cognion

  • The Sniper Mind

    How to acquire the powerful mental skills of a sniper

    The Sniper Mind book coverSnipers are exceptional. The data we have on their careers confirms what we already know about them: The trained sniper is a complex fusion of hard skills such as weapons knowledge, situational awareness, tactical experience, knowledge of ballistics and physics and soft skills such as emotional stability, empathy, inner calmness and a stoic acceptance of the hardships associated with a particular set of circumstances. There are countless instances where a single sniper, embarking on a secret mission, would have to improvise, operate beyond any hope of support, and yet still manage to carry out the mission and get back home unharmed even though the enemy was actively hunting him. 

    For the first time ever, The Sniper Mind reveals the practical steps that allow a sniper’s brain to work in this superhuman precise, calculated way and renders them visible for the reader to understand and apply in a business setting, whether stuck in a cubicle facing mounting piles of work or sitting in a corner office making industry-defining decisions. 

    The Sniper Mind is a book about how to be exceptional.

    Through the explanation of advanced military training techniques and cutting-edge neuroscience, this book provides concrete strategies and real-world skills that can help us be better: 

    • At our jobs
    • In our relationships
    • In our executive decision making
    • In the paths we choose to take through life

    Based on cutting-edge science and hundreds of sniper interviews The Sniper Mind bridges the gap between the training elite military personnel benefit from and the practical tips, techniques and insights that we can apply in our everyday life.

    By learning how snipers teach their minds to eliminate fears and deal with uncertainty we can also develop the mental toughness we need to achieve the goals that seem to elude us in business as well as in life.

    Based on cutting-edge science and hundreds of sniper interviews The Sniper Mind bridges the gap between the training elite military personnel benefit from and the practical tips, techniques and insights that we can apply in our everyday life. 

    Snipers can do what they can because of their brain. If we know anything about the human brain it is that it’s incredibly powerful, its uniqueness lies in the fact that it can be taught to do anything. When neuroscience gives us the ability to peer deep into the brain’s workings and actually see it in action, we realize that it is possible to learn to replicate its mental states. It is possible to be taught to achieve almost anything we can imagine: the single-minded focus of a sniper looking to hit a target over a mile away, the calmness of a Buddhist monk lost deep in meditation; contemplating the balance of the forces of the universe, the effectiveness of a fighter pilot juggling instrument panels, targeting and complex conditions to bring his plane to land on an aircraft carrier in the middle of an ocean. 

    What the data is showing us is that when we replicate those mental states we are possessed of abilities that are very similar to those who exhibit those mental states. 

    There are two things that are true of our world and which will never change: First the world is made up of data. Data has the capability to show us an underlying picture we did not even know existed. 

    Second everything in the world is interconnected. We are now beginning to see just how firm those connections are even when the links are not apparent. 

    The world we are in right now is challenging. Things are changing extremely quickly, what was true yesterday is not so today. We are required to be flexible in our approach, adaptive and adaptable in our mentality, responsible in our disposition. Capable of displaying critical thinking under pressure, and always learning in our lives. We are in short, being asked by our challenging times to be nothing less than exceptional.     

    The Sniper Mind is a book about how to be exceptional. It is a book about how to be more than the sum of our parts by understanding how our brains work, what makes them work better and what to do to achieve that improvement. Snipers do exceptional things in their careers not because they have been trained (though that obviously helps), nor because they have been ordered to, but because they understand the world and their place in it and feel duty bound to do what no one else can. 

    It is the same here, with you. Armed with such empowering knowledge, capable now of more than anyone else around you, you are required to step up, you are being asked to do the exceptional things that no one else can, making difficult business decisions and critical choices that no one else can. Success in business does come with its own rewards but that is no longer enough. Success in business is now a requirement because business is deeply embedded in the fabric of our world and the fiber of our societies. 

    What we do, now, as business people, team leaders, project managers, CEOs, entrepreneurs and even as ordinary people making life-changing decisions, has the potential to change our world in small but important ways. Our cumulative actions are part of a greater change. A much bigger shift. It is happening, because of us. Because of who we are, because of what we have become. 

    That is real power. Use it wisely.

    The Sniper Mind is currently available to buy from Amazon in hardback. Other places that stock it can be found here

    Get the eBook version using this country-specific link.

    Update: 2019

     

    BookAuthority Best New Decision Making Audiobooks   BookAuthority Best Decision Making Books of All Time

  • What It Took To Write The Sniper Mind - Part II

    The Sniper Mind hardback by David Amerland