CHUNKING or "EATING THE ELEPHANT"

One of the most effective ways to negotiate hardship is through the mental toughness technique of  ‘chunking’. This skill is a powerful way to manage stress and ensure victory through adversity. 

Learn How To Settle In

When adversity hits, our instinct is to allow negative thoughts to creep into our minds and become overwhelmed by the current situation or event. When we accept these thoughts, they shatter our confidence and we end up looking for a way out. Once this happens, we are finished.

If our internal reactions to these external pressures are not managed correctly, the stresses force us to become hijacked by our emotions. We must learn to control our thoughts and emotions under duress and learn to settle into discomfort. We must settle into the place where we become comfortable with being uncomfortable. This is non-negotiable!

A solid way to do this is through the mental skill of ‘Chunking’ or 'Eating the Elephant'. Chunking is breaking adversity down into smaller, more achievable steps or objectives. This technique allows us to reign in our focus and hold on a little longer. 

Application  

I had to utilize this skill many times throughout my career in special operations, both in training and on the job. Enduring the long, cold, and harsh realities of the day-in and day-out grind of Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training (BUD/S) is accomplished through chunking.

Staying focused and on point during the routine and often tedious and tiring work-up and deployment cycles to ensure adequate preparation is also achieved through breaking the entire experience down into smaller objectives.

While deployed downrange and faced with the realities of combat and high-stakes moments in a kinetic environment for months at a time is all achieved through effectively "eating the elephant". 

Breaking adversity down into a manageable process, or reseting your horizon, is the only way to avoid becoming overwhelmed by the long and arduous processes of serving in special operations. This truth applies to everyone faced with challenges and adversity regardless of status or profession.

It's easy to talk about the benefits of "chunking" or "eating the elephant" but the application is a lot more challenging. This is because this conscious effort is only applied when our desire to succeed and overcome outweighs our desire to be comfortable in the moment.

There are no shortcuts. How badly do you want to be successful in your current endeavor? 

Hell Week

I recall an instance during SEAL training where I had to make a conscious effort to harness my focus and inner strength to avoid making a decision I would regret for the rest of my life.

This "moment of weakness" for me was immediately after 'Break Out' on Sunday night of Hell Week. We were commanded to go in and out of the cold Pacific Ocean during a surf immersion evolution that eventually got us to the point of hypothermia and bone-chillingly cold. This in and of itself wasn't terrible for me at the time. It was the evolution that immediately followed that forced me to question my commitment. 

An 8-10-mile boat race or land portage (running with the boats on our heads) down the beach with bouts of surf immersion or "surf torture" and extra physical punishment dispersed throughout every couple of miles or so would become our reality for the next few hours and into the early morning of the following day.

Everything was a race and I still remember that excruciatingly painful and brutal pace under the boat. Our boat crew was fast. We were all stud runners and wanted to win. My cardio was always on point, but for some reason, this pace to me was like running a 4-mile timed run as fast as I could and holding it for like 3 hours. I was redlined and mentally fading fast. The instructor staff were doing a solid job of crushing us.  

Maybe it was the antibiotics I was taking for a severely infected knee that negatively impacted my cardio that night as I truly believe this negatively impacted my work capacity during Hell Week but that wasn't a viable excuse.

It is also possible that I had an adrenaline dump due to the nerves associated with anticipation going into this dreaded week of training, or perhaps I was just feeling sorry for myself.

Whatever it was, I still remember briefly becoming overwhelmed by the situation like it was yesterday. I began thinking of how much longer I would have to endure this type of pace and contemplated the thought of not being able to keep up for the next five days that lay ahead. 

Keep Your Head On Straight

I immediately began reigning in my thoughts and emotions and shifting my focus outside of my pain and self-pity and onto my teammates. The desire to be a strong and reliable member of my boat crew was the only option that kept me in the fight.

We began with eight members and quickly dwindled to just five of us left to carry the boat throughout the evolution. I couldn't quit on my teammates. They desperately needed me and we wouldn't be able to reconstitute boat crews (shift around personnel by height to ensure 8 students per boat) until AFTER the evolution. There were always several dudes who would line up to ring the bell after each evolution. 

