Jim's Fitness Journey: Conclusion

Teammates, this post ends Jim's series of blogs on his journey to become Navy SEAL fit -- but the work continues! Just ask Jim. And if you want to check in with him and other Perfect Fitness teammates, please join the Perfect Fitness Facebook fan page. CHARLIE MIKE Jim!! AMM

I resumed my regular workouts after I got dismissed from the army and kept on following the “SEAL training pattern” which also helped me develop a “never give up” attitude helping me a lot with my job. Back at work I was assigned to a “special task” for which I couldn’t find any serious support on how to deal with, no matter how hard I searched. Not accepting failure as an option though I finally managed to fulfill the given task on my own powers with 100% success! It was probably that “fire in the gut” that kept me going.

Years passed by and further internet searching on fitness led me to “Perfect Pushup”. This community of motivated people has managed to keep me fired up over the years and looking to further improving myself, not only in terms of fitness but also as a person. What can one say about Alden’s inspirational posts but a great THANK YOU!

Looking back all I can say is that bringing change to one's life requires a stimulus usually external but then equally important is the person’s own will to succeed and make change happen. it definitely requires being open minded so as to manage to question one’s beliefs and be able to accept the coming changes, no matter if it’s fitness, work or other aspects of personal life someone is dealing with.

Set short realistic goals that will take you to your final objective.

Maybe the road to improvement is hard (yes, those stomach muscle cramps is something I don’t ever want to go through again) but it’s definitely worth the effort, as Navy SEALs say “It’s mind over matter, if you don’t mind then it doesn’t matter”.

Jim in Greece

No Surrender, No Retreat, No Regrets

Teammates, it is an honor to introduce you to Larry Broughton - he's a former Green Beret, a remarkable entrepreneur, and a man on a mission to help others defy the odds. I hope you find him as inspiring as I do, and I believe you'll find his message is more than fitting for CHARLIE MIKE - NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAMS! Thanks LB for being a guest blogger on CHARLIE MIKE. AMM

Among the most powerful lessons I took from serving on Special Forces A-Teams (the Green Berets) in the U.S. Army were the importance of possessing a tenacious spirit, and maintaining a positive attitude in the face of difficult and challenging circumstances. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that those who have experienced extraordinary and enduring success in business, the arts, athletics, and virtually every other field have embraced these two powerful “disciplines.”

I was blessed last week by meeting Jack Canfield (Co-Author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and author of The Success Principles). Among other pearls of wisdom that seemed to flow from him, was this: “Everything we want is outside our comfort zone.” Wow! The clarity of this idea was like a brick to the head for me. Whether we’re pursuing personal, spiritual, financial, or physical goals, if it weren’t uncomfortable (and even a little painful, at times) we’d very likely already possess it or have achieved it.

Every successful person has faced challenges, and experienced setbacks and failures on their journey towards success. It’s a natural part of growing. For those who learn to anticipate it, embrace it and take corrective action towards improvement, find extraordinary success as their sweet reward. Winston Churchill has some of the most poignant quotes on this topic, and described the process this way, “Success is the ability to move from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.”

An important key to success is how we respond to the challenges and setbacks we face, and the attitude we choose to adopt when we’re knocked down. Too often, after a setback, we find ourselves curled in the fetal position, licking our wounds, embracing a victim’s mentality. Has that approach ever launched anyone towards his or her goal? A good attitude won’t guarantee victory, but a bad one will guarantee defeat.

If you’ve neglected your workout routine, missed a deadline, or fallen short of your goals, beating yourself up or wallowing in pity is a waste of time and energy, and will serve no good purpose. Instead, consider executing an After Action Report (we conducted these after every mission in Special Forces) to (a) identify problem areas that need improvement; (b) develop measures to counteract these problem areas; and (c) pinpoint “lessons learned.” Winston Churchill said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.” So, I encourage you to avoid the negative chatter in your mind, assess the situation, take corrective action, learn your lesson and drive on.

Here’s to your success!

Larry Broughton

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Larry Broughton is Founder & CEO of Broughton Hospitality, and served 8 years on Special Forces A-Teams in the US Army. He is also an author, speaker, and executive coach, parlaying leadership lessons from the Green Berets to the business arena.

Go Above the Call of Duty

Mission Critical

Teammates, what’s the difference between success and failure? How about between winning and losing or the haves and the haves not?

Think about it – think hard … because success isn’t inherited or handed out in class or gifted during the holidays. NOTE – there one way and one way only to earn success: you work for it. But it’s not just work or even hard work, it’s more than that – it’s extra effort, what we call “above the call of duty”. This is what separates the men from the boys – the true winners from everyone else.

