Warrior Soul

“There is no way to quantify motivation.”

So comes a quote from the book, “Warrior Soul” by Chuck Pfarrer. Chuck Pfarrer is a former Navy Seal who shares his life’s story, his adventures and his training with the reader. No Vince Flynn or Tom Clancy here-Pfarrer is the real thing.

I’m just ankle-deep into “Warrior Soul” now, but I can tell I’ll breeze through this one! Why? The story is just fascinating! Never mind the true missions, just the training to weed out those who want to be Seals is some of the most intense endurance I’ve ever heard of. 700 push ups before 8 a.m.? 15 miles per day spent running, sometimes in wet and sandy gear? Carrying telephone poles around? Seriously, telephone poles!

And that, faithful reader, is why I’m just so thankful there are people protecting our country that are just such incredible human machines.

When Pfarrer went to his first day of training to become a Seal, his class consisted of 145 students. The “weeding out” process began from minute #1. When the ranking officer said, “We’re not going to train you, we’re going to try to kill you”-he wasn’t joking. Only a handful of the original 145 original students graduated.

Yet, even though the class of 145 was comprised of some Olympiads, college football players and those of equal physical shape, it wasn’t necessarily the athletes who made it through. Sometimes, the Nebraska farm boy at 140 lbs. could hang, while the distance swimmer would drop. Pfarrer said it best: “There is no way to quantify motivation.”

So often, we’re ready to count out the little guy, or the person with a lower I.Q., or the person who had a rough start to life. And all so often, we’re shown how, when we count someone out, they’re most likely to accomplish the goal.

If you’re able to do anything in this world, it’s probably because you’re motivated to do so. That motivation of self is what has created world leaders, bazillionaires, title holders and, thankfully, the Navy Seals that protect our country.