Charles Darwin put forward the concept that the species most likely to survive is not the strongest, or the smartest, but the one most adaptable to change. Often times I think we forget how adaptable we really are. There are countless examples of human beings finding ways to survive in trying times. In the Seige of Vicksburg in the Civil War, the entire town within the walls of the base took to building and living in caverns to survive. The British of World War II spent much time hiding from bombings by the Germans on their commutes to and from work. We are an amazingly adaptable people.

The Gains of the Novice

We are so adaptable that we know human beings are likely to improve at the performance of things at a rate of 100% the more we practice it. Take for example the young man (5’11, 180 lbs) who comes into the gym for the first time to get stronger for an upcoming sports season. The first time he picks up the barbell to bench press it, he might be able to bench 100 lbs. Take that young man for a two to three month time period and teach him a few pointers on the bench press. How to breath, how to position his hands and arms through the lift. Test his one-rep-max again at the end of that time. It’s very likely the young man with discipline, and a short period of practice, can bench between 150-200 lbs.

This is anywhere from a 50-100% increase in performance. Now take this same young man, and put him back in the gym and do the same thing. It’s very unlikely, after the next two to three month time period that the same young man will see the same level of gains. It’s more likely that his bench press increases between 25-50% during this second round of adaptation. Finally, after the young man has reached a very high potential in terms of this lift, he will be lucky to increase this same lift by more than 5-10% after training regularly. In example; a 300 lb bench presser would need to add 15-30 lbs to his 1RM lift to make an increase of 5-10%. Any one with experience in heavy lifting understands how difficult it can be to make large gains in this final round of adaptation.

Third-round Adaptation

This concept of multi-round adaptation and the increasing of skill resulting in a decreasing in the range of increase of performance should be encouraging to us. I meet so many people who are weary of attempting to try a new sport, hobby, or skill. If anything, you should realize that in the first month you will see massive improvements in said sport/hobby. This improvement will lead to increased self-confidence and new-found knowledge of another tool for the tool box. It is sticking with said sport, hobby, or skill to reach elite levels that requires a massive amount of discipline. The weight lifter competing in the olympics is focusing on sleep, diet, macro and micro-programming, testosterone levels, when they had a bowl movement before a lift, and the list goes on and on. Getting good at a new sport is not difficult, getting great at it is the hard part.

To Whom Much is Given, More Will Be Given.

The Matthew Principle, an Christian and Economic principle posits that “to whom much is given more will be given and to whom more is given more will be taken.” This should be the motivation to maintain discipline to push forward and achieve third round adaptation in a sport or skill. Yes, it requires a massive amount of discipline, but those people performing at elite levels have mastered something. To gain 5-10 lbs(1-2%) on a lift when you have a 500 lb back-squat is a tremendous deal. To increase the gains of a 100-million dollar portfolio by 1-2 % is to make an additional 1 million dollars.

When you have gone very far down a path in a positive direction, the ability to make small movement further down the path although extremely difficult results in huge gains. If you’re hesitant to try a new skill, remind yourself that getting better at this skill is the easiest right now. If you’re hesitant to stick with a skill that brings you joy and you have made great gains in already, remind yourself of how far you have come down the path and that you have an opportunity to charter new territory. The adaptation of humans is an amazing thing that has placed us in our current state as a society.

Author’s Note:

I cannot take credit for the Bench-presser example above. A person I admire, Ben Bergeron synthesized this concept so well in his podcast and I had to re-use it to share the example. Please check out his Podcast Chasing Excellence.

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About the Author

John McCarthy is a Father, Son, Husband and former Marine Infantry Officer. He serves his local community and just wants to push people to be better humans. Check out the Tough Talk Podcast and other writings on this website to learn more.

Like what you see? Check out more.

• Adaptation Is a Beautiful Thing
• Trying Out The Wim Hof Method
• The Skills Evolution Forgot
• The Optimal Morning Routine Is Not All It Is Cracked Up To Be.
• Business Leadership Vs. Battlefield Prowess

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I have been experimenting with Breath work a lot lately. I read the book Breath, by James Nestor which really got me thinking about the importance of focusing on breathing. Nestor posits that throughout history, breathing through the nose increased health and well-being and simultaneously guarded against disease. He also examines the many different styles of people and the methods they use to experiment with the effects of breath work.