When I was in ninth grade, I had the privilege of learning from William H. Armstrong – author of more than 20 books, including “Sounder” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water”. At the time, he was “easily” in his late seventies – definitely eccentric but probably the most memorable man I’ve ever met. He had two quotations hung behind his desk. On the first day he read them aloud to us and told us to remember them. On the second day, he handed out a blank sheet of paper and told us we were having our first test – not a quiz – a test – if we aced it, we would receive an A for the semester. We were psyched.

He pointed to the quotations behind him – now turned around so all we could see was the cardboard backing … and he said: “Your test is to write down verbatim the two quotations I read to you yesterday.”

Needless to say, none of us received an A, but this point was indelibly made on me … and hopefully you’ll take them to heart, for whether your mission is to transform your body or your life, you’re gonna need to keep those close to you, especially when the going gets tough, as it always does.

They are:

“Before the gates of excellence, the High Gods have placed sweat.”

“If a man does only what is required of him, he is a slave, the moment he does more, he is a free man."

Go above the “call of duty” – put the extra effort in, and you’ll never be disappointed.

CHARLIE MIKE – ALDEN

P.S. The stronger your body (fitness level), the better suited/equipped you are to go above the call of duty.

Turning Attitude Into Action!

To all those Perfect Swim Buddies out there – you know who you are (those that help others stay motivated or provide suggestions) – you guys define what a swim buddy – covering each other’s six.
We spend a lot time at Team Perfect designing, testing, building, and rebuilding product to make it as Perfect as possible for you, but at the end of the day, the product is only as good as what you do with it. Put it under the bed and you’ll get the failure you’re looking for – but create a simple system for using the products and you’ll be rewarded for your efforts in more ways than you can honestly imagine.

The key is helping folks stay motivated – after all, it’s all about attitude – the one thing you can control – and you swim buddies are helping turn attitude into action, and my teammates, there’s nothing more important than that!

BRAVO ZULU and CHARLIE MIKE to all you current and future swim buddies out there!

HOOYAH!! ALDEN

NEWS FLASH: Teammates, check out the review of the V2 on Crunchgear!


Cartoon used with permission of Dreamstime.

Mobilize Your Motivation

Teammates -- You need to understand “why” you are even considering exercise in the first place – your motivation lies here. To do this, do the following – get a blank sheet of paper and isolate yourself for 10 minutes – during those ten minutes write down every positive thing you can think of regarding “why” you should exercise – examples: get more energy so I can play with my kids, do more with my friends/girlfriend/wife, so I can travel, so I can get more out of life, so I can feel better, so I can…. Think of it in categories like personal (as in the example above) or medical – so I can lower my blood pressure or lower my doc bills or so I can prevent getting type 2 diabetes or keep my diabetes in check.

The list is much more than you may think and by writing it down it will help you unlock your subconscious and open up your conscious decision making. At the end of the day – you and ONLY you decide what kind of attitude you going to have, and you and ONLY you decide what your body is going to do and when it’s going to do it.

After you’ve finished your 10 minutes of stream of consciousness writing of the all the positive things you will gain by exercising – go back and circle the top five reasons that are most important to you – write those down on a separate sheet of paper and sign it, just like a contract.

Then, take another step if you have the guts – write down everything that prevents you from exercising – write every excuse that you make up to avoid working out…understanding your enemy is critical to crushing your enemy … and your ability to make excuses (not to worry, we ALL do it) is your number ONE enemy. As you do this process is will become clear to you that there are some key reasons why you should exercise – your attitude will shift from – “ugh, exercise today – do have to?” to “YES! Today is another opportunity for me to take control of my body so I can…..(you fill in the blank).” CHARLIE MIKE on this (Continue Mission) – it’s the most important element of exercise, so go GET yourself FIRED UP!

CHARLIE MIKE -- ALDEN

PutYourself First When It Comes to Exercise

CM SEAL Team blogger: Tom Rancich


Question from Nancy B: Any input on a way to motivate a 60year old plus person to get going? One bad knee,limited exercise time and a sense that "I am not as young as I used to be."(Did I mention the economy?)

Start small and be quirky! The biggest impediment to people getting started is the idea that you have to start some huge endeavor---simply not true! It can be as simple as being that odd lady who always parks as far away from the store as possible (please only do this if you shop in a safe area at safe times) or the person who always says “I’ll meet you: I am taking the stairs” or who curls her grocery bags three times before placing them on the counter---etc—the point is that a great first step is to look for simple ways that you can improve fitness that require little discipline.

