Pat McNamara (Mac) has 22 years of Special Operations
experience, 13 of which were in a Special Mission Unit. He has
extensive experience in hostile fire/combat zones in the Middle
East, and Eastern Europe. He trained individuals at basic and
advanced levels of marksmanship and combat tactics with emphasis on
the GWOT.
Mac was his (Tier One) Unit’s primary advanced pistol and rifle
marksmanship instructor for 2 years. In addition, he instructed
advanced Close-Quarter Battle Techniques, concealed weapon
employment, high speed motorcade and non-motorcade driving
techniques, mountain and urban climbing, basic and advanced
demolitions, advanced explosive entry techniques, and was the
primary hand combat instructor, rewriting the pre-existing POI.
Mr. McNamara led this Special Missions Unit on several high
alpine, long distance, wilderness foot movements with emphasis on
privation. Mr. McNamara led and supervised a highly trained,
multi-disciplined special operations team having the highest
priority for worldwide deployment. He routinely planned,
implemented and conducted real world missions and exercises
involving state of the art equipment.
While serving as his Unit’s Marksmanship NCO, Mr. McNamara
developed his own marksmanship club with NRA, CMP (civilian
marksmanship program), and USPSA (United States Practical Shooting
Association) affiliations. Mr. McNamara runs monthly IPSC matches
and ran semi annual military marksmanship championships to
encourage marksmanship fundamentals and competitiveness throughout
the Army.
He retired five years ago from the Army’s premier hostage rescue
unit as a Sergeant Major.
Mr. McNamara is the author of TAPS (Tactical Application of
Practical Shooting).
Here are some key points that I would advise you to concentrate
on
Pat worked in a variety of units, and became skilled in
multi-disciplines - specializing is a sexy thing right now, but
working and learning in all areas, lets you build strong
foundations for future successes and build knowledge in all areas
of your job etc.
You are never too late to start. Pat was a late bloomer in
wrestling and other things - stop sulking that you never started
the sport or activity when you were younger ... you can't change it
... so use that feeling of annoyance to go all in on your new focus
and try and level up as much as you can.
Your parent's journey does not need to be your own. Neither
does your friends of siblings journey or what they think you should
do. This is your one chance as 'you', follow your own path, chase
your own dreams.
You need to balance the parts of you, the nice gentleman, and
the warrior inside.
If you have an escapism that works for you, such as bird
watching, flowers etc, it doesn't matter, if it makes you happy and
doesn't hurt anyone, go for it!
It's great to look back at regular times and see how far
you have come, be appreciative of the journey you have been on, but
try and look forward. You can't change the past, but you can make
your present better to make the future brighter for you.
Pat lost repeatedly when he started wrestling. Instead of
letting it beat him up, he dusted himself off and went after it
again and kept going until he succeed and it taught him so much! In
the military if you fail but don't give up, the military often
allow a second chance. Stop beating yourself up over mistakes.
Learn from mistakes, grow stronger and try again. Its cliche but
true, you only fail when you give up. Give yourself a second
chance.
Always be reviewing your life and looking for ways to better
your life, fix errors, upgrade where possible and chase your
dreams.
"Hard work sucks and not everyone is cut up for it ... but
if you work hard, you will be rewarded in the end."
Be humble. Know your strengths but don't boast. Work on your
issues and weaknesses, put in the extra work to resolve the issues
that arise. Be a good listener and observer, learn, grow and heal,
and always be looking for ways to level up.
You will fall back to the highest level of your training, not
to the level of the situation.
Get your sleep right, get your diet on point and build good
strong fundamentals and habits, once you have the basics right, you
can then start to chase more detailed areas and key skills.
Building on having an "Attitude. Aptitude, and a desire to
become the best we can be" will change your life.
Be the person that others look up to. Kids will mimic their
parents and other role models in their life. Be the person, be the
change that you want to have in the world or be the person you
wished you had when you were younger.
Excuses are easy to give yourself for temporary respite but
guilt and regret last a lot longer.
Use people on social media etc as role models, use them as
inspiration and for goals that you wish to achieve and not someone
to compare yourself to and feel bad that you aren't there yet.
Start small with your changes, don't try and change your life
overnight, but make small, simple changes and it will all add up in
the end.
Your combat chassis, your body, is the most important vehicle
you will have it live, like your car which you will give the best
fuel possible to, give yourself the best fuel, the best foods etc
you can source.
Look to make the incremental changes where possible.
What gets measured will get managed. Keep a journal, not an
obsession with a scale reading. Write out your findings, your
measurements and how you feel. Fuck BMI's, they count muscle as a
bad thing, ripped rugby players get told they are obese as the
muscle weighs more than fat. Concentrate on lifestyle changes, like
you can get up stairs easier, you need to use a smaller hole on
your belt as your old belt hole is now too big for you. Look for
the good changes, not the numbers.
Look for ways to find yourself micro-adversity in your life to
challenge yourself. We need challenges in our life to succeed.
Don't rest on your laurels, as when we stay at the same place, we
stagnate if we wait too long.
Fear will always be there. It will not go away, it is just your
mind trying to send you a message. Top performers have recommended
giving your fear a name, talk to it, say thanks, you appreciate the
message but you are OK and you are going to do it (obviously after
a risk assessment, don't do truly stupid in life!).
Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. Learn from your
mistakes and add these into your planning, so you don't make the
mistakes again.
You can feel awful etc but there is always hope. Find the
embers of desire and hope in your life, no matter how deep down,
look for the forgotten dreams of youth, and let the likes of Mac
etc help you get the fire started again.
Stop comparing yourself to others. The only person you are in
competition with is yourself from yesterday. As Mac says, you know
you are winning if you could beat a clone of you from
yesterday.
Never underestimate what you know, it might be common sense or
straightforward to you, but to some it might be almost impossible
or seem like magic to you - look at your skillset, can you sell
what others need that you can do and they can't to help get a job,
be a better team mate etc.
No one is coming to save you. You need to become self-reliant.
You can't always rely on getting someone in to sort the problems
that may arise.
Prepare now to do the things you love tomorrow. Prepare today
to be safe tomorrow. Please do not wait until something bad happens
before you get organised and prepared. Life can change in a matter
of minutes, be prepared so when it changes you can adapt with
it.
"We don't plan to fail ... but we fail to
plan".
About the Podcast
The Next Level Guy Show, a podcast where I interview experts to learn the hacks and tips to better our own lives. The website URL is https://www.nextlevelguy.com/ and previous guests have included Gary Vaynerchuk, Tom Bilyeu, Diamond Dallas Page, Mark Bell, Aubrey Marcus, Jay Morton, Jay Cutler, Josh Barnett, Mark Beaumont, Forrest Galante among others.