Cleared Hot - Powered By BRCC - Full Auto Friday - Round 43

Episode Date: March 5, 2021

Rapid-fire Q and A submitted from the listeners! A variety of topics with a five-minute time cap per answer. 1. My boss is an asshole, should I quit my job 2. My son is potentially getting kicked out of the military, what can/should I do 3. Do you ever have days where nothing goes right, where you can do no wrong 4. Were you ever told to do something that caused you to question your career path or your desire to stay in the Navy 5. The pandemic has made me paranoid, how do I know when I have gone too far Enjoy

Ladies and gentlemen, what is up? This episode of Fall Outer Friday is brought to you by the stereo app. This is the second time that I've spoken about this. And if you didn't hear the first one, the stereo app is a platform that has thousands of live social conversations. An incredibly wide range of genres for every interest, including news, comedy, sports, and more. You can choose to be a co-host if you want. You could find somebody and host your own show. You can participate as a guest or you can just listen in on some exclusive conversations.

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Like I said, you can click on the link in the show notes or follow me directly through the link in my specifically in my Instagram bio. That's it. Hope to see you there. I'm looking at danger close now. Ladies and gentlemen, you know what time it is. Friday. Full out of Friday time. Full out of Friday round number 43. Question number one. For the past 18 months, I've been working for the biggest a-hole.

He is disrespectful, a micromanager, has inappropriate conversations with female subordinates, and above all else, is a slacker, who, when needed to perform work, procrastinates or takes forever. Needless to say, this sucks. during COVID, he decided he was high risk and stayed out for five months while the rest of the team continued to come in and perform. I was named acting team lead in his absence and was given additional authority to get the job done. It went pretty well, and senior leaders were very complimentary of my help. Recently, the boss has returned and continued to be a nightmare. As I am getting ready to rotate teams, he presented me with a list of 60 actions that were done incorrectly. or without proper authority slash documentation.

While I admit, I messed up two to three things trying to keep up, this list seemed very overbearing, like he's building some sort of case against me. I've had a discussion with senior management, and they don't seem concerned by this list or by dealing with my boss. On top of all this, he was promoted this year while I was, of course, passed over. I'm getting ready to switch teams and could write it out, but I feel like I hold my employer to a higher standard than just sweeping this dealing with this guy under the rug.

There seems to be a cultural lack of leadership at my organization. The whole situation and working for this guy have caused a great deal of stress and is beginning to affect my home life. I don't think any job is worth this mess. Should I quit my job? And if so, how can I do so on a positive note? damn a little heavy for the opener first off it sucks that you're going through this what you have described certainly doesn't seem like a rewarding and empowering work environment what i'm going to say is this i am never going to tell somebody that they should quit their job i will hopefully with

my answer present to you some things that you can think about a little bit of food for thought and you're going to need to make that decision on your own because you are intimately familiar with your family situation your goals for the future and the ins and outs of your job beyond what you described to me. And I have no right to tell anybody what it is that they should do. I don't even think you can change people's minds. I think you can present them with information with which they can change their own. But I digress. I would agree with you. I don't think that any job is really worth what you described. However, before you just throw this occupation into the trash can, consider a little bit of fore.

thinking and maybe plan for the future. If you realize that the organization you are working for and the people that you are working for are not worth your time, energy, or effort, or they don't align with you morally. It sounds like, you know, moving on might be a possibility. So instead of just quitting and having no income coming in, and I'm speaking from my own experience at this point, perhaps line up something in the future should you choose to take that route. you have a softer landing. Create for yourself. You're on a free rail right now,

and you don't like where it's going. So create for yourself some off-ramps. So you at least have options. Now, leaving this job on a positive note, I would say I see three potential options. One is you get fired. Two is you sit down with your employer and you come to the equitable agreement

that it is time for parties to split ways. And third, you quit because of your beliefs and your frustration and working in this environment. I would say getting fired is not going to be a positive note. Coming to the equitable decision and erring everything out could be positive for both people, because you are both entities, I guess it would be not people, because you would be able to unload that burden from your shoulders and walk away with a clear conscience. And they would at least be presented the opportunity to fix those deficiencies. And then the third option of you just quitting may feel good to you, but just understand that you may need

