The Special Forces Units are considered to be comprising, some of the most badass men within military. As part of their job, they face deadly situations on a regular basis. However, a special forces soldier is often portrayed in media as larger than life, who has no notion of fear. Due to this, when we listen to their tales of bravery, we often shrug off these tales, thinking that these men are just built different. However this is not true, these men are just like you and me, but they have learnt how to be more in control of themselves. In this post, we will learn from a veteran special forces soldier of the Indian Army, how to face fears and thrive.
What are Special Forces ?
While the whole of India was sleeping, the armed terrorists had creeped inside the Indian Army Brigade Headquarters at Uri and open fired at the soldiers who were sleeping in their tents. As a result of this, the whole nation was fuming.
To retaliate, the Indian Army deployed the commandos from Special Forces Unit to destroy the terrorist launch pads, deep in the enemy territory. These highly trained men returned, accomplishing their mission within a few hours without any casualties on their side.
Such is the job of a soldier in a Special Forces Unit, that they have to face hostile conditions on a daily basis. Be it the Indian Army’s surgical strike after the URI Attacks, or the US Navy SEAL’s Abbottabad raid to kill Osama Bin Laden, these men are called on to missions, where the stakes are high.
What does the life of a Special Forces Soldier Looks Like ?
In order to get a feel of what a special forces soldier has to go through we need to look at lives of these brave men. But due to the covert nature of their work, not a lot of information about their work is made public. However, we can judge what a Special Forces soldier has to go through as a part of his job, by an account of Major Vivek Jacob(Retd.), who served in the Para Special Forces unit of the Indian Army.
Major Vivek Jacob(Retd.) in his trademark bravado says, “I have had enough bullets fired at me. I have had weapons shoved in my face. I have been surrounded by enemy…My whole life has flashed in front of me, three times… There has been a lot of out of control chaos, that has happened.”
How does a Special Forces Soldier face Fear ?
Due to the inaccurate portrayal by the media, we have formed a misconception of how these men from SF are from within. We think that they don’t have any notion of fear when going for hostile missions.
Major Vivek Jacob helps us get a closer look at their psyche. He says, “If a person doesn’t feel fear while skydiving or while jumping out of an aircraft, there’s something wrong with him. Everybody feels fear. People who say they don’t feel fear, they are either lying or they are mad. ”
“Fear is a good thing, a very good thing. If you feel fear, you are normal. The thing about fear is it makes you razor sharp.”
“You must feel fear, because fear makes you alert, it pumps adrenaline into your body and you perform way better than when you are not feeling fear. Fear makes your focus razor sharp.”
What Major Jacob says about fear is also underlined by the outcomes of various recent scientific studies conducted on how human body responds to challenges and stress. (I will discuss the results of such scientific studies on stress, in detail, in a later blog post.
Facing Fear in our Daily Life
Whether it be facing the fear of giving a speech in front of a large audience or the fear of unemployment, we have to face fear in some way or the other. The popular notion is that you should eliminate fear from your life. Whereas actually, the key to effectively dealing with fear lies in accepting your fears when they arise. When you feel fear, acknowledge that it is there. Once you are in control of your fear, know that fear is not a bad thing. When you feel your heart has started throbbing faster, and you feel butterflies in your stomach, know that your body is preparing itself for optimal performance and so move forward and take action.
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