The Highly Effective Man

Unbreakable Mental Resilience: Transform Stress into Focused Action: Secrets from the Navy SEALs and High Level Athletics

• JP Bolwahnn

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Unlock the secrets to unbreakable mental resilience with insights from JP Bolwahnn, a former Navy SEAL turned life and fitness coach. Ever wondered how elite athletes and military professionals manage stress under pressure? This episode promises to transform your approach to stress management with three powerful strategies: crafting a game plan, mastering the art of breath control, and embracing discomfort to forge a resilient mindset. By adopting these techniques, you’ll be equipped to convert stress into focused action and tackle life's challenges with unwavering confidence.

Join JP as he shares personal stories of overcoming physical limits, including his journey of playing college football at 33. Discover how the same breath control techniques that helped him conquer the intense SEAL training pool competency test can shift you from panic to calm, even in the most high-pressure situations. Through structured routines and mental conditioning, learn how to respond with purpose amid chaos and prepare yourself to handle adversity with strength and determination. Whether you’re an athlete, a professional, or just looking to enhance your mental toughness, this episode is packed with actionable insights to elevate your resilience.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Highly Effective man podcast, hosted by former Navy SEAL turned life and fitness coach. I'm your host, jp Bolwan. This podcast is your resource for unlocking the healthiest, most productive and highly effective man within you. Let's go. What's up, guys? Welcome back to the Highly Effective man podcast. I'm your host, jp Bolwan, former Navy SEAL turned life and fitness coach. Also played a little bit of rugby, football or college football, and now I do jiu-jitsu. So the only reason I bring all that up is because all of those experiences have taught me a lot about mindset, nutrition, fitness, and today I want to talk to you guys about how to manage stress like an athlete right. So it's the Highly Effective Man's Guide to Building Unbreakable Mental Resilience. So what I want to try and teach you guys today is discover how to handle stress like a high-performing athlete, applying principles from the military sports, jujitsu and just so you can become mentally unbreakable. You know that way you can tackle anything that life throws your way. So the three big key topics we're going to talk about today is number one armor up with a game plan right how top performers prepare to face stress head on. Number two the power of breathing. Okay, breathing brings you instant focus and calm in high stress moments. And then number three forge your mind in the fire, meaning you're going to build your resilience by embracing discomfort.

Speaker 1:

Now, when I think about my life and my path as, like a navy seal uh, playing rugby, for you know, 12 years, and then you know eventually playing in the irb sevens, playing college football in my 30s, um at the university of San Diego, and then now as somebody that's doing jujitsu at much older right I started jujitsu in my 40s. It's taught me one thing above all, and that's that managing stress is about preparation, discipline and resilience. Preparation, discipline and resilience. Each of these disciplines that I've done in my past have taught me a specific approach to stress. As a Navy SEAL, stress management that's life or death. If you fuck up, that could be your life, or even worse, it could be some your life, or, even worse, it could be your buddy's life.

Speaker 1:

Okay, in rugby football, it's about handling being able to handle high stakes moments right on the field. Right, if I miss this tackle or if I don't make it past, you know this yard line or whatever it is like I might be letting my team down. Okay, in jujitsu, it's a it it's like a split second decision on what I'm going to do or what I'm going to allow come into my mind. That's either going to crush me or it's going to fuel me. In that match, and the epiphany I had is this you can't avoid stress. I don't care who you are, it's always going to be there. But you can train your mind and your body to respond to it powerfully right? What you do with that stress is going to determine your outcome, and that's what athletes do best. So let's break down exactly how we can apply these principles to our daily lives.

Speaker 1:

So, number one I talked about armoring up with a game plan, right? So during my years as a Navy SEAL, the one thing that was drilled into us from day one was the value of preparation. We trained constantly, ran drills in every conceivable environment, right? Like you're just thinking about what could go wrong. Like a plan never goes perfect. I mean, I shouldn't say never, but more often than not you know the plan doesn't go to plan. Right? So you have to plan for contingencies. You rehearse contingencies. You rehearse like different situations and anything that you can imagine. And when things get tough, you're not going to waste time reacting because you've already prepared. Like when you've already prepared. Like when you've already prepared for the thing that maybe you wasn't exactly part of the plan, but was one of your contingencies. You don't have to come up with a new plan right then and there, because you've already prepared for it. Right, you're just taking action. This same principle applies to athletes who live by a structured training schedule, preparing for every possible outcome on the field. Right when I was in college football, we prepared for you know what happens if the defense does this or if they do that, whatever it is right. You know what's the call if somebody blitzes off the side, right, like, you have a hot route. You know those types of things.