a job reference in the future. Your future employers may want to talk to those that you used to work for and with. Just keep that in the back of your mind. I would, if it were me, land on the middle option. And I've had all three of them happen to me in my life. So I would personally go with the middle option because at least you walk away with that clear conscience. You give them that opportunity. You know that you're going to be. leaving as it is. If they choose not to do anything with that information, well, that's on them. And it's no longer your circus. It's no longer your clowns. You don't need to worry about it anymore. You said that there seems to be a cultural lack of leadership at my organization. And I see this

often. Leadership is very culturally based. Meaning if those at the very top don't take it seriously, if they don't embody good leadership, if they don't set the example, it will cascade all the way down. The best organizations that I have worked for have defined leadership, both in guidance and in action and behavior, speech patterns from the very top all the way down. They set the standard they expected of their peers and subordinates, and at a cultural level that was ingrained to every single person. For your organization, it sounds like they are promoting somebody up the chain of command that is the opposite of those things. You could, could, of course, if you see some upward trajectory for yourself, you could try to ride it out.

I don't know how long people stay at this organization. And you mentioned you're going to be laterally switching to another team. That may solve your issue short term, but you don't know the trajectory that the person that you described is going to be on. Maybe a few years down the road, you might shift teams again and you still might be underneath this individual. Again, if you sit down and have an honest and open conversation with your employer and you discuss your true reasons for wanting to leave and your frustration and why, you might be surprised. They may present you with the opportunity to step into that role and fix it, or they may completely blow off what you say and move on. And in that case, I would say, you know what? Finding another ecosystem to operate in may not be a bad idea.

What you're describing, it doesn't sound fun. The list of 60 actions. Just think for a second how long it would take you to critique somebody else and actually write up a list of 60 actions that you felt came in at a subpar level to what was expected of that individual. It's a long period of time. There is a reason, I would say, that this person is writing this list. And I would say he's probably writing it for his own protection or to use against you, like you mentioned. Your employer might say right now that they're not concerned by the list or dealing with your boss, but that may change in the future, especially as that individual starts going up the ladder or continues up that ladder. So be aware of that.

The fact that that list exists, and I'm assuming because you mentioned that your management don't seem concerned by the list, they're aware. of it, just be aware. That could potentially change in the future and understand how much time it took that individual to sit there and look at and judge your behavior. What I would have liked to have read in this paragraph is, you know, my boss was out for five months. I stepped into a leadership void. I made some mistakes along the way, as we all are going to do. And when my boss came back, he sat me down and was very appreciative of the additional work that I had done, the fact that I had stepped into that void, and he counseled me on some areas where he fell short with the goal of mentoring you for that next position. It doesn't sound like this person is doing that, and that would

give me cause for concern. At the end of the day, like I said, this is going to have to be your decision to make. It doesn't sound to me like a healthy working environment, and you said it's beginning to affect your home life. I think it is important to have a pretty clear separation, if possible between personal life and professional life. If one of those is starting to have a negative impact on the other, I would say that's an opportunity to course correct and do something about it. Again, you'll have to make the choice that you want to. I'm sorry that you're in this position.

It doesn't sound like an amazing individual to work for. And I hope you put enough thought into the decision that you are going to make and take enough time to plan for whichever direction you choose to go. question why is my laptop it's sassing me there we go question number two okay this one i don't know if this individual thought i was going to read this on the air so i'm going to go pretty broad because he went specific on some areas so bear with me when i read this my son is 21 years old and is being recommended for administrative separation from the navy he is currently where he graduated from his a school and from those of you who are not familiar with the military A school is think of it as an occupational school.

In the Navy, that's exactly what these were called A schools. And for me, if you listened to me on a podcast before when I talk about my military background, I went to a radar scope operator course. That was OSA school, operational specialist A school. So this individual has gone through boot camp. He is in the Navy. He has just finished his occupational course. and he finished second in his class.

He is charged with and is admitting to leaving base, purchasing and drinking alcohol in his barracks, and contributing to providing alcohol to a minor as one of the three that got caught. In parentheses, many more were involved, but those that got caught didn't snitch. I wouldn't have either. So it sounds like your son is out in front of a large group of people. Well, maybe not large. I don't have any context to say that. but there were more people involved than just these three, but those three are keeping their mouth shut.

