Mental and Physical Endurance E-Book

Alexander Stilwell

• Herausgeber: Amber Books Ltd
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Serie: Elite Forces Handbook
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 310

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Most of us know that we are not exercising our minds and bodies as much as we should. The Elite Forces Manual of Mental and Physical Endurance uses techniques developed by special forces units to train their recruits to show how we can improve our mental and physical fitness. The book is a detailed examination of what it takes to become as fit as a special forces soldier, taking a holistic view of the body and mind. It is equally important to focus on diet, rest patterns and mental discipline as it is to concentrate on physical exercises. Using simple steps, the book shows the reader how they can build up their endurance over a matter of weeks and months, and how their quality of life will benefit. Like elite soldiers, top athletes need the spur of competition to achieve their greatest successes, and The Elite Forces Manual of Mental and Physical Endurance demonstrates how you can gain the psychological edge over your opponent. Whether you are competing in unarmed combat sports, running a marathon or just looking to get ahead, the book has helpful and practical advice for you. Using photographs and artworks, The Elite Forces Manual of Mental and Physical Endurance shows how special forces units such as the SAS and Delta Force stretch themselves mentally and physically, giving the reader the opportunity to train as they do in easy-to-follow steps to reach their peak of mental and physical strength.

Leseprobe

www.amberbooks.co.uk

THE SAS AND ELITE FORCES MANUAL OF

MENTAL & PHYSICAL

ENDURANCE

How to reach your physical

and mental peak

ALEXANDER STILWELL

This digital edition first published in 2013

Published by

Amber Books Ltd

74–77 White Lion Street

London N1 9PF

United Kingdom

Website: www.amberbooks.co.uk

Appstore: itunes.com/apps/amberbooksltd

Facebook: www.facebook.com/amberbooks

Twitter: @amberbooks

Copyright © 2013 Amber Books Ltd

ISBN: 978-1-909160-32-3

Project Editor: Michael Spilling

Design: Hawes Design

Picture Research: Terry Forshaw

Illustrations: Tony Randell Illustration

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

Neither the author or the publisher accept responsibility for any loss, injury, or

damage caused as a result of the use of techniques described in this book.

Nor for any prosecutions or proceedings brought or instigated against any person

or body that may result from using these techniques.

PICTURE CREDITS

Contents

Introduction

Chapter One          Physical Preparation

Chapter Two         Mental Preparation

Chapter Three       Diet, Nutrition and Rest

Chapter Four        Advanced Mental and Physical Training

Chapter Five         Deafeating an Opponent

Chapter Six           Advanced Techniques

Index

The popularity of extreme sports – sport extrem in French – demonstrates the fundamental human need to face challenges and overcome them, even if it is necessary for some people to build those challenges themselves.

Introduction

‘You are what you think’ is a well-known phrase but, like many familiar phrases, it deserves closerscrutiny. While the mind controls the physical bodyin a direct way through the will, the mind itself is divided into the conscious and the subconscious.

The subconscious stores influences that may have been picked up since childhood, and these influences can affect an individual’s conscious assessment of their ability to overcome obstacles. Somebody who has had a history of being ‘put down’ whenever they open their mouth, for example, may have developed an irrational fear of speaking in public. To quote Henry Ford: ‘Think you can, think you can’t, either way you’ll be right.’

Facing Fears

In his book Call it Courage, Armstrong Sperry tells the story of a Polynesian boy called Mafatu, who was afraid of the sea. Mafatu means ‘Stout Heart’ in Polynesian and his name, added to the fact that his island was surrounded by the element he most feared, presented Mafatu with a significant problem. Either he had to accept the name of ‘Coward’, which he was increasingly called behind his back, and never engage with the source of his fear, or he had to do something about it. Luckily for him, he chose to confront his fear and set out to sea in a small canoe with a couple of pets. By facing his fear and overcoming the challenge, Mafatu was able to return to his island having lived up to his name.

