Cleared Hot - Powered By BRCC - Full Auto Friday - Round 54

Episode Date: May 21, 2021

Rapid-fire Q and A submitted from the listeners! A variety of topics with a five-minute time cap per answer, sometimes. 1. How do I balance my hatred for war with my appreciation and reverence for soldiers 2. I spend too much time thinking of/worrying about my sons' death, how can I stop thinking about these things 3. Can you be friends with people you are charged with leading 4. I am a terrible procrastinator, any advice or tips 5. What did you look for in a good BUD/s student and what makes a good Team guy Enjoy

Ladies and gentlemen, what's up? It's Friday. Let's get ready to get into this. But quickly, briefly, let's talk about the two sponsors that are making this episode possible. And they tie it together perfectly. This episode is brought to you by Christensen Arms. And let me just tell you, it's springtime here in Montana. So what I have been doing is getting my guns out, reconfirming dope, getting new dope, if need be,

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Let's stop it off. Silencer Co offers a lifetime repair or replace warranty on every suppressor that they make. If you're interested and you want to learn more, go to silencerco.com and check it out. That's it. Let's dive into this. Full Auto Friday, 54. Here we go. I'm looking at danger close now. Hello, everybody. It's Friday, which means Q&A. Let's dive in. I think I have five or six. A couple of them are relatively long, so who knows how far into them I will get. Let us begin. I've been a regular listener to your show for the last six months, and I've really enjoyed it. I travel for work, so we have covered a lot of miles together. This question is probably not one for Full Auto Friday.

Yes, it is, but that is up to you. I am a conservative libertarian, and my views have caused some struggle about what I was reared to believe in how I see things now. Both of my grandfathers were in the Navy. All of my uncles served in the military. My father was a drill sergeant in the army during Vietnam. One of my grandfathers fought in World War II. One uncle was in Korea, another in Vietnam, and multiple cousins served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a kid growing up, I always had aspirations to join the military, but I married young and had children, which took me another route.

Even now, as a 48-year-old man, I listen to the stories you and your guests tell, and I view you guys as heroes in the pinnacle of toughness. My personal conflict comes in that as an adult, who can now read a book on my own and not just watch Fox News and or bad war movies, I could not be more against war. I view war as a money machine that eats up lower to middle class kids seeking free education through the GI Bill or duped by some patriotic bill of goods sold to them by the propaganda system. I have a difficult time accepting the reasons given for all the wars we have fought. Was World War II really about stopping Hitler or a quick way out of the Depression? Was Vietnam about stopping communism or making Besshtel, I hope I said that right, and Halliburton and their share. holders richer. All of the Middle Eastern war involvement. Are those about stomping out terrorism or controlling the world's oil supply? I could go on and on about this for pages, but you get the

point. All of that said, here's my question. How do I balance my hatred for war with my appreciation and reverence for soldiers? I would really appreciate some of your thoughts on this. Thank you and keep the podcast rolling. Damn, heavy hitter starting question number one for this Friday. Where should I dig into this? I could not be more against war. Well, sir, guess what? Neither could I.

And it was the execution of my occupation conceptually and then practically, obviously the beginning of the career. and then to the end things shifted and changed post 9-11. But you might also be surprised the number of people who are in the military who are not there because they're passionate about war. I would actually say that the vast majority of people that I served with felt a calling to serve a purpose and cause greater than themselves. And by that I mean the protection of the things that we hold dear in this country and a service of the. their fellow citizens, not a passion for bloodshed and war. The biggest, perhaps, or not the biggest, but maybe the easiest way that I could answer your question, because it was broad and you brought up many examples, is to say, I don't think they are mutually exclusive. I think, you know,

when you ask the questions about, let's go to the wars, was World War II really about stopping Hitler or a quick way out of the Depression. I think the answer is probably both. And there are probably or were probably people on both sides of that or both extremes of that working towards their own desired end state. Probably the same with Vietnam. Was it about stopping communism or increasing shareholder riches in those that support the military industrial complex? I think the answer probably is somewhere in between the two. The Middle Eastern Wars, I also think that it falls somewhere in between. So I don't think it's as black and white as your email states it, even though I don't think you are trying to say that it is purely black and white. But in my own

