Jocko Underground: Smashing Life with No Support | Could a Woman Be a Navy SEAL?

>Join Jocko Underground< https://www.jockounderground.com/subscribe How to Get Through Life With No support. Why haven't any women become SEALs? Capitalizing on moving away from your hometown comfort zone. Encountering strange threats to your family in public. Starting a Jiu Jitsu group in your neighborhood. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Jocko Willink?

  This is the Jocko Underground Podcast number 187 with Echo Charles. And we are going to, well, we're going to read some questions from troopers out in the field. And then we're going to provide guidance. We're going to provide answers. We're going to provide courses of action that you can use to get on the correct path and move forward. That's where we're at. Let's get to this first one.

• 0:22Speaker 01

  Helpful guidance, sir. First question, Jocko.

• 0:27Speaker 01

  I've been a fan of your work for a while. I love the good, quote unquote, good mindset when adversity strikes. And I also use your supplement products daily. Okay. I'm a 26 year old pitching coach, seen as a young, bright mind with potential. But I know potential means nothing without results. My life has had plenty of adversity. My father passed when I was 16. I've lived with three learning disabilities and partial deafness and was diagnosed with a back disease that nearly ended my baseball career. Being half Native American also shaped me. My dad's family opposed his marriage and after his passing, their hostility drove my mom into

• 1:07Speaker 01

  deep depression. In college, I battled depression, drug addiction, and nearly took my life, my own life. But I've been clean since January 2025. Recently, I was let go from a job. It's my fault and I own it. My girlfriend has been my rock through it. But my question is, if I didn't have that support system, how do you recommend picking yourself up as an adult?

• 1:35Jocko Willink?

  There's a little battlefield kind of mentality, which is always improve your position. And it's something that applies to jujitsu as well. Always improve your position. Always improve your position. On the battlefield, always improve your position. It's something that clearly you can apply to your life as well. And you have to be careful because it's when you get knocked down, it's very easy to focus on how far you've fallen.

• 2:08Jocko Willink?

  And it's also equally difficult, or no, it's actually, it's actually equally easy to get focused, not just on the fact that you've fallen down, but it's easy to get focused on how far you have to go to get back up again.

• 2:24Jocko Willink?

  And that's not going to help you.

• 2:27Jocko Willink?

  But going back to this battlefield saying, if you can just focus on improving your position right now, just a little bit.

• 2:39Jocko Willink?

  Then the overwhelming nature of these events will begin to fade because you're now focused on something that you can control, something just as simple as improving your position right now. And you've heard me say it, like, what can you do? Well, you've heard me say, wake up early and work out. Just do that. Just start with that. You've heard Admiral Craven say, make your bed. Just, just get that done. Just make your bed. You've heard Jordan Peterson say, clean your room, right? These are all, each one of these, it's, it's basically the same message, right? It's take control of what you can control and make that little thing a little bit better.

• 3:18Jocko Willink?

  And what that gives you is agency. It gives you control. It gives you personal responsibility. And what that does is it gives you ownership. That, that actually is extreme ownership, right? The, the, the recognition that the world does not control you.

• 3:44Jocko Willink?

  You, you can't let the world control how you react, right? The world does not control, and the world cannot control how you respond. The world cannot control how you react to things. You control that. Now, look, the world can throw some mayhem at you. They can throw at you depression. They can throw at you girlfriends dumping you and your father's passing when you're 16. Like, the world can throw some adversity at you for sure, but it can't control how you respond to those things. You do.

• 4:20Jocko Willink?

  You control that. And here's the, here's the thing. Here's the most important part of this for me is to know that and recognize that the support system is you.

• 4:36Jocko Willink?

  That's the way it is. That's the way it is always going to be, and that might sound overwhelming. It might sound overwhelming to hear that there is no external support system you can count on. There's not going to be any backup. No one's coming to rescue you. That can seem scary.

• 4:59Jocko Willink?

  But when you recognize that where you go and what you do and how you respond

• 5:08Jocko Willink?

  is all your choice.

• 5:13Jocko Willink?

  That is the most positive thing you can get to in the world.

• 5:19Jocko Willink?

  That you get to decide what you do. You don't need anybody else. You don't need that support system.

• 5:29Jocko Willink?

  What you need is that recognition that this is your life. That how you respond and the way you behave are choices that you get to make.

• 5:40Jocko Willink?

  And that's awesome.

• 5:43Jocko Willink?

  You are the support system.

• 5:49Jocko Willink?

  So own it.

• 5:51Jocko Willink?

  And then get after it. One small step at a time.

• 5:57Jocko Willink?

  And that's where I'm at, man. And stay clean.

• 6:03Speaker 01

  Next question. Uh, Jock Rock, why do you think no women, no women have ever been a Navy SEAL slash finished buds? Looking at the required and even recommended fitness standards, I know women who can pass. But what is it that has prevented this from happening in your opinion?

• 6:26Jocko Willink?

  I don't know. I'm not a hundred percent sure what requirements and recommended fitness standards he's looking at.

• 6:35Jocko Willink?

  I'm not sure I know of many women that could physically achieve the standards. You know, sometimes you'll get a woman that's really strong.

• 6:47Jocko Willink?

  But she won't be very fast. Or you'll get a woman that's very fast, like really good endurance, but not very strong. So that's, it's a very hard category to fit into, to be both.

• 7:00Jocko Willink?

  Strong and have endurance.

• 7:05Jocko Willink?

  It's very difficult and Bud's basic seal training is a test of those things. You know, you've got to be able to carry that big ass log around and carry that boat on your head.

• 7:19Jocko Willink?

  And you've got to be able to run fast. And you've got to be able to do, oh, by the way, so you have really strong legs because you're a fast runner and you're carrying a log, but you've got to also have strong upper body that you can do pull ups and rope climbs. So it's, I think it's a little bit more, it's not like, you know, maybe he's referring to like, you see the fitness standards or whatever the recommended fitness standards that are like 20 pull ups, you know.

• 7:45Jocko Willink?

  That is a little excerpt of what we are doing on the Jocko Underground Podcast. So if you want to continue to listen, go to jockounderground.com and subscribe. And we're doing this to mitigate our reliance on external platforms. So we are not subject to their control and we are doing this so that we can support the Jocko Podcast, which will remain as is free for all, as long as we can keep it that way. But we are doing this so we don't have to be under the control of sponsors. And we're doing it so we can give you more control, more interaction, more direct connections, better communications with us.

• 8:24Jocko Willink?

  And to do that, we are, we're building a website right now where we'll be able to utilize to strengthen this legion of troopers that are in the game with us. So thank you. It's jockounderground.com. It costs $8.18 a month. And if you can't afford to support us, we can still support you. Just email [email protected] and we'll get you taken care of. Until then, we will see you mobilized underground.