Cleared Hot - Powered By BRCC - Death Comes For Us All

Episode Date: May 24, 2024

1. Dealing with Unimaginable Loss in the Military: One listener shares a harrowing week of personal loss within the Navy, grappling with the deaths of close friends and colleagues. How do you build healthy coping habits and offer advice on how to support one's command during such trying times.  2. Empathizing Through Shared Grief: A heartfelt question from a listener struggling to comfort his wife after the loss of her beloved dog. Despite his own history of profound personal loss, he seeks advice on how to better empathize and support his partner through her grief. 3. Achieving Tactical Mastery: An intriguing query about what sets apart 'top-tier' tactical proficiency in the SEAL Teams. We delve into specific examples and discuss the key elements that elevate performance to the next level. The Speed of War Comic Series: https://www.thespeedofwar.com/ Check out the newest Cleared Hot Gear here: https://shop.clearedhotpodcast.com/  

Well, hello everybody. It's Friday. We're going to go Q&A. It's been a hell of a week. If you follow me on Instagram at all, I've been trying to figure out my way. What's the best way to say it? Been trying to continue to figure out my way through some aviation related stuff that I had been out of for a super long time. Found some interesting hiccups and hopefully some solutions. So let's just finish off the week with some Q&A. We're going to go right into some really light topics like death. Here we go. Okay, coffee west of the smoke. I'm looking at danger close now. All right, we're off. Three questions for today. Just up front in case you want to change the episode, maybe listen to something else. The first two, we're directly going to be talking about death. Not like killing people, but the aftermath of death and the impact it can have. And I would say grief that would fall into that as well. And then the last one has nothing to do with death. But maybe today, this Friday, you don't feel like hearing about death. So, I'm just giving you the warning right now. Maybe this episode isn't for you. Even though dealing with death is something that everybody is going to have to deal with. And at least in my own experience, it sucks every time. I wish I could open with, hey, this is how I've dealt with it perfectly every time and this is what makes it easier.

I don't have that kind of advice today. So let's get into this. Question one. I'm currently serving in the Navy and I've had a hell of a week and wanted to get some advice. Earlier this week, I found out through friends that a friend, of mine from Buds, from my Buds class, who quit during Hellweek, shot himself in his storage locker after being kicked out of the EOD pipeline for failing in evolution. Then a junior officer slash coworker was recently found to have shot himself in his home. Finally, a close

friend and coworker within my department was found dead after being struck by a car while on her motorcycle at a stop sign. I understand we're in a profession of arms, and that's kind of the nature of the beast with the military. However, I can't wrap my head around the fact that in one week I've lost more people I know than in a decade of my life as a civilian, especially losing these people outside of combat just going through their everyday lives. The command offers counseling and other services, but what advice do you have to someone in my position and for the rest of my command to build healthy coping habits outside of work? Thank you. You know, there's something interesting in here, especially losing these people outside of combat just going

through their everyday lives. The data on this is concrete. Fewer people die in combat than they do by their own hand. I can say that about the global war on terror, or we'll call it the 2001 to 2021, 20 years of sustained conflict. I don't have the data in front of me, and I'm not an expert on the conflicts before that, the wars before that, Vietnam, Korea, the deuce, the Oon, all of those things. some of those had horrendous numbers of battlefield fatalities. But in the modern era, as crazy as it is to say, more people have lost their life to their own hand than in combat. So although you are, in fact, in profession of arms, I was just about to say this shouldn't surprise you. I'm glad that it does. But just be aware, it's not actually statistically a novelist. This is kind of right. on track with, unfortunately, the current trends that we're seeing with suicide, specifically around the veteran community. And it sucks that two out of these three people ended up taking their own life. And one of the first things that I want to say is, and I've said this many times,

did I leave the air conditioning on standby? I did leave the ACON, but I caught it early. So it's been one of those weeks. It's been a hell of a week. All right. Two out of three of these are suicide. And I've said it many times, especially when I talk about people taking their own lives. To me, it is, it's an irrational decision, but I understand, I think, how some people can get to a place where it becomes rational to them. They're in a head state where it seems like maybe the most rational or perhaps the only avenue that they have remaining, or they feel like they just can't take whatever it is that they are dealing with anymore. Somebody killing himself in EOD over failing in evolution. I wish.