experience, if there is an option A and an option B, and those are the only two concrete options that I have been presented, it's almost always a capital A, lowercase B, or a capital B with a lowercase A, meaning somewhere in between. I think the wars that we have fought and the ones that we will continue to fight will always have an essence of what America stands for in the beacon that we are trying to be. And I would never sit here and try to tell you that the military industrial complex also doesn't exist to enrich people because it absolutely does. And do they manipulate that system? Yeah, I think oftentimes they do. I'm not an expert in military spending by any stretch, but in my limited knowledge and experience in what I have seen, is there excess, is their slop, is there corruption? Oh, yes, there absolutely is. Are there people and organizations that want to take advantage of that and fleece the American taxpayer? Yes, they are. Does that take away from or decrease the legitimacy of the mission and what it is we are trying to accomplish as a country? I don't think that it does. I just think it highlights how much of a piece of shit,

those other people actually are. Let's talk about the soldiers here for a second, because you mentioned something earlier on. I could not be more against war. I view war as a money machine that eats up lower to middle class kids seeking free education through the GI Bill, or due by some patriotic bill of goods. So I'm going to stop you on that one when it says kids seeking free education through the GI Bill. If you enlist in the military and you don't realize that there is a chance that you could be called,

to war somewhere in the world, you are not making an informed decision. Any military service is a profession of arms. And if you're not looking at that and realizing that before going in, you're going in very blind. I can only talk to the time period that I served. I would say post-Vietnam pre-9-11, there were some people, and I can't quantify this, but I know because I encountered some of them who were joining the military. purely for the educational benefits. Post 9-11, I think it's very difficult to say that people are doing that or that they are being duped into doing that because of how in your face and public arm conflict has, I don't know if arm conflict has become more prevalent, but the reporting on it and your access to being able to see it firsthand nearly in real time certainly has. it'd be really hard to be duped into joining the military when that is constantly and consistently being thrown in your face.

So it's an educated decision at this point. And are they seeking free education through the GI Bill? Perhaps, like I said, I think it's unlikely because in the modern era, there's a lot of other fine print, metaphorical fine print that you would have to get past to only look at the military when it comes to education. benefits alone. Now, having said that, the educational benefits for the military are great. The GI Bill is great. And if people are looking at the military for only the educational aspect, I actually wouldn't turn them away from that. What I would say is you need to go in both eyes open. And if you're not comfortable being called to act in a profession of arms, you need to look for an alternate profession that doesn't have that potential outcome for you. Duped by some

Patriotic Bill of Goods? I don't know. I can't speak for people, but my desire to join the military, I'll talk about myself. It wasn't about patriotism, I don't think. I think it had something to do with the allure of the special operations community, the difficulty, the level of camaraderie, and the potential, you know, I mean, honestly, what it sounded like, well, and it looked like too. If you watch Charlie Sheen's movie Navy Seals, it looked like a pretty badass occupation. For me, I mean, I would consider myself to be a patriotic person, but my decision to join the military, I'm sure if you listed 10, I was about to say five, but I don't think patriotism would be in that five. It would be in my top 10. But the propaganda system, you know, I, you want to talk about actual propaganda? Well, I was going to give you a bad example. I was going to say at my age, when I joined the military, I got more of my propaganda from my peers and the bullshit that they were talking about than any other. other, you know, propaganda system or machine that was blasting things at me over social media or things that I would see or elsewhere. I trusted my friends and those in my social circle much more than I trusted anything external. And actually talking to my two oldest sons recently about that, you know, the social circle that they exist with now is still far, far more powerful than I think the external information that they get. But going backwards here, step,

I don't think that there is a propaganda system that is fooling people into going into the military. Do you see some cool commercials for the Army? Like I just saw their new one. It was pretty cool. Some commercials for the Navy. They're just basically terrible. I don't even know if they can. They might actually be turning people away from the Navy by how bad their commercials are.

But I don't think they're getting duped. Are they talking 100% honestly about what life is going to be like in the military? No. is your recruiter going to tell you 100% honestly what life is going to be like and what you should expect? No. But at the same time, that's, you know, the recruiter's job is to put asses in seats and commercials of any kind. What are they trying to do? Are they trying to get you to sit on your ass? Are they trying to get you to take action? The answer is, of course, the latter. So they're trying to get you to join the military. But I don't see it as a huge propaganda system. I see what they're talking about is pretty close to the reality of the modern day military. So all of that, I don't think I answered any of your questions. So I'm going to dive in now. And how do I balance my hatred for war and my appreciation and reverence for soldiers? You know, why do they have to be mutually exclusive?