All of this, my son knows better than all of this, and he certainly disobeyed direct orders from the highest levels on base. Again, he has admitted all of this, and in every step of the discipline process, he admitted his mistakes, owned them, and asked to be punished as harshly as needed, just short of being kicked out of the Navy. All of these facts were confirmed by his command master chief, which is the senior enlisted at any particular command. There's a commanding officer and a command master chief, and they work side by side. On base, whom I was able to have a phone conversation with yesterday through a friend's connection. This chief said the separation is about how seriously they are taking COVID. Long email, sorry, but there is so much more to tell. If this strikes accord and is an issue would like to take interest in, please,

respond to this email and we can carry on. Frankly, I'm not interested in telling this story publicly, which is why I went very broad. I'm looking to help save my son's enlistment and avoid an other than honorable discharge. I assume a man with your experiences might know a thing or two about this. Now, I know this individual said they don't want to discuss this publicly. I did my best to be vague, but I chose this because I think this is a lesson or there are lessons in this that anybody who is in the military has to understand and also parents of those who are in the military. Be very cautious as a parent or somebody not directly involved in what is going on in the military becoming directly involved. The fact that you were able to talk to the command master chief

through the connection of a friend, I'm not going to say that's a bad thing. But if you try to influence this process in any way, in my experience, it is not going to get any better for your son. It could only potentially get worse. Now, and other than honorable discharge, let us assume that this goes in that direction. So we'll go worst case scenario. It is likely that that is exactly what your son is going to get. And he is going to get that because of the actions that he has taken and as admitted responsibility for. And that's a great thing that he did that and he owned them and he is willing to accept the punishment. But the military may need to punish him at this level.

If they choose to do so and he receives an other than honorable discharge, I want you to understand that it is not the end of the world. Because an other than honorable discharge, which can happen for a variety of reasons. I'm not an expert on all of them, but I've seen quite a few people receive an other than honorable discharge, and I don't know a single one of them who was unable to eventually have it upgraded to an honorable discharge. There, I believe it is a 10-year window, which may seem like a lot right now, especially for your son who is 21 and staring down the barrel of his future.

It might seem like a lot. My point in saying all of this is, this really sucks. It's going to have an impact on his life, but it's not going to ruin his life. is something that if it goes worst case scenario, he can recover from given enough time. Okay. To specifically what happened. 21-year-old guy, I'm assuming that the base probably locked themselves down due to COVID concerns. He left, was old enough to buy booze, brought it back.

There was an incident of some kind. Somehow this was discovered. Somebody was underage. And now he is suffering the consequences. your son wrote this check and he is now going to have it cashed for him. I would not like to see him honorably or other than honorably discharged. In my personal opinion, there are ways that you could handle this, disciplinary action that you could handle that would go right up to the precipice of an other than honorable discharge. But I'm not the one who gets to make that decision.

in the environment of the current military where there is more of a microscope on disciplinary behavior coupled with a pandemic coupled with disobeying a direct order from the chain of command and if he's at an A school I suspect that this order was not from his direct chain of command it probably was from the commanding officer of the base who outranks the commanding officer of the A school and I hope what you're hearing when I say this is that it may well be out of the command master chief hands. It may will be out of the operational, not operational specialist. That was my school. It may will be out of the hands of the A school commanding officer. If a commanding officer is presented with a situation and he does not take

disciplinary action that is commensurate with the infraction or the dereliction of duty or the disobeying of an order, if he does not punish that individual to the degree that is necessary, what message is that sending? And I know that sucks to hear as this young man's father, but it's not really about your son and it's also not really about you. It is about the military and the military system maintaining the standards and maintaining their integrity. If it's brushed under the rug, then that is how you start eroding the equity of integrity in the military in and of itself. And again, I'm not saying that this is catastrophic, but if it goes that way, and worst case scenario expresses itself, you have to understand it's not actually about your son.

