This throwback picture was taken about a year ago, when I was gathering my required items for a 12 hour overnight Spartan event inspired by the Navy SEALs at the Navy SEAL Museum in Fort Pierce.  

I clearly remember that night; it was raining so hard we could not see 2 feet ahead of us and it was cold due to a storm coming in from the ocean with some nasty wind gusts. My ruck was heavy at about 50lbs+; which we had to run with, do countless burpees, push-ups, bear crawls, and do many minutes of what is called the front leaning rest position, which is anything but resting when you have that much weight pushing you down. In between all that there was a mile ruck run, another 1.5-mile ruck run, max pull-ups, push-ups, and sit-ups competition, overhead boat holds with 400lbs+ of gear in it, a sunrise 5k run on the beach in our wet boots at hour 13, and a whole lot of yelling by retired Navy SEAL badasses (I never forget the fact that they did not seem to be bothered by the torrential downpour; their faces hard as a rock, and some were well into their 60s.)

On that miserable 13 hour night, I learned many things like how to keep warm while stopping yourself from shivering, experienced a small sample of what the Navy SEAL hell week might feel like, and further trained myself getting comfortable being uncomfortable. 

It was not lost on me that we simply got to go home to our beds after that “fun” event, while our country’s special forces soldiers are only beginning their careers with something much more hellish.

Thank you sir @HectorDelgado for your service and your handshake. When things get hard in business or life, I think of the instructors I met that night and I remember the SEAL’s most well-known saying,  The only easy day was yesterday.