It should be noted that the boy was not named ‘Coward’ or ‘Weakling’ at birth. He was given a name that implies high expectations and a certain inherent dignity. The name, however, is also owed to the achievements of his predecessors. Mafatu comes from a long line of ‘stout hearts’. It is not, however, enough to ‘inherit’ courage; he has to prove it to others, and also to himself. In other words, being born of a line of brave people does not exonerate him from having to face fear himself. Courageous people, therefore, are not people who have an absence of fear, but they are people who have learned to overcome fear. The experience of overcoming fear in certain circumstances gives them confidence when faced with a similar set of circumstances, although they may still experience the sensation of fear.

Fear of the unknown is natural, but many people populate this unknown with imaginary scenes that are unlikely ever to take place, thus increasing their irrational fear. Note Guardini’s words again: ‘living means advancing into this unknown region’. In other words, if, like Mafatu, you listen to your fears and do not advance into the unknown region, you are not really living, and you are not living up to either the expectations of others or the expectations conferred upon you by your own dignity as a human being.

The Polynesian boy Mafatu faces the waves. Courage is in proportion to the fear that some challenge arouses in a particular person. Many fears are understandable; others are somewhat irrational. By overcoming the fear, however, courage and confidence are born.

Physical and Mental Endurance

Having taken courage into your hands and advanced into the unknown region, whether it be the sea or some other area of challenge, it is not much good to simply get your toes wet and skip out again. The next stage involves staying with it and seeing it through. For Mafatu, like the explorers on the Kon-Tiki expedition, he had to encounter storms, dangerous sea animals and other rigours, and endure the journey until it was complete. The journey and all of its challenges helped to build his character and help him to prove that ‘Tough times never last, tough people do!’ (Robert Schuller)

Many lasting stories of courage imply endurance and tenacity as part of the deal – it is not just a question of turning up and being there, you have to last the course. Usually you only last the course if your mental fitness is not only equal, but also superior to your physical fitness. Those people who surpass even this level of achievement, however, have something else: they have the spiritual or subconscious foundations to take them beyond what conscious mental reasoning or grit would deem possible. From those who belong to this hall of fame, everyone will have their favourites. There are the masters of the sea, the intrepid explorers who set out from Portugal and Spain in the fifteenth century to discover the unknown world in which they lived; there are the men and women who have circumnavigated the globe in yachts or other craft, such as Robin Knox Johnston and Emma Richards; and those who have attempted extraordinary journeys to prove a theory, such as Thor Heyerdahl and the men of the Kon-Tiki and Ra expeditions. There are the masters of the land: men and women who have set off on incredible journeys, such as Marco Polo, or who have scaled mountains with limited equipment or backup. Joining these people are the masters of the air, such as the early pioneers of air mail – Saint-Exupéry, for example.

Masters of the Sea

Ferdinand Magellan led the expedition that first circumnavigated the globe in 1519, his adventure roughly equivalent in those days to a modern journey to Mars. Hot-headed, belligerent and ruthless, Magellan possessed both the drive and determination to carry off such a staggering journey, but he was not a pleasant person. His pride and his thirst for glory made enemies of his own shipmates and of the natives who finally killed him. Although the expedition was successful, Magellan himself did not live to savour the victory.

Captain James Cook was to circumnavigate the globe three times, and his discoveries led to a massive increase in Britain’s imperial possessions, including the island continent of Australia. He was also the first man to circumnavigate Antarctica. Like Magellan, Cook lost his life in a scuffle with natives, but his personality was very different to that of the Portuguese man. Cook was taciturn and selfcontrolled, almost a ‘grey man’. He was not the type of person you would want to cross, but he did not let his emotions get the better of him. Strangely enough, a rare fit of anger over the theft of a goat led to his untimely death.

HAVE COURAGE

Courage has been described as:

‘…the confidence required for living with a view to the future, for acting, building, assuming responsibilities, and forming ties. For, in spite of our precautions, the future is in each case the unknown. But living means advancing into this unknown region, which may lie before us like a chaos into which we must venture.’

