Jan 21, 2022
Today’s guest is Dean Stott on how to become relentless in your
life!
Dean is a former British Special Forces Soldier, 2x World Record
Holder, Adventurer, Philanthropist, Author and International
Speaker.
After making it through the Special Forces gruelling 6-month
selection process, Dean became one of the very first army members
to join the SBS (Special Boat Service). Throughout his esteemed
military career, he has conducted deployments to overseas hostile
environments and been involved in Counter-Terrorism operations; he
has travelled to some of the toughest places in the world.
Dean left the military in 2011, after 16 honourable years of
service but continues to live by the Special Forces’ ethos of ‘the
unrelenting pursuit of excellence’. The determination required
throughout his career has become an integral part of Dean’s
character.
He then established a distinguished career in the private security
sector; he was renowned for his willing to take on any job, no
matter how dangerous. The man who went, when others won’t. He has
faced extortion, kidnapping, civil war, pirates, military coups and
was single-handedly responsible for the evacuation of the Canadian
embassy in 2014 rescuing 4 diplomats and 18 military personnel.
However, in 2016 Dean was ready for a new project and wanted to
use this to help others. He began training to cycle the longest
motorable road in the world – The Pan American Highway. Dean
completed the 14,000 miles route from Argentina to Alaska in May
2018, gaining two world records and raising an incredible amount of
money for charity in the process. Dean passed through 14 countries
on his expedition, crossing some of the most dangerous passages in
the world.
Prior to his training, Dean had never cycled more than a few
miles. In the final stretch, Dean continued for 17 hours and driven
by his determination, covered 340 miles on his longest day.
Dean is now a renowed international speaker, presenting to FTSE
100 companies, sporting bodies, military departments, schools and
businesses. Dean has presented inspiring talks to 10,000 people at
the O2 Arena through to 25 local children in impoverished
areas.
Dean firmly believes, with the right mind set and plan, nothing
you truly desire is out of reach. To him, impossible simple means,
its hasn’t been done…..yet.
In this interview, we discuss:
- Benefits of the Military lifestyle
- How he went cycling 14,000 miles after only doing 20 miles at
the most
- The protocols and hacks you need to build to achieve your
goals.
- Building resilience in your own life
- And so much more!
Here are some key points that I would advise you to concentrate
on
- Your history is not your destiny - just because you start
somewhere does not mean you need to stay there. It can be a tough
journey to do, but it can be the making of you and your life.
- People will alway criticize and badmouth others - the best way
to prove it wrong is action, is to go for it. Why avoid chasing
your dreams because of what someone else thinks? Yep, it's stupid!
Ignore them and level up!
- Instead of thinking of challenges are a bad thing, look
at them as a chance to build your resilience skill, your ability to
take on challenges and succeed.
- There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance. Know
your worth but don't bad mouth others - be confident in your
skills, practice, train and build up your skills. Then keep quiet
and get the work done to achieve your goals.
- Resilience is born in childhood, let your children play, go on
adventures and learn their limits and abilities. Their future self
will thank them.
- What gets measured, gets managed and achieved - set goals for
yourself and go for them! A task with no deadline is just a dream.
Pick a target, deadline, gather resources and go for it.
- Your body is like a river, it needs to keep flowing, moving and
being challenged. You need an objective in your life, something to
look forward to and challenge yourself with.
- Routine is important in life- adopt a military lifestyle and
build routines into your life. ?Keep yourself busy, challenged and
progressing daily.
- You can find a tribe of like-minded people, a community that
can support and benefit people with friendships, motivation and
assurance and accountability. Meetup.com, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and
sports clubs are great places to find such people.
- A great team, like a special forces team, have a range of
operators, with differing skills and abilities that benefit the
other members of the team.
- You can't control the uncontrollable - organise, rehearse, plan
and action on what you can control, and forget the uncontrollable.
Action and affect what you can control, let the other parts
go.
- Top performers will do the basics at world class level, build a
strong base of fundamentals in your life and skills.
- Use a hot debrief when you are finished - before you clean up
and shut off, look at what happened, what went well and how things
could be improved. Then use this learning to keep building,
evolving and adapt your approach for the next time to be better the
next time.
- Be prepared, always have a contiguency plan in case things go
wrong - hopefully you will never need it, but a well-rehearsed,
organised and controlled fall-back plan can be the difference
between your mission success or failure.
- Every challenge is a chance to grow. Each time you pick the
easy way, you are going backwards. Every time you go for the
challenge, you are growing, adapting and going forward towards your
goals.
- Hard skills can be taught, but soft skills such as people
skills and influencing others, can be what lets you hit that next
level in life, access new resources, learn and everything in
between.
- No man can be the best at everything. Build a network or
friendships, relationships and connections to help each other
achieve what you are going for.
- Break down large goals into smaller, manageable challenges.
This way, the challenge won't be too overpowering and you will have
an exact requirement in front of you, and you know what you need to
achieve. You keep ticking them off, and you chip a bit off the
iceberg each time until its gone.
- Action is important, but you need to rest too. Build a rest
protocol and recovery periods into your life to avoid burning out.
Find a mindfulness practice that can let you rest and recoup when
needed and switch on your killer ability as its needed to perform
at the top level.