It's about the military, or in this case, military officers, or if he goes to an administrative separation and review board, whatever it may be, it's about those officers and senior enlisted doing what is required of them, and it may not even be them doing what they want to do. They may want to do everything that they can to maintain your son in military service, and they may not be able to because if the infraction doesn't manage the punishment, what are we talking about? Everybody sees it. And then if one person gets away with it and let's say the similar incident expresses itself in somebody else and a different punishment is levied, all you are doing is eroding the trust of everybody in that system. And that can't be done. The standards have to be held. I applaud you for trying

to do everything that you can to, I'm going to say, hopefully, gently and tactful. Hopefully, hopefully help with your son's career. I would caution you against doing anything else. And I will respond to this email and hopefully I can give you some more guidance. But at the end of the day, it really sucks to hear this. And it really sucks to read that this is happening to your son. Worst case scenario, if he ends up getting kicked out, I hope it is something that he can look back on as a transition point in his life, a, decision and a mistake that he will learn from him for the rest of his life and can in the future become an example for others. There's no way he's going to be able to see that right now,

but I would hope if it goes that way, he will be able to in the future. So I hope that answer helped, even though I suspect it's probably not what you want to hear. Question three, I am sure you, along with every other person on earth, has experienced the Murphy's Law days where absolutely nothing will go right, no matter how hard you. try to change it. I am curious about your experiences with the polar opposite. Have you had a couple specific days in any of your careers or hobbies where you felt like you couldn't do anything wrong? And everything perfectly falls into place. If so, is there any factor that was a common theme to perfect execution and outcome in these high-level fields? And did you find these tasks

to be more easily repeatable once you recognized a common factor? I have experienced a couple days like this in and around in a round of golf or archery or other various events, but chalked them up to having a good day instead of dissecting what made the execution better than any other time. I'm interested in your experience with this situation. Thank you. Oh, I've had some Murphy's Law days. I have had some days where it didn't matter how hard I tried. nothing went right. Actually, it seemed to be that the harder I tried, the worse things went. And when I encounter those days now in my life, which I do, and I encounter them in almost every aspect of what it is

that I do. I've had days where I sit down to do a podcast, and I could not pull a word out of my memory to save my life. But just my verbal recall was trash. Couldn't hold a conversation to save my life. I've had a day public speaking. There's been days where I will get up there and it's almost as if it's effortless and you are connecting with the crowd with the right vernacular, the right terminology, they're engaged and you couldn't say a wrong word if you tried. And then other days where regardless of what you do to try to connect, it just doesn't happen. Jiu-Jitsu is another example. I've had days where it's almost as if I'm not thinking about anything, not that my game is great by any stretch of the imagination, but the limited knowledge.

that I do have. There have been days where it seemed like it clicked for me. And other days, and oftentimes this is actually a series of days when it comes to jujitsu, where I will go to class and open mat afterwards and sit there in question in the middle of the role whether or not I actually know any jiu-jitsu, the exact opposite of those days where everything seems to be firing. I've actually never dissected it from the perspective of what's going on when things go right. I have dissected it a little bit from the perspective of what's happening when things go wrong. What I've identified to myself, the number one thing that could send me towards a Murphy's Law day is not managing my stress appropriately for multiple days before and pairing that with subpar,

suboptimal sleep. And for me, I need about, well, I don't know what need. I prefer seven and a half to eight hours of sleep a day. I'll take 10 if I can get it. I'm not getting up at 4.30. and taking a picture of my watch, love jaco to death, that does not work for me unless I go to bed at probably 6 p.m. And that doesn't work for my life. But if I have stress, whether it be emotional stress, interpersonal relationship stress, maybe I'm starting to feel a little bit under the weather, if I don't deal with that. And my number one tool personally for dealing with stress is making sure that I sweat every single day. And maybe that doesn't make sense to some people, but for me, my brain and body work better when I press on them a little bit. When I willingly and intentionally

actually seek stress, when I can do that, it allows me to work my way through what I would consider to be complex issues on a personal side of the house, complex issues maybe on an emotional side of the house, it just makes me a better person. If I don't prioritize that and I start prioritizing other things other than my own mental health, it catches up to me very quickly. And oftentimes that stress that is undelt with is what's keeping me from sleeping. And the combination of those two things, it leads me into those days, that you called Murphy's Law days. when I find myself in those days, the one thing that I try to prevent myself from doing is making decisions that actually matter. It seems to be on those days, maybe this is just fate or maybe

this is just the way that it appears to me that I'll get bombarded with emails or communication. And it seems like even though I don't want to make decisions of any kind, I'm presented with decisions that I seem to need to make. And I used to do those things. I used to make those decisions. I used to get back to people. I used to make phone calls. And time and time and time again, I fell short of the person that I wanted to be. So when I find myself in those days, what I do is as little as possible from an outward-facing perspective.

