I’m reminded of a scene from Band of Borthers where a war hero gives advice to a soldier that has been freezing up in battle.

“You will only be able to function once you acknowledge you’re already dead.”

Similar theme in Peaky Blinders, where Thomas Shelby asks his brother Arthur, “how long have we been dead”?

He’s referring to their time serving in WWI. It was so horrific that they regarded themselves as already having died, and as Aunt Polly said: “no one came back from that war”.

This mental attitude have Tommy his extreme risk-tolerance. It seems this attitude, if authentically held, is a true source of strength.