This article is a consequence of The Everyday Warrior range, a recurring column from retired Navy SEAL, best-selling author and ATTA Founder / CEO, Mike Sarraille, edited by Jack Haworth, of advice, key interviews, and tips for a life of impact, growth, and continuous learning.
“Every step you take has brought you to where you are today. When I look back on where I come from today, I realize that all the small successes have all become big successes. There is no failure because you learn from everything and every step leads you and teaches you. " - Nimsdai Purja (former British SBS operator, author of Beyond Possible: One Soldier, Fourteen Peaks - My Life in the Death Zone)
How empires and dynasties built, fortunes amassed, optimal health achieved, or how someone recovered from life-changing circumstances is no secret - a lot of success and failure. The secret of a good life is understanding that success and failure are both parts of the same process. Both require a willingness to take risks, self-discipline and the clear recognition that victories and challenges depend on one another - they are the "yin" and "yang" of progress. You learn from both.
Having this perspective and realizing the accomplishments of life will literally change your life through “One Step ATTA Time” - a philosophy I call the “ATTA Way”. The ATTA Way mindset enables you to rise above life's daily struggles and realize that the personal journey we are all on is long and requires an unwavering positivity. Sustainable progress can only be achieved through balance.
Only you can determine what success and happiness will look like for you. As we discussed in The Everyday Warrior Mindset: Part I, the social media age has pushed us together, highlighted a false narrative, and indirectly forced us to compare our performances. But social media is often just smoke and mirrors. Real victories are achieved through incremental steps that don't appear in your newsfeed.
I assure you that I have not been as strong, intelligent, or resilient as the vast majority of the SEALs I have served by their side. My way was long and nothing came easily. Still, I found a way into the top two percent of the SEAL community by taking one step ATTA time and one day of ATTA time.
Mike Sarraille
The ATTA Way: Set an Intention, Plan, Take Action, Think, Repeat
The ATTA Path is a proven system rooted in the fundamental belief that remarkable accomplishments are the product of small steps and positive habits. Just put one foot in front of the other and you will get there - one step ATTA time.
The ATTA Path encourages people to consistently focus on three cornerstones - physical, mental, and spiritual fitness - in order to maintain balance, progress, and optimal performance. This is at odds with the way most of us work towards our goals: short, intense, and hyper-focused efforts. This flawed method can lead to early success, but often leads to long-term failure due to the unsustainable pace.
Balance in everyday life
Can you achieve 100 percent balance in life? The answer is simple - no.
There is no such thing as the perfect balance in all areas of life. This is a fallacy, and don't let any social media self-help guru tell you otherwise. The world's greatest business leaders, record athletes, and combat troops have achieved exceptionally high levels of performance, but are all unbalanced as a result. Michael Phelps, who won 28 Olympic medals, has shown brave vulnerability by drawing attention to his blatant lack of balance and the resulting mental health problems.
The ATTA Way exists to make sure you don't lose your balance - and this philosophy isn't limited to billionaires and professional athletes. It's about regular Everyday Warriors trying to overcome life's challenges while still having enough in the tank to reach for a little something extra. Life is a great collection of opportunity costs - to be successful or to achieve equilibrium in one area of life you must accept a little instability in other areas.
The importance of taking risks
I am not advocating that you set yourself less ambitious goals or take fewer risks, but rather that you do the opposite. Take bold, calculated risks and don't be afraid to take the risk. I just encourage you to be more conscious about goals or aspirations in life. Set an intention, make a plan, take action, reflect on your successes and failures, and then repeat the process. This will help you live a life of achievement and continuous learning in a way that will also ensure longevity.
As Rich Diviney - a former SEAL teammate, good friend, and author of The Attributes - said, "Life is not about getting your best performance, it's about maintaining your best performance for as long as possible." This is the essence of ATTA -Way - it is a gradual approach to life that will help you achieve optimal performance, balance, determination and fulfillment. It will ensure that your life on the go is filled with amazing accomplishments (and your fair share of failures).
Find your tribe
The communities we surround ourselves with - which I often refer to as our tribes - are the most powerful social influences in our lives. I would like to say that I developed the “ATTA Way” philosophy myself, but the truth is that this mindset is the product of my community. Like most of my principles, I developed the ATTA Way and Everyday Warrior concepts from a long list of world-class mentors in special operations and the private sector.
The most important of these mentors is my father. He was a passionate supporter of my young athletic endeavors. He never missed a game, game or race - even though some days I wish he would. I am who I am thanks to the mentors and great colleagues who cheered me on and helped me learn from my shortcomings. Win or lose, succeed or stumble, his call from the stands was always the same: "ATTA Boy, Mike, ATTA Boy, Mike."
Was he really celebrating me or was he disappointed with my performance? I had no Idea. I didn't quite understand it then. But as I grew up and faced challenges on my own, I began to understand the overwhelming power and positivity of what I call the "ATTA Path".
When we live by the principles of the ATTA Way, we do not flaunt our victories or dwell on our defeats. Regardless, these contrasting results are undeniably linked. As one of my mentors once said, if you learn to celebrate your victories as long as you dwell on your failures, you will be one step closer to a balanced life.
Learning to accept success with failure
Regardless of your goals or aspirations, life is full of sunny days and storm-like storms blocking your way forward. Gaining victories in life takes time and a lot of failures along the way. The ATTA Path teaches you to smile in the face of adversity and failure so that you remain determined and self-disciplined. Put one foot in front of the other and just move on.