This was what every member of the crew had to focus on if we were to endure the rest of Hell Week. The focus became on each other as a cohesive unit. As individuals, we each had to direct our minds to the smallest achievable objective or step within the current suck festival evolution.

Step by step and moment by moment. We would become masters of chunking and "eating the elephant" because quitting was never a viable option. If any one of us quit, the rest of our mates were left to carry our weight for hours until the next evolution and a new height line to reestablish boat crews.

Decision Point 

I've learned a valuable lesson throughout my career in special operations through enduring adversity. Whenever faced with hardship, we can pair the decision-making process down to two options.

One is to quit. To lay down in the fetal position, feel sorry for ourselves, and give up or surrender.

The next option (the harder but more rewarding one) is to figure out a way to push through. It may not be pretty and we may get knocked down but we should never be out of the fight while there is still breath in our lungs.

If we quit today, you better believe you will quit again when others are relying upon you. Do not give yourself this easy button!

Train your willpower by always taking the hard path and never allowing adversity to keep you down. Use your physical training, as well as every difficult circumstance in your personal and professional life, to always choose the path that will move you forward. 

Framework for "Eating the Elephant"

Focus on the Team

When the going gets tough, shift your perspective on adversity. We have to look outside of ourselves and focus on strengthening others around us or relying upon them for strength (teamwork).

When we are focused externally, we aren’t focused internally, and vice versa. It is much easier to fight for others than it is for ourselves when we are completely tapped out physically, mentally, and emotionally. 

Adjust Perspective

We need to mentally adjust to the demands of adversity. When the pain and discomfort of being under the boat set in, I would look forward to being put back into the cold Pacific Ocean. When I began to freeze, I would adjust my mindset to look forward to being back under the boat again so I could put out and warm up.

I learned not to concern myself with the pain to follow. All I wanted was to focus my energy and attention on what would keep me in the fight.  

Revisit Your Purpose

Draw upon your WHY, your sense of purpose, and your commitment to strength at the moment. Keep a solid perspective on the big picture. Understand why you have chosen to endure the current process and ensure that your purpose is identified.

The stronger your sense of purpose, as it pertains to what you are doing, the stronger you will be when the going gets tough.

Do NOT Give Up

When faced with adversity we only have two options. We can give up and quit or, we can figure out a way to keep pressing forward until we have nothing left to give. 

Control your emotions and do not give in to the temptation of being fearful or anxious about whatever it is that comes next. Instead, learn to regulate your emotions and avoid thinking about negative thoughts and outcomes! Use your self-talk to stay present in the current moment. 

Process Over Outcome

Concentrate with a laser-like focus on the current task at hand and what is currently achievable in the present moment. The point is to take it one step at a time, one moment at a time, and one evolution at a time.

Focus on what you have control over. Do not burn energy on factors outside of your control. 

Pace Yourself

Be mentally prepared to go for much longer than anticipated. This mindset will allow you two things, it will help you manage your energy more efficiently during long and painful events, and it will keep your head in the game long enough to endure the evolution. If the evolution goes longer than you are mentally prepared for, it is a huge hit to your psyche. 

In training, we used to have to suffer through arduous conditioning runs and unknown distance ruck runs on the beach in soft sand with an unknown finish line. Some of these evolutions would last hours.

For example, we would complete a scheduled 5-mile soft sand conditioning run immediately after a two-hour grinder Physical Training (PT) session, and instead of being finished with the evolution, sometimes we would do it again!  

This sucked and taught us the valuable lesson that you aren’t finished until you are resting and recovering in the barracks that night. 

This concept translates directly to combat deployments overseas. You are to be mentally switched on and “ready” at all times. As my first platoon chief would say, "The op isn’t over until you are back at the FOB (forward operating base) washing your nuts." This lesson among others taught us to “rig for pain” and to “keep the mind right at all times”.

Learning how to effectively "eat the elephant" not only helps you extend your energy through adversity but also enables the mental tenacity required to see your challenging endeavor to the end.

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