How To Manage Pre-SFAS Doubt and Uncertainty
Embrace the Process, Achieve the Outcome
The other day, I was chatting with a client about something that comes up with nearly all SFAS prep my clients at one point or another: doubt. More specifically, the fear that they won't be fully prepared for selection when the time comes. These feelings usually begin creeping in several months before selection and intensify as the date approaches.
The intensity of these feelings varies. Some days, they’re stronger; other days, they’re weaker. This fluctuation is usually tied to recent training performance: bad training days or weeks? Doubt and worry increase. Stellar training days or weeks? Doubt and worry decrease.
Just to be clear, I’m not a psychotherapist or mental health expert. However, having gone through all of this myself—and still dealing with similar struggles today, just for different reasons—and since these thoughts and feelings are so common in my coaching program, I’ve become quite seasoned at helping my guys manage them.
Before we get into the strategies, I want you to notice my word choice: ‘manage’. Manage is different from ‘avoid’, ‘get rid of’, ‘overcome’, ‘ignore’, ‘solve’. Why do I use the word manage? Because as you’ll learn later in this article, that’s really your only option if you want to succeed.
Think of it like stress-management. If you simply avoided or ignored stress, you’d go nowhere in life. Part of stress-management is reducing exposure to easily avoidable stressors, but no matter what you do, you’ll inevitably still encounter stressful scenarios in your life. Those able to manage stress effectively are typically less susceptible to the detrimental effects of stress, both acute and long-term.
In this case, you’re managing doubt, anxiety, worry or uncertainty about whether or not you’re truly the right guy for the job or doing enough to show up prepared. This is all stress. But stress isn’t always a bad thing—when approached with the right mindset and strategies, it can actually be leveraged. While this isn’t a general stress management article, the analogy applies here. Since I know my clients aren't the only ones dealing with these same challenges, I’m going to share my 'Pre-SFAS doubt and worry management' strategies with you.
A Feature, Not a Bug
Have you ever been stressed about something, only to feel even more stressed—or even ashamed—because you’re stressed about it? Believe it or not, stressing about one thing can result in 2nd order stress. If you’re like me (and you probably are, since you’re reading this), this happens regularly. Many future candidates feel bad for having these emotions. They think that worrying about their selection fate makes them abnormal, which leads to more stress or even shame. So, not only are they worried, but now they feel ashamed for being worried. They see it as a bug (or flaw), rather than a feature.
If this sounds familiar, here’s some good news:
First, feeling worried, uncertain, or doubtful is a good sign. It means you care and are deeply invested in your goal. I’d be far more concerned if you weren’t feeling at least a little uneasy.
Second, you’re supposed to feel this way. Every single person who has ever been selected has experienced doubt, uncertainty, and anxiety about their level of preparation. Type-A personalities, in particular, are naturally conscientious—sometimes to a fault. Unlike those who take a more ‘go with the flow’ approach, they are hyper-aware of everything happening both inside their minds and in their environment. They possess such high degrees of agency that they believe everything they do or think will directly affect every outcome.
The upside is that this awareness and agency drives them to do everything necessary to succeed. The downside is that if left unmanaged, it can lead to a downward spiral of second guessing, ruminating, and paralysis by analysis. Sometimes, all you need is reassurance that you’re right where you need to be—and that’s my goal for this section.
True Story
To drive this point home, here’s a personal example from my time in the pipeline as an 18X-ray: At SOPC, I won every run and finished every ruck several minutes before anyone else. I found every one of my land nav points in practical exercises (PEs) and the graded events, and crushed every other PT event.
By the end of SOPC, I felt physically strong and capable, despite our class’s ~70% attrition rate, which was uncommon at the time. I even felt like I could start SFAS without the 10-day break if I had to.
Yet, during the week between SOPC and SFAS, I was so consumed with worry about whether I deserved to be there or would succeed that I drank 3–4 24 oz Budweisers every night just to calm my nerves enough to sleep (THIS IS NOT ADVICE).
Flash forward to the following week at SFAS, I maxed the PT test, won all three runs, and finished first in one ruck and second in the other during gate week. I should have felt good to go, right? Wrong. I STILL felt it wasn’t enough.
Then I went 8/8 on the Star Course. Did that seal the deal? Nope. I was still worried I wouldn’t make it. During team week, I got along with my team, carried my weight (and then some), and earned all blue slips and no pinks (blue = positive peer evaluations, pink = negative).
That must have done it, right? Wrong. Despite these clear wins, the underlying doubt remained.
My second team was even better, and we finished long before any other teams on both days. My performance improved, with even more blues and still no pinks.