They don't have to be at odds with themselves. I hate war, but I have nothing but appreciation for those who volunteer to wear a uniform and put themselves voluntarily in a place that could potentially take their life for my benefit and the benefit of those that I care about. You know, you don't have to go and buy war bonds. I don't wonder if they even sell those. Somebody actually hit me up and let me know if they still sell war bonds. Not that I've actually seen one in my lifetime, but I've certainly seen them in Captain

America. Okay, he was off selling war bonds. And in this metaphor or analogy, or the fairy tale in my head right now, you don't have to go, you don't have to go and support any of those things. You don't have to go to a rally that is. not in line with your beliefs. You can completely isolate how you feel about those who wear a uniform with the policy of the United States of America. Because the individuals who are wearing the uniform, at least on a boots on the ground level, let me tell you right now, most of them,

if not all of them, have absolutely nothing to do with policy. They're there for their own personal reasons. Maybe you mentioned in the email educational or maybe they have a sense to serve or a greater purpose or a calling to serve beyond themselves. Who knows why they're there? They're not necessarily dictating policy. And I think it's very easy to have a love and appreciation for people who are willing to do that and a distaste and a dislike for the current policies that are in place from politicians and the government. I'm not a huge, well, Damn, I just knocked the microphone right into my face almost. I'm not a huge fan, and I'm going to caveat that with I'm not an expert on our foreign policy.

And I'm getting ready to record a podcast, hopefully in the near future, was somebody who spent time at tables like the one that I'm sitting at very high in the government talking about policy decisions. And I'm fascinated with whether or not the human cost and the human toll was even, discussed in those decision meetings. I don't think that they are. I think that they should be. I'm not a huge fan of the policy that we have, which seems to be occupy until we have to tuck our tail in, I'm not going to say run, but perhaps leave under the circumstances. Afghanistan being an example, although I think what we are doing there holding terrain is probably not the best approach. I wish we would as much effort into rebuilding as we do occupying.

And in saying all of that, I feel like I rambled through this question here a little bit. It happens from time to time people. Separate the two. Keep your personal opinion on war. I share that opinion with you. And some of my best friends and those that I appreciate the most are the ones who are dedicated,

not necessarily to fighting war, but doing so in case their country calls them to. And they also likely are not a fan of the theory or the execution of. Keep them separate and try not to confuse one for the other. I think this is a little bit of oil and water scenario. If you really shake it up, it can be confusing. But if you let it settle, you can see that there is a very distinct separation between the two.

Moving on. Question number two. Subject line with scary thoughts, so you know I'm going to read it. Last week on Full Out of Friday, you mentioned that you rarely think about your own death, but often think about the death of your kids. I find myself going into dark and scary thoughts thinking of something happening to my son, who just turned two. I know it is a necessary and natural thought process, but I feel like it's often excessive

and unnecessary to be having these thoughts. I will visualize his death, and it rips my soul to shreds. Your thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated. I don't know if I said that I rarely think about my own death, but I often think about the death of my kids. I do not think about my own death often. I think what I said was I worry about something happening with my kids and I'm not going to be able to be there to help them. Not necessarily that they are going to die, which would of course be a worst case scenario in my mind.

But I don't actually spend a lot of time thinking about their death. I worry more about potential situations that they could get into where they would be unprepared or need help and I wouldn't be able to provide it. but that ties into my answer a little bit. First, I think it's very natural. I don't know how many kids you have. I know you had A-son who just turned two, but I don't know if it's your first. If it is your first,

I wouldn't worry too much that you're having these thoughts because I think biologically it's ingrained to us as human beings and parents to have this insane level of worry about our children. If you're spending excessive and unnecessary time having these thoughts, my first recommendation would be go talk to a professional because I am not a professional, but they will probably be able to give you or provide for you a framework that could maybe hijack your thought process and get you back towards something more positive.

Now, having these thoughts, though, at least in my unprofessional opinion, there can be a benefit from it. And the benefit from it is if you're worried about your son and things happening to your son, take a little bit of time to analyze what it is that you are worried about. So for me, a good example would be my kids get into a car wreck and either they are hurt, their siblings are hurt, and it's going to take a while for medical professionals to arrive. That is something that I worry about, but it's also something that I can take action on now to either prepare them or prepare myself. And that is what I would recommend that you do. Right now your son is two.

