Resilience is defined as "the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness."

There's no surprise that it's a characteristic of some of the world's most successful people. It's also a required trait to endure and succeed in some of the toughest specialties in the U.S. military.

Over on Task and Purpose (a site for members of the U.S. military) and Fatherly (a site for — well, fathers), a former U.S. Navy SEAL named Eric Greitens (now a candidate for Missouri governor, by the way) shared his tips for raising children to be more resilient — rules that also apply to anyone who wants to increase their mental toughness.

Here's our take on the plan Greitens outlined (you can read his original remarks here and here):

1. Set a great example.

Like any self-improvement program, increasing resiliency requires demonstrating a commitment. And if you hope to inspire others, such as your children, it's doubly important.

"To paraphrase Ralph Waldo Emerson, who you are will speak more loudly to your children than anything you say," says Greitens. "If they see you always able to pick yourself up when you've been knocked down, that's behavior they're going to adopt intuitively."

2. Take responsibility.

Responsibility here means over everything that you can control in your life. There are things you can't control, sure — but know the difference.

"Teach your children early not to pass the blame or make excuses, but to take responsibility for their actions" says Greitens.

3. Seek to serve others.

Besides positively affecting the rest of the world, service to others emphasizes that life really isn't about just one person (you). It also helps you increase resourcefulness and empathy.

"Children who know that they have something to offer others," Greitens says, "will learn that they can shape the world around them for the better."

4. Practice daily gratitude.

This is one of the things that the most successful people do under any circumstance.

Expressing gratitude to others improves your performance as a leader and also frames your mind to appreciate the things you've been given. Because, let's face it, even on your worst days, you probably have things a lot better than most people in the world.

5. Let others solve their own problems.

Certainly this doesn't mean letting other people founder or even flounder — especially your own children. However, there's often as much to be gained in learning how to solve problems as there is in solving the problems themselves.

"Your children should know that you're always there for them, and that they can call on you when needed," says Greitens. "But give them the opportunity to learn to solve their own problems."

6. Be a mentor — not a savior.

Sometimes the best thing that can happen is to make a big mistake and live with the consequences. However, it's often the case that the mistakes we make as children have fewer long-range effects than things we screw up we get older. So, better to learn from smaller mistakes while we're young.

Moreover, allowing your children to live unimpeded through the consequences of what they choose to do can also have another benefit. It demonstrates that things are rarely as bad as they might appear at first blush — and that sometimes good can arise out of bad.

7. Embrace failure.

It's almost a cliché among entrepreneurs, but failure is a prerequisite to success. Nobody accomplishes anything great if he or she is afraid to fail.

"In failure, children learn how to struggle with adversity and how to confront fear. By reflecting on failure, children begin to see how to correct themselves and then try again with better results," Greitens says.

8. Encourage risk-taking.

Risk-taking and failure go hand-in-hand. People who are afraid to lose what little they have will likely never achieve very much more.

9. But assert your authority where it's sensible.

Greitens is writing for parents who want to increase their children's resiliency, but this is likely applicable to any situation in which you have some authority over others' actions — as a boss, a coach, or a mentor.

"Not every risk is a good risk to take," Greitens says. Sometimes we all need an experienced, more authoritative person to show us the better way.

10. Express your love for the people you care about.

Resilient people know that they rely on the love and care of others in their communities. One of the best ways to reinforce this is to express how you feel to those people often.

In fact, this is a great practice no matter what your self-improvement goals are. Doing so both reassures them and reminds you about the importance of your relationships.

If you find this post interesting, I recommend you check out the other two posts in this series:

• Want to Lead an Exceptional Life? A Navy SEAL Says Always Do These Things
• 11 Habits of Highly Effective Leadership: A Marine Corps Infantry Officer Shares the Secrets

SEE ALSO: A retired Navy SEAL commander explains 12 traits all effective leaders must have

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Former Navy SEALs and "Extreme Ownership" authors Jocko Willink and Leif Babin talk about ego and how it can ruin your chance at effective leadership. 

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After graduating from DePaul University, earning executive education certificates from Kellogg, Chicago Booth, and DePaul's Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, and working as a consultant for a non-profit agency in Chicago, Joe Musselman became the sixteenth man in his family to join the US Military.

His intention was to become a Navy SEAL. However, serious injury during the selection phases of training got in the way. He still went on to serve at the Naval Special Warfare Center throughout his recovery until his honorable discharge in 2012. 

During that time, Musselman recognized a need for a transition management program specifically for members of the Special Operations Forces community. He attended close to forty separate transition programs for veterans and researched hundreds more, and in 2013, he launched The Honor Foundation.

The Honor Foundation is a transition institute created exclusively for Navy SEALs and the US Special Operations community. "It provides a clear process for development and diverse ecosystem of world-class support and technology," he explains. "Every step of our process is dedicated to preparing these outstanding men and women to continue to realize their maximum potential throughout their post-service career." 

