Drownproof
Eight Life Lessons to Keep Your Head Above Water
What Drownproof actually is
In Navy SEAL training there is a drill called drownproofing. A candidate is bound at the wrists and ankles and dropped into the deep end of a pool. He is required to bob, float, swim a short distance, retrieve a mask from the bottom with his teeth, and resurface — all without panicking, all without being able to use his hands or feet in any conventional way. Most failures in drownproofing are not failures of fitness. They are failures of composure.
Andy Stumpf’s debut book takes that drill as its central metaphor and asks the obvious question: what does it actually take to stay composed when you are bound, submerged, and the people who put you there are watching to see if you’ll quit? And — more importantly for everyone who is not a SEAL candidate — how do those same skills transfer to the situations the rest of us actually live through? Job loss. The decision to leave. The decision to start. The phone call you don’t want to make. The injury, the relapse, the divorce, the diagnosis.
Stumpf served 17 years in the U.S. Navy, including time on SEAL Team 6, took a round through both legs in Afghanistan, and was medically retired in 2013. He has spent the years since hosting the Cleared Hot podcast, BASE-jumping from cliffs and bridges, holding world records under wingsuit canopy, and — by his own admission — figuring out who he is when the team isn’t telling him what to do anymore. Drownproof is the book that came out of those years.
It published on April 14, 2026, debuted instantly on the New York Times bestseller list, and includes a foreword by Jocko Willink that is, in the audiobook edition, read by Jocko himself.
Why this book is on Self Growth Videos
We don’t list every leadership book that ships. Drownproof makes the cut because it sits at the intersection of three of our most active topic clusters — military mindset, mental toughness, and leadership — and because Stumpf himself is the kind of subject this site is built to surface: a high-credibility figure with a deep video and podcast catalog whose work is best understood across formats, not in isolation.
If the book lands for you, the right next move is to spend an afternoon with the Cleared Hot archive, or watch his Joe Rogan or Shawn Ryan appearances. Everything connects. That’s the entire point of the way this site is organized.
Jocko Podcast 530 — The 8 Life Lessons to Keep Your Head Above Water
Jocko Willink, who wrote the foreword to Drownproof, sits down with Andy for a long-form conversation that walks through the book's eight lessons one at a time.
The eight lessons inside
The book is built around eight specific lessons drawn from Stumpf's career. The list below is our framing of what each one teaches — the actual chapters pull from his stories, his failures, and his recoveries.
You are in control of your destiny, even when the environment is screaming otherwise.
Preparation is the only thing that lets execution become automatic.
Plan for the worst-case scenario before the worst-case scenario plans for you.
How to actually approach a goal — not the way Instagram tells you to.
Why people fail, and how the failure usually starts long before the moment of failure.
Take the toughest situations in your life and turn them into the most formative ones.
How to take a leap of faith when the floor is moving.
Build discipline now, or build regret later. There is no third option.
Drownproof is a raw and honest look at the discipline and mindset required to overcome the challenges that confront us all. With a focus on resilience, self-reliance, and leadership, Drownproof is an exploration of how to keep moving toward your goals, no matter the odds.
Jack Carr
#1 New York Times bestselling author of Red Sky Mourning
Foreword by Jocko Willink — written and read by Jocko himself for the audiobook edition.
Jocko Willink
Retired Navy SEAL Commander, host of Jocko Podcast
Readers will be drawn into the narrative and discover it's not just another SEALs book but a manual for learning life's lessons and moving forward without regrets.
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