So he's not going to be able to prepare himself for anything other than not shitting in his own pants, which will be a great day for you. Let me just tell you as somebody who's been through that a few times. Your son can't do much right now. But if you have concerns, maybe they're medically based where you come into your son's room and he's not breathing or fill in the blank any other type of medical scenario. You can educate yourself, train yourself, and potentially source some things, resources of medical kit that would be put you in a better place to help deal with that. And I don't know what's going on in your head and what exactly it is that you're thinking about. But I will tell you this, as your son gets older, it's likely that the things that you are worrying about are going

to change. I don't worry about my kids any less right now. I have an almost 18 year old, an almost 16 year old, and an almost 13 year old. The only thing that has changed is the complexity of my worry. I wish I could go back to when I only had to worry about whether or not they left a surprise for me in their pants. Because that is far less of a worry for me than they're out with their friends and have experimented a little bit too much with drugs and alcohol and decide to get behind the wheel of a car and they start making cascading bad decisions and I'm getting phone calls from the police. I wasn't having those types of concerns when they were two. I have them now because of the age that they are and I remember who I was at that age. So to circle back, take some time to think about what it is that is worrying you. And by that I mean the scenarios themselves.

And then take that worry and flip it on its head to motivation or a fire inside of you so you can educate and train yourself to be more prepared. As your children get older, you'll have the same opportunity to educate and prepare them. Please don't start at like five years old and turn your kid into your children. you know, Survivor Man at the age of five. All right. So keep it in check.

Keep it age appropriate. You don't need to create a feral child that can run out into the woods and live off of, you know, peat moss for three days, which I'm not recommending anybody do. I don't even know if that's possible. But I think you get the point. The fear is a great thing.

It's letting you know, hey, this is what I'm worried about. Identify any deficiencies that you may have as a parent. Do you know how to stop bleeding? Do you know how to use a first aid kit? Do you have, you know, stranded, being stranded or isolated in a vehicle? Do you have the tools necessary to survive in those environments? Do you have the education necessary to use those tools properly?

So you're not only surviving, but you can thrive in that type of environment. So use these fears to identify deficiencies and then start plug on the holes in the dam. Do the same thing with your kids as they get older. Because the reality is they're going to spend more of their life without you than they are with you. Do everything you can to get them as capable as possible before they open that door and walk through it on their own. Question number three. I work in corporate America and I was promoted to a manager role around a year ago. I have a team of six direct reports that I'm relatively close to in age.

And at times I feel like I struggle to find a balance between being friendly, building relationships, etc., and actually establishing authority. What are your thoughts on the idea that you can't be friends with people you're charged with leading? any truth to this? What would your advice be for leaders aiming to balance authority with approachability? What is my advice to leaders aiming to balance authority with approachability? Again, do they have to be mutually exclusive? Can you have authority and maintain a position of authority at all times, but also be approachable? I'm going to have to say yes to that because those are the leaders that I grew up with working for and with. In the phrasing of your email, I have a concern

that potentially things might have already gone a little bit too far because they can go too far. As a leader, you can get too close to your subordinates. But I do believe that you can be friends with the people that you're charged with leading. I think that it is a leadership style, for sure to isolate yourself from those that you are leading. But I also believe at a very deep level, relationship building and connecting with the people that work for you and with you is also critical to your role as a leader and to the success of your team. So I don't agree with, well, I'm not going to say that I don't agree with it. I'm going to say that that's a choice that you could make. I don't think it is as successful as finding a balance, which is of course,

what you're asking about between your leadership position and those that you are charged with leading. To go back to my concern here, I struggle to find a balance between being friendly, building relationships, et cetera, and actually establishing authority. It concerns me in the way that you phrase this email, and hopefully that I'm wrong, that you feel like authority is something that has to be established on occasion. Because if you were promoted to a manager role around a year ago, I'm going to phrase that as a position that has authority that comes with it. The chain of command, the corporate ladder, call it what you will if, you know, I'll go in the military.