I could say I hadn't heard of things like this before, but I have. And this is another example of somebody that I feel like if they could remove themselves from that situation, that moment where they made that decision, and give themselves some more distance from failing that evolution, because I bet the headspace they were in was, I fail buds, I'm about to fail out of the EOD pipeline, and I don't know what I'm going to do next. And this is all I've wanted to do. And now I'm overwhelmed. but if you can get people away from that moment, if we could figure out a way to help people survive that moment, I know that they would make, I don't know.

I would hope that they would make a rational decision away from that compressed, stressed, just smashed in on themselves moment. And they'd be thankful that they didn't make that choice. If they were somehow able to survive it and look through an invisible and obviously make-believe lens of what would it, the impact been to their friends and family and loved ones had they made that choice. If we could ever get to a place where you could look back in some parallel multiverse to go into the Marvel world, look back and see the impact it would have, you know that these people

probably wouldn't make that decision, but we can't. And we also can't tell what people are struggling with. Two of these people were dealing with something where they got to the place where they couldn't deal with it anymore and would have rather not been alive than continue to struggle and that sucks. And when I talk about it in those terms, it really helps me try to find empathy for everybody that I encounter in life because you don't know what kind of day somebody is having and you don't know how close they are to this type of decision. And everybody struggles. Everybody has good days and bad days to include myself. I have some pretty high highs and some low lows, times. In the recent past, it's been a little bit more lower highs and higher lows. Yep,

that makes sense. Lower highs and higher lows. But we all struggle. But I think the worst thing is to feel like you are struggling alone. I just wish these people would reach out for help. Every time I've reached out for help, what I have found is a never-ending willingness for people to do anything they possibly could. So this stuff sucks. And I'm sorry that you're having the week that you are having. So to your question, sorry, I got off on a little bit of a tangent there. What can the command do to build healthy coping habits outside of work? They may not be able to do much to build healthy coping habits outside of work. But maybe let's talk about what they can do and hopefully what they are doing inside of the work environment. So the command offers counseling and other

services. That's great. Does the senior leadership set the example by partaking in those services that they offer. I can remember pretty distinctly back in, I want to be accurate and as precise as possible. I'm going to call it 2010 to 2013 because I can't think of the exact date of this. I remember hearing about a commanding officer of a SEAL team openly. I remember hearing about it. I remember hearing the commanding officer of a seal team openly talking about counseling and his participation in counseling and his journey through mental health. And he was talking about that in front of some senior leaders. which opened up and sparked an awesome conversation with those senior leaders, asking questions about, well, who you've seen?

What do you see in them for? What has the impact been? And then I watched that information cascade itself down the chain of command, which in many ways is exactly how things are supposed to happen. If you can set an example at the very top, especially with things like prioritizing mental health and using the services that are available and removing the stigma associated with them, the impact will be large. Just like the impact is large if you offer these things, but the senior personnel don't ever utilize them or they're not honest about their own experiences. Both can be equally

powerful. So the counseling and services are great. What I would say for somebody trying to facilitate a culture in a chain of command is develop a culture that is open and that you have the ability to talk about these things. And you have space for people to manage and deal with grief in different ways. This is another thing that I've learned throughout the course of my life is just because I deal with grief in a certain way doesn't mean that somebody else is going to. And just because somebody else's particular pathway of dealing with grief seems bizarre to me, it doesn't mean that it is. Maybe it just means that I don't understand it, which is often the case. So I try to again have more empathy and see the

world through the eyes of others more than through the eyes of myself. I'm not saying I walk around like that all the time, but particularly if I see somebody dealing with grief in a way that maybe seems self-destructive or a way that I don't understand. Before jumping to judgment, I try to imagine what they may be dealing with. And maybe they don't have the same experiences that I have had in life, talking with counselors or reaching out for help to friends or family, or just having open and honest conversations that have really helped me deal with those things. If they haven't had those experiences, well, their actions are probably going to be in accordance with that because input obviously directly informs output. So the culture at the chain of command and having a culture where you can

openly and honestly discuss these things and allow for a variety of expressions of grief. Some people, this stuff bounces off like water on a duck's feathers. And for other people, things that you may think would not be moving or as moving or as impactful to you, may crush other people. And this is going to tie into the next question as well. Both of those examples of expression of grief and working your way through grief are okay. Because who are we to judge how others deal with grief? I don't think we actually should unless they're being self-destructive, hurting themselves, drinking their way to the bottom of a bottle looking for redemption or salvation. I'm not going to lay out like where the line is healthy and unhealthy, but I think we can all

probably look at examples in our own life of either others or perhaps ourselves, where we trended for unhealthy. In those situations, I certainly think you should be a little bit more positive and have a mechanism to, I don't want to say interfere, but maybe intercept those people and course correct them. And maybe that's going to require giving them a swim buddy or shipmate to use the naval terminology. Or maybe not. Maybe there's a different tool needed for every person, and that's the type of culture you need in the chain of command. My biggest advice, though, is don't have a stigma attached to people who are dealing with grief. Should it crush you for two months?