Speaker 1:

Preparation breeds resilience, okay, and by preparing for stress before it even arises, athletes avoid the flustered reaction that most people experience. They're able to remain calm because they're conditioned themselves for every scenario. This is something that we can apply to our lives by establishing routines that keep us grounded even when things get chaotic. Now, structure, routines and practice are key, and if you're a busy man, which you probably are, if you're listening to this podcast, you know you're juggling a career, family health just by creating a morning routine or an evening ritual will pay off huge dividends. Okay, this could be. You could even do a brief workout in the morning, some meditation or just setting few daily goals.

Speaker 1:

But preparation transforms stress into action. Instead of reacting to panic, you respond with purpose. So you're setting yourself up for success by having these routines in place, so that you know what's going to happen. Right, and think about it like this, right? So if you take time in the evening to plan out your day the next day, right, and let's say you map out the whole day, now you can take it one step further and say, okay, I have this appointment at this time and maybe it's, you know, a call with somebody or whatever. It is a meeting, but then it gets canceled. And then you're like, oh shit, what do I do now? Right? Well, having a contingency for that canceled meeting or if, if something doesn't go to plan, I've got this I can do, right. So something as simple as like that will alleviate some of the potential stress that can pop up into your life because of a missed meeting or, you know, because plans changed.

Speaker 1:

Now let's talk about the power of breathing, right? So in competitive sports, you know, especially jujitsu, a single breath can be the difference between staying calm and losing focus. You know, I could tell you there's been plenty of times when I've been in a chokehold and I'm at a point where it's like, okay, I can either panic right now and and try to force something out of here, or I can stay calm and figure out, you know, unlock this puzzle that I'm in, right, the puzzle being you know all the the legs and the arms and you know how they got me in this hold. Okay, and I've been in those situations plenty of times because you know, as you guys know, I started jujitsu much older and with guys that are much more experienced, right, and so I don't care who you are when you start jujitsu and you don't know jujitsu. There's a learning curve there and you have to spend time in the fire, like learning how to get out of. You know certain situations and obviously learning the techniques help, but learning to stay calm in those situations really helps, and you know, catching a breath, you know, and remembering to actually breathe when you're, when you're just starting out is very helpful as well. You're just starting out is very helpful as well.

Speaker 1:

Okay, now, breath control is a powerful tool that's always available Wherever you go. You got your lungs. You got your breath, okay. So athletes and SEALs alike use breathwork techniques to lower their heart rate, center their minds and prepare for action. So simple techniques like inhaling deeply for a count of four, holding for four and exhaling for four can shift you from a stress mode to a focus mode almost instantly, and I probably do this multiple times a day I was going to say once a day, but it's probably multiple times a day where I just need to reset, get my mind right and transform the way my body's feeling at a certain time. Okay, but stress is inevitable, right, but your response to it is well within your control. Breath control techniques are accessible anytime, anywhere, and it's scientifically proven to calm the nervous system. So next time you're feeling overwhelmed, just pause, take a breath and bring attention to what matters. Right, there's plenty of science that shows how deep breathing low and slow, like low in the diaphragm and slow breathing will help you get out of the noise of your head and just bring your focus back together. Okay, and it's, it's super powerful. When you know you, you feel like you're in panic mode.

Speaker 1:

Uh, when I'm talking about this, there's the specific situation when I was going through, uh, seal training, you know, and there's a, a particular evolution that you do and it's called pool comp, right, and it's it's a short for, like, pool competency, and it's your last test, so to speak, in um, in dive phase, which is second phase. It's not your last test but it's one of the like main tests, right? So, like first phase, you have hell week. Uh, second phase, you have pool week, basically, and there's like eight, uh, open circuit dives that you got to do and pool comp eight, number eight, or oca, open circuit eight is, uh, this one that's called pool comp, and the you know instructors coming down flipping you upside down, smashing you into the ground, ripping face masks off your face and ripping the mouthpiece out of your mouth.

Speaker 1:

And you got to, you know, hold your breath and let them tie knots and all your stuff. And then you got to try and figure out like, okay, can I get out of this? You know you got to go, you know go through certain procedures, right, and that's a big part of it is like, can you stay calm when you can't breathe? And if there's one thing that is for sure going to induce panic in somebody, that's the ability to not breathe right or feeling like you might drown. That's when panic sets in in almost everybody, I don't care who you are. All I got to do is hold you down for a certain amount of time and as long as it's outside of your comfort zone, you're going to start to panic. So, anyways, I'm down there and I get this knot and I'm freaking out Like I got to get this knot out, get to get the knot out. I finally get it out.