If somebody who is, I was a platoon commander, the troop commander above me, by being in that position of, he had a higher rank than I did and a higher position in the military rank structure, it comes with. authority. He didn't need to establish authority. It was inherent in the role itself. And that's why I said I was concerned that maybe things have already gone too far for you because if you've been in this role for a year and you feel like you are having difficulty establishing authority, something has gone amiss because you've been a manager for these six direct reports right now. They should intuitively view you from at least a business perspective or in that managerial role from a position of authority. Finding the balance can be difficult. In the seal community, one piece of criticism that I heard often was the apparently or outward to people who weren't inside of the seal community.

it was very bizarre to them to hear officers and enlisted personnel on a first name basis. In the conventional military, I have never encountered a working environment where that is the case. It's yes, sir, no, sir, lieutenant this, commander that, fill in the blank, petty officer this, senior chief petty officer that, master chief petty officer that. And before I go any further, I completely and utterly support that because it's a part of good order and discipline. People would mistake the first name basis that we would often operate under, especially if we were just by ourselves. They would confuse that for a lack of discipline or a lack of leadership or a lack of authority. And it was absolutely not the case. For myself, when I was in a leadership position, if I was working with my peers, whether they be enlisted or officer and we're in closed quarters, I don't mind at all if we are on a first name basis.

Now, at any time during that, just because we are on a first name basis, rank is never forgotten, position is never forgotten, respect is never forgotten. Are there disagreements? For sure, but we still remember the rank structure that we are in. Why? Because we are actually incredibly disciplined. And it can turn on and off on a dime. Anytime that we would have people from outside of the seal community come in, it would be go right back to addressing people by their rank. Yes, sir. No, sir. Very easy to turn that switch on and off. We worked in a very small unit that was very close-knit, oftentimes with extended period of time alone and isolated, disaggregate from the rest of the people that you were working with. And quite frankly, it's easier to communicate on that first name basis. The best thing that you can do, the best advice that I can give you is you need to act as if at all times. And by that, by that I mean, act as if you are a leader and a manager, two very different things, by the way, at all times. Your subordinates,

let's say they have a little bit more of a laissez-faire attitude when it comes to their vocabulary at work in the way that they discuss things in between the team. Don't engage in that. Maintain your professionalism at all times. Also, if you're a lot of, If you see their behavior, getting a little bit out of control, address it immediately. So have that separation. You can have people be a little bit more lax, especially if they are working in that controlled and isolated environment, right? If you notice that laxity shifting a little bit when other outside entities are engaging, address it immediately, right? Establish that discipline and make sure that it is held first and foremost by your own example.

I would go out often with my senior leaders. And I'm glad that they would join us for social events, but they would have hard in times and they would have hard out times. Meaning they would probably be there early on and they would not be the last person there, you know, getting picked up off of the bar floor hammered. Have I seen that happen? Yes. Do human beings make mistakes? Yes. But if you really want to maintain that line between your position of authority and your approachability,

go there and socialize with your subordinates, but do not drink to excess. Do not allow yourself to get out of control. Leave before the evening is going to get out of control. Not that it necessarily would, but let's say you're going to go to a social agamate. You're going to go to a restaurant and have dinner and drinks afterwards. Have dinner, have a drink, and then leave.

Engage with your people, be approachable, and then leave. If the behavior is going to continue with your subordinates and you want to have a distinct line between who you are and what position you hold and your subordinates, don't engage in that behavior for as long as they are going to or to the degree that they are going to. And these are all very subtle things that you can do without being an asshole. You can be at the table. You can have conversations. And it will allow you to, with cotton gloves, if you will, maintain and massage that balance. They will appreciate that you are there and quite frankly when my bosses were around I appreciated when they left it was cool to see

that they were there and that they cared and I could talk to them a little bit as at a social level but it was great to see them leave because you know what you don't always want your boss to be around so make sure that you were setting the example with your behavior with your speech with your actions and your conduct make sure that your people understand the line between personal and professional and maybe you need to sit them down and readdress your role when it comes to the team. Because again, actually establishing authority, I'm concerned that you're worried about that one year in. But hopefully that rest of that feedback and advice will help you. It's totally possible to be friends with the people that you're charged with leading.

I actually think you'll be a more successful leader if you can connect with your people on a deeper level. Does that need to be managed and balanced? Yes, it does. probably differently for each individual person. Next question. I love your podcast. I had this big, big problem with procrastination. I always get the chance to study for tests at least two to three weeks prior to writing them.

But I always end up starting to study literally the evening before the test. The thing that I hate the most about this is that I don't learn from my mistakes and keep procrastinating, even though I should know better after getting mediocre results in every test. How do I overcome this? Greetings from Germany. Well, I had, actually I've been forwarded in an article before that really talked about procrastination. I was going to look it up, but then I did because I had other stuff come up. Because you see, it happens to all of us.