Musselman says the people of the Navy SEAL community — who represent the top 1% of our military system — "are some of the highest achievers and finest natural leaders in the world."

Throughout the 1,000 days he spends "transitioning" SEALs, Musselman has picked up some lessons and values along the way that can translate to any career pursuit.

Here are six of them: 

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1. Prepare for everything — especially the adventures (also known as 'challenges').

"Life is either a great adventure or nothing."—Helen Keller

The first step towards greatness is being physically and mentally prepared for it, says Musselman. "The second is to have fun chasing it down."

Your work must energize you, he says. "It's a must to enjoy the thrill of facing challenges that are new and different every day. You must know how to enjoy yourself and take great pride in the work that you do and the difference it makes."

2. Always ask questions.

"Almost no one ever achieved anything worthwhile without help."—Richard Branson

"Part of the SEAL culture that everyone should adopt is the power of the debrief," he explains. "You should constantly ask yourself and those around you, 'What are we doing well?' 'What could we be doing better?' In the field of battle these questions save lives. In our lives they help us get better at improving our offering every day."

3. Remember that being 'busy' doesn't necessarily mean you're accomplishing anything.

"Don't confuse activity with achievement.” —John Wooden

"Busywork is one of the most insidious and disruptive forces in the workplace today," he says. "Our belief is that if you're not advancing the mission, you're falling behind. SEALs create clear plans to achieve specific goals and take great pride in executing those plans."

On Friday Nov. 13, Paris and its northern suburb Saint-Denis, France, were hit by a series of terrorist attacks which killed 129 and injured 352 people.

The attack consisted of suicide bombs and mass shootings like the one you can see in the following chilling footage.

The video shows a sustained attack on a restaurant in the 11th district by means of AK-47: according to the Daily Mail, that obtained the recordings of three CCTV cameras inside the pizzeria, at least 30 bullets came into the premises, where terrified diners immediately ran for cover behind counters and under tables.

None of them died during the attack, even though, as you can clearly see in the clip a young woman was quite close to it: she was saved by the assault rifle that either misfired or ran out of ammunition.

Anyway, the footage speaks for itself and, watch the video then continue reading below.

When I saw the clip for the very first time, it immediately thought of an interesting article by Brandon Webb, a former Navy SEAL, published by SOFREP in the aftermath of the Colorado shooting in Aurora, back in July 2012.

Among the tips to survive in case of attack by a gunman Webb shared with the “average citizen” I’ve picked those that probably apply to most scenarios (you can read them all here). As you will see, some of them have probably contributed to save the life of the diners in the Paris restaurant.

Don’t Make Yourself an Easy Target

According to the former Special Operator, at public events, cinemas or even at the restaurant (as in the Paris massacre…) you should always opt for seats that give you good and east vantage points and quick exit points. “It’s the reason I still combat park (back in to a space) and sit with my back to the wall when I’m eating,” Webb pointed out.

Active Shooter Scenario Advice

“Take cover and not concealment.  Concealment hides, cover hides AND protects.  It’s the difference between hiding behind a movie seat or a concrete wall.” Quite obvious, but you may not think to this when bullets are flying above your head.

Webb says that it is better to keep the eyes wide open and to act instead of waiting for first responders: they may arrive too late.  Furthermore, “a moving target is extremely hard to hit, even for the well-trained shooter.”

Alter Your Lifestyle, and it May Save Your Life

This is quite obvious. You should avoid large crowds that make rewarding targets for all kind of terrorists. In this case the target was a soft-one, almost randomly selected but, generally speaking, you should take some basic precautions.

A few more tips to survive a terrorist attack are included in this more recent story written by former Navy SEAL and JSOC operator Clinton Emerson for SOFREP.

SEE ALSO: 3rd body found at scene of the raid that killed the suspected mastermind of the Paris attacks

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Former Navy SEALs and "Extreme Ownership" authors Jocko Willink and Leif Babin explain the concept of extreme ownership and why you must do it if you want to be a leader. 

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The art of picking locks may seem like the stuff of action-movie heroes, rather than a commonly known skill. But with perseverance, an understanding of locks, and the right tools, anyone can become a successful lock pick.

Although most advanced and higher-end locks can only be broken with purpose-made picking tools, improvised lock picks can be used to crack low-end or improvised locking systems. According to retired Navy SEAL Clint Emerson's book "100 Deadly Skills," all it takes to create a lock pick is two paper clips, a hard surface, and a pair of pliers. 

All a person has to do is bend the clips in the correct way to imitate professional rake and torsion tools.

Picking locks requires a combination of dexterity, practice, patience, and an understanding of locking mechanisms, "100 Deadly Skills" notes.