Nestor visits a variety of practitioners of the art of breathing. Everyone from Wim Hof (discussed more soon) to runners that hold their breath, to Vinyasa yoga instructors who teach the breath of fire, to people who experiment with psychedelic trips triggered solely through breathing. Needless to say there is an underworld out there experimenting with these things.

Wim-Hof Technique

Wim Hof is a dutch extreme athlete who has a lot of very impressive world records under his belt. This list is very long. To me the most impressive is that he and his students managed to activate their autonomic nervous system to kill off endotoxins (e-coli) injected into their blood stream simply through breathing. Mind you, this was done in a lab by scientists who cannot explain how he did so. Hof, focuses on breath work, cold therapy, and commitment to the practice of both. Hof’s followers can be found throughout the world plunging into near freezing water, and following a daily practice of the Wim Hof breathing method. This method is provided for free on his website and below.

• Take a lotus pose on the floor or on your couch, or lay down so your lungs can fill to full capacity.
• Close your eyes.
• Start by taking in a deep breath as full as you can through your nostrils
• Allow the breath to exit naturally (meaning do not push the breath out purposefully)
• Repeat this process for 30 breaths
• After the 30th breath take a full deep breath in and push all of the air out of your lungs attempting to clear them completely
• Sit and hold your lungs empty for as long as you can or as Hof says, “until you feel the urge to breath again.”
• Repeat this cycle for a period of three to four rounds.

How it Feels

It is hard to describe what happens during this process because it feels so unique and at times euphoric. During the first round of the breathing it is actually slightly uncomfortable. Your nostrils may hurt slightly, and frequently I feel my sinuses clearing during this process. After the final breath I am always surprised at how long I can go without needing to breathe again. As instructed in a few books I have read on the subject, I generally push this breath hold as far as I can until I feel as though my lungs are about to burst.

After the first breath in on your second round you get an immediate rush from what I assume is the oxygen your body is yearning for. The subsequent rounds of deep breaths in become much easier from what I assume is the heart regulating to this new breathing pattern. The breath hold after the second and third rounds is even longer and easier, surprisingly. During the second and third rounds of this process you begin to see wild patterns emerging on the back of your eyelids.

At times I see stars as though I’m about to fall asleep. I often feel a tingly sensation in my extremities and experience a slight sense of light headedness. Some people experience a slight head ache after the first few times but this dissipates quickly (I am told). When you are complete with the process you feel similar to the way you feel after coming down from a runners high. Frankly, it’s oddly refreshing how wonderful you feel afterwards.

Stacking Breath Work With Meditation

Recently, I’ve tried stacking this process directly into a 20 minute meditation. It takes me just under 15 minutes to complete the breath work and then I meditate for 20 minutes after. So to accomplish this I set the Oak app for a 35 minute meditation. It has a tremendous impact on my ability to meditate and clear the mind. I’m a very active thinker, and often times I struggle to silence the thoughts in my head and focus on my breath which is the goal of meditation. Stacking a meditation with this breathing method, completely clears my mind and allows me to enter what Steven Kotler describes as a symptom of entering a flow state. A loss of a sense of time.

My Results

I’m still in the early days of looking at the impact of this daily habit in my life. I can say it has immediately had a positive increase in my mood and my heart rate variability and resting heart rate (monitored on my Whoop Strap) have increased and decreased respectively. Additionally, I achieved 5 minutes of sustained time at 90% of my maximum heart rate during a 45 minute workout today. I cannot isolate these improvements solely to breath work as I’m also meditating, doing cold plunges, and staying away from processed foods and alcohol. Regardless, I love the way I feel post breath work, and find the process slightly addicting due to the euphoric feelings it induces. I recommend trying it out and seeing how it impacts you. Stick with it for at least 3-5 days to really feel the effects.

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About the Author

John McCarthy is a Father, Son, Husband and former Marine Infantry Officer. He serves his local community and just wants to push people to be better humans. Check out the Tough Talk Podcast and other writings on this website to learn more.

