You alone decide your limits

- This is an audio course. Thank you for listening. - [Instructor] You've put together in your book, Unstoppable Teams, a number of, of pieces that sort of speak to some parallels between how, how Navy SEAL teams can really have some some real similarities to high performing civilian teams. So could you, could you draw that parallel for us or or build that bridge? Lots of metaphors here. In terms, if folks are saying, "you know, what, what I do is nothing like what a Navy SEAL team does." Can you set us straight, Alden? - [Alden] You know how many times I've heard that and people will say, you know there's nothing similar between you and me. You're a Navy seal, you know you're a freak of nature and you know, okay maybe there's a little bit of a freak that you want to go through that kind of training, but the same things that they do for us in seal team, they're just more condensed are exactly the same rules that apply as a civilian. And which, by the way I've had much harder times leading civilians than I've ever had leading seals. - [Instructor] Oh, intriguing. Can you say more about that please? - [Alden] I can. And in part, because in SEAL team, they have this place called X-Division and X-division is a place where they remove the negative attitudes, the quitters. They don't let any of that get involved with the people that are in the arena. And as a civilian, after I left SEAL team, you you're surrounded by people who are in X-division and you you have to make your own X-division. You have to decide who you want to listen to and and what voice you want to focus on. And you can't just willy nilly go out there and fire anybody you want. I mean, it takes a long time to remove somebody off of a team, right? And most of us, and we get, we get, we inherit people when we go from one team to the next. and sometimes the X-divisions that you have to create both, by the way I call 'em, there's two kinds of teams. There's the internal ones, inside of you and the external ones, all the different relationships you build. Sometimes those people are close to you, that you have to put in your own personal X-division, like family or friends who are telling you, "oh how do you know you can do that? You can't do that." I mean, a lot of people who tell you can't do something it's because they haven't done it themselves. It scares them. They don't want you to go out there and be different misery loves company. And that became probably my biggest challenge when I transitioned out of SEAL team into being a civilian and leading civilians. And I've led civilians in all different capacities from community organizations to charities, to the startups. - [Instructor] Uh huh. - [Alden] And I, I think that's a really important element to share people is to understand that it's up to you to decide what are the things you want to focus on from the people that are telling you what you can and can't do, because at the end of the day it's up to you to set those limits and that focus. - [Instructor] Yeah. So the X-division is sort of like X out of considerations. Like of, we're just not going to let that in, into the, the thinking or consideration at all - [Alden] That that's correct.