This is something that I wanted to pass along to you because it was an eye-opener to me especially with all the stress going on with the Shelter-at-home order at the time of writing this.
A few days ago, I was watching a Joe Rogan clip on YouTube HERE, the guest was a former Navy Seal, and part of the conversation was why people quit during hell week.
Hell week is a 5-day event in Seal Training where they push the students physically and mentally for 5 days with only 4 hours of sleep the entire phase.
Brutal.
The guest was talking about how most of the attritions that happen in seal training was on day 2 or 3 of hell week, and the number one reason why students quit was…
…the feeling of overwhelm.
They felt so overwhelmed with everything that was going on from the physical to mental that it stressed them to the point of shutting down and quitting.
While interesting, how does this apply to you?
When the guest explained that feeling of overwhelm you get was when you made your world too big and starting thinking, focusing, worrying and stressing over things, events, what-ifs, things you can’t control, or things that may never even happen. It frys your brain to the point of lockdown.
Sound familiar?
What he stressed was the secret of getting through stressful situations, such as Hell Week, was to make your world small.
In this case, he talked about how, when he went through Hell Week instead of thinking of it as a 5-day event, he focused on 6 hours blocks of time. He said that the Navy has to feed you every 6 hours, and if he focused on getting through the six hours till his next meal, that was a win. So he kept stacking 6-hour blocks on top of one another, one 6-hour block, then another 6-hour block, and another until eventually he was done with hell week.
Afterward, he started focusing on just one day at a time, keeping his world small, only doing what he could do that day and nothing else. If he started stressing or worry about things he had no power over today, then he realized his world was getting too big, and he needed to wrangle it back in… to make his world small again.
Keeping your world small is something that rang true to me because so many people right about now feel overwhelmed with everything going on. You feel like your living in a surreal state of limbo, not knowing what’s going to happen next, which leads to all these what-if scenarios then the feeling of doom and gloom, depression, and more.
I know that I had a few moments where I start worrying, thinking, stressing over things that I have no control over. <==this is also the curse of the overthinker (raises hand)
With everything going on, keeping your world small is some solid advice.
Focus on one day at a time, only focus on what you can control for today, focus on taking care of yourself and your loved ones for today, and push the rest to the side.
If you can’t do anything about it today, push it to the side. Live in the moment, live in today, don’t let your world get so big that you begin to operate in a state of stress and worry. That’s not going to do you any good.
Today, keep your world small. Then tomorrow, keep your world small. Eventually, you’ll notice that everything will be ok. You’ll get through this 
In Health and Awesomeness,
Travis Merritt, BS, CPT, (and other letters behind the name) is the Owner of Rowlett Transformation Center in Rowlett, TX.
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