Sure, there are times when you take four steps forward in one day to take five steps backward the next day. However, once you accept that this is the nature of the path itself, you can begin to learn from mistakes and take the steps necessary to sharpen your mind, strengthen your determination, and use the discipline to gain momentum in order to To achieve your aspirations.
How do you climb a mountain? One step ATTA time.
How do you get stronger? One training ATTA time.
How do you build wealth? One dollar ATTA time.
How do you influence others? An ATTA-time relationship.
How do you teach your children? An ATTA time lesson.
How do you get mastery in any skill? An ATTA practice time.
There is no better way to discipline yourself than to embrace the power of incremental change and understand that you win or lose, you learn from both.
The pillars of the ATTA path - The pursuit of optimal performance through balance
The ATTA Way mindset is supported by these three pillars above. They help us achieve optimal performance through balance so that we can appreciate the journey on our way.
It's important to set ambitious goals and then take action to achieve them. But how you win is just as important as the win itself. When looking for balance, it helps to ask yourself rhetorical questions: What joy is there when one has sacrificed one's health and relationships for it? Can you really appreciate wealth if you didn't have to work to make it?
If you have reached your desired end state in poor mental, spiritual, and physical health - and in the process ruined relationships or, worse, destroyed your character and integrity - then you have lost. All they have achieved is what the Greeks call a "Pyrrhic victory" - one that comes at a great cost. In layman's terms, you won the battle only to lose the war.
In my late 30s, I was in my best physical shape. I trained so hard and was so focused on my mission in Special Operations that I reached dangerous levels of instability in my mental and spiritual fitness. It was what literally ended my career as a SEAL. I hit a wall with nothing left in the tank to retrieve.
In many ways, my SEAL career ended in a Pyrrhic victory while my colleagues made longer careers. I had won many battles - and I had worked hard to build my reputation - but when it was over I was completely mentally and spiritually unbalanced. It took over three years of brutally honest self-reflection and focus to return to some semblance of health in all three pillars of my life.
The cornerstones are in place to help you maintain a disciplined approach to life. All three embody a certain type of "fitness" because they are all like muscles. As you take steps to test and exercise your mental and spiritual fitness, you will get stronger, as will your physical fitness. But if you ignore and neglect these pillars, atrophy will prevail.
Pillar 1: physical fitness
I see physical fitness as the mainstay. It is based on the "Whole Man Concept" from Greek philosophy, which describes a fit mind in a fit body. Physical fitness is the foundation on which you can build mental and spiritual fitness - it is fundamental to achieving balance.
Achieving physical fitness doesn't mean you have to be a world class athlete or bodybuilder with seven percent body fat. ne of the goals are sustainable. Instead, you should titrate your physical fitness for optimal health so you can face the stresses of life. Cut out the alcohol or at least reduce your consumption. Alternate between strength and cardio training a few times a week. Stop being controlled by food and start controlling what you put into your body.
It might be a cliché to say, but your body is really a temple and you only get one. Squeeze your body, but also allow yourself to fully recover.
Simply put, treat your body with love and respect.
Second pillar: mental fitness
High achievers take time to keep their mental fitness just as they keep their physical fitness. The ATTA Path provides a means to help people think positively about how they feel, think, and act while dealing with stress, anxiety, and depression. Try to cultivate a healthy mind and emotional intelligence through psychological exploration, continuous learning, and emotional balance.
Simple daily mental exercises like five minutes of breathing work or meditation can lead to a completely different point of view. Establishing habits like reading or journaling for 10 minutes each morning and evening is one of the best tools for maintaining a sane mind.
The greatest thing a person can do is allow themselves to be vulnerable and honest about their mental health. If you put the work into achieving mental stability and taking measures to rest and reset yourself, you will be better prepared to maintain optimal performance.
Pillar 3: Spiritual Fitness
Of course, when I say "spiritual fitness" people will assume that I am referring to theology or religion. These frames may work for some, but not all - and this comes from a Roman Catholic who wears rosaries around his neck with three fingers. Despite my religious belief and love, my spirituality more often comes from self-connection, self-reflection, gratitude, nature, personal relationships, and my tribe.
Spiritual fitness is probably the most ignored pillar, and that might be because knowing how to contract this muscle is difficult. When I left the SEAL teams, I felt spiritually deprived and realized that I had to find individual spirituality. I leaned on my tribes and the amazing sense of homecoming and belonging they gave me literally lifted my spirit.
For many Everyday Warriors, a healthy spiritual life involves volunteering, social contributions, community participation, fellowship, optimism, forgiveness, and expressing compassion. Personally, my greatest spiritual reward comes from serving others - doing work without expecting any reward.
Photo: Elia Saikaly
The ATTA Way - The Bottom Line
Empires, corporations, and careers are all built from an ATTA era. Life should be lived the same way. Looking for shortcuts is wasting valuable time. Take the self-disciplined approach to life and you will find that it is more rewarding and meaningful.
Pay attention to each pillar and work to find your own balance. t only will you learn more about yourself and learn how to best optimize your life, but you will also build immense pride in achieving your accomplishments in a conscious way - a step into ATTA time.
Subscribe to YouTube for access to exclusive gear videos, celebrity interviews, and more!