Like what you see? Check out more.

• Adaptation Is a Beautiful Thing
• Trying Out The Wim Hof Method
• The Skills Evolution Forgot
• The Optimal Morning Routine Is Not All It Is Cracked Up To Be.
• Business Leadership Vs. Battlefield Prowess

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Everybody has that friend who is always trying the new fitness trend. Let’s be real, crossfitters used to be the creepy people at party and now they’re mainstream. These days, If you aren’t walking barefoot through nature on a slack line from a sauna to a cold plunge and back, you’re not that guy. Honestly, a lot of times I think I’m that guy. I’m open to experiences. Ironically, it seems like all of the things being pushed as cutting-edge actions that will amplify your fitness gains are just the things we were forced to do every day before technology made every thing so easy.

We Can Choose to be Superhuman

I don’t believe people can read other people’s minds. I find it hard to believe you can kill e-coli by training yourself to breath a certain way. I don’t believe you can lose weight with the typical American diet by exposing yourself to extreme heat or cold. I don’t believe time in nature can make you live forever. Many of these things are the marketing ploys created by company’s looking to profit from an overwhelming lack of basic health in society.

I have hunted with people who have communicated without speaking or using hand signals. I’ve seen squads of Marines sense things in the distance that did not trigger one of our five senses. I think there are countless capabilities relied on daily for survival that we have forgotten about due to a lack of need these days. Many people are experiencing the benefits of breath work, cold plunging, and saunas. Apparently Wim Hoff did kill e-coli with all of these things, and a study of people who lived to be over 100, found that many of them spent a lot of time in nature.

The earth-shattering science behind fitness

If you look at the science behind any new fitness trend, it generally has to do with hormone production. It should be extremely obvious to us that time in nature, walking to get places, being exposed to a climate that isn’t controlled, and having moments of silence (meditating) are all things we evolved to do. The lack of these things in our daily habits is clearly throwing off our hormone production. Fortunately, capitalism means people can benefit from the “idiocracy” and sell us a way to attempt to fill in these gaps.

Man’s Natural State

Man’s natural state is no longer one of struggle. We do not need to confront the elements to find food to survive. Water is piped into our homes. If we chose to, we could leverage technology to create a pod for a house and never have to leave again. Goodbye vitamin D and fresh air. Hello diabetes and obesity. Therefore we have to push ourselves outside of our comfort zones to do what our needs for survival forced us to do. It’s our job to get outside and breath, walk for 30 mins a day, and eat a diet that doesn’t contribute to obesity. Survival in today’s day and age isn’t about struggling to find things, it’s about struggling to do what we already know is good for us when it is so much easier not to.

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About the Author

John McCarthy is a Father, Son, Husband and former Marine Infantry Officer. He serves his local community and just wants to push people to be better humans. Check out the Tough Talk Podcast and other writings on this website to learn more.

Like what you see? Check out more.

• Adaptation Is a Beautiful Thing
• Trying Out The Wim Hof Method
• The Skills Evolution Forgot
• The Optimal Morning Routine Is Not All It Is Cracked Up To Be.
• Business Leadership Vs. Battlefield Prowess

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Have you ever watched your prototypical a-type personality absolutely lose it when one of their routines get interrupted? If not you could sit at your local Starbucks in the morning and eventually you will. The healthy question to ask yourself when watching this person freak out about the soy milk a barista put in their latte when they clearly ordered oat milk, is “why are they acting this way?” If you’re an a-type personality like the that person freaking out, you probably know exactly what they are going through.

Why we work so hard on not breaking routine

Society has clearly become obsessed with self-improvement. There is enough of it out there for a prototypical a-type to stay high on all day long. This phenomena is creating an obsession with morning routines to set up for the optimal day. Of course it’s imperative for out a-types to have a solid evening routine to ensure they can have the optimal routine. It’s a never-ending loop of routines to setup other routines for optimal performance. Break one of these routines and we run the risk of the cycle being interrupted and next thing we know we’re back on the couch eating cheesy puffs.

