The Special Forces Mantra

⚠️ Do NOT copy this Special Forces mantra!

For many years I had some fantastic conversations with Special Forces operators. I became fascinated with so many of their ideas, philosophies and approaches to performance, resilience, stress, training and reflection.

One particular mantra I would hear everywhere was...

Mission-Team-Self

This selflessness which essentially stated that the mission and the team were always of greater importance than one individual team member.

Special Forces operators are trained to do a very specific job, they live by a very specific code of conduct for a very specific set of reasons.

They need to know that the person next to them can be trusted with their life, trusted to have their 6, so they don't even have to look.

This mantra makes sense, because of the nature of the work protecting, people, nations and even regions of the world.

This mantra DOES NOT make sense in the vast majority of non-tactical jobs.

For all of us not in that realm, it should read...

Self-Team-Mission

Why?

• Look after your own health, well-being and performance and the team will benefit.
• A team is the sum of its parts. So a high-performing team is made up of high-performing individuals.
• The mission takes care of itself if the team perform to its optimal.

So often though, we put others' well-being, welfare and performance before our own and we are doing your team and the mission a disservice.

So, flip this famous SOF mantra on its head so that you can apply it to your daily lives and personal performance environments.