How a Voluntary Stint with the Navy SEALs Changed my Life | Jared Smith | TEDxUAlberta

[Music] the sea was angry that day my friends George Costanza said like an old man taking back soup at a diner this particular day I was with 10 of my closest friends carrying a rock 45 pounds of weight we've been training together for 12 months now this particularly experience we had hours under her belt he's 45 pound rocks were to be carried for 10 miles their deep sand this sea kept pounding on the shores of the west coast of California pump I got the spray into her face the water was over 48 degrees Fahrenheit was cold at that time light hamstring was ripped my leg was swollen my knee was swollen my arms were trembling under the weight of this rock I had a moment where I honestly didn't think for the first time in my life I could go any further the weight was too heavy I looked up a baby seal instructor barking orders at me he said it's easier to keep up and catch up Smith let's go my teen starting to move up I fell behind down on one knee this rock the weight of it crushing two years before I was sitting at Elm cafe Nettleton on the patio during a cappuccino and a half hour of contemplation to myself thinking a little bit about my beautiful family a thriving business how good life was the Sun was up blue sky Humbert and then I received a phone call when everything will change sure many of you have had phone calls like this you know what it feels like my mother just voice trembling on the other line my sister had cancer and not the good kind but she was a young mother the daughter was only 3 or 3 years old at the time and so we all knew that she would fight this we would help her fight it and we would win six months later I was at a cancer clinic with my sister she has lost 80 pounds through her treatments I remember in his cancer clinic carrying her from room to room she waved next to nothing in my mind I thought I will carry you for as long as it takes I will carry you forever if I have to if we can beat this if that's what it takes I'll carry a sing at her hospital bed two months after that her head of mine she said Jared how kind of like my little redhead daughter grow up without her mother how can I possibly kina she passed away I was left in the week of grief as many of you have been in your lives I'm sure not sure what to do unchartered waters should I pick up a bottle should I just bury this thing and move on should I get dizzy have interesting conversation with my sensei of 20 years a mentor of the friend even Houston we sat down and I said what should I do I feel like I'm left with such huge disparity waves of it crashing over top and he said fight hardship with hardship what do you mean by that he said find something tough that requires a team of people around you to accomplish go do that it'll give you a sense of direction and focus well one thing led to another I chosen an impossible adventure with Navy SEALs that would require 12 months of training to prepare I recruited 18 men we whittled down to 11 for two hours sometimes four hours a day of training in preparation for what would become what we would call our crucible we were pretty excited about this opportunity and that year was good one for me it provided me with that direction focus something death honor my sister was in every push up every Burpee every single pull-up that I did I thought about the pain that she had to the dirt and it made my pain a little less so there we were after all of this training standing in this incredible facility called seal fit commander mark Devine former SEAL team 3 commander owned and operated his facility he allowed us to come and find out what it meant to be as he said the real Navy SEAL first few days his tenth were part torture Park GI Joe part fun weapons training hand-to-hand combat we did a lot of training simulations long runs in the beach we had a lot of fun it was tough but we knew that these seals were preparing as for what would become our crucible the crucible was modeled after hell week and for those of you that have watched any Hollywood Navy SEAL movies you've had a glitch just a mannequin 92 to our minutes there to our sessions on the beach under 350 pound dogs with rocks on what's called the grinder which is a cement concrete pad in the training facility this would be an endless hour after our regimen that was intended to greatness and the idea that was that when you meet your end the learning starts so there we stood at the beginning of what would become our crucible not sure what would happen to us hands on her back waiting and anticipation and a Navy SEAL when we had never met before smaller men ripped shredded arms tattoos everywhere he started pacing back and forth hi boys so the Canadians are here I know would like to be a Navy SEAL I hear you're tough you don't look tough I need you to know I've made men and women waiting tougher than you truck within the first four hours of my simulation if you don't Navy SEALs to with Memorial today more Memorial Day and today happen to be the one you said you know what we do we celebrate the lives of the men we've lost where our sisters our brothers we have a barbecue we toast them I've lost eight men in the last 12 years but I'm not with it because