Today's guest is Patrick McNamara aka Mac!
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".