Roman Guardini

Robin Knox-Johnston was the first man to sail round the world single-handed, which he accomplished in 1969 when he won the Golden Globe Race against nine other contenders, none of whom finished. Knox-Johnston has been quoted as saying, ‘Whether you are an amateur or a professional, young or old, there are always new goals and challenges to aspire to in life.’

Knox-Johnston describes the scale of the challenge in his book A World of My Own: ‘no one knew if a boat could even survive at sea for [...] that distance without support. No one thought it would be easy, many thought it impossible, but therein lay its intrinsic challenge; real satisfaction comes from achieving something difficult.’ Knox-Johnston also writes about the other challenge that faces all men and women – personality: ‘It was a distinctive trait in my character that when faced with a problem or job in which I was not at once deeply interested, I would do all I could to avoid tackling it, even to taking on a more difficult, even dangerous task which did hold my interest.’

Robin Knox-Johnston was the first man to perform a single-handed circumnavigation of the globe by sea. He left Falmouth on 14 June 1968, rounded Cape Horn on 17 January 1969 and returned to Falmouth on 22 April 1969.

Emma Richards was only 27 years old when she took part in the 2002–03 Around Alone solo yacht race. Starting in New York on 15 September 2002,she sailed more than 48,000km (30,000 miles) before crossing the finishing line on 4 May 2003, becoming the first British woman and youngest ever competitor to complete the challenge. Strangely enough, Emma Richards does not enjoy being alone, and she found solo sailing for such long periods souldestroying. She had to cope not only with being alone, but also with hurricanes and icebergs. She also had to hand-stitch a ripped Kevlar sail on the journey and could snatch only pockets of sleep of about 30 minutes’ duration. Emma Richards not only demonstrated remarkable stamina, determination and skill, but she also overcame anyone’s worst enemy – the self.

Masters of the Land

Wilfred Thesiger was one of the most famous explorers of Arabia. He made two epic journeys across the Rub ’al Khali, or Empty Quarter, 647,250 square kilometres (250,000 square miles) of desert, with dunes 160km (100 miles) long and 3280m (1000ft) high. This was a place where there was little more than sand, sun and the threat of death either from the environment or from hostile Bedouin.

Thesiger was inspired by the hard life of the Arabs and sought to emulate their ascetic way of life, recognizing that it was hardship that made the desert dwellers such fine people. Thesiger was not a sentimental man: he shot two lion cubs that he had reared because he feared they might grow into man-eaters. He was a war hero who fought for the British in Abyssinia in 1941 and later joined the Special Air Service (SAS) in the Western Desert under David Stirling. For him, hardship was like a magnet. He tested himself against some of the harshest places on the planet and was not found wanting. Known to African tribespeople as Sangalai, ‘the old bull elephant who walks by himself’, Thesiger found strength in the purity of the desert surroundings. In this way he was similar to the religious hermits and contemplative monks who went into the desert or the mountains to commune with God.

T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) was an expert Arabist who was useful to the British authorities in Cairo, where he helped to draw up maps. The death of both of his brothers on the Western Front spurred him to a more active participation in the war and he helped persuade British authorities that the Arab revolt against the Turks should be actively supported.

After joining Sheikh Faysal, Lawrence began to organize ground-breaking guerrilla hit-and-run operations that were to be copied later by Mao Tse-tung and which have become the foundation of modern special operations. Lawrence dressed like, and to all intents and purposes became, one of the Arabs; he endured incredible hardships, such as the two-month trek across the desert culminating in the capture of Aqaba. He demonstrated extreme endurance, as well as the ability to devise novel military operations in a hostile environment, and was also able to inspire and lead the Arab tribesmen. Lawrence was ascetic to the point of masochism and his career seems, like the sand dunes he traversed, to be mixed with rapturous peaks followed by painful descents. Although he turned down the signs of public recognition in England, he also wrote the The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, a masterly epic that was to make him a legend.

