Major MJ Hegar on Escaping Death, Remaining Calm, and Trusting Self

MJ Hegar (0:00)

When we landed the second time, they had repositioned a heavy belt-fed machine gun, which is not small. That is like, you know, well, belt-fed should speak for itself, and started just ripping us to shreds, starting from the tail and walking up toward the nose very slowly, thank God, because it's hard to maneuver. It's a heavy piece of machinery. So we got our patience on board. We took off and immediately realized we wouldn't make it far.

Dr. Michael Gervais (0:35)

If you're new to this podcast, welcome. If you're returning, welcome back. I'm Michael Gervais. By trade and training, I'm a sport and performance psychologist, where I spend most of my time creating working laboratories to better understand how people use their minds to pursue their potential, especially in hostile and rugged environments. And what is a working laboratory? It's the projects that I'm fortunate enough to be part of with world-leading and world-class athletes and performers to learn from them, but also to offer assistance to be able to support and challenge them to be able to train their minds.

So in these conversations, in the podcast conversations, what we're working to do is to extend those working laboratories and to share that with you.

And we're working to understand the psychological framework of these world-class thinkers and doers. And we want to understand what they're searching for, where their drive comes from, their worldview, if you will, and how they explain events. And in this podcast, you're going to love this part of it. We want to understand how they train their mind, how they harness emotions, how they adjust when events don't go according to plan, because it's easy to feel good when everything's working well. And we really want to dig to get under the surface to get to the tactics of how they train their mind, to be able to be better at their craft. And some of the folks that we're going to talk to or that we have spoken to, they're so good at what they do that they shift the way their world works. And sometimes that ends up shifting the way we understand how the world works.

I want to take a minute here to announce a really exciting event that we have coming up. As you continue to navigate the challenges and opportunities of 2024, I want to pose a question.

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And our ability to be agile with change, that is the real opportunity at hand. So if you're wanting to unlock extraordinary results and sustainable performance in your life, it's not about avoiding or reducing stress. And as simple as that sounds, it's very tricky to do. But it is about fundamentally changing your relationship with it. And that's why I'm so thrilled to invite you to a special event. It's a free virtual event that we're offering. And it's called The Power of Embracing Stress. It's on Wednesday, March 6th at 2 p.m. Pacific. So to sign up, just head over to findingmastery.com/training. Whether it's advancing in your career or improving your health or cultivating stronger relationships, I think a new approach to stress can be one of the most powerful unlocks for you in your life. So join us for this free virtual training, The Power of Embracing Stress, on Wednesday, March 6th at 2 p.m. Pacific. Go to findingmastery.com/training to sign up. Once again, that's findingmastery.com/training. And I'm really excited to see you there.

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