Speaker 1:

And when I go to like breathe, I see air coming out of the mouthpiece. I put my mouth on the mouthpiece and I'm sucking in. I suck in and then I'm choking. I suck in, I'm choking, I'm like, oh my God, I'm freaking out, like what's going on? And in that moment I said chill out, calm down, and it came to me like, oh, I'm kind of sucking in air through my nose, or water through my nose, as I'm, you know, desperately sucking air through the mouthpiece. And it took me a second to realize that. And once I started breathing, right, I just froze and I just started breathing low and slow, trying to get my mind back together again and just focus on what I needed to do. The rest of that dive went well and I ended up passing, which was great. It led to a career in the teams and it was amazing. But that was a powerful moment for me in realizing that. How powerful being able to breathe and having the wherewithal to say like, oh, I'm freaking out right now, I'm panicking, okay, time to chill out and relax. Okay, time to chill out and relax. Okay, breath can transform the body and how you're feeling instantly, just by taking a few low and slow breaths.

Speaker 1:

Now last thing I want to talk about is to forge your mind in the fire. Right, I played college football when I was 33 years old. I was physically, you know, physically tough, and mentally it was even tougher, right, because I'm lining up against guys that are in their, you know, late teens, early 20s. Most of them were taller, faster, had years of high school football or even college football recently. But what I knew, that I lacked in size, I made up for with mental resilience, right, my time in the teens, my time playing other high levels of sports. But the years of military training and athletic competition taught me to embrace discomfort. So when my body is screaming to quit, my mind has already adapted to thrive in adversity. Right, like knowing that if I'm feeling the pain when I'm working out or whatever. It is like it's nine times out of 10, it's my body just trying to tell me to quit, but it's like I can still keep going Right. And when you have that kind of power or that kind of mindset, you can get a lot more done than a lot of other people that will quit at the first sign of adversity. But mental conditioning it's about willingly exposing yourself to discomfort so that you can build resilience.

Speaker 1:

Athletes constantly push themselves in training beyond what they experience in the game. You want to practice harder than you play, or practice harder than when play right, or practice harder than when you're playing the game. So when adversity strikes in the game, you're ready for it right. This concept is the foundation of stress management. You know, embrace, control challenges, whether it's a challenging workout, a tough project or even a new skill right, you know, if you want to. You know I've heard I don't know what's this is coming to my mind right now. But like if I want to play a piano piece, right, and I want to get better at it, sometimes just trying to play it faster, and you make the mistakes. And you keep trying to play it faster and faster so that when you do play it at the regular tempo regular tempo it's a lot easier, right? So adversity doesn't break you, it strengthens you and by conditioning yourself mentally, you become unbreakable in the face of stress.

Speaker 1:

So adopt the mindset of an athlete, of a navy seal, and seek out small challenges every day. Start. Start with manageable discomfort right, maybe it's a cold shower or challenging workouts, or stepping out of your comfort zone in conversations or projects, doing the things that people maybe don't want to do. Or if you find yourself saying like I don't want to do that, just force yourself to be like okay, I'm going to do that, you know, start pushing yourself to get outside that comfort zone. If you think you're ready to take control of your stress and build unbreakable resilience. I've got an awesome community on school with the platform school, and you need to be there. Okay, in there. You know, my goal is to dive deeper into these topics and it's a community, so we're supporting each other with accountability, expert guidance. You know we're a team of guys who refuse to settle for mediocrity and want to live a life with purpose, focus and strength. So join us, let's push it. Let's push each other to higher levels of discipline and resilience. Get into the highly effective man community that's on school. I'll leave the link in the show notes.

Speaker 1:

Now. Think of managing stress like tuning an engine right. Just as a high performance car needs fine tuning, so does your mind Armor up with that game. Plan right. Prepare for the road ahead. Use the power of breath to keep things steady in a crazy environment and forge your mind in the fire so that you can thrive under pressure. With these tools, you can handle any stress that life throws your way. With these tools, you can handle any stress that life throws your way. And so what I want you to take away from this is easy, right, or it's simple Prepare, breathe and condition your mind. Embrace the morning routine that grounds you, practice breath control when you feel like stress is rising and condition your mind by seeking out small daily challenges. And, if you're ready to take these steps seriously, join the Highly Effective man community on school.

Speaker 1:

Here we dive into practical strategies. I also have monthly challenges, and they will make a difference in your life, as always. If you found value in this podcast, subscribe, share and leave a comment on this episode to let us know how you're using these techniques or what you thought about this particular podcast. Together, we're going to become stronger, more resilient and, more importantly, a highly effective man. Let's go notes below. It's a powerful space where you'll find support, accountability and camaraderie with men who are committed to growth and living purposefully. And your voice matters, so leave a review and share your thoughts and help us reach more men just like you. Together, let's elevate our lives and become the best versions of ourselves. Stay highly effective. See you next time.