I woke up at 3 a.m. to spend 12 hours learning what it takes to be a leader from former Navy SEALS

As my Uber pulled up to the Marriott hotel in Times Square at 4:40 a.m., I noticed two guys wrapping up a jog.

It was former US Navy SEALs Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, and they had just finished the outdoors workout I was about to start. I later learned they had gotten up at 3:15 a.m. - around the time I woke up in Brooklyn in order to show up on time - and started exercising a half hour later.

I was there to attend day one of Echelon Front's Muster conference, a chance to immerse myself in the minds of some SEALs for 12 hours. After that and the next day's Brazilian Jiu Jitsu introduction in Queens, I was left with a toolkit of career and fitness insights that overcame the potential pitfalls of the "civilian pretends to be in military for a day" cliché.

I had interviewed Willink and Babin a few times since 2015, but this was a chance for me to play on their field for the first time, and that meant trying one of their favorite habits: waking up before dawn to work out.