Wilfred Thesiger, like T.E. Lawrence before him, was drawn by the barren landscapes of the desert and identified profoundly with the simple, hardy Arabs who made their home there.

Robert Falcon Scottwas a British naval officer who seems to have shared some of the personality traits of Captain James Cook. He was a natural leader and was also a skilled scientific investigator, characteristics that speak of quiet strength. The expedition he led to reach the South Pole in 1910 was fraught with difficulties, bad luck and some planning failures. The motor sledges broke down, the dog teams had to return to base, and the ponies were shot. Scott, along with E.A. Wilson, H.R. Bowers, L.E.G. Oates and Edgar Evans, reached the South Pole on 18 January 1912 after an 81-day trek, only to find that Roald Amundsen had got there a month before them. The men were forced set off on the return journey in increasingly bad weather, and Evans and later Oates subsequently died. Only 17km (11 miles) from their destination they were confined to their tent by a fierce nine-day blizzard and had no choice but to wait for death. ‘Had we lived,’ he wrote, ‘I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale.’ Amundsen wrote of Scott and his team: ‘Bravery, determination, strength, they did not lack.… A little more experience ... would have crowned their work with success.’

Ernest Shackleton’s true qualities as a leader of men was not be shown in leading his team across Antartica but in rescuing them when the expedition went badly wrong.

Ernest Shackleton travelled with Scott on the British National Antarctic Expedition and later led the British Antarctic (Nimrod) Expedition in 1907, during which he came to within 156km (97 miles) of the South Pole. In 1914, he led the British Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition that was to cross Antarctica via the South Pole. The expedition ship Endurance was crushed in the pack ice, and Shackleton and five companions made an 1300km (800-mile) journey in a whale boat from Elephant Island to South Georgia to seek help, an incredible feat of seamanship and fortitude. Once at South Georgia, the men had to cross the island, which was a feat in itself, before they reached an aid post. An elaborate rescue operation was then conducted to rescue the rest of Endurance’s crew.

Shackleton not only had determination; he was also a meticulous planner who anticipated problems and challenges as far as he could and took steps to circumvent them. Shackleton knew that they could not rely on luck once they were on Elephant Island, that they could not just wait to be rescued. He studiously planned the trip to South Georgia, and picked his team carefully, taking with him the best navigator in the whole crew, Frank Worsley. By leaving nothing to chance, by carefully preparing the boat and picking the right team, Shackleton raised the chances of success to their highest point, taking into account the adverse circumstances. It was not a gamble that paid off; it was a calculated risk where teamwork, competence and professionalism backed up by toughness won the day.

Ranulph Fiennes is described in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s greatest living explorer. He has led more than 30 expeditions, some of the most remarkable of which are the first polar circumnavigation of the world and the first unsupported crossing of the Antarctic continent. An attempt to make the first solo unsupported trek to the North Pole ended in failure when Fiennes suffered severe frostbite after attempting to retrieve a pair of sledges that had fallen through the ice. Fiennes is fully aware of the value of physical fitness in striving to reach your goals and one of his many achievements includes running seven marathons in seven consecutive days in different parts of the world. He is also a proponent of self-motivation and personal determination, as well as the ability to choose the right team for a given task.

Paula Radcliffe has held the record as the world’s fastest woman marathon runner. She completed the London Marathon in 2003 in a time of 2:15.25, but success had been hard won. In the early days of her athletics career, Radcliffe was known for her plucky running at the front of the pack, but also for her weakness in the final sprint. As such, she was in danger of becoming a gallant British loser. However, Radcliffe did not enter races to lose. The solution seemed to be to take the sprint to her competitors, not at the end of the race, as you might expect, but throughout the whole race, so that by the end the competition had no sprint left in them. That was the theory, but it did not always work, as was demonstrated in the 10,000m race at the Sydney Olympics, when two Ethiopians and a Portuguese competitor outstripped her in the final lap.