Good habits and bad habits

While psychologists and self-help experts alike argue on how many days or reps it actually takes to make a habit, anyone and their mother can see it takes some time to build a habit. Once that habit is engrained in our lifestyle our minds can move to engage in our habit action without thinking in order to expend energy. If a routine is your habit and it gets interrupted, an outside force is risking you breaking the habit and falling off of the wagon. Frequently our habits center around substances that give us a cheap high (the coffee analogy), or good habits that trigger a hormone response giving us a long term high (the runners high). Anything that interrupts these things can cause a very visceral response in the brain. Try to prevent a nicotine addict from getting their fix and watch the lengths they will go to accomplish it.

Thriving in Chaos

Routines and habits are both just energy saving tactics. Arguably, they are the easier way out in accomplishing a task. Show me a person with little responsibility who can focus solely on themselves and their routine, and I will show you someone who likely doesn’t not have much mental fortitude. Any change in our days results in our brain being required to problem solve and adapt to new surroundings. Now, show me the mother who juggles two children, a job, a side hustle, and a relationship with her husband alongside their goals and desired routines for the day. That is the model of resilience, strength, and discipline. Balancing multiple responsibilities, competing priorities, while knowing your day will get changed multiple times before it even starts and still accomplishing your daily goals. That is thriving in chaos. That is the most impressive type achiever.

Getting Back on the Horse

Having had the opportunity to watch a woman do that very thing day in and day out, I’ve come to the conclusion it depends on two intertwined traits. Discipline and flexibility. Often times we see a person cheat on a diet and use that as an excuse to continue eating what ever they want. I had a donut yesterday, I guess this is over with. You wouldn’t turn around on your morning commute because you hit traffic or a red light. You shouldn’t turn around when you hit the first sign of resistance on the path to your goals. The difference between the people who achieve their goals ,which is the purpose of a routine anyway, and those that don’t is the achievers are flexible. They roll with the punches. They don’t let a single issue derail them.

Resilient, Flexible, Disciplined

Morning routines, wind down routines, and great habits are all a recipe for long term success. Minimal compounding interest has great gains over time whether it is in your bank account, diet, or the gym. We should all set lofty goals and work to accomplish them. We should not use the first sign of resistance as a sign to turn back. Rather, we should see it as an exciting challenge we can use to further build our resilience. Resilient, flexible, and disciplined people are our greatest achievers. They are doing amazing things in the business world, home, or arena.

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If you liked this post please share it with a friend or loved one.

About the Author

John McCarthy is a Father, Son, Husband and former Marine Infantry Officer. He serves his local community and just wants to push people to be better humans. Check out the Tough Talk Podcast and other writings on this website to learn more.

Like what you see? Check out more.

• Adaptation Is a Beautiful Thing
• Trying Out The Wim Hof Method
• The Skills Evolution Forgot
• The Optimal Morning Routine Is Not All It Is Cracked Up To Be.
• Business Leadership Vs. Battlefield Prowess

Join Our Followers

I recently read a post by a business leadership consultant bashing the phenomena of Military Leadership strategies and training and its recent gain in popularity when applied to businesses. After all, we don’t need a bunch of Drill Instructors running around accounts payable screaming in peoples faces to meet deadlines. There are preconceived notions of military leadership that would be awful to have in the workplace. However, there are other skills our top military personnel have harnessed that we would benefit from seeing more of in the work place. I would argue one group is cornering the market on training people in these skills. Although an expensive seminar led by a bunch of Navy Seals is not the only way to engrain a military leadership mentality into your culture.

Where Military Leadership can be bad in business

As stated jokingly, we do not need a bunch of screamers running around jamming deadlines down people’s throats. I’ve been in commands where people do this during my time in the military, and frankly the person who is losing their mind over things that need to get done is not usually well-liked or well-respected in or out of uniform. The only time it is acceptable for a person in uniform to be absolutely screaming their head off at people outside of basic training, is when bullets are flying or someone is in a situation where anything but immediate obedience to orders could result in their death. The rest of the time, military leaders are encouraged to exude calmness and confidence in order to set the example for those they command. We are not a bunch of Drill Instructors.