Probably depends on how close the loss is to your life, but we're all going to experience loss in life. And if you can't get through that loss, well, you're never going to really get anywhere in life because I'm here to tell you, I'm sorry for anybody who doesn't realize this, you're going to lose every single person that you love in life. if you live long enough, and somebody else is going to lose you too. So you're going to have to prepare yourself for that reality and realize that although it feels like your life might be over, it's not. Somebody else's is, and you still have to continue to live yours. And that can be a very hard path. I've had situations where it's been easier for me than I thought it would be and other

situations that have lingered with me longer than I thought that they would. again, I think both sides of that spectrum are totally okay because I think it encapsulates almost everybody. Healthy coping habits outside of work, again, you can probably reinforce that inside of the culture of your command. I would make physical training, physical readiness, physical preparedness, absolutely at the apex of just readiness in general when it came to physical readiness and mental health. diet, exercise, rest, recovery, having something in your life outside of work that you're passionate about, making sure that you take time for yourself, in addition to time for everybody else. I think all of those things important, and I think you can build all of that into a culture.

And hopefully, those habits continue outside of work. But the reality is this in the military. For most people, it's a 9 to 5 job, and you go home and you can be the person that you want to be outside of the military. You can behave the way that you want to. You can have unhealthy habits should you choose to. You can cope with grief in an unhealthy manner if you want to. And there's nothing that anybody at work can do about it until you have an interaction with the law. And that's most times when the UCMJ, in addition to the civilian courts are going to get involved because double jeopardy is a very real thing in the military. You can be prosecuted by the military and in the civilian courts. So best to avoid those things. But the reality is you can't control somebody outside of war. but you can set the best culture possible inside of that work environment. And what I opened with, my single biggest piece of advice, if you're at the top of the chain of command, set the example for what it is that you want to see from your subordinates. If you want them to utilize the resources that they have available, maybe do so yourself.

Never a bad idea to take your car to the mechanic before it's actually imploding and smoke is coming out from underneath the hood. sometimes it's okay to go get a checkup and that's why we have, you know, oil services and things like that. The brain's the same way, I think, but I'm not a doctor, as everybody knows. Question two. Yesterday, and this one ties in a little bit.

It's kind of, again, about death and grief. Yesterday, my wife of almost two years, though we've been together for nine years, and I made the choice to euthanize her pet dog. She's had the dog for 11 years, and he was, at times, her only real companion. She is struggling greatly with loss, and I feel like there's nothing I can do or say to help.

I love this dog, too, But for context, I lost both of my grandfathers, my step-grandfather, my great-grandfather, and my mother before I was 24 years old. I was close to all of them, so losing a dog just doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me. I understand that life is about perspective and that her pain is valid, but I'm only really saddened by how saddened she is. And that makes me feel like a monster. I feel like no matter how carefully I attempt to comfort her, my words come out like a surgery via sledgehammer. I want to better empathize with her and share this pain, maybe just for as much for my benefits as much as hers.

Holy shit. Let me say that again. Maybe just for as much for my benefit as much as hers. That's a lot of using of the word much, but I think I got the point across. But I just don't feel like I have any more tears to waste on death. I know I will see the people I love again someday, and I don't know if all dogs really go to heaven, but at the very least he's not suffering anymore. and that brings me peace.

Watching my wife go through this breaks my heart, and I just want to help, but I don't know how. Thanks for reading and any advice you may share. It sucks, right? Ties right back in to what I was saying before. There's no right or wrong way to grieve, in my opinion, and that's all it counts for, unless you're doing something that is self-harmful.