Actually, I'm just joking. I never got an article about procrastination. I just thought I would say it happens to us all because it certainly does. My suspicion is that this procrastination is manifesting itself in things outside of. your tests that you're talking about. You've already identified that you should know better and that you're getting mediocre results. The easiest way that I think to overcome things like this and by things like this, I mean ingrained behaviors. This is like a habitual behavior for you. And I've had some habitual behaviors, biting my fingernails when I was younger. You'd think it'd be like,

hey, I'm just going to stop. Not the easiest thing to actually do. Or we'll be another behavior that I struggle with when I was younger. I don't know, but I do know for a fact that I was a complete fuck show when I was younger and probably arguably still to this day. So I struggle with this as well. My advice would be start with something small. Like I said, I think this probably manifests itself in other places. I bet if I was to come over to your house, you may have dishes everywhere in your kitchen. You might have laundry everywhere in your room and in your laundry room. Your house might be a complete and other dumpster fire for a variety of reasons. I would suspect when you get out of bed that you don't make your bed in the morning, which, again, the famous commencement speech where it's

talked about, you know, the importance of making your bed, which is really more a conversation about doing something disciplined early in your day to set the momentum in your favor, because you can build on that momentum, which is exactly where I'm going with my answer. I obviously don't want you to fail out of school because you're in school for something. But I would say, start small. If you have dishes all over your house, maybe start with at every meal, you do a portion of the dishes before you leave the house. Or let's go in front. Let's go back, way way back machine. You just get out of bed. Make your fucking bed. Do something that is disciplined early on that's going to set you in the right direction. You're not going to want to make your bed when you wake up.

I don't want to make my bed when I wake up at the morning. But I do every day. I actually make the bed. not because I want to do something disciplined, but because I'm usually tired at night, and I don't feel like undoing the rat's nest of sheets and pillows in the blanket. I love being able to just flip back the covers and hop in. What time do I have in the day to do that? The morning, and it makes the rest of my day better. Go have your breakfast.

Put one of the dishes in the dishwasher, and what you're going to build towards, after you finish the meal, you're actually going to do the complete dishes and put them away. your laundry instead of allowing it to pile six feet high or be a trail from your bedroom to your bathroom through the hallway of clothes strewn everywhere when you take off or when you get a full hamper of laundry do the laundry when the hamper's not even full you know one of the things that all do is I will leave the washing machine door open and as I take clothing off in the bathroom at the end of the day to go take a shower I will literally just throw it white and

to the washer. Small steps that can have a huge difference. When it's full, I put the detergent in there, hit the button, and boom, I'm off and running. And the next thing you know, I'm got can close. Now one thing I do struggle with, this is one, here's a behavior that that has got me for a lot of my life. When it gets out of the laundry, my favorite way to store it is in exactly the same condition that I do when it's in the laundry, in the dryer, all like balled up. So I'll put it into another hamper and then I set the hamper next to the bed. and then I can't figure out where things are. It's because they're all balled up in a hamper.

So what did I do to overcome this? Well, how did I change this behavior? I stopped trying to leave the laundry room until everything is folded. So I will take things out of the dryer, individually fold them, put them in the hamper, and then take them into my room. Another issue I struggle with is then actually putting them away. That's what I'm working on right now. It still beats my ass from time to time.

But I put these little small steps in place to set me up for success. Now, none of these have anything to do with studying for your test, but I'm getting to that. you always end up starting literally the evening before the test. Okay. What you need to do is actually hold yourself accountable, which is actually what you were doing with all the other recommendations that I had for you. Start studying a day before the test, right? I'm not saying you need to put a three-week study hall protocol into effect

because I don't think you're going to do it right now. But maybe give yourself 24 hours. Write down on a calendar. Hold yourself accountable. Put it into your phone, whatever it may be. Start studying for the test. And let's start with one day before, which is probably going to double the amount of study time you have.

The easy part is putting the alert in your calendar. The hard part is actually doing it. But that's what you need to do. And then you're probably going to notice some positive results. Move that to 48 hours, to 72 hours to 96 hours, until you start seeing the benefit of what it is that you're doing. I'm not going to recommend that you make some catastrophic change in your life. Just like everything else that I mentioned, it's microscopic,

but you can build off of the, momentum once you see the benefits of that discipline because that's actually what you're missing right now discipline it's not easy to be a disciplined person but jocco says it best the you know discipline equals freedom and you can talk about that from a financial perspective from a studying perspective whatever it is that you want to apply that to if you take the time you put in the effort and are disciplined in doing so even when you don't want to that's how that you get the result that you want. So I gave you some tips on things that you could do to make a difference. What you actually need to do is look in the mirror and hold yourself accountable.

