I’ve always been intrigued by the Navy SEALS and all of the other Special Forces. This morning, I read an article on FoxNews written by Pastor Rick McDaniel. Pastor McDaniel had the opportunity to spend a day with the Navy SEALS in training and wrote about his experience and all the hard things they do.
In the piece, he said, “To grow, we must do hard things. We can run away from it, or we can embrace it. Everything worth doing in life is hard and the harder it is, the more it is worth doing.”
That made me think about how the Navy SEALS approach each mission. They do so with grit, intelligence, integrity, determination, dedication and courage.
GRIT is a personality trait that describes a person’s ability to persevere and stay passionate about a long-term goal, even when faced with challenges.
INTELLIGENCE is the ability to learn, understand, and deal with new or difficult situations.
INTEGRITY is the quality of being honest, respectful, and adhering to a code of values, even when no one is looking.
DETERMINATION is the firmness of purpose and being resolute to accomplish the task.
DEDICATION is the quality of being dedicated or committed to a task or purpose.
COURAGE is strength in the face of pain or grief.
I thought about how all of us with Myasthenia Gravis could learn from the Navy SEALS as we need these qualities in our fight with MG.
Just like a Navy SEAL:
We need grit. We have to persevere and remain passionate about our long-term goal of fighting MG, even when we’re faced with challenges.
We need intelligence. We have to learn and understand MG and its affect on our bodies, and deal with new or difficult situations as they arise
We need integrity. We have to remain respectful and true to our values in the way we treat other people, even when we’re hurting.
We need determination. We have to remain focused on fighting MG and not allowing MG to take control of our life or destiny.
We need dedication. We have to remain committed to doing what our doctor instructs us to do and remain dedicated to not letting MG win.
We need courage. Let’s face it, Myasthenia Gravis can be hard, but we need to show strength in the face of pain.
A Navy SEAL has one goal in mind and that’s to successfully complete their mission. They don’t give up. They don’t blindly run into a firefight. They use their heads and remain calm. They rely on their values and they win. We have to adopt this same kind of mentality in our fight against MG. That’s OUR mission.
A Navy SEAL can’t always control what their target or enemy does. Instead, they learn how to control how they react to it. The same holds true for us. We can’t control how MG affects us or even the fact that we have it, but we can definitely control how we react to it.
GRIT, INTELLIGENCE, INTEGRITY, DETERMINATION, DEDICATION and COURAGE.
Be a Navy SEAL!
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