Saturday, September 22, 2012

Fresh thoughts on old ideas



On my vacation, I've spent a lot of time thinking about various things.  Reading through One Bullet Away by Nathaniel Fick led me to think about my time in the Marine Corps.  More importantly, I was thinking about how to translate the success experienced in the Corps to the civilian world.   I've ran into numerous Marines who could do almost anything in the Marines, but never could find any success outside in the rest of the world.  I think I figured out why.

Everything started out simple in the Marines.  We would go run in the warmth and heat at a slow pace.  Those first runs were easy, with little effort required to finish.  They weren't meat grinders.  Slowly but surely, we'd run farther and farther in worse and worse situations.  First, the pace and distance picked up.  Shoes and shorts were replaced with combat boots and utility uniforms.  Packs were added.  From there, things just got ridiculous.  We had MOPP runs in full gas protection suits, flak runs, resupply runs, and who knows what else.  The point was simple, though.  Slow, incremental change that built success upon success taught that anything was possible. 

But there was a second lesson.  Ridiculous situations happened everywhere in the Corps.  I remember sleeping out in pouring rain near after doing a training exercise.  No matter the situation, we trained.  We trained in the rain, sun, cold, wind, and anything else you could possibly imagine.  No matter what, we trained.

In the end, it paid off.  During my three tours in Iraq, I saw every horrendous situation there could be.  Freezing rain, ridiculous heat, and sandstorms were generally par for the course.  I even saw snow one February morning in Kuwait, though the ground cover was gone by mid-morning.  Through it all, we trekked on, never stopping, and never relenting.  It was an endless, aggressive march towards our goal; a predatory attack on whatever happened to be in front of us at the time.  Crush, kill, and destroy whatever got in the way.  And it worked.  It worked wonders.

But those principals are generally lost once one leaves the Marine Corps.  It's hard to maintain that rugged discipline and adherence when no one is watching, and have the people you deal with don't care.  The sights of the world are much more interesting and distracting.  It's much easier to watch the nights' football game and root for your favorite team than it is to go out and do hard things by yourself. 
I've tried to explain this principal to my wife, but I'm nowhere near as elegant or well-spoken as I need to be.  The lies and meanders of TV are an interesting waste of time, but they are just that: a waste of time.  Back in the Corps, we didn't care what was on TV.  We had a mission to accomplish, and nothing was going to get in our way.  No rain, no sleet, no Haji invaders.  There was nothing that was going to stand between a Marine and his goal.  Nothing at all.

As another example, try watching the first episode of Band of Brothers.  The obstacle presented in that show is a very similar example.  They went after a hill they call Currahe.  It was three miles up, and three miles down Currahe.  At the beginning of episode, they ran up in shoes.  Shoes paved way to boots.  Boots paved way to boots immediately after eating a full dinner.  Boots became packs.  Packs became a run that was nothing.  By the end, the strength to endure had been created through steadily increasing difficulty.  Through some fairly decent film making, you could tell how horrible the run was.  Just watching the episode makes me want to go run up a mountain and conquer the world.  But the 1st Airborne didn't just run up a mountain.  They walked up the mountain.  Then they jogged up the mountain.  And then they jogged a little faster, and a little harder. 

Now translate that into the civilian world.  Tuesday, I went running with my wife.  It was slightly misting, but otherwise not a bad day.  It was in the mid 80s, so the weather was good.  But it was misting and it could have been a reason to not go running.  But we went anyways.  We could have stayed home, but we didn't.  That one day set the tone for the entire rest of the week.  We've been out and running every single day since then.  The only day we will miss will be Friday, and that is because an unexpected blessing to go to SeaWorld.  Instead of worrying about her weight loss journey this week, my wife has posted net calorie losses every single day.  It may not be the two pounds per week she wants, but it will still be a loss.  And a loss on vacation is not something you often run into from the drive by crowds.

The point is simple.  If you want something, start working on it now.  But don't try full sprint for three miles just because that's what you want the final goal to be.  Work your way towards your goal.  Every single day.  Without fail.  Rearrange your life to accomplish your goal.  When "I can" replaces "I wish I could" then you've made a fairly decent jump.

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