of this process is that by working together as a team to find and plan for expected problems, the entire team truly understands the overall intent of the plan. This understanding of mission intent allows the operators to seamlessly work though any problem that may arise.

The effectiveness of this planning process was seen in action during the bin Laden raid. Even with the loss of a helicopter, the SEALs were able to instantly adjust and complete the mission.

This planning process is just as effective in any environment where there is a potential for problems to arise. If you are interested in learning more about the SEAL contingency planning process, or how you can learn to implement this process across your organization for mission success, please contact us at info@sealedmindset.com.

Navy SEAL Larry Yatch

Many of you have emailed, called and written to ask me this question after the recent targeted operation against Osama Bin Laden:

“What was going through the minds of the SEALs as they assaulted Osama Bin Laden’s compound?”

Here is my answer to your question:

The silent darkness of night is violently disturbed with the pounding sound of MH-60 Blackhawk helicopter blades cutting through the thin mountain air.  Within the next instant, 24 black clad figures are silently and purposefully gliding through the darkness with weapons held at the ready.

The minds of America’s most elite warriors at this very instant are clear and prepared.

As a 10-year combat veteran of the Navy SEALs who was lucky enough to be involved in many high risk missions similar to the Bin Laden raid, I wanted to use this post to describe what went through my mind at these moments to give you a glimpse into the emotions and thoughts of a warrior in action.

One emotion that is not present in this high risk moment is the emotion of fear, but not for any of the reasons that you might expect.

A tenant that we live by in the SEAL Teams is: “Courage is not the absence of fear, rather it is the mastery of fear.”  It is true that only crazy men or dead men have no fear.  Even the world’s most elite warriors feel fear.  What separates us from others is the ability to continue to operate effectively despite feeling fearful.

I remember very distinctly a time when I was preparing for a mission where the expected casualty rates were 50%.  This means that I had a coin flip’s chance of surviving.  This knowledge caused me to be fearful in the weeks and days that preceded the operation.  Yet, I was confident in my teammates’ abilities and I knew that I needed to continue to lead them to keep them safe.

As we started the operation, we reached what we refer to as the “drop dead point.”  This point is considered the point of no return, where we are fully committed to the operation and to any danger that might lie ahead.  I noticed that any fear I had felt initially had at this moment been completely transformed into anger.  The anger I felt rose from that fact that I had knew that these bad men that we had to confront were the reasons that my closest friends and my own safety was at risk.  Their choices and actions were the cause of this situation, and that made me upset.

The other reason that my fellow warriors would not be feeling fear is due to the years of intense training we experience.  In these types of operations, I have found that you are in a dynamic, 360-degree environment.  In this type of environment, threat levels are constantly changing, enemy and friendly positions are changing, and this is occurring all around you, above and below you simultaneously.

In that type of situation, you cannot rely on your mind’s ability to make conscious decisions.  You must have been trained to a level that allows you to instinctively react.  With our level of training, I have found that my mind actually becomes very quiet.  All of the background “noise” that usually exists in our minds is shut off.  There are no thoughts of cause or effect, just action and reaction.  It is the ultimate example of being in the moment.

This “in the moment” feeling is unparalleled in life.  I have jumped out of airplanes, surfed monster waves, flown aerobatic airplanes, and mountain biked down mountainsides in search of that single, powerful feeling, yet none even come close.  It is one of the most addictive feelings on earth and part of the reason why operating as a Navy SEAL, where I could protect the country I love, was the best calling I have ever had.