So, was I confident I’d get called into the ‘selected’ formation on judgment day? Nope—still terrified that it wasn’t enough.
To recap: I won all but one gate, found every land nav point (including PEs), and earned over a dozen blue slips during team week. And I STILL wasn’t convinced it would suffice. Even when the cadre called me in and told me I was the #2 rated candidate out of more than 300, I felt like they had missed something, like I didn’t belong.
Although I’m a lot more confident and sure of myself today (13 years later), I still experience feelings of insufficiency in other areas of life. I’m not saying all of this to boast, rather to show you that these feelings are FEATURES, not bugs. They’re just the cost of doing business when you’re wired a particular way.
Now that you know you’re supposed to feel this way and that you’re not alone, let’s examine some of the best ways to confront the feelings. One of them will be a mindset strategy, the other will be more tactical. We’ll start with the former.
Process Vs. Outcome
The most successful people in the world have mastered process-oriented goals. Take Elon Musk, for example—he doesn’t start his day thinking, “How can I become wealthier and more successful six months from now?” Instead, he breaks his day into five-minute increments, focusing solely on what he needs to do in each block. The process—how well he executes every five-minute segment—is what drives his extraordinary outcomes, most of which you're probably familiar with (unless you've been living under a rock).
To clarify, I’m not suggesting you chase ‘Elon-esque’ levels of efficiency by scheduling your day into five-minute chunks. Elon is a one-and-eight-billion individual. But this illustrates how focusing on the process can lead to exceptional results. This concept applies to nearly all areas of life, including preparing for selection.
Here’s how this process-oriented approach might look in the context of selection:
Average candidate’s current mindset: “Will this be enough to produce my desired outcome (getting selected)?”
Winning Mindset (the one you want to cultivate): “What can I do today, or more specifically, right now, to ensure I’m doing everything I can to leave no stone unturned?”
With the latter mindset, you’re invested in the process; the daily micro-wins that when compounded over months, ensure that you’re doing everything in your control to show up prepared. The ultimate outcome—whether or not you get selected—will never be fully in your control.
You could theoretically show up ‘optimally’ prepared and STILL not make it, because luck is always a factor. However, what is in your control is how you execute on a daily basis. If you’re constantly focused on the outcome, it’ll inevitably pull your attention away from the process.
Instead, this Winning Mindset ensures you embrace the process. The proficiency with which you execute each step is what gives you the best possible chance at achieving the desired outcome. As a lovely bonus, this mindset also makes everything embedded in the process more enjoyable and less burdensome.
For example, let’s pretend you’re 3 months out from selection. You wake up on day one of your program and think “if I crush this workout, I’m more likely to get selected, but if it’s subpar, I’m less likely to get selected.”
First of all, while all workouts are important, a single great workout OR a single piss-poor workout will have little to no effect on your preparedness 3 months from now, let alone your outcome 3 months and 3 weeks from now (~the duration of selection). Even a dismal week of training can be bounced back from. But many people treat each workout like this, and it’s bound to increase feelings of worry and overwhelm.
Instead, consider waking up daily to this prompt: ‘what can I do this morning and/or today to ensure I’m covering all my bases?
To break it down even further, you can ask yourself things like:
What should I eat for breakfast to ensure I’m set up for the best possible training session?
How can I ensure I’m fully hydrated going into this training session?
How can I ensure I’m able to maximally focus on every aspect of this training session?
What should I focus on most during today’s training session?
What can I do differently in this training session to improve its quality?
How can I ensure I’m tracking and measuring every exercise, set, rep repeat, etc. in the session?
After the training session, what should I eat and drink to ensure I’m recovering optimally?
Later today, how can I ensure I’m managing my stress to enable proper recovery?
How can I show up for my team (or employer, family, friends etc.) as my best possible self?
What should I do before bed to ensure I’m setting myself up for the best possible sleep?
(On rest days) How can I ensure I’m optimizing recovery as much as possible?
And so on and so forth…
This may seem like a lot to focus on, but if you treat it as a continuum and choose the one or two of the most relevant prompts in each moment throughout the day, you’ll gradually master the art of embracing the process.
For example, if you’ve just finished your workout, you don’t need to focus on preparing for it anymore. That ship has sailed, and whether it was mundane, stellar, or subpar, there’s no re-do. The next important step of the process is refueling, recovering, and tackling the rest of your daily responsibilities. By concentrating on what’s in front of you, you narrow your focus to the task at hand, rather than fixating on the arbitrary things that are still months away and largely beyond your control.