Radcliffe bounced back and in 2002 set a scorching pace in the Flora London Marathon. She followed this up with first place in the 2002 Commonwealth Games 5000m and in the 2002 European Championships 10,000m. In another Flora London Marathon on 13 April 2003, Paula Radcliffe not only won the race, but also took two minutes off her own world record, a performance described in the Glasgow Herald as ‘the most stunning endurance performance in history, male or female’. The run was described by Peter Matthews, an expert on long-distance running, as ‘simply the greatest achievement in the history of the sport’.

By 2004, such was Paula Radcliffe’s reputation that she arrived in Athens for the Olympics with a gold medal effectively reserved. It was, however, not to be. In one of the most dramatic scenes in the history of the Marathon, Paula Radcliffe, worn down by heat and an opposition that refused to be broken by her searing pace, gave up. She also stopped before the finish of the 10,000m.

Marathons are nothing if not about endurance, determination and staying the course, and for someone as dedicated and hard-working as Paula Radcliffe, the impact of the failure was all the greater. For someone as determined as Paula Radcliffe, however, there could be only one solution. On 7 November 2004, she competed in and won the New York Marathon after one of the hardest-fought marathon races ever seen. Radcliffe, who supposedly does not have a sprint finish, outsprinted Susan Chepkemei of Kenya to take the race. It was a remarkable display of staying power and determination.

Paula Radcliffe demonstrates that winners are people who are dedicated to what they do best and who keep on trying. Even after they have supposedly ‘given up’, they get up and have another go. She is a testament to the saying that ‘a quitter never wins and a winner never quits’.

Chris Ryan was a member of B Squadron, 22 Special Air Service Regiment, who were tasked with observing and reporting on the infamous ‘Scud’ missiles deployed by Iraq during the 1990–91 Gulf War. Ryan, along with the rest of his troop, was dropped in a featureless desert that turned out to be somewhat different from the sandy desert they had trained in. It was as hard as rock, with little by way of cover, and whipped by a searingly cold wind. To make matters worse, they found that they had been dropped within only a few hundred yards of an Iraqi anti-aircraft battery. Compromised by a shepherd boy, they soon found themselves in a firefight with a truckload of Iraqi soldiers and having to run for their lives. With little choice other than to ditch their 45kg (100lb) bergens, they were left to face the rigours of the desert with inadequate clothing and little food or water. As parts of the team lost contact with each other or succumbed to the cold, Ryan soon found himself on his own. Pacing across the desert at night, powered by sheer determination, he was being followed by two Iraqi army vehicles. If this had been a normal soldier from a normal regiment, the result would have been inevitable – either death or capture. Unfortunately for the Iraqis, however, they were chasing a soldier from the world’s premier special forces regiment. Using a disposable US hand-held tank missile, Ryan destroyed first one vehicle, then the other. None of the Iraqis survived the encounter.

Members of the SAS team, call sign Bravo Two Zero, pose before a Chinook helicopter prior to departure on their ill-fated mission. Chris Ryan is on the far left. Three died; four were captured; one got away.

Ryan plunged on into the night, sustained by Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and a rugged morale. He endured freezing days and nights, blistering feet and all the effects of inadequate nutrition and hydration. Eventually, he crossed the border into a neutral but unfriendly Syria, his mind and body scarred by the experience. Three of his colleagues had been killed, and four had been captured.

The fate of Bravo Two Zero is somewhat reminiscent, in microcosm, of the ill-fated Operation Market Garden at the end of World War II, when crack British paratroopers were let down by faulty radios and other organizational failures. The SAS troop had been given the wrong radio frequencies and aged maps, and the appreciation of the ground and the weather conditions was astonishingly faulty. Failure to anticipate the freezing conditions of the Iraqi winter meant that essential warm clothing was left behind. Equipment overloads meant that even the warm kit they had was discarded in favour of essential operational equipment. Anxiety about the enemy caused Ryan to replace essential nutritional supplies in his belt kit with ammunition.