And then I would say that's not that it's a wrong way to grieve. It's not a beneficial way to grieve. It's not a way to grieve that's actually going to allow you to kind of walk through the valley that you need to, I think you might get stuck there when you go down the routes of self-harm. For this person, that also sucks that you lost that many people. Don't let it allow to lose your humanity, though. And I'm not saying that you are, but I was in a world where death was very real.

as far as being on the menu, it was there pretty much every day and every course of your meal. And it's easy to put up like a suit of armor, I guess I would say, and get to this place where you tell yourself that you don't really care. And I think for some people, maybe that's real. But I think for others, you do care, but you kind of just push it down and you have to deal with it later on. And I'm not sure that's healthy. and I'm also not sure that it expresses itself at the times that you would want it to. So having said that, some people, though, can experience that level of loss and it just doesn't have that level of impact on them.

And I don't think that that's wrong. Just like some people could experience that level and they would be destroyed by guilt for a period of time and be able to rebuild and then move on. I think that's normal as well as well as everything in between. We're all unique snowflakes to one degree or another. some people haven't had that level of loss and it sounds like your wife is in that category but she has this dog in her life that meant a lot to her and doesn't matter what it meant to somebody else or how trivial it may seem to somebody else because really the only thing that matters in this situation is how she felt about it and if she hasn't had that level of loss

it doesn't surprise me that she would have this reaction to losing this animal that met that much to her and that's okay some people can kind of churn through animals and I don't mean like adopt one get rid of it, adopt one get rid of it, but they see the life cycle. They can accept that life cycle and it's difficult in the moment and they can move right through it. No judgment, no right or wrong. Again, because we all deal with grief in our own different ways. However, your wife is feeling this way and you don't know what you can say. And my response to that would be, have you ever considered not saying anything? I have an innate ability to put my own foot in my mouth because it's tough sometimes to sit in silence.

But sometimes that's what you need to do. My suggestion to you is this. Instead of trying to say anything or talk your way through this with your wife, even though I don't think talking your way through this with your wife is a bad idea. if that's what she needs. But if it's not, instead of trying to talk your way through it, I would say be there to comfort her physically, wrap your arms around her, tell her that you love her,

and that there's nothing that you wouldn't do for her. And if she can think of anything that she needs or if there's anything you can do to make this phase of grief easier, you're going to do it and leave it at that. when I don't know what to say, I am trying to teach myself as a human being to not say anything because I may not understand the level of grief. Like let's, I'll use Leah as an example. And I don't have an example of loss with her. But I'll put myself into the situation. Let's say Leah lost a family member. And I didn't know what to say. And I didn't know the person as well

as she did, obviously. Maybe I hadn't even met this person at all. But they were important in her life. I wouldn't say anything. I would try to be around her as much as possible. I would try to handle as much of the daily tasks that she would normally need to do. I'd make sure she was, you know, had the time she needed to rest. Did she had the time alone if she needed it for herself, that she had food taken care of, all of those basic, we'll call that basic life shit. But then I would be as close to her as possible, as often as possible, and I would wrap my arms around her and tell her that I loved her and just let her know that I am there for whatever she needs, whenever she needs it. I think you can actually make the situation worse if you try to force

the conversation. If you try to get her to talk through it, and maybe she's not the type of person that wants to talk through it or needs to. Maybe she just needs time. And I think a lot of times when people are grieving like this, they also don't know what they need. And being needled, what do you need? What can I do? What do you need? What can I do? Not a path to an argument-free environment. Go the opposite. Don't say anything. Just be there for her as a person. Be there for her as her husband. Wrap your arms around her. Make sure she knows how much you love her. And when she does want to talk, listen. Listen more than you talk. Let her get it out. And if you have question, what's a question? Is that like an East Coast thing? If you have questions that you think in the portion of her

working it out that you think could continue the conversation or you think would lead down a path that would allow her to open up some more, maybe ask those, but ask a question, then stop talking. Just listen more than you are talking. I think a lot of the times when people are grieving or they feel sad or they're having a down day, what they need to know is that there is just somebody there, that they're not alone. And you can absolutely do that. And hopefully that will help your wife. some people get very wrapped in dogs or cats. I only know of one cat that I like and his name is Sheldon and he's a very fine beast. But I digress.

It's okay if you don't understand it. It's okay if in your life you see people and they're wrecked by things and it doesn't make any sense to you. It's okay to try to view it through their eyes and go, you know, I wonder why that is the case. It's not that big of a deal to me, but I wonder what could have happened in their life that makes it such a big deal to them. And then the next question that could come from that would be, I wonder if there's anything I could do to help. Maybe the answer is just be there. So that's the biggest piece of advice that I can give you. Question number three, rapidly transitioning gears.