And nobody's going to be able to do that for you. But I hope that the tips help. Last question, I'll get you guys off to the weekend. I recently joined the Navy to become a seal. Today I earned my S.O, which stands for a special operator, contract for my scores on the PST, physical screening test. I heard on the podcast you used to be an instructor at Buds. I was wondering, what you look for in a student and what would make them an asset to the teams. Thanks for making the podcast. I'm always excited to listen to it. This is a great question. I get this different shades of this, like how can I be successful in the next career that I go to? I'm getting ready to change careers. I'm getting ready

to step into a new role. What can I do to be successful? I think the biggest piece of advice that I could give somebody, and I say this from a Bud's instructor talking to potential Buds students, is be teachable. Be teachable. put your internal bias aside and do exactly what it is that you are told to do. I look back at the evolutions in buds. Everything that we did in buds was sequential in nature. Before we paddled the boats in the ocean, we learned about the boats. We did a little bit of a paddle, and then a little bit of longer paddle.

Then we learned how to flip the boats to get the water out of the boats in case the capsized, and we got back in. And it was step by step by step by step. The key to success in that, be teachable, do exactly what we told you to do. I taught the diving test. The diving test was at the very end of an arduous week of pre-tests, where we would take the totality of what we expected from a student and break it down into digestible chunks. How did students pass by doing exactly what we told them to do, utilizing the structure that we provided for them if they did that. And they had the ability to manage stress. the ability for the instructor to do anything other than sit there and observe and grade their passing performance really limited.

That's basically what we would do. If I had a student who followed the criteria, who followed directions, who followed procedure, regardless of whether or not I was applying stress, then they were successful. And that is actually what makes a good team guy. There's a lot of things that make a good team guy. But I would say because of the fact it's a jack of all trades, master of none occupation, and your career is going to be broken up into chunks of jumping and then diving and then shooting and then demo and then diving again and then over the beach and then marops and then skydiving and then you're going to go to the jungle then cold weather you're not going to have two years where you focus on just one thing and all of those blocks of instruction that I just talked about those are not individual level training that's like like a unit level training where you're going to go with a bunch of people you're going to layer individual training on top of that or I should say that unit level training is going to be layered on top of your individual training, a never-ending profession of learning. Be teachable. Ask questions if you have them. But the biggest thing I can recommend is leave your personal bias to the side.

Don't argue with instructors. If you want to, if you have a question about something that an instructor is telling you, that's okay. Don't challenge the instructor in the middle of the block of instruction. Do what the instructor is asking you to do and then find time later on. to ask your amplifying questions, to question perhaps the methodology or ask my favorite question of all. Why? Why do we do it like this? Why do we do it like that? Why do we use this piece of gear? Those are questions that are going to net you a deeper level of understanding and knowledge, which also makes you a better team guy. Again, using this as an example, but I think you could apply that to any occupation across the board. Be teachable. Be humble.

own and accept your mistakes and care about the people that are around you. Those are the things that I think make people an asset to the teams with a capital team, meaning the SEAL teams, but to any team on Earth, regardless of what it is that you do. And that's all I have for Friday. I think that's a good ending point. See you guys Monday. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you. Thanks for taking the time to tune in, whether you're listening on an audio only.

platform or you're watching on YouTube, I appreciate that you take the time every week to tune in. People ask me a lot, what can they do to help me spread the word? And the answer is actually embedded in the question. The biggest thing you guys can do to help me if you enjoy the podcast and you think it would be helpful to others is subscribe and share it with other people. And if you have the time, go on to Apple Podcasts and leave me a rating and a review. If you think the podcast sucks, Tell me it sucks and leave a zero star review or the lowest stars possible. If you have a question, comment or suggestion, you can go to clearedhotpodcast.com. And there is a contact me button right there, which will land in my inbox.

And the last thing, the people are interested in helping out what you can do is fly the old flag. And by that I don't mean an actual flag because I don't have any of those. I'm talking about t-shirts or sweatshirts or hats, whatever it may be. Again, clearedhotpodcast.com, click on the shop tab. And hopefully something in there looks like it would be an item you would like to wear around town. And then you could tell people what it is when they ask you. But that is it. The biggest thing I can say is thank you.

I truly appreciate it. Until next time. See you.