So the first step to successfully picking a lock is understanding how it functions. This graphic shows a common lock design — and how to beat it:

A five-pin tumbler lock, as seen above, is the most common type of lock in use today. The pins do not need to be forced upward in any specific order. So long as they're all forced upward and held in position through the use of rotational pressure, the lock will be broken. 

Defeating a padlock requires a different set of tools than a normal lock, according to "100 Deadly Skills." Despite the seeming robustness of padlocks, their design actually leaves them vulnerable.

All that is required to break a padlock is an aluminum can and hand shears.

The double shims shown above are only necessary for a double-lock padlock. Single lock padlocks only require a single shim on the side that locks. 

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The picture in this post shows an MC-130J Commando II belonging to the 9th Special Operations Squadron airdropping a Rigid-hull Inflatable Boat (RIB) Maritime Craft Aerial Delivery System over the Gulf of Mexico on Nov. 12, 2015.

MCADS enable special operations forces members to rapidly deploy anywhere around the world in a maritime environment: anti-pirate ops, beach assault, forces infil and exfil missions may require the use of airdropped vessels.

Produced by Airborne Systems, the MCADS is the only system capable of delivering large RIBs by parachute-dropping them into the water. It is made of the PRIBAD and PURIBAD airdrop platforms, attached to an extractor parachute used to pull the load from the aircraft cargo bay.

The boat and platform separate immediately after leaving the aircraft and both descend to the water under their own parachutes. Special forces parachute from the aircraft following the load, and land near the ready-for-use boat in the water.

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On May 31, 2012, three Navy SEALs along with an Afghan Local Police unit reportedly beat more than half a dozen Afghan detainees during an interrogation, The New York Times reports.

The beatings were serious enough that one local died from his injuries later in the day, according to the investigative report.

After the beating, despite sworn testimony from four US soldiers on the scene and Afghan witnesses, the case was cleared in a closed court that is routinely used for minor disciplinary infractions.

Since the case, the Navy SEALs involved in the incident have faced no repercussions, and "two of the SEALs and their lieutenant have since been promoted," The Times notes.

The Navy acknowledges that the beatings took place but says they were carried out solely by Afghan forces.

Following an explosion at a manned checkpoint operated by the police, the Afghan Local Police rounded up numerous locals, including three junk collectors who were new to the town.

The treatment of these three men by the police, and by the SEALs, was particularly harsh.

After arresting the three, the police marched the trio over a kilometer to the US military outpost. Along the way "they were beating us with stones and rifles," Assadullah, one of the three men, told The Times.

Once at the base, the men were handcuffed with their arms behind their backs and made to sit. According to the sworn testimony of the US soldiers present, they stood on the roofs of the buildings in the outpost to provide security during the interrogation. From their different vantage points, they saw differing elements of the interrogation.

"The soldiers told investigators that they had seen the three enlisted SEALs kick prisoners and fire handguns next to their heads; at one point, two of them forced a detainee's legs apart so they could drop a large rock on his crotch," The Times notes.

"Three of the soldiers said that the SEALs had also dropped stones on other prisoners. One soldier recalled seeing a Team 2 member standing on a detainee's head 'maybe eight to 10 times.'"

The interrogation lasted into the afternoon, after which the Navy SEALs allowed the detainees to leave. Within hours, one of the detainees died from the injuries he sustained.

After the beatings, Cmdr. Mike Hayes, the officer in charge of the SEAL team, opened an investigation on the four Navy SEALs involved following a report of the situation from one of the US soldiers present.

Despite the allegations, the case was moved to be settled through a disciplinary hearing that was generally used for minor infractions. The hearing was behind closed doors, and the Navy lawyer involved justified it as saying that a full court-martial case was impossible because of the lack of forensic evidence and Afghan witnesses.

Ultimately, the Navy SEALs were given only "letters of instruction," The Times reports, that suggested "they could improve their 'leadership and decision making.'" The SEALs were also reassigned to different teams.

Still, the ruling and the closed-doors investigation into the beatings have turned heads, and multiple lawyers within the military have called for the case to be reopened.

"It's unfathomable," former judge advocate general of the Navy, Donald J. Guter, told The Times. "It really does look like this was intended just to bury this."

Here's a copy of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service report on the detainee abuse in Kalach:

You can read the full New York Times report here»

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In this excerpt from 100 Deadly Skills: The SEAL Operative's Guide, retired Navy SEAL Clint Emerson explains how to survive a drowning attempt.

When an operative is captured in hostile territory, the odds of survival are low.

Instead of being taken to trial, he will likely simply be made to "disappear"— which is why operatives practice escaping while wearing undefeatable restraints on hands and feet, both in water and on land.

Tied up, thrown into open waters, and left to drown to death, the well-trained operative still has recourse to a few skills that can help extend his life until he is found or reaches solid ground.