If I recognize that I'm getting there, I will try to do a hard stop and go back to the things that work well for me. Find a level of stress that I am inducing to myself that allows me to sweat and then maximize my rest and quality nutrition. I will take a day off. I will take two days off if I need to. And I will get back to all of those pressing questions, comments, concerns, phone calls that I need to make. And never, not a single time for me, at least, has it been, there has there been a negative consequence from taking that time? There's been plenty of negative consequences from not taking that time and getting emotionally

involved. So I avoided at all costs. I isolate myself a little bit and get myself back into a better headspace. When things are going well for me, it is usually, I would say, probably because I am doing a good job of managing my stress. I am getting good rest in recovery. I am eating well. So if I can do those things, I would probably be the foundation of things that lead me towards days where things are going well. If I can do those, the odds are in my favor. But what I will say is this.

I personally, and I don't know where this is from or why this is, but I personally start getting very, very wary and maybe even concerned when things are really going my way. It makes me uncomfortable when it feels like I'm just knocking stuff out of the park. And that's probably not a good description of how I feel about myself. But when things start going my way, I will in the back of my head start wondering about when is the next shoe going to drop. And I don't know where that comes from and it is something that I struggle with because it does rob me of a little bit of enjoyment and joy in life. I have recognized that, but I also can't stop it and I don't know, I don't know how and I don't necessarily know if I want to. I want to have a totally fulfilling

and empowering life and I want to be extremely happy in my personal and professional career, but I also don't want to get so lost in that that I'm blinded to what could potentially happen. So maybe I personally just need to find a better balance. and I don't know if it's uncommon or not, but that is what happens with me. So when things go my way, I start getting a little bit worried. And maybe that drives me towards those Murphy's Law days. I don't know. And again, I'm not a smart enough person to understand if that's a common thing,

if it was something that is from my old occupation. But I try to view every one of my days where the days stack together's into weeks, and the weeks stack together's into months. I just view my life as a sign wave. and I've come to the realization and acceptance that I'm going to have some good days and I'm going to have some bad days. I try to enjoy the good days to the best of my ability, and I try to round the edges on the bad days to the best of my ability and try to sit at that 80% that's in between those two. And I don't think I answered your question at all other than maybe describing what it is that leads me to those days that are on the lower end of the sine wave. But hopefully in that, you know, it gave you some food for thought.

I'm certainly not perfect in this perspective. And I've actually put a lot of thought about into my, my weariness and wondering, you know, when that next shoe is going to drop, wondering whether or not that's a healthy thing. It's an unhealthy thing. So that's something I'm actually going to be devoting some time and effort to try to unpack that myself. Question four. This is a two-parter. I remember you mentioning that some of the best people who have ever met were in the SEAL teams.

and that some of your lifelong mortal enemies were also in the SEAL teams. This brings me to my first question. During your career in the Navy, did you ever witness something or experienced something that made you question what it was that you were doing and consider leaving the Navy? In other words, were you ever forced to do something or perhaps someone else in your team or at the leadership level doing something that went against everything you believed in or stood for? What was it and why did it bother you so much? Short answer to your question is no.

I never encountered leadership or an individual or me being asked to do something that was against everything that I believed in and stood for or ever considered leaving the Navy for any of those reasons. Critical point here that I want to unpack. You are not forced to do anything when you are in the military. Is a rank-driven organization? Yes. when you say forced to do something, what I'm thinking about when I hear that is being asked to do something, being told, being ordered to do something that is unlawful. And you do not ever have to follow an unlawful order. You know, when you talk about things that everything that I believed in and stood for, I, looking back on why I joined the military, I think I just wanted to be a part of something that mattered. I wanted to be a part of something that mattered. I wanted to be a part of. part of a team and fight with that team for people who were unable to do it themselves, or maybe even unwilling to do it themselves.

I believe at a very deep level in pure evil, and I believe at a very deep level that there are limited solutions when it comes to dealing with pure evil. And the most effective solution for that is wiping it off the chessboard. And not everybody believes that, and that's totally fine. That's a personal opinion. And that's also not doctrinal inside of the community that I worked with. But that is the headspace that I went into going into the SEAL community. Some of your question to me rings a little bit more around the Hollywood narrative, perhaps the fictional book narrative, you know, where essentially you're being told you need to go in and murder innocent people.

