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The Hard Way With Joe De Sena

Addicted to the Suck: Navy SEAL Rules for Mental Toughness

The Hard Way With Joe De Sena

Spartan Races

Fitness, Education, Self-improvement, Alternative Health, Health & Fitness, 792700

4.7870 Ratings

🗓️ 23 September 2025

⏱️ 22 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What happens when a Navy SEAL, a Spartan founder, and a Murph workout collide? You get hard truths about grit, discipline, and why your circle determines your ceiling.
Jacob Werksman, Navy SEAL, author, and leadership coach at Harvard, breaks down the “meal to meal” mindset from SEAL Hell Week, the power of positive peer pressure, and how to turn suffering into fuel. “From finding people who force you to level up to sharpening self-awareness and presence, this talk rips success down to the basics that actually matter.
If you’re serious about growth, press play and get uncomfortable.
 
Timestamps:
00:00 Meet Navy SEAL Jacob Werksman
00:20 Early Murph start & peer pressure
01:38 SEAL culture & leveling up
03:08 Positive tension in life & work
04:14 Community sets your limits
04:46 Lessons from Joe’s family life
05:22 Energy givers vs. takers
06:33 Harvard & Victory Strategies
08:29 what separates great leaders
09:46 Books: Leadership of Life Sport & Mastering Your Gap
12:50 Can anyone be a SEAL?
15:43 Therapy in endurance challenges
16:39 Addicted to the “suck”
17:10 Three tips for a great life
20:50 Getting teams to do hard things
 
Connect to Jacob:

Transcript

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0:00.0

You know, everyone that shows up is physically capable, right?

0:03.0

Everyone who gets a spot to get to seal training is physically capable of doing it.

0:07.0

It's a mental game.

0:08.0

You know, it's you versus you.

0:10.0

It's your internal dialogue. It's your self-talk.

0:12.0

You know, how are you approaching problems?

0:14.0

I would say that seal training, I think anyone's capable of doing it.

0:17.0

If they are in the right place and know themselves and have the willingness and want to

0:24.7

be it and to accomplish the training. Yeah. Spartans, listen up. We need to sleep better.

0:30.4

How do you sleep better? Never thought about before. And so I met Jack. I met Ascentia. I had

0:35.7

attention to the mattress to sleep on because it's loaded with chemicals.

0:39.3

Recovery, cooling, and pressure relief, all in one mattress, up to 60% more deep and REM sleep.

0:46.3

Less inflammation, faster bounce back. No toxins, no EMFs, no BS.

0:52.3

My buddy Jack, over at Ascentia, he's kind enough to give us a code for the Spartan community. That's Deca, that's tough money of all of us. Use Spartan 25, get a discount, prioritize your sleep so you can sleep faster. You can do more burpees. You can train more. You can get healthier. When you sleep well, you live well. Welcome to the Hardway podcast with Joe DeCena, founder and CEO of Spartan races.

1:16.4

We're teaching you how to overcome your obstacles in your life the same way we teach

1:20.5

our 10 million plus Spartans to overcome obstacles on the course.

1:24.1

With insight from the smartest, most accomplished experts from every corner of the world get ready

1:28.8

to elevate your life today joe desana CEO and founder of spartan host of the hardway podcast got a

1:35.6

great buddy of mine on yakov worksman navy seal author superhuman dad welcome aboard thanks joe

1:43.2

really appreciate you having me. And as always,

1:46.0

good to connect with the honor to be here. So we were together recently, we were doing

1:49.9

MIRF. And I got there and I saw Yaka already in the midst of like pushups and squats. And there

...

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