I do what I'm told to come out here and spend some time with the Canadians if you want a Navy SEAL experience one thing to say to you you better not waste my time it would begin from there and there were three profound moments over the next 36 hours Ernie now you get animals with four men raced the only thing we had to recover was Gatorade and fig burps I swear to God if anyone here has a big barbecue right now there were three profound things that hit me in this experience the first the first happened when we were asked to go into the high plank which is essentially in this position it's the high plank position to push that position many of you probably tried it our instructor said Smith your team what's your max high plank was it eight minutes of 25 seconds we tested it many times before zip ticket number between 29 and 30 he did and we went into high plank position and hit it six thirty this was after about 22 hours training we thought we were gonna die I looked over at my buddy Bennett is there a poor shaken like this the seal instructor kick bargain Adams stop shaping Bennett just help a minute seven he said okay we are gonna cheer together the following easy day we've got this who young and we started cheering this chant together I want you to finally just feel what it felt like through an experiment we're gonna cheer this together and count three four four different rounds we're gonna stay easy day we've got this hooyah let's scare people outside the Citadel with the volume we chanted that probably 1370 times and then we looked up shaking in a puddle of sweat and we realized that we had made it to 31 minutes we celebrated the celebrations were short-lived during one of the next evolutions who's after surf torture and then just before beach wars we were asked to blinkers and headed to the water was 3 o'clock in the morning in the night was long darkness is not your friend on the beaches with five Navy SEALs and as a team we linked arms we were asked to back into these huge pounding waves in the search and layer heads down on the sand and let the waves crash on top of us over and over and over again and the steel is claimed that we would be able to last at least 20 minutes this position every time that we crashed on top of us frigid water here you couldn't breathe you couldn't see you can speak instead was in places that I didn't even know I had Blake dermis I started in on this self-talk of pity talk to myself that's horrible I can't do this anymore so cool I was actually shivering so badly that one of the instructors say that's not shivering this Jack Henry stopped jackhammering sniff I was praying it my my buddy next thing you would pee in the waters and then I had a moment when my instructor said if you're focused on yourself right now you won't last another minute your job is him the man next to you his job is you get out of your head boys it's profound as soon as I started focusing on Montgomery to my right my swim buddy the man I'm supposed to protect I asked how you dealing with that right have you got this hold on can you change the evolution with the rocks is called the will to live our instructor had said the reason this devolution is called the will to live because if you don't think this is life or death you won't make it through the first month we have ten miles of hiking and when we see sweat on your faces we're gonna put into the water when we see a set of stairs in the valley we're gonna go test out the stairs to see if they can withstand the weight of you and your rocks well by this time we were delusional by this time we were stinking product over fate we have so much Gatorade in it it was pouring out of our course we looked like at the pot nest then taped in her hair and one of our teammates had a small concussion and blood all over and we had blood all over our shoulders from carrying these walks we were disaster Smith TV here to keep up and catch up there I was with my rock my who's the nation was that I was carrying my sister but this time I couldn't carry the weight it's too sad could go any further I thought I'd be stuck there forever all of a sudden one of my teammates came up behind me just handle my back come on Smith let's do it other teammates circle back you put their hands on my back put their hands on each other and we carried it rocks for the next nine miles and not one step did I not have someone's hand on my back my challenge for you it's not seek out happy moments so you go tough moments hardship crisis this is where we learned when we meet our end the learning begins the transformation happens I don't care what your challenge is it doesn't matter if it's a moment of silence for three days doesn't matter if it's a marathon doesn't matter if this train with Navy SEALs find your challenge and go do that do it with the team and remember cheer together hooyah remember to focus on others in your moments of despair and remember to allow others [Applause] [Music]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 43,329

Rating: 4.8106995 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Life, Grit, Hardship, Learning, Motivation, Self improvement, Struggle

Id: S5jjy97ZCKY

Length: 17min 39sec (1059 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 30 2017