Michael J. Asken Quotes

“Being a warrior is not about the act of fighting. It’s about being so prepared to face a challenge and believing so strongly in the cause you are fighting for that you refuse to quit.”

“Positive self-talk, and visualization or mental rehearsal, trained to a level of confidence and competence, may be critical to both improved performance under stress and increased resilience after a traumatic incident.”

“Rudyard Kipling, in his famous poetic description of what makes for mature and effective adulthood, wrote in part: If you can keep your head When all about you Are losing theirs And blaming it on you... If you can trust yourself When all men doubt you... This famous 1909 poem “If” was inspired in Kipling after observing one military leader’s actions during the Boer Wars (Lt. Colonel Eduardo Jany, personal communication.”

“Beckett (2008) citing the work of Marcus Wynne gives advice to: Train with the understanding that firearms practice is 75% physical and 25% mental; however a gunfight is 25% physical and 75% mental. On a closer look, perhaps these estimations are not so surprising.”

“Mental toughness is possessing, understanding, and being able to utilize a set of psychological skills that allow the effective, and even maximal execution or adaptation, and persistence of decision-making and physical and tactical skills learned in training and by experience.”

“A core attribute of the effective leader is the act of inspiring and developing others. Leaders model by their actions.”

“Complexity of the task is another important factor as to how levels of arousal affect the quality of performance. Simple tasks use and tolerate more arousal than complex ones.”

“There is no darkness but ignorance.”

“While this momentary reduction of blood flow may not be a problem for healthy conditioned individuals, it can be dangerous for those with underlying heart disease, especially so for people with undiagnosed heart disease.”

“Skills that have been well-practiced allow higher levels of arousal without becoming impaired than do newly learned skills.”