When it comes to self-preservation in water, the key to survival is breath control. With the lungs full of air, the human body is buoyant — so deep breaths and quick exhales are key.

Buoyancy in freshwater is more challenging but still achievable. Panicking, which can lead to hyperventilation, is the number-one enemy to survival.

Restraints and body positioning may make breathing a challenge, but repositioning is always within the Nomad's grasp. In shallow waters, use a sinking and bouncing approach (see diagram below) to travel toward shore, ricocheting off the seabed or lake floor up to the surface for an inhale.

When facing down, whether floating in place or using a backward kicking motion to swim to shore, the operative should arch his back in order to raise his head above water.

In rough seas, this may not give him enough clearance to get his head out of water. Instead, a full body rotation will allow him to take a deep breath and then continue traveling forward. 

Republished with permission from 100 Deadly Skills: The SEAL Operative's Guide to Eluding Pursuers, Evading Capture, and Surviving Any Dangerous Situation by Clint Emerson. Copyright © 2015 by Escape the Wolf, LLC. Reprinted by arrangement with Touchstone. All rights reserved.

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How do you make a team better? It's an intriguing question that comes up a lot, especially in business and sports.

Recently, Team Novo Nordisk— the first pro cycling team of its kind, made up entirely of athletes with diabetes — took an unusual approach to up its game. General manager Vassili Davidenko sent his riders to California to take part in what normally would have been just another offseason training camp, where they typically get their new bikes and gear and pedal a bunch of miles while getting to know one another in a casual, laid-back atmosphere. But to their surprise, they were awoken on day one at 4 a.m. to take part in a series of rigorous team-building exercises with retired Navy SEALs and Special Ops personnel.

William Hart, cofounder of Acumen Performance Group, which teamed up with Novo Nordisk for the camp, greeted the stunned cyclists bright and early: "You guys are all professional cyclists and have a lot of coaches and trainers that make you some of the best in the world at cycling — us former retired Navy SEALs, we're the best in the world at getting through things that suck."

Over the next 36 hours, the cyclists would be pushed to their absolute physical and psychological limits in exercises designed to be taxing but empowering. This week, Business Insider caught up with Davidenko to learn more about his unique team, what the riders were put through — and how they fared — and how this hardcore camp fits into the big goal to ultimately get the team into the world's largest annual sporting event, the Tour de France.

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Team Novo Nordisk is the first all-diabetes pro cycling team. "Our goal is to race the Tour de France by 2021, a year that marks the 100th anniversary of the discovery of insulin," a spokeswoman told Business Insider.

Its mission is front and center on its website:

"Team Novo Nordisk is a global all-diabetes sports team of cyclists, triathletes and runners, spearheaded by the world's first all-diabetes professional cycling team. Our mission is to inspire, educate and empower people affected by diabetes."

Denmark-based "Novo Nordisk is a global health care company with 90 years of innovation and leadership in diabetes care. The company also has leading positions within hemophilia care, growth-hormone therapy, and hormone therapy."

Other cycling teams hold camps with a military theme, too, but as Davidenko tells Business Insider, this camp was "completely different."

"Other camps introduce the riders to military guys, and they play with guns," Davidenko says. "Some play football and ride go-karts, and it's great to get together like that. But our camp was completely different. It was about getting our guys closer to one another, bringing them to their limits, taking them out of their comfort zone, and then keeping them there, making sure they work as a team, with no one left behind."

Juri Chabursky, CEO of Acumen Performance Group, says, "All the training APG delivers embodies a blend of elite military, business, athletic, and performance psychology best practices. Our programs are delivered in an immersive experiential manner, focused on adult learning principles, to ensure rapid retention and immediate utilization of the skills learned."

"Based on Team Novo Nordisk's needs, their 36 hours of training was oriented more from the U.S. Navy SEAL backgrounds of APG's founding partners. This particular client was looking to develop mental toughness in a manner consistent with the endurance-based multi-environment nature of their sport. This gave APG the ability to apply a huge range of our Navy SEAL and Special Operations instructional and operational experience to the program.

"The team improved their mental toughness, teamwork, leadership, communication, stress management, contingency planning, and their accountability to 'Team-Teammates-Self.'"

The camp was about training the brain — not just the body.

"We came up with the idea to do the Navy SEAL-style camp because we wanted the riders to work together more effectively as a team. We wanted to show them that when they work well together as a team, they can be better," Team Novo Nordisk CEO and cofounder Phil Southerland said. "We believe that what was holding them back was truly mental, so we wanted to break them down and build them back up as one solid unit."

In this excerpt from "The Making of a Navy SEAL: My story of Surviving the Toughest Challenge and Training the Best," retired Navy SEAL and editor-in-chief of SOFREP.com, Brandon Webb describes what it's like to attend SERE training, the school that prepares America's elite soldiers to survive if they are captured.

