Life Under Fire with Jason Fox

In this episode I chat to Jason Fox about his new book ‘Life
Under Fire’  for those of you that aren’t familiar with
Jason, he is a former Royal Marine Commando and Special Forces
Sergeant. Joining at 16 and serving for 20 years; Jason passed
the grueling selection process for the Special Forces in 2001,
serving with the Special Boat Service till 2012. Jason has
planned and led operations including hostage rescue, counter
terrorism, counter insurgency, maritime counter terrorism,
surveillance, body guarding and counter narcotic missions. He
currently features in the channel 4 program - SAS: Who Dares
Wins.


The book is split into two parts, the first part the battle mind
looks at his journey to a resilient life and mental approach.
 The second part - Strength and Guile looks at the lessons
learned from his 20 years as an operator and royal marines
commando and inferred learning to the reader. Concepts we explore
include:


The concept of graded exposure to training. The sense of
community and brotherhood from war. Jason's struggles with PTSD
and the emotional combat indicators that signify it. The ‘cigar
moment’ and how it calms the central nervous system down.
Awareness of your own vulnerabilities and how it can help protect
you. The preferential mode of de-escalation over aggression (grey
man, passive use of the weapon). High performing teams ability to
self regulate rather than externally regulate. Reframing negative
events and what it can teach us about resilience. The power of
debrief also known as Sensitive Site Exploitation/SSE. The
concept that there is a flattened hierarchy and everyone can
contribute a game changing piece of information. Not resting in
the aftermath of success and using failure as a teacher.


I hope you enjoy the episode. You can find 'Life under fire' by
Penguin books here:


https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1119268/life-under-fire/9781787633193.html