Good questions and comments and more questions. I’m no guru, but I’ll attempt an answer and maybe some of the smarter folks on the forum can offer their insights as alternative perspectives or reinforcement.

I prepared mentally through a not so humble process of relative comparison. Roughly ~50% of my lieutenant buddies would not graduate Ranger School. So, I asked myself the question, “Am I in the top 50%?” I convinced myself the answer was “Yes” and that meant that I had no excuse to not succeed. Maybe I would recycle, but I wouldn’t quit, and it wouldn’t kill me. This technique does not really address resiliency, but it did make sure I put my toes on the starting line. You’re not amazing at PT. That’s fine. You don’t need to be, but you should be in the top 50%. You’re not amazing at briefing OPORDs. That’s fine. You don’t need to be, but you should be in the top 50%. You don’t know all knots for Ranger School. That’s fine. They’ll teach you. You should practice them well enough to know that you won’t be the worst one at tying knots…

Related, but not related… resiliency(ish). True story, I failed my first attempt at Ranger School Land Nav. I had no problems with Land Nav in BOLC and Ranger School is a self-correcting course that historically just isn’t that gosh darn difficult. So, when I got back to the barracks and knew that I needed to pass my redo or get booted I did a mental reset. I said to myself, “Self, what the actual eff? Calm down, it’s not special ‘Ranger Land Nav,’ it’s just Land Nav, and you’ve done this before.” I passed easily on the redo. The next day we did what they now call “Ranger Stakes.” It’s all the weapons assembly, function check, radio operation, basic skills stuff. I nailed every task and earned a “minor plus.” You win some, you lose some. Just stay within the top 50%. Generally, you need to give an honest and consistent effort.

The Ranger Creed is a mantra that’s designed to get you juiced up, but at its core it’s organizational and cultural goal setting: aspirational but realistic at the same time. Can you give 100% effort? Yes, you can, it’s a percentage. That’s relative to YOU. You give YOUR 100%. Highly trained. Yeah, that’s you. You did OCS; you did BOLC… you ARE highly trained… etc. It shouldn’t psych you out, it should psych you up.

Nobody talks about special forces in the same way because… meh, I’m not going to go there.

Listen, if you went to Engineer BOLC, you would hear Engineer officers talking about Sapper School in the same way. If you went to Flight School, you would hear pilots talking about SERE training in the same way. It’s just temporal proximity. Ranger School just happens to be the most well-known professional challenge that faces many young officers, and it’s an institution with a long history. That’s why you hear many people talking about it. When you were in college, nobody talked about their senior project during finals week of sophomore year. But, as your senior year got closer and the challenge of your final senior research project started to become clear you heard more people talking about it… same idea.

Hmmm… what were we talking about? I started babbling. Hit “reply” again if you’re not satisfied with these answers and I’ll take another swing.

Oh, and yeah, you should definitely do it (Ranger School). It’s not easier when you’re older. There’s not a better time to get in shape for it. Even if you go and fail, you will have identified a hard limit to your capability and that sort of self-awareness is infinitely valuable as a Leader and as a Soldier. It’s also WAY… WAY… WAY… better to find that limit to be physical and not a limitation of will. I couldn’t run the 4-mile fast enough… I couldn’t carry the 240-B one more step… At 5′ 6” with mediocre hand-eye coordination and almost no vertical, I have no regrets about my decision to not pursue a career in the NBA. I view that as a physical limitation. That day when I was 9 years old and I was too scared to try rock climbing for the first time… I STILL remember every detail of that day and the exact moment when I allowed my lack of will to overcome my true capacity. That was cowardice, and for some reason I can’t forget it. If you’re thinking about it (Ranger School), then you have to try.