After I arrived in Iraq, it was April, just some months earlier than the new summer time, the place the each day excessive temperatures had been already above 100 levels and would, quickly, typically attain into the 130s. I knew my crew wanted to be able to work within the warmth, in order we ready all spring, I attempted to push my crew to do extra. SEAL deployments abroad contain plenty of particular person freedom. We select how you can keep match, when and how you can work out, and how you can fill our time between missions. One (of many) selfmade health gadgets we constructed was a humongous truck tire connected to a sequence, connected to a weight belt that might be worn across the waist. We created a one-mile run and a “leaderboard” with everybody’s occasions. Nothing drives SEALs greater than competitors—with self and with others. Nobody stated anybody had to try this mile tire drag dash within the warmth, however these of us who did certain talked trash to the blokes who didn’t.

The exercise was additionally metaphorical. The additional weight represented the warmth to come back, the drag we’d all really feel on our our bodies. We might have competitions, and initially of coaching, although I used to be a decade older than most of the SEALs I used to be main, I might win. “You’re the guys contemporary out of coaching,” I might inform them. “Why am I the quickest one right here?”

I used to be the quickest partly as a result of I had been doing this the longest—intense coaching, centered on virtually nothing else however my physique and the mission, placing myself in the absolute best place to outlast the enemy, to identify them from farther away, to react extra rapidly, to realize each benefit I might. We work out so we’ll see and reply to the enemy first—that’s the objective. When life and demise rely on whether or not you possibly can drag a tire for a mile, your physique figures out how you can do it sooner and sooner and sooner, whereas on the identical time conserving your eyes up and out on the horizon, coaching your self to be as observant as attainable for threats, regardless of how personally depressing you’re.

As soon as I referred to as out the brand new guys about being slower than me, it was game-on. I used to be going forwards and backwards with a younger new SEAL named Will Pipkin on the leaderboard, every of us making an attempt intensely to shave a second or two off our occasions to regain the highest spot. As our six-month deployment got here to an in depth, I used to be a bit demoralized as a result of Will was about ten seconds forward of me—an almost inconceivable time for me to beat. However I made a decision I might exit on my own on the afternoon earlier than we flew residence. I gave it every little thing I had after which extra. I did it—placing myself on the fringe of human distress and maybe by no means having carried out something more durable in my life. I overtook Will!

I made a decision I wouldn’t inform him till we had been on the aircraft residence. We had been all, in fact, ecstatic to be going residence, and once I gathered the common tire-sprinters collectively, I ready to have the final chuckle. I informed everybody about how I had crushed Will, how significantly better I used to be than him, how he simply couldn’t overcome the “previous man,” and so forth. And Will, in a stone-cold impassive response, stated, “Sir—I knew you had been going to try this. I deliberate for that. I bought up at 4 a.m. and walked as much as the leaderboard and noticed your new time. About an hour in the past, I beat you once more by greater than ten seconds.” All I might do was smile. How privileged I used to be to work with such nice SEALs.

What’s my bigger level? For those who dropped me within the desert proper now and requested me to tug a truck tire for a mile, I might are available final or near it—as a result of that merely isn’t my mission anymore. Life modifications. For those who ever suppose you might have all of it found out endlessly, you’re completely flawed. A part of a Mission Pushed life is knowing that the mission evolves and adapts, simply as we evolve and adapt as people.

Think about a dilemma: Spend a couple of valuable hours perfecting a PowerPoint presentation, or take a stroll with a pal? There is no such thing as a proper or flawed reply universally. It depends upon the state of affairs, in your priorities, and on the specifics. We are able to determine to spend these further hours on a PowerPoint deck once we’re twenty-three and have to impress our boss, however the equation could also be totally different once we’re fifty-three and belief that we’ve carried out sufficient and can get loads extra worth from a stroll with a pal. Or maybe not. It relies upon, as each resolution does. Each second of our lives is a alternative, each on the spot a possible transition the place we might determine to proceed on the course we’re on, or shift to one thing new and totally different. We’ll all shift many occasions all through our lives—maybe particularly if households and kids turn out to be a part of our journey.

Our priorities can shift by alternative or by exterior circumstances that outline them for us. However life isn’t about having the identical priorities over time. We are able to stagger the rewards and discover our mission at each stage even when the stability modifications over time. Life is in the end a dynamic equation. You by no means know when you will want or need to make a shift. Circumstances change. And it takes all of the meta-skills mentioned earlier to navigate these modifications, notably resilience, and the flexibility to see arduous days not as failures however because the moments most important for progress. Failures that result in studying are successes in the long run. Onerous days that result in simpler ones make the ache worthwhile. It’s by no means too late to make a better option.

I’ve had so many near-death experiences. I nonetheless keep in mind being in my Afghanistan makeshift workplace, on a video name with my spouse and daughter, when the roof and partitions shook from a rocket explosion. In these moments if you legitimately know it could all be over, you don’t consider your self. You consider who you’re forsaking. Nobody ever needs from their deathbed that they’d spent much less time with those they love and extra time at work. You’ll be able to’t take your cash with you if you go. I used to be in Iraq and Afghanistan when improvised explosive gadgets (IEDs) had been blowing up autos each day. Some days losses had been counted within the dozens. A few of these IEDs contained 100+ kilos of explosives and had been recurrently going off, creating big holes within the highway. There was potential catastrophe lurking at each flip (and on the straightaways, too!). Every time I bought into an armored automobile, I puzzled, Would I even know if I died?

All of the clichés are true. You see your life flash earlier than your eyes; you return to your poorest decisions and need you might have carried out higher. You go to the belongings you haven’t carried out however need to. Truthfully, that’s one of many issues that brought about me to write down my first e book, By no means Sufficient. It’s not that I assumed, Oh no, I didn’t write my e book. Quite, I spotted, I’ve been so privileged to dwell by way of and develop by way of so many conditions that few ever do, for good and unhealthy, that I really feel I’ve to share, encourage, and assist people and our nation. And that’s what drove me to write down Mission Pushed as properly.

I do know what patriotism is, and all I would like on this life is to be generally known as an American and a patriot. Life is about making others and our nice nation higher. You are able to do higher. We are able to do higher. Each single second of each single day.

Excerpted from MISSION DRIVEN Copyright © 2025 Mike Hayes. Revealed by Grand Central Publishing, a Hachette Ebook Group firm. All rights reserved.