This is Later with Lee Matthews The Lee Matthews Podcast More what You Hear weekday afternoons on the Drive.
Mark Gravada is a retired Navy Seal best selling author Transformative Thought Leap. Let me stop right there, Mark, I don't know that you can ever be a retired seal, can you? You don't retire?
Well, that's you got a point there.
I'm not active duty though, running around understood on but I certainly, you know, do my part still.
Yeah, but you still are our sharpest attack I imagine because the discipline that the Navy Seals gives you up stays with you always, doesn't it.
This is true, Yeah, it does.
And you know, in fact, that's one of the reasons I wrote that book on comics. I want to help people really understand how to really tap into that same level of motivation, the same level of potential, and to really bring out their best you know, to live their best life and to you know, bring some power into the world.
But they've got to they've got to trained for it.
You know, people haven't been taught that, you know, really to be uncommon to tap into that best potential.
It doesn't happen just automatically.
In fact, our whole culture is kind of set up to keep people in a really limited state, really contracted, and so you got to take responsibility of your own development, and that has to be done multi dimensionally, physically, mentally, emotionally, intuitionally, and spiritually.
Those are the five sections of the.
Book, Mark Devine. The book is uncommon, simple principles for an extraordinary life. I always try to start out the day with at least one accomplishment mark and it started
this morning. I woke up, I was feeling kind of overwhelmed with everything I got to do this week, everything that's happened in the past couple of days, all of the news that I have to cover, and I said, you know what, I'm going to put on the headphones and I'm going to go for a run, and I'm going to run as far as I as far as I feel, and I'm going to forget about the world and just concentrate on the steps in front of me.
And for me, that is wonderfully therapeutic, to just forget about the world for a while and focus on one thing.
Absolutely.
And then that's actually a great example of an integrated practice. I mean, you're you're clearing your mind, You're you're focusing on your breathing. You know, you're concentrating on that one act and that act is a physical, mental, even an emotionally developmental act.
As you come out of that and you're like, wow, you feel tremendous.
You know, that's what I call winning in your mind before you step put in the battlefield.
D So good for you, Well, thank you.
And is that part of the Monk warrior philosophy you talk about? Can you get into that?
Absolutely? Yeah.
My zen master told me one day, one lifetime, every day is an opportunity to really you know, be uncommon, right, but you've got to put in the work.
You know you can.
If you had gotten up and said, well maybe i'll do that run tomorrow or later, you never would have gotten to it. Yeah, So you know your day starts right with the Warrior's code is your first thoughts and first words. You take control of those and you make sure that they're curated to be positive, to be focused on the right things, and that your emotional state, your mood is is positive and optimistic, so you're not dragon, you know, negativity and regret into your day. So winning
in your mind. First thing in the morning is a key you know, warrior monk attitude. And then in the evening right to you think of it like a container. The morning ritual is really to set you up to win. And then you in the evening you take time again to breathe, to reflect, and to learn from your day and to see what went well, what didn't well, just like a Navy sealed debrief and what did I learn? And you know, when you look at this way, you know all you have is today. Yesterday is a fantasy.
You used to say in the seals, the only easy day was yesterday, because it's all it's a fantasy, right, and tomorrow, tomorrow hasn't come yet, So just focus today.
What are you gonna do about today? And what are you going to do for yourself? Right? So many people are are focused.
On what's going on in the world, and there's a lot of negativity going on, but you know, focus on yourself first.
It seems selfish, but it's actually the most selfless.
Thing to do, is to get your mind right, to get your emotions right, and to be able to tap that vast potential to be uncommon and then bring that forth into the world.
Right, uncommon, simple principles for an Extraordinary life and former ex nav former navycal entrepreneur, father and New York Times the bestselling author Mark Devine is with us. But at the same time, Mark, do you also need to know when to back off, when to relax, when do okay today, I'm going to take it easy.
Well.
Absolutely, And I think that's another key part that people miss is that we have so biased toward action here in the West, and action needs to be coupled with inaction. It action doesn't mean necessarily you don't do anything, but you get your ego out of the way and you learn to know when to recover, when to like power down. For instance, after every really difficult thing you do, whether it's a podcast or you know, a meeting or a workout, you should take at least five minutes maybe ten minutes
to recover, let your mind kind of digest. You know, science is kind of finally catching up, so you need you need time to really assimilate and to learn as you go through your day, not you know, all at night when you sleep and what happens. That's kind of that Yin and Yong hard, the soft effort and the surrender and that's kind of lacking, you know. The Eastern traditions and I learned this through Zen and the martial arts. They have this really kind of nice balance between the
hard and the soft action and inaction. And I think, you know, if we can find that, people are gonna have a lot more health, they're gonna have a lot more you know, just balance in their lives.
New York Times. The best selling author Mark Divine uncommon Simple principles for an extraordinary life. And hopefully nobody's gonna be shooting at you while you're doing all this, like what you went through, and then maybe sales.
Well hopefully not, but you know what, if someone does, you need to be ready for that too.
We call that being sheep sheep dog strong, you know.
So opening up your intuitive centers as a key part of the book.
I have a whole section on intuition.
You know, to be able to really sense and understand the signals from your environment, both internally and externally, is really key. I mean that saved my life multiple times in the seals, in my teammates as well. Yeah, So, I mean it's it's crazy what's going on in the world, and you know, people need to be aware and awake, and they need to take responsibility for their own for their own minds.
And that's really why I wrote the book. You know, people to take control of.
Their lives to really move toward you know, everyone to be part of the solution to move toward a more positive world, not just wait for someone, you know, someone individual character, whether it be mister Trumper or mister Biden, even to fix it for us, because you know.
They're not right. Everyone's world is their world.
It's our responsibility to make our world, you know, the more beautiful world that we know it's possible.
Mark divine, uncommon, simple principles for an extraordinary life. And you you mentioned the monk warrior attitude. I guess the way you're describing it, it is a little like being a monk. You're not you're not sequestering yourself per se, but the discipline of mourning and then midday and then after you're noon. It reminds me of morning prayer, mid day work in the fields, and then afternoon vespers. So it's a little like that, but unto yourself and customed to what your lifestyle is.
That's right, Yeah, that's right.
And you know it starts with physical, the five section of the book physical, mentally, emotional, intuitional, and spiritual, and each one is a training because these are all aspects of a whole person, but we've kind of like separated and we you know, we segment ourselves in these little parts and then you don't experience wholeness. You experience life is like this fragmented, chaotic, you know, rushed thing.
And it's not necessary.
So when we train ourselves to kind of come back into that that center and that wholeness, and that's kind of that warrior monk. It doesn't mean you're right. You don't sequester yourself. In fact, you bring yourself into the world more fully. You're more present, you're more aware, you're more compassionate, and you're more positive. And those are qualities that you know that we all strive for, but they're
found within, you know. So a big part of this book is really to help you to recognize that they can slow down in order to speed up in life. Right leg in the Seals, we said slowest smooth, smooth as fast.
That slowest smooth.
Pardon means you go within and you win in your mind before you go into the battle.
And then when you hit the battle man, you are firing on all cylinders.
Mark divine, uncommon, simple principles for an extraordinary life. Thank you for joining us today and for your service to our country.
Thank you, Lee, I appreciate you very munchy off.
Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia presentation