As patients on Dialysis, we can learn a lot from US Navy SEALS and their credos. This blog will offer insights from my loose association with the SEAL Community during my 25 years in the Navy.
A recent 2023 study suggests that psychological and physiological changes are associated with training to become a Navy SEAL. No less than Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Computer, suggested that to succeed, we must “Think Different.”
How do SEALs “Think Different” that, as mere mortals on Dialysis, might be to our advantage to incorporate into our merely mortal lives? Read on.
The tagline for the blog is “Never ring the bell.” This credo comes from US Navy SEAL BUDs training. When the going gets too tough for SEAL trainees, they can “ring the bell and opt-out.” They have given up. As Dialysis patients, we can’t give up. I take inspiration from the SEAL credo, “Never ring the bell.” If they can do it, so can I. At least I’m in a warm bed, and no one is shooting at me in comparison. Never ring the bell!
Another adage from a top SEAL that I have incorporated into my daily routine is making our bed upon my rising in the morning. My wife always proceeds me to take care of our Golden Retriever, Dickens. Admiral McCraven in a 2014 commencement speech at his alma mater University of Texas, spoke about many aspects of SEAL training, including making your bed every day. He stated that making your bed first starts the day off with an accomplishment extending to little things that matter. Start with little things in Dialysis that matter, like keeping your catheter area clean and tidy, and the rest will follow.
Admiral McCracken said that in SEAL training, everyone must paddle to succeed in the mission to pass BUDs. In Dialysis, you must surround yourself with a strong team that “paddles” together to keep you not only afloat but moving in the right direction. In the surf off Coronado, CA, you can’t paddle alone, nor can you in your Dialysis journey.
I’ve embedded a video of his speech at the blog’s end. Watch it. He has lots to say that pertains directly to Dialysis as well as successfully getting through BUDs and becoming a Seal.
I want to relate one more SEAL story that is personal to me. When I went through Vietnamese Language School in Coronado, CA, I had a room in the Bachelor Officers Quarters along with many SEALs. Cornado is the West Coast base for SEALs. Directly across the hall from me, door to door, so to speak, a Navy SEAL Lt was housed. We came to be on speaking terms as we came and went from our rooms. His name is Tom Norris. See this link. He is a Medal of Honor, recipient. My family had stayed in the Long Beach, CA area while I was in school in Coronado as I had orders after school to go In-Country Vietnam as an Advisor. My wife decided to bring our two boys down on a train and stay with me in the BAQ for an outing for our two sons. I related this to Tom in a casual conversation, and he informed me that he would be out of town on a mission and volunteered his room for our sons to stay in, which they did.
After my posting to Vietnam, I ran across Tom on various social occasions in Saigon. He was awarded the MOH and soon after was wounded, losing sight in one eye. And this is where the SEAL credo kicks in. Tom medically retired from the Navy but joined the FBI and qualified with small arms with one eye and met all other physical requirements, almost like a one-armed paper hanger.
The point taken from SEAL Credo is that just because we’re on Dialysis doesn’t mean that life’s over for us. As Admiral McCraven states in his commencement speech, the will to succeed is based on the size of the heart, not the size of one’s swim flippers.
Wow! I had heard of ‘making your bed each morning’, but not the rest of the context of this speech: very powerful!!