Where Military Leadership training can benefit business

Mission first, Marines Always, was a saying I repeated to others and myself frequently while in uniform. Military leaders are required to put the mission first and care deeply for the morale and welfare of those under their command. We can stop at the fact that they are experts at this and make it the sole basis for an argument to implement their leadership principles in business. Get the job done and take care of your people. It is as simple as that. Additionally, great military leaders have accomplished their tasks when the most valuable assets were on the line. Our nation’s sons and daughters. In many cases their mistakes risked going home in flag draped coffins. Thus they understand the nuance of prioritizing their mission and those assets. Failing to do so could result in inescapable regret for the rest of their life.

The Burden of Command

The burden of command is a well known term amongst military personnel in the combat arms. You are required to care deeply about those in your command to a point that you love them like your family. Simultaneously, you are required to be willing to put those people in harms way to accomplish the mission. Both of these things, the mission and the men, are the Ying and the Yang of military leadership. Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, two Navy Seals and owners of Echelon Front, have captured the essence of this burden in their Book, “The Dichotomy of Leadership.” I think business leaders would do well to read this book based on the principles shared within, paired with their repeated application to business. Babin and Willink used this book to improve upon the shortfalls of their first book, “Extreme Ownership” and focus more on the nuances of leadership. Nuances like putting the mission first and caring deeply about your people.

Instilling Military Leadership Principles in Your Business

You don’t have to hire Echelon front to do this if you don’t want to. Although, I think after reading their books I would recommend it. One alternative is to hire, tested and proven Military leaders in your organization and institute this way of thinking in your corporate culture organically. You can provide books and hold leadership education and mentoring sessions with your middle management and executives where groups talk about the application of Military style leadership to business. You can lead by example by implementing those lessons you have taken from great leaders and applying them in your own daily actions and habits. You can start by focusing on the mission first, the people always.

I find that my day is radically different when I am able to delay the use of a screen even if it is only for the first hour. I have friends that choose not to go on social media until after noon. I have only qualitative evidence for the benefits of this. I believe it is a goal we should aim for. Reducing the use of screens in the opening hours of our day helps us to start off on the right foot.

I’m a firm believer that we decide our attitude about the day ahead in the first five minutes of waking. Therefore, it is prudent to prevent other people from influencing that attitude be it in a positive or negative way. I agree that we should allow others to influence us positively in the opening moments of our day. However, our positivity can and should be a trait we can cultivate in ourselves. This creates a resilience that is not dependent upon the contributions of others. A black mirror (a term for the screens we are constantly staring into) is nothing more than a portal to allow others to influence your life, and ultimately your attitude. Hence why the early mornings should be for personal interaction with the natural world around us.

I’m quickly becoming a believer in getting outside immediately after waking and spending a prolonged period of time outside. I think 30-45 minutes out in the elements first thing can be a massive mood booster in our day. What ever you are doing during that 30-45 minute time period is up to you. It can be a walk, a run, an outdoor workout. Either way I believe it is beneficial to get outside immediately, and those benefits are amplified by not being on a phone or worrying about posting what ever you are doing to social media.

If my anecdotal reasoning is not enough encourage you to consider spending time outside in the morning immediately take the following information as something to chew on.

• A study of Blue Zones (places where people live the longest) focused on similarities between centenarians (people who live to be 100 or older) found that the majority of these people spent prolonged time out in nature, daily.
• A long period of time spent outdoors in the cold leads to the creation of Brown Adipose Tissue, a fat that our body incinerates to keep warm. The presence of this fat and it’s use for energy in the body has been shown to reduce the presence of other fat developed from poor diet and lack of exercise.
• Getting outside immediately after waking triggers our circadian rhythm signaling our body to begin producing the hormones that wake us up in the morning and wind us down for sleep at night.

Whether you’re bundling up and going for a walk outside, hitting a five mile run, or jumping in cold water upon waking it is obviously better to get outside in the early hours of the day. Many of us do not audit our time or bring any sort of intention into how we act in the mornings. I highly recommend considering what you will do upon rising tomorrow and ensuring in some way shape or form it includes putting the phone down and getting outside.