Shifting your goals to focus on the process—and being laser-focused on every detail as it unfolds—keeps you grounded in the present moment. Living in the present makes everything less overwhelming, easier to measure, and helps you grow as a person, athlete, and future Green Beret. You only have complete control over the inputs. While I could likely predict the outcome based on someone’s daily inputs over several months, it’s still not worth fixating on. The outcome is a byproduct, not the goal.
Although adopting this mindset is a non-negotiable first step, it's only the beginning. Now, let’s dive into how to apply it practically.
Getting Tactical
Since simply ‘deciding’ to switch your mindset on a dime is far easier said than done, let’s discuss tactics. As previously mentioned, the proficiency and consistency with which you execute the process—or your inputs—will increase your likelihood of reaching your desired outcome. As such, it’s important to gain extreme clarity on what these inputs actually entail. Focusing on these inputs consistently gives you the greatest likelihood of showing up to selection in the optimal state of preparedness:
Securing a coach, training program or at least creating a sound training program (not just 3 months out, but 6 months, 9 months, and so on)
Daily execution of the sound training program and/or your coaches instructions. Remember: rest days are PART of the program.
Eating for performance
Hydrating optimally
Sleep quality and quantity
Stress management
Character trait development
Skill development (knots, land navigation, apparatus construction)
Developing and nurturing a strong support system
Self assessment and adjusting fire as necessary
Focusing on and executing all of the above, day in and day out (or when applicable), isn’t just a ‘helpful’ strategy—it’s non-negotiable. Your ONLY option.
You can’t ask the cadre for special treatment. You can’t control whether the moon will be out or if it’ll rain during the Star Course. You can’t prevent stepping into a sunken tree stump on day 2 of land nav. You can’t game the lanes for team week in advance. And you won’t know the exact distances or routes for your runs and rucks during gate week.
You have no control over these things. But what you can do is this: execute TODAY to the best of your ability, leaving no stone unturned.
Inverse Thinking (What NOT To DO)
I believe that in 2024, knowing what not to do is just as, if not more important than knowing what to do. The modern world is a cesspool of distractions and confidence- killers that must be identified and intervened with.
What will erode your self esteem and confidence throughout this process? Anything that pulls you away from the above goals. When you don’t follow through, feelings of doubt begin creeping back in, and if left unchecked, they intensify rapidly. Below are examples of habits and activities that will derail your execution of the above, and, ultimately, undermine your mindset:
Staying up late to binge watch shows or scroll
Partying on weekends or nightly nightcaps
Pressing snooze or using multiple alarms
Ignoring a pre-bed sleep hygiene routine
Spending hours on social media
Watching the news excessively
Skipping or short-cutting workouts
Adding excess workouts or going off plan
Failing to stick to training intensity guidelines
Eating processed foods in unregulated quantities
Neglecting proper fueling and hydration for training sessions
Relying on stimulants and pre-workout to train
Skipping rest days when needed or programmed
Procrastination on anything needle-moving
Showing up late to commitments (with yourself or others)
Allowing stressors like unpaid bills, missed appointments, unanswered requests, etc. to build up or linger
Spending time with people who undermine your goals, drain your energy, or crush your spirit
Becoming closed-off to friends and family who are trying to support you
Failing to keep promises to yourself
…the list goes on. Every single day is a chance to either keep the ball rolling and gain momentum, or put an obstacle in the way because you gave in to your emotions that told you ‘it’s ok to skip this just once’ or ‘you deserve a break’ or ‘I don’t feel like doing this today’ or ‘I think I just need a bit more of X’. Some of these may seem minor, but when compounded, they’re powerful enough to crush your confidence, especially when done habitually.
But when you hold yourself accountable and focus on the daily inputs, it acts as a dimmer switch on the intensity of doubt. It won’t make doubt vanish, but it’ll allow you to manage it. The additional major upside to staying accountable and executing the process daily is that your confidence and self-esteem will grow exponentially. You’ll generate piles and piles of evidence that you are who the hell you say you are, because you’re not just talking about it, you’re doing it.
To Summarize
Feeling doubt and worry is normal; a feature, not a bug. But you’re in control of whether it crushes you or lights a fire under your ass. Regardless of the outcome, you have a set number of days, weeks, months before you’ll find out. What you do between now and then is entirely up to you.
Your ONLY two options are to carry out the plan with vigor, or keep letting it overwhelm you and interfere with your daily inputs. Instead of asking ‘how can I be sure I get selected?’ Ask ‘how can I maximize my inputs every step of the process?’ From there, all that’s left to do is execute. Embrace the process, and the outcome will follow.