Operators Association

How to Become Unbreakable

October 29, 2021

Get tough by following these proven strategies.

Nobody is born tough – there’s no such thing as a badass baby. Every person comes into this world equally helpless. Despite this, as people go through life, they’re socialized into different lifestyles and ideologies. Some people are loud, some are quiet. Some people are warriors, and others are pacifists. Some individuals are tough, while others are feeble and soft. In this OA guide, we’ll be tackling that last issue. Toughness is a skill that can be learned, practiced, and perfected through hard work and determination. Here are three strategies you can use to start becoming unbreakable today.

Learn How to Suffer
If you want to get tough, you must learn how to live a strenuous life. The more difficulties you can impose on yourself, the less external events will phase you. Once you accept that improvement and success involve suffering, the sooner you can rise to challenges and accomplish your goals. The difficulties and suffering you experience don’t have to be excruciating – but you should experience some self-imposed discomfort daily. 

We’ve talked about the importance of living a simple life in our other OA guides. But simple living isn’t just about having an uncomplicated, straightforward lifestyle. It’s about stripping away the luxuries that aren’t necessary to your survival. You don’t need hot water to take a shower – cold water will do. You don’t need a fancy breakfast every morning – a bowl of plain oatmeal is satisfactory. 

There’s a reason why humans 2000 years ago were generally more resilient than people are today. But it’s not because they experienced pain or difficulty any differently than we do. It’s because they didn't have the luxuries of warm running water, pain killers, or even salt to season their food. So they lived a simple life and forged onwards because it was the only choice they had. Get started on the path to toughness by eliminating the unnecessary baggage from your daily life – keep it simple and challenging.

Do the Hard Things First
When you do difficult things first, you voluntarily choose to carry the burden and responsibility of living. When you train, start with your most disliked exercises. When you’re working, opt to take on the most arduous project. You can only grow and prosper as a person and aspiring operator if you consciously attack the difficulties in your life instead of avoiding them.

The longer you wait to start doing hard things, the more laborious they’ll become. Skipping out on hard work in favor of lighter tasks might give comfort in the short term, but it will make you mentally and physically weak in the process. Face your difficulties head-on and attack them now.

Attack Your Weaknesses
Your shortcomings don’t define you. But the way you treat them does. In general, there are two types of people in this world: those who attack their flaws and overcome them, and those who say they want to improve and never do anything about it. They blame others for their failures and are the perpetual victims of the world around them – it’s never their fault (if you find this offensive, you’re probably in the latter category). 

If you want to become unbreakable, you must take responsibility for yourself. Stop blaming others and looking for excuses. If you failed, it’s your fault – now it’s your job to make sure that never happens again. Making mistakes and failing once is a natural part of growth. But failing the same way multiple times and doing nothing about it is a sign of ignorance. 

Identify your weaknesses and take action to eliminate them. Do you lack strength? Good. Start lifting. Are you timid in high-pressure scenarios? Good. Seek out difficulty and get used to uncomfortable situations. Lacking confidence? Good. Push yourself to the limit and find out what you’re made of. Improvement can only come from eliminating your weaknesses. And the first step is admitting that you have them.

Start attacking your weaknesses by becoming an OA Aspiring Operator today. When you join the Operators Association, you get instant access to all of our exclusive perks like OA podcasts, weekly accountability groups, and a SOF community of hundreds of future, current, and former special forces operators. Enlist today. Click here to become an OA member.
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