How to build optimal performance under stress with Rich Diviney

Originally published on March 16, 2021

Optimal performance under stress depends on confidence, recovery, and the ability to focus on what you can control. In Episode 115 of the WHOOP Podcast, former U.S. Navy SEAL Rich Diviney explains how those skills are built, from SEAL training and combat leadership to short breathing resets that help you recover between demands.

Diviney spent 20 years in the U.S. Navy SEALs, including service as a commanding officer within SEAL Team 6, and completed 13 overseas deployments, 11 to Afghanistan and Iraq. In this article, you will learn five ideas from the conversation: true confidence, controlling the controllables, microrecoveries, optimal versus peak performance, and why attributes matter in uncertainty.

To listen to episode 115 in full, head to the WHOOP Podcast on Spotify.

What does true confidence actually mean under stress?

True confidence is the belief that you can keep functioning when conditions turn uncertain, messy, or uncomfortable. Diviney argues that SEAL training builds that belief by forcing people to keep moving after they feel spent.

He described Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training as an environment that takes candidates "down to sub-zero." In his class, about 160 people started and 38 graduated, close to the roughly 85% attrition he said was typical. That is why he sees mental grit, more than surface-level fitness, as the deciding factor. The physical work matters, but the deeper test is whether you can slow yourself down and keep taking the next step when your body wants to stop.

Diviney also made a useful distinction between looking tough and being tough. Some elite athletes made it through training, but some did not. The separator was whether their prior experience had built perseverance, adaptability, and resilience under pressure. That overlaps with themes from Episode 59 of the WHOOP Podcast with Mark Divine, where meditation and concentration were framed as trainable parts of performance.

As Diviney put it:

"True confidence, in my mind, is the ability to understand and know that regardless of what the environment does around me, regardless of how uncertain or dirty or uncomfortable it is, I will make it through. I will perform. I will be able to figure it out and charge on."

What you should take away

• True confidence is built by repeated exposure to uncertainty, discomfort, and follow-through.
• Mental training often decides performance after physical readiness reaches a basic threshold.
• High-pressure environments reveal whether perseverance and adaptability are already part of your process.

If you want to hear Diviney unpack true confidence under stress, listen to the full episode on Spotify.

How do you control the controllables when everything feels uncertain?

That definition of confidence leads straight to Diviney's next point: the fastest way to steady yourself is to shrink the problem. His rule is simple, focus on what sits inside your immediate range of control.

In SEAL language, that is your "three-foot world." Instead of trying to solve the whole mission, the whole week, or the whole crisis at once, you narrow your attention to the next action you can actually take. Diviney connected that idea to everyday stress too, from graduate school to divorce to serious illness. He argued that people already use the same mental process in hard civilian experiences, even if they never call it tactical.

This is useful in the WHOOP context because data can help separate what is changeable from what is not. You cannot control yesterday's poor sleep, but you can control tonight's bedtime, the intensity of today's training, or whether a low Recovery day calls for less strain.

Diviney framed it this way:

"The SEALs call it controlling your three-foot world. What that means is, out of all this uncertainty, you stop worrying about that which you can't control and you ask yourself, 'Okay, what can I control?'"

What you should take away

• Uncertainty gets more manageable when you reduce it to the next controllable action.
• "Three-foot world" thinking works in work, training, illness, and family stress, not only in combat.
• WHOOP metrics can help translate a vague stress response into specific daily decisions.

If you want to hear Diviney go deeper on controlling the controllables, listen to the full episode on Spotify.

How can microrecoveries improve performance during a demanding day?

Once you know what you can control, recovery becomes one of the best places to act. Diviney said many high performers resist recovery because they like to keep pushing, yet short resets can refill energy before the day gets away from them.

His term for that is microrecovery: a brief breathing, visual, or attentional practice that shifts you out of a constant stress state. He tied it to the relationship between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, and he also pointed to ideas discussed by Stanford University neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman about focus, intensity, and neuroplasticity. Diviney used heart rate variability breathing, deliberate carbon dioxide blow-off breathing, open-gaze visual resets, and gratitude-based visualization. One personal example was recalling the feeling of his children sleeping on his chest as babies, because that memory reliably changed his physiological state.

The same thread shows up across other WHOOP conversations on visualization, mindfulness, and sleep, including Tom Daley on visualization and recovery and Rich Roll on sleep as a recovery tool.

Diviney gave the tactic a very practical timeline:

"These microrecoveries are things you can do if you have two minutes or three minutes."

What you should take away

• Microrecoveries are short resets that can change your physiological state in two to three minutes.
• Breathing, open-gaze focus, and positive visualization can help shift you out of a prolonged stress response.
• Small recovery habits repeated throughout the day can preserve energy for later demands.

If you want to hear Diviney unpack microrecoveries and breath work, listen to the full episode on Spotify.

What is the difference between peak performance and optimal performance?

