Marcus Luttrell and David “Rut” Rutherford of Team Never Quit (@Team_neverquit) join us to talk about how you don’t have to be in the military to develop the discipline necessary to reach your goals.
The Cheat Sheet:
- How did Marcus Luttrell summon the strength to survive the ordeal he describes in his book (and in the movie) Lone Survivor?
- What mental practices do Navy SEALs use to block distraction and stay focused on the task at hand?
- Being the elite of the elite, do Navy SEALs ever suffer from imposter syndrome?
- How do you keep traumatic events from completely defining you?
- Will we be the guys who don’t screw up an interview with Marcus Luttrell?
- And so much more…
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In his book Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10, Marcus Luttrell details what it was like to be the only one to make it out of a Taliban ambush (and the ensuing rescue attempt) alive. You may be familiar with the story; his ordeal was dramatized in the Mark Wahlberg movie of the same name.
These days, Marcus has teamed up with fellow SEAL David “Rut” Rutherford for the Team Never Quit Podcast (find it under comedy in iTunes). Marcus and David join us to talk about their experiences and offer some hard-learned SEAL wisdom to civilians like us who could use a little discipline in our lives. Enjoy!
More About This Show
Crawling, falling, and rolling seven miles through Afghanistan alone with a broken body after enduring a Taliban ambush, Marcus Luttrell, author of Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10, gives us a glimpse into what relief under such duress must feel like.
“I came to,” says Marcus. “I got two sips out of the waterfall. I remember how cold it was. It was coming off the mountain and I remember it as being a good place to die…I got one more sip out of the waterfall and that’s when the village found me.”
The village was where he spent the next six days, protected by the locals and awaiting rescue from American forces in nearby Asadabad. But Marcus doesn’t see his survival as anything that came about by being extraordinary. “I didn’t do anything that any other frogman wouldn’t have done in my place,” he says. “I did exactly what I was supposed to do. Any guy could have done that at any point in time. We all came from the same mold…everybody who went through SEAL training with me knew I was good. I wasn’t the greatest; I wasn’t the worst. Just good enough to be there.”
David Rutherford was an instructor who met Marcus as a new trainee, and offers this evaluation: “He’s absolutely, 100 percent accurate — we don’t distinguish from one guy to the next. But one thing that Marcus will never say is that he did stand out. And I can tell you as being one of his instructors and the fact that he was a medic, I did push him harder than other other guys…and he did live up to it all the time.”
Living up to already high standards, a Navy SEAL who stands out is capable of feats that seem superhuman to an average civilian. And when they feel they’ve failed — as Marcus did when the mission he alone survived was compromised — they’re motivated to get back into the game and prove themselves worthy of their position.
“That’s another thing I keep in my head,” says Marcus. “You understand…we got beat. That’s a loss. I’m known in our community because I survived our greatest loss. It’s…I don’t want to say embarrassing. But…I’ve got to work extra hard because I got beat to get back into the club. That’s the drive and that’s how we work.”
Marcus and David chalk up the SEAL resilience in success as well as failure to training and devotion to the team ethic that binds them. You can’t break an individual SEAL — “you have to break every single one of us,” says Marcus, “and you ain’t getting that done!”
Listen to this episode of The Art of Charm in its entirety to learn more about the code that binds SEALs, why Marcus traveled around the country to meet with the families of his fallen comrades in person, how movies are used to support higher-level comradery, if fame changed how Marcus was treated by his friends when he returned home, if Marcus has political aspirations, how civilian and military minds tend to see training differently, how we’re all capable of greatness if we can escape the comfort zone and find the trigger point that makes us endure what it takes to become the best, what “one is none” means, and lots more.
THANKS, MARCUS LUTTRELL AND DAVID RUTHERFORD!
If you enjoyed this session with Marcus Luttrell & David Rutherford, let them know by clicking on the link below and sending them a quick shout out at Twitter:
Click here to thank Marcus Luttrell and David Rutherford at Twitter!
Resources from this episode:
- Team Never Quit Podcast
- Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 by Marcus Luttrell and Patrick Robinson
- Lone Survivor official movie trailer
- Service: A Navy SEAL at War by Marcus Luttrell and James D. Hornfischer
- Marcus Luttrell at Twitter
- David Rutherford at Twitter
- Team Never Quit at Twitter
- 300
- Band of Brothers
- Jocko Willink | Extreme Ownership (Episode 521)
You’ll also like:
- The Art of Charm Challenge (click here or text 38470 in the US)
- The Art of Charm Bootcamps
- Best of The Art of Charm Podcast
- The Art of Charm Toolbox
- The Art of Charm Toolbox for Women
- Find out more about the team who makes The Art of Charm podcast here!
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