The story of Bravo Two Zero reveals how even the mostly highly trained soldiers can be compromised by bad organization. Chris Ryan revealed that the calibre of an SAS soldier is such that he could overcome not only the enemy and the forces of nature, but also abandonment by his own regiment.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900–44), a pioneer aviator, flew perilous journeys over the Andes and the North African desert. He lyrically transposed his adventures into a number of classic books.

Masters of the Air

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was a pioneering pilot, writer and poet who to helped set up some of the first mail routes across the Sahara desert and across the Andes mountains. He had several plane accidents, the worst being in the Libyan desert in 1936, and he was constantly faced with the possibility of death as he battled in rudimentary aircraft over massive deserts and mountains, and against the overwhelming forces of the elements. Eventually death caught up with him, though he was not killed by nature, but by his fellow men when he was shot down on a reconnaissance flight in North Africa in 1943.

Saint-Exupérywasnotsomuch an extraordinary man as he was an ordinary man who did extraordinary things. Like many of the great adventurers, he was attracted to simplicity, and he also had a strong sense of duty.

Captain Scott O’Grady proved that a master of the air also needs to know how to master the land. Flying over Bosnia with a wingman on 2 June 1995 while enforcing a no-fly zone over the Former Republic of Yugoslavia, the two planes were tracked by a Serb surface-to-air missile (SAM) unit that had been positioned south of Banja Luka. The Serbs switched the missile tracking system on and off in order to conceal its position from the Allied forces. Confident that there was no unwarranted threat in the area, the two US F-16s were not accompanied by electronic jamming aircraft or by planes armed with HARM anti-radiation missiles that could lock on to a missile battery radar.

RISK TAKING

Saint-Exupéry was aware of the risks that he took, and he was also aware that many people live their entire lives without facing risks and therefore never discover their true capabilities.

‘Self-discovery comes when man measures himself against an obstacle,’ he wrote, and, ‘A sense of vocation helps man to liberate himself, certainly; but it is just as necessary to liberate the vocation. Nights in the air, nights in the desert ... these are rare opportunities, offered to few men. And yet, when circumstances bring them to life, all men reveal the same needs.’

Wind, Sand and Stars, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

When warning signals came up on his instrument panel, O’Grady knew a missile was chasing him. Unfortunately, as he was flying in cloud, he could make no visual contact in order to take evasive action. One missile exploded between the two planes; the other hit O’Grady’s F-16 flat in the belly. As the plane began to break up, O’Grady pulled his ejection-seat lever and blew out of the cockpit.

He landed safely in a clearing and headed immediately for a nearby woods, where he kept his head down. A man and a boy wondered by at one point and he saw armed men in the distance, but he remained still, like a hunted animal. Once the immediate danger had passed, O’Grady organized his sleeping arrangements, covering himself with hessian during the day and only moving at night to catch insects or eat grass for minimum nutrition. He took care not to send out a radio signal too soon, as he knew the Serbs would be listening in to pinpoint his position, but on the fourth day O’Grady signalled his location and on the fifth day spoke into his radio. Aboard USS Kearsage, O’Grady’s home aircraft carrier, the rescue mission was activated.

Conducted in daylight, the rescue mission involved 40 aircraft. Two Cobra helicopters of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit came in low and landed in Grady’s location, where he had set off a flare at the last minute. Marines from one helicopter secured the perimeter, while Grady ran on to the second.

Despite the considerable air power at their disposal, the danger was far from over. Soon Serb ground units began to engage the helicopters with hand-held missile launchers and small arms. The Marines heard the rounds clattering against the fuselage as the aircraft flew onwards. US fighter pilots reported that a Serb missile unit was scanning the area, but they were not given permission to destroy it. Within half an hour, the helicopters were over the sea. Mission accomplished.

Scott O’Grady showed courage and presence of mind. He used his survival training to good effect, and he was determined not to have to use another part of his training for real – resistance to interrogation, which may have involved torture.