In January 1994 I reported to Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Ten (HS-10), the helicopter training squadron in San Diego.

There, I would learn the ropes before finally deploying as part of an operational squadron. However, there were a few more hurdles to clear first.

Before you can become a pilot or rescue swimmer, or take any other job where there is significant risk of capture, you need two things. You have to have secret clearance, and you have to go to survival school.

The term "boot camp" was first used by the marines back in World War II. "Boot" is slang for "recruit." Those of us who showed up for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) training that January had already been through many month of training. But we were still considered "boots." SERE was boot camp on steroids.

The program's aim is to equip its trainees with the skills and the grit needed to survive with dignity in the most hostile conditions of captivity. It was far and away the most intense training I'd encountered so far.

We spent a week of classroom training that included learning how to tell a captor just enough to stay alive — but not enough to give away secrets. Then we headed out into the field.

There was a simulated prisoner of war (POW) camp portion of the training. I was no longer Brandon Webb. I was now War Criminal 53.

There were two rules here, and you learned them pretty fast. "Grab your rags!" and "Eyes to the ground!" The first meant grab the sides of your pants so the guards could see your hands at all times.

The second was to ensure that we war criminals did not look around and gain any awareness of our surroundings that we might use to our advantage later. 

I was assigned to a small concrete box, and three feet tall, though somewhat larger in width and depth (thank heavens). I crawled in and did my best to find a comfortable position.

Hunching down a bit, I could just manage to sit cross-legged, sort of. I am not a tall man. Right then, I was grateful for this fact.

My bathroom was a Folgers coffee can. The box has a little canvas flap I could pull down for a little privacy when it came time to use the can.

This was my home for the next three days.

I wondered what would happen next. It wasn't that terrible being crammed into this ridiculous box, but I wanted them to haul me out and start interrogating me.

Let's get this over with, I thought. 

Nobody came.

As the hours crawled by, a sort of routine began to establish itself. People were randomly selected (at least it seemed that way to me), pulled out of their boxes, and taken away into the night. A short while later, we would hear screams. Then the music would start: bad songs, the worst, over and over. Other times it would be a recording of a little girl pleading for her daddy to come home. Whatever it was they played on the loudspeakers, it would go on for hours. When daybreak came this routine continued.

My most vivid memory of time in the camp was being crammed into another tiny box, this one of wood and no more than three feet in all dimensions. This wonderful location would be my accommodations for the next few hours while they subjected me to the interrogation portion. (Be careful what you wish for.)

I've never had a problem with small spaces, but when I was stuffed into that box (yes, stuffed), my left leg started to cramp. This was the kind of cramp you can quickly relieve simply by straightening out your leg. But in that box, there was no straightening anything out. That leg cramp — and even more, my complete and utter inability to do anything about it — drove me near to insanity. It took everything I had to keep it together.

During the course of these three days we learned a lesson that has been learned the hard way by real POWs: in any prisoner of war situation, the goal is to survive with honor. More than a few people failed out for completely losing their cool or getting "executed" for acting out.

Three days doesn't sound like a very long time, and under normal, everyday circumstances, it's not — but under POW camp conditions, it doesn't take long to wear down a man's sanity.

After day three we were liberated from the camp and debriefed on our POW experience. We had been carefully watched the entire time. I was happy to find out I did pretty well. 

Now all I had to do was figure out how to get to BUD/S.

Republished with permission from The Making of a Navy SEAL by Brandon Webb. Copyright © 2015 by Brandon Webb  and John David Mann. Reprinted by arrangement with St. Martin's Press. All rights reserved.

SEE ALSO: Listen to this freaky recording that is used to train elite soldiers to survive if they are captured and tortured

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Retired Navy SEAL and "Extreme Ownership" co-author Jocko Willink talk about using simplicity for effective leadership. 

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In this excerpt from "The Red Circle: My Life in the Navy SEAL Sniper Corps and How I Trained America's Deadliest Marksmen," former Navy SEAL sniper instructor Brandon Webb describes the deadliest sniper in US military history.

Everything I'd experienced in the navy up to this point, from those early days as an aircrew search-and-rescue swimmer to BUD/S and STT through deployment on the USS Cole, in the Gulf, and in Afghanistan, all of it had gone into our work in revamping and refining this sniper course, and we were now turning out some of the most decorated snipers in the world.

There is no better example of this than Chris Kyle.

Chris is a Texan who had been shooting since he was a kid, and like a lot of guys who grew up hunting, he knew how to stalk.

He was also a champion saddle-bronc rider; in fact, the first time he applied to the navy he was flat-out rejected because of pins in his arm, the result of a serious accident he'd had while in the rodeo ring.