So over the years, I probably listened to 100 plus episodes. And one thing that I noticed has been mentioned by multiple former CEL teammates of yours is that you are slash were very tactically proficient. Can't remember which guys, just that there were more than a couple. The guys have these comments are obviously well above average in that regard. So for several of them to make similar comments, you must have been top tier amongst all of the guys that they worked with. Not true. I will stick to what I have always said. C, probably C minus at best. I was consistently and constantly in all of the people that I worked with. And my only hope is that I didn't drag the team down. I literally hope that I improved the community or the organization that.

that I was with 0.01% as opposed to subtracting from it, 0.01%. And I'm sure the jury is out on me in the SEAL community. Some people probably enjoyed working with me and some people hated me. And I'm sure there's reasons for both. I'm a very flawed person. And I always tell people, you know, if they run into somebody that used to work with me and they have bad things to say, it's probably for a reason. You know, I'm not allowed to rate my own military career. That is the ability of others that I serve with.

and I don't think that I should have the ability to have any say in that. So whatever they say goes in this situation. I'm not a military guy. So aside from the super basic stuff like get the high ground and fire and move type of stuff, I don't really know what would separate really good from top tier when it comes to that type of stuff. Are there some specific examples that you could share where doing things a certain way got that extra 5% that really mattered? Or is it just more or is it more just a collection of small things over many years? At least enough that all these guys picked.

up on it. Thanks for any info. Interesting question. And this really got me thinking about the people that when I look back on my career, the ones that I was legitimately in awe of from a tactical perspective, like holy shit. How do you shoot, move and communicate at that level? What is it? What was it about those people? And I have pretty specific examples of people in my mind that I can think of that operated at that level. And what this question got me to realize, because you asked, you know, what were the certain things that they did that got that extra 5%?

How were they able to stand out? And I was thinking, did they have some like crazy high speed whizbang tactic? And I realized, no, they didn't. Did they have a crazy piece of equipment that was slightly better than everybody else's equipment? They didn't. Were they wearing something fancy,

a high-speed piece of a particular type of uniform that allowed them to move maybe with less friction or restrictions on their mobility. They didn't. But they all had one thing that was consistent across all of them in the military. And I've seen this now in Jiu-Jitsu as well. Because there is a lot of people that are very good at Jiu-Jitsu. And then there are some people that you look at and you scratch your head. and wonder whether or not you're participating in the same physical activity. Like a true what the fuck moment.

How did they do that? What just happened? And the answer to what both of those communities or those individuals have is the same. It wasn't an extra 5% that they were doing better than other people. What both of those, to use the jih Tjitsu in the SEAL community as an example, the highest level performers I've ever seen across both had a mastery of one thing. Fundamentals. The people that I, and I spent about the last few hours thinking about this because I read this question before I came into the studio. Because I really was trying to think like,

okay, well, what tactic did they use different? Okay, it wasn't a tactic. Why were they able to do it faster? It wasn't a move that they found on the internet. It wasn't an obscure coach that they reached out to that taught them how to redefine the mechanics of human movement, it was a dedication to the foundational principles of whatever it is that they were doing. Using shooting as an example, the fastest people that I have ever seen be, and we used to do so many shooting drills with a shot timer, and beep, and you have to a rifle course of fire. And maybe you transition to a pistol, or just a pistol course of fire, or things where you're running and turning and obstacle. and room clearances, all of those things. The people that impressed me the most were not the ones

that were moving frantically. They were not the ones that were trying to add extra movement. They were the ones who had stripped away all of the bullshit and focused on the fundamentals. Their stance was always good. Their positioning was always good. Their eyeline was always good. Their movement was incredibly refined. And they would spend hours just getting their hand into position to get a pistol out of a holster. or the mechanics of when your primary weapon system, a rifle, you feel a slide lock on an empty magazine and recognizing that and moving in other ways you transition to your secondary. Their ability to absolutely master the fundamentals

is what allowed them to perform at levels beyond everybody else. I'm very new to Jiu-Jitsu. I don't claim to know shit about it, but I've been around a couple people who you watch them, and you're like, what the fuck is going on? Like, how is this possible? But you watch what they're doing, and they're not most of the time. There are some obscure examples of people who are doing some very fancy high-speed shit.