From his own account, Scott O’Grady not only came to fully appreciate his own physical freedom, but also came to appreciate what was truly worthwhile in life, namely faith in God and the love of family and friends. Given unexpected time to reflect with his life in danger, for him success and possessions came a poor second to a life dedicated to the service of others.

Masters of Space

Captain James Lovell commanded the third United States lunar attempt, which lifted off on 11 April 1970. At this time, Lovell had travelled more miles than any person in history and, with that amount of experience, a journey to the moon was as close to routine as such a voyage could get. However, two days, seven hours and 54 minutes into the mission, things began to go wrong. There was a loud bang during a routine check, and a red light came on the warning panel called Main B. Lovell’s inaccurate phrase said it all: ‘Houston, we’ve had a problem.’ Unfortunately, they had not ‘had’ a problem – the problem was there to stay.

US Air Force pilot Scott O’Grady was shot down in his F-16 ‘Fighting Falcon’ over Bosnia on 2 June 1995. Sucessfully evading capture for six days, he was finally rescued by United States forces.

As the electrical specialist Fred Haise headed into the command module, Odyssey, more warning lights were coming on. The tunnel running between the lunar module Aquarius and the Odyssey was pinging under the strain, and voltage readings were almost nonexistent. The chemical powerplants that produced electricity from a reaction between hydrogen and oxygen were not functioning properly. Soon there were so many malfunctions that they had gone beyond every worst-case scenario thrown at them in training.

While the others worked along with Houston through the maze of possible options, Lovell suddenly realized what the problem was as he looked out of the window. There was a large spume of gas coming out from the side of Odyssey. An electrical short had exploded number 2 oxygen tank and the other tank was rapidly emptying. Not only were they not going to land on the moon, but also it was looking doubtful that they would ever land back on earth – the spacecraft was 322,000km (200,000 miles) from earth and heading very rapidly in the wrong direction.

Teams on the ground continued to work furiously round the clock to solve the problem, and Lovell performed feats of mental gymnastics to align Odyssey with the stars so that they could alter the craft’s trajectory, which on current settings meant they would miss the earth on the return journey by 72,400km (45,000 miles). Lovell then had to orient the spacecraft with the earth, which involved a delicate manouevre using a modified gunsight. His task was to get the horns of the earth’s crescent to sit on the crosshairs, then fire up the engine for 14 seconds – known as a burn. Apart from these moments of high adrenalin, there were large blocks of time when they could do little more than wait in extremely cold temperatures and a cramped environment. It was too cold to sleep comfortably. Largely due to Lovell’s leadership and example, however, no one lost their temper.

Apollo 13 launches on 11 April 1970. The mission was intended to put men on the moon for the third time; however, the real achievement turned out to be getting those men back to earth safely.

As the craft continued to hurtle towards the earth, tiredness began to take its toll, as well as dehydration. The astronauts had to keep themselves to minimum water rations, like men crossing a desert, and this compounded the negative effect on their concentration. Fortunately, the systems in the craft, which had been closed down to preserve power, restarted perfectly at the vital moment. If the craft’s heat shield was undamaged and could cope with the massive heat of re-entry, they would be OK. And so it was. Soon the Odyssey had splashed down and the astronauts were being feted on board an aircraft carrier in the balmy waters of the Pacific.

The Apollo 13 mission required physical and mental endurance of a high order. Although different in many respects from other, earth­bound journeys, the technical accuracy and nerve required of the crew have parallels with the journey performed by Shackleton and his crew to South Georgia. The space journey demanded intense concentration and patience in a cramped space, while the necessary privations gnawed away at physical and mental faculties. It also required attention to detail of a very high order, for the slightest error in calculation could have sent the craft on an irretrievable course past the earth and into endless orbit. Stuck in their cold craft, the astronauts of Apollo 13 might have wished to change places with an athlete on a gruelling marathon, where at least they would have had both feet on the ground.