The navy later relented and actually sought him out for recruitment.

Good thing for our side, as it turned out.

Chris immediately made a big impression on all the staff and obviously had great potential, although it didn't jump out and bite you at first.

Chris is a classic example of a Spec Ops guy: a book you definitely do not want to judge by its cover.

A quiet guy, he is unassuming, mild-mannered, and soft-spoken — as long as you don't get him riled. Walk past Chris Kyle on the street and you would not have the faintest sense that you'd just strolled by the deadliest marksman in US military history, with more than 150 confirmed kills.

Like me, when it came time for assignment to the teams, Chris had chosen SEAL Team Three as his top pick, and gotten it, too.

For his first deployment, he was one of the SEALs on the ground in Iraq with the first wave of American troops at the commencement of Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003. While he was there, Chris saw some serious action; it was a helluva place to have your first deployment.

Upon rotating back home, one of the first things Chris did was to go through our sniper course. After graduating, he shipped right back out to Iraq, where he fought in the Second Battle for Fallujah, which turned out to be the biggest and bloodiest engagement in the entire Iraq war. Since the largely unsuccessful First Battle for Fallujah seven months earlier, the place had been heavily fortified, and we had big army units going in with small teams of our snipers attached to help give them the edge they needed.

Our snipers would sneak in there, see enemy insurgents (sometimes snipers themselves) slipping out to try and ambush our guys, and just drop them in their tracks. It was no contest.

Our guys were not only expert shots, they also knew how to think strategically and tactically, and they came up with all kinds of creative solutions on the battlefield. For example, they would stage an IED (improvised explosive device) to flush out the enemy.

They would take some beat-up vehicle they'd captured in a previous op, rig it up with explosives, drive it into the city, and blow it, simulating that it had been hit by an IED.

Meanwhile, they would take cover and wait. All these enemy forces would start coming out of the woodwork, shooting off guns and celebrating, "Aha we got the Americans!" and the snipers would pick them all off like proverbial goldfish in a bowl. You didn't hear about this on the news, but they did it over and over, throughout the city.

Chris was in the middle of all this. In his first deployment he racked up close to 100 kills, 40 of them in the Second Battle for Fallujah alone. He was shot twice, in six separate IED explosions, and received multiple frag wounds from RPGs and other explosives.

The insurgents had a sniper there from the Iraqi Olympic shooting team, who was packing an English-made Accuracy International, about $10,000 worth of weapon. This guy was not messing around. Neither were Chris and our other snipers. They shot the guy and took his rifle. Al Qaeda put a bounty on Chris's head—but nobody ever collected. You can read about Chris's exploits in his book, American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in US Military History.

As remarkable as he is, Chris Kyle is quick to point out that he was not unique on that battlefield. There was a whole lineup of SEAL snipers in Iraq at the time who were cutting a wide swathe through the hotbeds of insurgency, providing clear zones for our marines and army forces to operate without being picked off by enemy snipers themselves or being ambushed by IEDs.

It's easy to have an image of these guys as trained killers—mean, ruthless men who think nothing of ending other people's lives. Maybe even violent and bloodthirsty. The reality is quite different. Think about the various ways we have gone about winning wars in the past. Think about American planes firebombing Tokyo and Dresden during World War II, which burned to death hundreds of thousands of civilians. And that's an awfully painful way to go...Now think about a trained Navy SEAL sniper like Chris, waiting, sighting, and finally squeezing the trigger of his .300 Win Mag. The supersonic round reaches its destination in less than a second—the man is gone before the rifle's report reaches his ears.

The reality is that the death that comes with the sniper's strike is typically clean, painless, and as humane as death can be. A cleaner death, if we're really going to be honest with ourselves, than most of us will experience when we come to the end of our own lives. The sniper is like a highly skilled surgeon, practicing his craft on the battlefield.

Make no mistake: War is about killing other human beings, taking out the enemy before he takes us out, stopping the spread of further aggression by stopping those who would perpetuate that aggression. However, if the goal is to prosecute the war in order to achieve the peace, and to do so as fast and as effectively as possible, and with the least collateral damage, then warriors like Chris Kyle and our brothers-in-arms are heroes in the best sense.

Brandon Webb is a former US Navy SEAL with combat deployments to southwest Asia, including Iraq, and Afghanistan. He was a course manager for the US Navy SEAL Sniper program, arguably the most difficult sniper course in the world. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

Excerpted with permission from "The Red Circle: My Life in the Navy SEAL Sniper Corps and How I Trained America's Deadliest Marksmen." Copyright © 2012 by Brandon Webb. All rights reserved.

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NOW WATCH: Mexico just released dramatic video of the raid at El Chapo's house that led to his arrest

Jesse Itzler felt he was in a rut. So he asked Navy Seal David Goggins to live with him for 31 days, during which Jesse would do anything David told him to do.

