They call it Hell Week for a reason.
It’s where Navy SEALs find out who breaks — and who refuses to.
It’s the climax of SEAL training: seven days of relentless, sleep-deprived, freezing, bone-aching challenge — calculated to break all but the superhuman. Out of every 100 recruits, only about five make it through.
So what sets those five apart?
Sean Kernan, the son of a SEAL, once shared his father’s secret to survival:
“Come sunup on Tuesday [of Hell Week], and yet there is still so much to go.
That’s when guys start thinking things like —It’s only Tuesday… how am I going to get through all of this?
The people who start thinking like this are the ones who quit. The ones who make it through only look a few minutes ahead.
They don’t worry about Thursday or Friday. They just focus on the next thing right in front of them. One exercise at a time.”
Most of us aren’t swimming for miles in freezing water on two hours of sleep.
But we do face our own Hell Weeks.
There are times when fundraising can feel just as brutal — overwhelming targets, endless follow-ups, donors not answering calls. And that quiet voice starts whispering:
How am I going to get through this? How can I possibly raise the budget in this climate?
When those thoughts come, remember Kernan’s advice: lower your gaze. Focus only on the next small, doable step.
Can you make one phone call?
Write one message?
Follow up with one donor?
Do that. Then the next one.
Just keep moving forward. Just one foot in front of the other.
And here’s something the Navy SEALs don’t have:
“הבא לטהר מסייעין אותו.”
Take one step, even from rock bottom — haba l’taher, and Hashem assists you — misayen oso
Even from what feels like rock bottom, if you just keep moving, you'll see siata d'shmaya.
Those who’ve been fundraising for a while will agree: it’s at times like these that a yeshuah comes — a dream donation that suddenly appears from nowhere.
And somehow… you make it.
You reach your goal.
Because the secret to achieving the impossible is never looking too far ahead — only one faithful step at a time.
Avraham
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