No, not a single time. Did I ever experience anything like that? Would I have done that if I was asked to? Absolutely not. I absolutely would have disobeyed that order. First off, it never would have made it through the planning phase. Let's say it did. And we got on to Target and somebody asked me to do that. Absolutely not. And that person is going to get rung up the yard arm as soon as we get back and that can be reported up to higher headquarters. What I did find were people that I was surrounded by with incredibly calibrated moral consequences. compasses who kept that calibration in environments of extreme stress and very little oversight. Oftentimes, there was nobody watching what it is that you were doing. And that moral compass and that desire, again, for myself, the reasons that I joined that I already talked about, it kept me on what I'll call the path, headed in the right direction for the right reasons.

So, no, long answer to your short question. I never encountered any of that. the people that I served with were actually the exact opposite, largely in what you described. And I'm sure, though, that there are people out there who are like you described, and I guarantee you if they are in the SEAL community, they are getting ejected because the community itself is not going to tolerate that behavior. Second question, how many guys that are active in the military or special operations know very little about the military or military acronyms and general military logistics? The reason I'm asking you this is because my brother spent 10 years in Marines, and when I asked him a few questions about some of the things I had read about, he didn't know what I was talking about because he wasn't familiar with the acronyms.

It seems that military lingo is an incredibly constantly changing language that nobody can fully understand. Do you understand all of it? You described it perfectly. It is a constantly changing language that I don't think anybody can fully understand. you could understand the things that directly impact you or that you are directly involved with. You know, for the Navy, we use N codes. And then you get into a joint environment and they start using J codes for the joint. You know, N1 is admin.

And two is Intel. And three is operations. And four is I can't fucking remember what it is. And five, I think, is logistics. Every single one of those encodes are J codes. And I don't even know what they use in the Army, let alone the Coast Guard of the Marines. let's say you work in admin. You'll probably understand all of the acronybs in the admin world,

but I guarantee you we could take you to a training environment outside of your wheelhouse and completely and utterly destroy your mind with the foreign language that you described, a constantly changing foreign language that we knew intimately, and then I could come into the admin shop, and you could be throwing acronyms at me or the names of paperwork or form, and I'd be looking at you with deer in the headlights. So I don't think it's uncommon that your brother, doesn't understand acronyms that weren't directly involved with the execution of his job.

I would say I understand and know most of them from the SEAL community, but every day that I'm out is the opportunity for them to create another one that I know nothing about. So if it's outside of my core competency, I am probably not going to know what it means. And trust me, the vast majority of military lingo and acronyms is outside of my core competency. And what do I do? When that happens, specifically when people ask me questions about acronyms is I go to the Google machine and I put it in there and it usually spits me out the answer that I'm looking for. So don't fault your brother. It's impossible to master the military acronym language. And if anybody actually takes the time to use so, more power to you.

And I hope that you have a constantly updated Rolodex because it's never going to end. Last question for the day. Let's talk about the pandemic. Love the show. Thanks for all the laughs and insight that you give as we're approaching the one-year mark of pandemic lockdowns and shifts. I'm finding myself becoming a bit of a neurotic mess. I don't think you're the only one. Bit of a backstory.

My wife and I got married in November of 19, relocated from my job in Texas to North Carolina, and she started a new one all in February of 2020. So I think that was, damn, right before the lockdown. So you made some big moves right before the country went and hoax. halt. March hit, and I work in the entertainment world. Thankfully, I was only furloughed for five weeks, but as someone who has had his toes into the survival and preparedness world, excuse me, I found myself clamoring more for ammo, MREs, which stands for meals ready to eat, and they're fucking disgusting, and cool, sexy boogaloo shit. I've slowed down, but now

I'm questioning about preparedness in the real everyday shit. Will I be a good husband and a strong provider. The thought of zombies rising out of the grave and us going all walking dead pales in comparison to finding the proper work time and family time balance. I feel like I'm planning and preparing away my personality and making myself not someone people want to be around. Any suggestion? And thanks for playing therapist to those of us who haven't reached out for professional help yet. First off, if you're thinking about reaching out for professional help, do it. It's been wildly beneficial in my life. I actually don't know anybody who took the time to find the right professional counselor, therapist, whatever you want to call it,