Jesse would later write "Living With A Seal" documenting the grueling experience of getting whipped into shape by one of the toughest men on the planet. They ran through snow storms, jumped into a frozen lake, and did lots and lots of push-ups. 

Here, Jesse and David talk about failure, what it means, and how you can use it to become better.

Produced by Joe Avella

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In this excerpt from 100 Deadly Skills: The SEAL Operative's Guide, retired Navy SEAL Clint Emerson explains how to escape from the trunk of a car in abducted.

Violent Nomads frequently operate in or near countries that are at war or in political crisis, and thus are vulnerable to being kidnapped for ransom—sometimes as a calculated attempt to thwart a mission, sometimes simply as a result of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

More and more frequently, travelers to unstable regions face the same risk.

The most predictable points of vulnerability in a traveler’s schedule are his departure from and return to his hotel at the beginning and end of his day—but an abduction may also be the result of a staged automobile accident.

Common ruses used by kidnappers to apprehend a target on the road include:

The Bump: The attacker bumps the target’s vehicle from behind. The target gets out to assess the damage and suddenly finds himself in the trunk of a car.

The Good Samaritan: The attackers stage what appears to be an accident or feign a car problem. The target stops to assist and suddenly finds himself in the trunk of a car.

The Trap: Kidnappers use surveillance to follow the target home. When he pulls into his driveway and waits for the gate to open, the attacker pulls up from behind and blocks his car.

The target finds himself in the trunk of a car. In each of these scenarios, the target ends up imprisoned.

But he doesn’t have to remain in that state. Take the time to understand how a vehicle’s trunk operates, learning its vulnerabilities and how to defeat them.

If locked in a trunk, always try to be positioned in a way that allows access to escape tools.

Excerpted from 100 Deadly Skills: The SEAL Operative's Guide to Eluding Pursuers, Evading Capture, and Surviving Any Dangerous Situation by Clint Emerson. Copyright © 2015 by Clint Emerson. Used by permission of Touchstone, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

MORE: A retired Navy SEAL explains how to survive a drowning attempt

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NOW WATCH: The coolest phrases only people in the military use

Jesse Itzler felt he was in a rut. So he asked Navy SEAL David Goggins to live with him for 31 days, during which Jesse would do anything David told him to do.

Jesse would later write "Living With A Seal" documenting the grueling experience of getting whipped into shape by one of the toughest men on the planet. They ran through snow storms, jumped into a frozen lake, and did lots and lots of push-ups. 

Here, Jesse and David talk about actively pushing yourself and the 40% rule, which means when you think your done and have reached your limit, you're actually only 40% done.

Produced by Joe Avella

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Animals have been used in warfare since humans first domesticated them. And dogs are no exception to the rule.

Since September 11, canines have taken on larger and more prominent roles throughout the US military, including within the Navy SEALs.

What's special about canine units used in the Navy SEALs is the particularity of their training.

All Navy SEAL dogs undergo an intensity of training that matches the difficulties of their human counterparts.

It's no wonder that these dogs have become vital components of SEAL team units.

SEE ALSO: These are the most incredible photos of the US Army in 2015

Special Operations Forces canines are overwhelmingly chosen from one breed, the Belgian Malinois. Only 1% of candidate dogs make the cut for training.

Training is arduous, and it requires dogs to overcome their instincts and develop complete faith in their handlers.

One of the first tests is training the dogs to be able to swim out past vision of the shore.

After leaving the SEAL teams behind in 2006, I worked briefly as an OGA contractor, and then started a business with some partners. That business failed miserably; I lost my entire net worth and savings, along with friends and family money. It was terrible, and humbling.

On top of it all, I found myself losing my wife a short time later. I went from coaching little league to living in an empty house, alone, with no kids, and having to have a lot of uncomfortable conversations with neighbors.

Many of us face low points in life, however, if you look at them as an opportunity to grow, you’ll be better off.

I’m also tired of the fear based narratives in America media that focuses on getting the mob torches lighted; instead we should be focusing on addressing our problems with viable solutions. America is still great.

It took over a year to dust myself off and stand back up on solid ground, but I did just that. I took a nine-to-five job as an executive, saved up some money, and sold a book concept to St. Martin’s Press after getting turned down a bunch of times (this was before the fascination with Navy SEALs hit the media). Then I started blogging, liked it, and left my job to start a small website with Jack Murphy that turned into a big one (SOFREP.com). Then we started some others, and bought a few more sites, adding them to our network—Force12 Media.

I also rebuilt a strong relationship with my children’s amazing mother. She’s since remarried an incredible guy, they now have the most beautiful little girl together, and my daughter finally has a sister to help compete with her brothers. Our kids are doing incredibly well because their mom and I get along and are aligned in a common goal to produce healthy, happy kids who will pay their own rent when they leave home.