My quirky thing, which does require more discipline, is that I run in the heat of the day—so so the little mental rut that is made is that as it heats up, I start to think about running. The rut (and you thought ruts were bad things) that will be created for you is that as you are walking across the parking lot or up the stairs you will be thinking about your health----and that is 70% of the battle!

Question from Up Your Mind: How do you put yourself first when it comes to exercise/being healthy?

I get this question a lot---it is an interesting paradox---because of course why would you not want to be healthy? (assuming a balanced mental state). So one of the mental games to play is, ask yourself why you want to harm yourself? Why do you want to be uncomfortable with your body image? Why do you want to be short of breath, unable to play with your kids etc---the answers might surprise you—or me—but the most common root cause is “I just can’t do anything about it” well, once you put that on a piece of paper it looks pretty stupid---of course you can! My previous answer is germane, but don’t create monsters where there are none---start small, start thinking about it, and start doing little things. And remember—you can write this down somewhere—YOU ARE IMPORTANT! Treat yourself that way.

In some of my leadership lectures I use the example, you are with a child, both hungry, not sure when the next food will be found and you have one chunk of a survival biscuit which can’t be divided---who gets it? The correct answer is, you! The reason is simple, the only chance both or either of you have to survive is for you to remain strong---it does the child little good to out survive you. So, when thinking about motivating to exercise, or prioritizing exercise --think about what good it does to wash the dishes first, if it means you aren’t going to be around ten years earlier to wash the dishes at all, if you don’t take care of yourself.

Oh and be kind to yourself when you slip up!
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Lt. Commander Thomas Rancich, US Navy SEAL (Ret.) is the co-founder of VRHabilis, a disabled veteran-owned small business that seeks to employ the highly trained and motivated veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars for work in construction and related fields. Rancich and co-founder Elliott Adler are pioneering the concept of using adaptive technology to bridge the gap between industrial and medical technology. Their company contributes proceeds to two worthy causes: a fund for the development of adaptive technology that will allow disabled veterans to pursue their desired career path and the EOD Wounded Warrior Fund.





Through his consulting firm, Off-Shore Consulting, Tom provides professional advice on leadership and team building, often as a motivational speaker, in addition to being an expert consultant to the entertainment industry.

Alden Mills and Charlie Mike blogger Tom Rancich served together in the Teams.

Motivating Individuals to Work as a Team

Guest blogger: Tom Rancich

Question from Nancy in NC: So, you and Alden are obviously great motivators. SEALs are all about teamwork. I would never have started an exercise program without the external motivational push, or stuck with it, without the initial reinforcement of the group. Any tips on team building and motivation? How do you take a group of individuals, with their own self interests and personal goals, and motivate them to work as a team? I'm not referring to exercise here, but more team building at work or in a civic club situation. Pretty broad question I know, but I have no doubt you can whittle it down to size. I always look forward to your posts.

The very first thing to do is to define what your organizational needs are. Very few organizations actually need a true team, or a least a team as I choose to define it--(Team- A group of people who have undergone advanced/ specialized training and been specifically forged into a highly committed, capable, mission specific, performance oriented operational entity).

But rather they need to improve their group performance (again, as I chose to define it. Group- A task oriented compilation of people based on individual skills relative to the projected skills required). Now the reason I define things this way is that I assert that the dictionary definitions are inadequate to properly define the future requirements of the team/group and thus makes achieving that status highly unlikely. So the first thing that an organization really needs to do is clearly and accurately define what are their

1. Goals
2. Mission
3. Vision
4. Critical values
5. Organizational imperatives
6. Organizational philosophies

From that start you will have defined the type of people and the type of interaction/communication you need. It is a lot of work, but this will also clearly show how people are to be and most importantly, the benefit to the individuals for being that way.

I have long believed that all SEAL training and operational successes come down to two simple critical values that all SEALs must possess: Never quit, Never leave your buddy. That is the bedrock foundation of everything else we do.
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Lt. Commander Thomas Rancich, US Navy SEAL (Ret.) is the co-founder of VRHabilis, a disabled veteran-owned small business that seeks to employ the highly trained and motivated veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars for work in construction and related fields. Rancich and co-founder Elliott Adler are pioneering the concept of using adaptive technology to bridge the gap between industrial and medical technology. Their company contributes proceeds to two worthy causes: a fund for the development of adaptive technology that will allow disabled veterans to pursue their desired career path and the EOD Wounded Warrior Fund.





Through his consulting firm, Off-Shore Consulting, Tom provides professional advice on leadership and team building, often as a motivational speaker, in addition to being an expert consultant to the entertainment industry.

Alden Mills and Charlie Mike blogger Tom Rancich served together in the Teams.