that hasn't had amazing impact on their life. But do what you want to, your life, your choices. Okay. So you get a little paranoid. You're focusing solely on survival. As I was reading this question, it doesn't surprise me that you're doing this or that other people are doing this. Why? Because it's one of the few things that you actually have control over. I look at the states of the United States and the guidance that is very drastically different in all of these states, whether you're a coastal state, rural state, Alaska, Hawaii, you know, fill in the blank, whether it's what jobs are allowed to work, where you can go eat, how many people can eat, the mask mandate, fill in the blank. All of us, to include myself, you know, are being

told largely what we can do, when we can do it, and how we can do it. And I think that is a common, something that is common that comes from that is people will grasp onto the things they actually have control over. And, you know, preparing for survival is something that you absolutely do have control over. So you could, if you get deep into this, you could go for the ammo, the MREs, you could get tents, you could have bug out bags, you could do your vehicles, all of that stuff. And nobody can tell you to stop doing those things. Nor should anybody be able to tell you to stop doing those things. But you have described that it's having a negative impact on your personality. So I think you've already identified the problem.

perhaps you are going a little bit too far. If you think that you're diving down this rabble hole to the degree that others don't want to be around you, you know, maybe it's time to put the shovel down and stop digging and back yourself out here just a little bit. What I'm going to tell you right now is that you could have all the sexy survival tools that you want, all of the ammo, all of the MREs, all of the guns. and if you don't pack your brain, the number one survival item, none of those things are going to matter. So it's cool that you're sourcing all of this stuff, but maybe put that down a little bit and focus on your mental and physical health. Your combat chassis, if you will, if the boogaloo kicks off or the zombie apocalypse starts. Again, you can have the sexiest body armor, the coolest gun, all of the ammo, E&E routes, and bugout kits. and if you're not a healthy individual, you know, those are all going to be limited by your

combat chassis or what's going on between your ears. If you're focusing on it too much, perhaps you've got, you know, some stuff going on between your ears you need to focus on. But again, I'm going to go physical and mental health is priority over all of this cool stuff. Put the shovel down a little bit, back out of that rabbit hole of survival. I don't think it's ever going to be a zombie apocalypse or the walking dead. And maybe just reintegrate a little bit into society. If you see people who are backing away from you a little bit, you know, maybe take a step towards them.

And when you do that, don't talk about survival stuff, all right? Talk about something completely other than what it is that you're focusing on. It sounds like you have your occupation dialed in. You are only furloughed for five weeks. It sounds like your wife has a stable occupation as well. So hopefully that provides. And there aren't any monetary concerns. prioritize your own personal health and wellness.

Find activities that you can do with other people that prioritize your health and wellness. The number one thing that is pissing me off about the pandemic is that everybody is focusing on what you can't do. Don't do this. Don't go there. Don't meet with these people. Wear your mask. And it's not that I'm against those things.

What pisses me off is that the same emphasis is not being put on individual accountability, responsibility and health and wellness. How about for the next year, or let's say the pandemic is going to continue for this year. We'll call it two total years. How about for the next two years after that? We put the same amount of emphasis on reducing the amount of fat fucks in this country. And I'm sorry if that offends you hearing that, but the obesity rate in this country is abhorrent. and the number one way that you could probably survive the pandemic or a future pandemic is by

specifically focusing on your personal health going into that pandemic. Also, at the end of this, if we're two years down the road at the end of this and you are no better than when you started from a physical or mental health perspective, you are messing up. I mean, I looked at, you know, the comorbidities that were going on and the things that were associated. with the most severe reactions to COVID-19. Guess what? Most of them are controllable. Yes, age plays a huge factor in that.

Not necessarily controllable. Well, actually not controllable at all. But obesity, top of the list, right underneath age. 100% controllable unless you have some catastrophic metabolic issue. So we're almost a year down the road. And if people haven't prioritized that and made an impact on that, none of these cool things that you're already collecting here, they're going to make a difference in the end.

I apologize. Went off on a little bit of a tangent there, but it pisses me off. Take control over what you have control over. Yourself, if you don't want to be as susceptible in the future, do something about it now. Don't wait for the crisis to occur before you start to prepare for it. And for this individual, don't buy any more MREs. Give yourself one month. Don't buy any more survival shit.

Go out, become a contributing member to society. Go strengthen some personal and professional. relationships and then readdress the survival situation. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is all I have for this Friday. See everybody on Monday. Later. Thanks again to the stereo app for the support to this podcast. Like I said, we're going to be going live every Tuesday and Thursday, a continuation of

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