I just finished an amazing time with my kids, skiing in Tahoe this Christmas. I’m so proud of them and the amazing people they are becoming.

Yesterday, I went flying in my plane (don’t laugh, it’s paid for) over one of the greatest cities in America—Manhattan, New York (And Sorry Cruz, you don’t get New York or New Yorkers!). As I stared down at Ellis Island from 1,200 feet piloting my experimental plane, I reflected on what a wonderful country America is, and how “we the people” still means something if you let it.

Follow your dreams and do great things regardless of the naysayers; don’t listen to them or their negativity. Most negative people are in a bad place personally, and should be compassionately ignored. Whatever you do, if you stumble briefly and fall, don’t forget to stand up, dust yourself off, and drive on with your mission. It’s in all of us to succeed, and America is still great because this country gives us the opportunity.

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While the parallels between special operations and business closely mirror each other in some regards, there are also glaring differences.

The most significant difference I’ve found in the year plus that I’ve been out of the military is what is considered acceptable and unacceptable in the workplace.

In a SEAL Team room, for instance, there are (legal) mementos collected from high-level missions, pictures from past training trips, and photos to memorialize fallen teammates.

On the other hand, a corporate culture is not likely to hang the suit and tie of the CEO whose company you just acquired, nor will there be pictures memorializing past employees who worked at the company for six months.

Related: The 6 Words That Are Holding You Back

Of the social norms that differ between the two professions, nothing is more apparent than the definition of what “acceptable” means. What is normal in the SEAL Teams, for instance, is typically considered abnormal elsewhere (go figure). Here’s a quick rundown of 10 sayings I did not hear in the Teams and the reasons why:

1. “I can’t do that.”

If somebody had said this in the team room then he would’ve found himself cold, wet and duct taped. Unless a physical handicap is present, replace your “can” or “can’t,” with “will” or “won’t.” There’s always a way. Find it.

2. “Sorry I’m late.”

You don’t hear this in a culture of accountability because expectations are set, and if they’re not met then there are repercussions. Not to say that expectations don’t change, but it’s not for a lack of effort in fulfilling them.

3. “I don’t know.”

While admitting uncertainty is perfectly fine, the statement alone leaves much to be desired. Instead, try saying “I don’t know yet, but I’ll find out and get back to you.” This latter part is what demonstrates a proactive mindset and a willingness to work, rather than leaving your ambition open to interpretation.

4. “I’m going to HR.”

Nobody cares. Unless the issue is illegal, immoral or unethical, solve the problem yourself. HR is there to facilitate company strategy, not arbitrate turf wars between employees.

5. “Schedule it with my EA.”

While not all SEAL Teams are created equally, there is an equal dispersion of accountability that team members are expected to uphold. Namely, if you take care of your personal business then your personal business will take care of you when it counts. Having unpacked (emotional) baggage only gets heavier the longer you carry it around.

Related: The 2 Words Entrepreneurs Should Avoid

6. “I’m sorry I hurt your feelings.”

Feelings? What’s that?

7. “Let’s talk this out.”

There is nothing like the camaraderie between SEALs. Nothing else even comes close to paralleling the tight bond, unity and cohesion found amongst men who live, eat, train and fight together. Having said that, some people just need a good whoopin’ once in a while to keep egos in check, and teammates are no different. Confronting difficult issues and learning from them is what turns mediocrity into greatness.

8. “Hold my calls.”

The train doesn’t stop for you. Get on or get off, but you are no more important than the guy (or gal) next to you. Once you’re done with your share of the task, see who else needs help.

9. “Let’s hold off on this issue until the next meeting.”

I’m all for collecting the facts, but nothing decides itself. There comes a point where too much data leads to analysis paralysis, and decision-making gets delayed until the elegant solution arrives — and it never does. Pushing off decision-making authority or accountability only leaves a larger snowball of complexity to have to deal with later.

10. “I just found this awesome PowerPoint template!”

Everybody’s “primary weapon” is different — carpenters use hammers, chefs use ingredients, announcers use their voice. Whatever your weapon of choice, make sure it’s always ready to go because second chances don’t come by too often.

SEE ALSO: A former Navy SEAL shares his top 3 strategies for winning in any situation

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South Korea's UDT/SEALs unit of elite frogmen in the Republic of Korea's navy have longstanding ties to US Navy SEALs, but some of their techniques, like a recent video displaying their knife training, shows their unique style of close-quarters combat.

In the slides below, see the Korean UDT/SEALs training in combat gear and practicing a fearsome knife-fighting regimen with blinding speed and complexity.

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The video starts with the Korean UDT/SEALs practicing their form in unison.

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Next, they go to one-on-one duels, which are lightning-quick and insanely complicated.

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The takedown on display here is especially savage.

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