Most of the people that I know of that are incredibly good, yes, they have like a couple moves that if they can funnel you towards, you're absolutely screwed because they're funneling you towards their A-game. But what separates them from almost everybody else is their mastery of the fundamentals. Their fundamental movements, their fundamental patterns are so. so clean and crisp and precise that they can do it to anybody at any time. And how did they get to a place where they were able to do that? That's where they spent their focus, which is not rewarding in the short term. And I think that's why people don't focus on the fundamentals. They'd rather

do the flashy whizbang, fill in the blank, then take the time. And by time, I don't mean hours. I don't mean days. I don't mean weeks. I don't mean months. I know. I know. I mean years required to make a foundational and fundamental movement second nature. The people that I know who sacrificed the, what should we call it, short-term satisfaction of something new and shiny for a long-term satisfaction and mastery of fundamentals surpassed everybody else in their field. I've seen it now in the military and I've definitely seen it in Jiu-Jitsu. And that is the biggest thing that netted that long-end, that long-end, that term improvement over time and performance above their peers. They did everything but the fancy

stuff. We had a, when I was there, years ago, almost a different century. When I was a development group, there were ranges that you could use 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. You can keep your like 1,000 rounds of each type of ammo in the cage. I think you might be enabled to keep your guns in your cage, but if not, you had a badge access to it anyway. And Let me tell you, the people that were always performing best when we got together as a squadron and did friendly competitions were the ones that were there every morning, not doing high-speed drills, but you'd roll in and I tried to go shoot as much as possible. And I'd get in there and I'd watch a guy who was dominating, everybody else in the squadron, practicing single round. You know, hand from a police would call it from an interview position, indexing his weapon, getting his eyes, you know, aligning the weapon on target. and pulling a trigger. One round back into the holster. One round back into the holster. Not a high-speed

drill. Or dry firing. Or slow mechanical firing, 15-round magazine, taken 10 seconds in between, focusing on all the fundamentals so you can master them at a slow speed so you could apply them at high speed. And the people that they end up crushing by focusing on those fundamentals was everybody else who didn't show up to those shooting ranges. It's the ones who put in that work, the ones who are willing to dedicate themselves to long-term performance as opposed to short-term performance. That was the difference. And that is the extra 5% that really matters. And I think it applies to almost every occupation or endeavor. I saw this when I was working for CrossFit when I owned a CrossFit gym. You would have people come in and they would somehow get exposed to CrossFit.

Maybe it was the CrossFit games. They'd see something where somebody was doing an Olympic lift called a snatch, which is a wide arm grip and you're basically going from the barbell on the ground. It's a very dynamic movement. Your hips come all the way open and you pull yourself underneath and you catch it in the bottom and an overhead squat. They would want to come in and immediately start doing that. Mind you, they couldn't do a full range of motion squat, let alone have the flexibility to get something over their head, let alone have it be something that was weighted. But that's what they would want to do. And there were other people who would come in and they realized that, you know what, I probably need to start with the PVC pipe and I'm going to master my flexibility first and I'm going to

master this range of motion. I'm going to slowly add weight over time. I saw this happen so many times, time and time and time and time again. The person who came in and who wanted to go right to the Olympic lift would be able to initially lift more than the person that came in and was working with PVC pipe. But that didn't last long because eventually the person with the PVC pipe, their technique got better and better and better and better in addition to a lot of things, balance and flexibility and all that stuff. But they were working on those. And pretty soon, the person who comes in who doesn't want to master the fundamentals, they glass ceiling out. They're not improving anymore because they don't have the technique or ability to get through that glass ceiling.

And then they get passed by the person who started maybe well after they did, but dedicated themselves to the fundamentals. And that person is on a trajectory with an unknown upper limit. And it will take them so much longer to achieve it because they're taking that incremental growth by mastering the fundamentals, which allows them with that foundation to build amazing things on top of it. I've seen it in every field. So for anybody out there listening, my advice is this. Do the absolute best you can to shelve that short-term satisfaction, even though we all want it.

Every single one of us wants that short-term satisfaction. Slow trajectory towards a distant horizon and slowly focus on volume underneath the curve. Don't try to hockey stick in your improvement. set that arrow out there really low, but over a long period of time, you'll have so much more volume under the curve than almost everybody else. And people will scratch their heads and say, how did they do that? The answer is this. Fundamentals, because that's actually what matters. That's all I have for today.