The remarkable fact about these stories is that many of them involve a large element of failure. The ‘success’ was not so much in achieving the goal, but in overcoming unforeseen obstacles or accidents and getting back despite the odds. However carefully we may set our sights on some goal, therefore, the real tests may be totally unpredictable and unforeseen, and it is these that may truly test our character, even more in fact than achieving the original goal. Confidence and success, therefore, may not come so much from ‘winning’ as from endurance and the journey into our own physical and mental resources. Nevertheless, we must expect success with confidence and be willing for it to occur, and try our best to expect and be prepared for the unexpected.

James Lovell, John Young and Fred Haise after their return from the aborted Apollo 13 mission. The sextant held by Lovell underlines the crucial importance of the correct navigational trajectory on the return flight.

Decide on Your Goal

You are not likely to reach the South Pole if you have half a mind to reaching the North Pole. You are not likely to land on the moon if your real desire is actually to land on Mars. In short, the more decided that you can be about your goal, the more likely it is that you will achieve it.

The talent that enables sportsmen such as footballer David Beckham to kick a ball in an unstoppable arc into the corner of a net or basketballer Michael Jordan to score from the free-throw line is difficult to quantify. What can be understood, however, is the hours of patient practice that have taken place in training before the critical event – the single-minded determination to be the best and to keep kicking or throwing until it becomes almost second nature. The constant training empowers the mind and the body to perform to their maximum potential when the pressure is on, and for sheer inspiration to do the rest.

REALISTIC GOALS

It is all very well saying you are going to achieve something, but you have to ask yourself whether or not the goal is realistic. The South Pole may be too far for you; the summit of Everest too high. If you set an ambitious and ultimately unachievable goal, the results will be negative and will damage your confidence. It is better to set realistic goals, or staging posts on the way to achieving a larger goal.

Someone relatively unfit and inexperienced who decides to take up running may have been inspired by watching a marathon, but they would be unwise to make the attempt before they have worked through shorter distances. It is no use saying you are going to run a marathon if you cannot run a half-marathon or even an 8km (5-mile) race. By gradually building up ever greater distances, however, an unfit person who can barely run three kilometres (two miles) can indeed achieve the ultimate goal of running 42km (26 miles).

By setting intermediate goals and focusing exclusively on achieving them, an oversized goal can be made manageable. This approach has the added benefit of building your confidence. By using this technique, you can overcome the negative effects of an oversized goal, which can seem overwhelming when viewed in its entirety.

To decide on a goal may seem like the easy part, but for many people it is not. To decide on one goal may mean discarding many others, all of which hold their own potential, and therefore it can be a painful and difficult thing to do. Great achievers, however, demonstrate a singleminded ability to focus on their goals, and once the decision has been made obstacles seem to fall before the force of their determination. Somebody who carries an alternative option in their backpack, on the other hand, is more likely to turn away from their first choice of goal when the going gets tough. Successful people are sometimes deviated from their goal by force majeure, as we have seen, but that is a different story. Setting a goal is not dissimilar to Lovell taking a setting from the sun and targeting the earth on Apollo 13. Once that was done, although they could not exactly sit back and enjoy the ride, the astronauts were at least on course and could focus on other peripheral demands. Once the course has been set, things have an uncanny way of falling into place. This is because both consciously and subconsciously we make decisions and use opportunities to attain the goal. This can only happen, however, if the goal is set.

Michael Jordan poised to shoot a goal. Focus, concentration and practice can meld together to produce inspirational results.

Focus

Focus essentially means the concentration of all your mental and physical powers on a particular event or task. Focus and concentration, therefore, are often the basic ingredients of achievement. Isaac Newton spoke of focus and concentration in the following terms: ‘I keep the subject continually before me and wait till the first dawnings open slowly, little by little, into full clear light.’ If Isaac Newton had had other things on his mind, then the laws of gravitation, as well as many other scientific discoveries, may have eluded him. The opposite of focus is distraction, which can be brought on by a whole host of worries and preoccupations. However complex the human mind, it is surprisingly ill adept at focusing on two things at once. So if the mind is churning over a problem or distracted by some worry, its ability to properly carry out the task in hand is impaired.