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About the Author

John McCarthy is a Father, Son, Husband and former Marine Infantry Officer. He serves his local community and just wants to push people to be better humans. Check out the Tough Talk Podcast and other writings on this website to learn more.

Like what you see? Check out more.

• Adaptation Is a Beautiful Thing
• Trying Out The Wim Hof Method
• The Skills Evolution Forgot
• The Optimal Morning Routine Is Not All It Is Cracked Up To Be.
• Business Leadership Vs. Battlefield Prowess

Join Our Followers

My wife and I joke very frequently that we wonder what we ever did with all of our free time before we had children. Simultaneously I find great solitude in the life we have built with our new family. We had our son within months of my transition from the military and I believe it was a huge blessing for my wife and I. The responsibility of having a child that was thrust upon us was a gift we were unaware of. A gift I believe many people in my generation are unaware even exists.

This year (2022) marks one of the lowest number of child births on record in a century. This is a problem for many reasons, not the least of which is missing out on the gift of responsibility having a child grants us. My wife often jokes that when we bought our fat little english bulldog Rex, it was her first real responsibility in life. She adds that it prepared her for the trials of being a real mother to a human and not just a fur-baby. I equate the importance of previous responsibility as a Platoon Commander in the Marine Corps to her experience with Rex. I was unaware of the many gifts that experience would grant me that I could rely upon in the future. I believe it makes me a better father and will continue to make me a better father, son, and husband.

The birth of my son came at a pivotal time in my life. As I transitioned out of the Marine Corps and took off the uniform that meant so much to me, I was left wondering what my reason for living was. The minute I held a six pound, eleven ounce baby boy in my hands I found a new reason for living. It gave me another reason to get out of bed in the morning. I had a mouth to feed and an obligation to put a roof over his head. An obligation that magnified more than two-fold when my daughter was born. I found a purpose and reason for living again. Lord only knows how lost I would have been fumbling through the darkness, grasping for a sense of purpose after the Marine Corps without my children.

The millennial generation needs few things more than it needs to take on responsibility. Many people in the veteran community wonder why our suicide rate is so high. I doubt there is a single answer to this question. I argue that one of the main reasons is a lack of responsibility after service. Why are we surprised that young men and women who once carried the weight of the nation on their shoulders are struggling for a new sense of purpose that is equal to previous experience? This need for responsibility is not restricted to millennials who once wore a uniform.

We have obtained the highest level of comfort as a society in history. Our infant mortality rates are the lowest ever across the world. Life expectancies are the highest they have ever been, across the world. Our capacity to earn and accrue wealth is the highest it has ever been. Need I say again, across the world? See Enlightenment Now and Factfulness if you doubt these stats. I’m not arguing that as a society we are free of problems or struggles. They exist. Yet many of the things we think we need more of are not in fact what we actually need more of.

Responsibility is scary I agree. It forces us to struggle and to stick to our obligations. It requires us to be something, every single day. Taking on responsibility and failing does not just hurt ourselves, but also those around us. Which is why responsibility is so beautiful. It makes us struggle for purpose and performance. A worthy struggle indeed. Viktor Frankl quoted Neitzche saying, “A man who has a why can withstand almost any how” when discussing his strategy for surviving multiple Nazi death camps. If you’re struggling to find a why, then first seek out responsibility and your why will show itself.

Did you like this discussion?

If you did I really appreciate it. Check out more stimulating conversation elsewhere on the website, you can also check out the new Tough Talk Podcast at the following locations on Apple and Spotify.

If you liked this post please share it with a friend or loved one.

About the Author

John McCarthy is a Father, Son, Husband and former Marine Infantry Officer. He serves his local community and just wants to push people to be better humans. Check out the Tough Talk Podcast and other writings on this website to learn more.

Like what you see? Check out more.

• Adaptation Is a Beautiful Thing
• Trying Out The Wim Hof Method
• The Skills Evolution Forgot
• The Optimal Morning Routine Is Not All It Is Cracked Up To Be.
• Business Leadership Vs. Battlefield Prowess

Join Our Followers