Microrecoveries matter because Diviney does not think daily life should be organized around constant peak output. His view is that peak performance is narrow and scheduled, while optimal performance is adaptable.

He used elite sports to explain the gap. A professional football player can spend all week preparing to peak for a three-hour game on Sunday. Most people do not live that way. They need to perform well without knowing exactly when the toughest meeting, conflict, or demand will hit. Diviney said the goal is to do the best possible job in the moment, even when that looks gritty instead of elegant. He applied the same logic to SEAL training and to the broad disruption of 2020.

That maps cleanly onto WHOOP. Recovery, Strain, sleep, resting heart rate, and HRV can help you modulate effort across a day or week instead of assuming every day should feel maximal. Similar themes show up in Episode 223 of the WHOOP Podcast with Mike Sarraille, where mission demands and recovery had to coexist.

Diviney summarized the distinction clearly:

"Peak is an apex, and it's an apex from which you can only come down. It often has to be prepared for and planned for and scheduled. [...] What we were focused on and thought was more realistic was optimal performance."

What you should take away

• Peak performance is useful for specific events, but daily life usually demands optimal performance instead.
• Optimal performance means matching effort to the moment, not forcing maximum output all day.
• WHOOP can help you modulate training and recovery when your schedule does not allow a fixed peak window.

If you want to hear Diviney go deeper on peak versus optimal performance, listen to the full episode on Spotify.

Why do attributes matter more than skills in uncertainty?

That performance model ends with the question Diviney spent years studying inside SEAL selection: what really predicts who handles uncertainty well? His answer is that skills matter, but attributes do the heavier lifting when the environment is unclear.

He defines skills as visible, teachable actions such as driving, shooting, or riding a bike. Attributes are deeper tendencies such as patience, situational awareness, resilience, and adaptability. When a challenge is novel, known skills may not transfer cleanly, so people lean on their attributes instead. Diviney's framework grew from trying to explain why some people made it through selection and others did not.

He also warned that attributes become visible through experience, not theory alone. Stress shows you whether you are adaptable, patient, or selfless. That idea pairs well with Episode 7 of the WHOOP Podcast with Robert Moeller, where performance under fatigue revealed more than any résumé could.

Diviney put the distinction this way:

"Skills are things that are taught. They're very visible, you can see how well someone does those things. Attributes are more inherent. They're things like patience, situational awareness, resiliency, adaptability. Those are the types of things we lean on in stress, challenge, and uncertainty."

What you should take away

• Skills help in known conditions, while attributes often decide performance in unknown conditions.
• Stressful experiences reveal attributes more clearly than self-description does.
• Performance review works best when it combines lived experience, reflection, and outside feedback.

If you want to hear Diviney unpack attributes and selection, listen to the full episode on Spotify.

The bottom line

• True confidence is the belief that you can keep performing in uncertainty, discomfort, and disorder.
• SEAL-style "three-foot world" thinking reduces stress by narrowing attention to the next controllable action.
• Microrecoveries can shift your state in two to three minutes through breathing, gaze control, or positive visualization.
• Peak performance is event-specific, while optimal performance is the ability to adjust effort to the moment.
• WHOOP data can help turn vague stress into concrete choices about bedtime, training load, and daily recovery.
• Attributes such as adaptability, patience, and resilience often matter more than skills when conditions are unfamiliar.

Frequently asked questions about things discussed in this episode

How does WHOOP help you see when you are redlining?

• WHOOP shows when strain is stacking faster than recovery can keep up. Recovery, Strain, sleep, resting heart rate, and HRV give a clearer view of whether your body is absorbing load or carrying it forward.

What does WHOOP do for short recovery practices like microrecoveries?

• WHOOP helps you spot the conditions around short recovery practices even when it does not label each one directly. Sleep patterns, next-day Recovery trends, and resting heart rate can show whether better downshifting habits are supporting your overall routine.

How does WHOOP measure Recovery?

• WHOOP calculates Recovery from a mix of HRV, resting heart rate, sleep performance, and other physiological signals. Recovery is designed to show how prepared your body is to take on strain that day.

What does WHOOP show about sleep consistency?

• WHOOP makes sleep timing visible, and consistent bedtimes often line up with better recovery patterns. Sleep duration matters, but regular sleep and wake times can also support lower resting heart rate and steadier HRV trends.

How can WHOOP help with optimal performance instead of constant peak effort?

• WHOOP supports optimal performance by showing when hard effort fits your physiology and when it does not. That makes it easier to modulate training, work output, and recovery instead of treating every day like a maximal event.

What can WHOOP members learn from HRV during stressful periods?

• WHOOP uses HRV as one signal of how your autonomic nervous system is responding to stress and recovery. HRV is most useful as a personal trend, especially when you compare it with sleep, strain, and daily habits over time.

For people trying to stay steady under pressure, the mix of Recovery, Strain, sleep timing, and HRV can make Diviney's ideas visible in everyday life.