Jocko Podcast - 226: The Code. The Evaluation. The Protocols. THE PATH. With Dave Berke

Episode Date: April 22, 2020

0:00:00 - Opening 0:13:13 -  New Book: The Code. The Evaluation. The Protocols. 2:15:33 - Final thoughts and take-aways. 2:16:57 - How to stay on THE PATH. 2:34:16 - Closing Gratitude.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

This is Jocko podcast number 226 with Echo Charles and me Jocko Willink. Good evening, Echo. Good evening. And also joining us tonight is Dave Burke. Good evening, Dave. Good evening. All right. So almost a year ago, almost a year ago, I put out a podcast.

Podcast is number 174. And it was about the evaluation system that's used in the Marine Corps. I talked about the evaluation system that's used in the Navy. and you might want to go and listen to podcast 174 first before you continue listening to this podcast, but I wouldn't say it's mandatory. But in that podcast, I told a story and it was about a guy that worked for me and he came to me because he didn't have the highest grades on the evaluation, the Navy evaluation system. The grades go from one to five, five being the best, one being the work.

and you know he was like an average guy you know three point three or three point six something like that but he thought he should have been better and so he he came to me set up a meeting you know which was kind of weird because most people didn't set up meetings to see me they were just come and see me but he set up a meeting with the admin department to come see me and you know he thought he thought he should have been five oh a lot of stuff And so as I'm talking to him, I'm kind of thinking, how can I explain to this guy that he's not a FIvo? And so what I ended up doing was reading him some of the bullets that would, some of the bullet points that would make you a FIvo, how they describe a FIvo sailor.

Things like going to the document here, professional knowledge, recognized expert sought out by all for technical knowledge, uses knowledge to solve complex technical problems, meets PQS advancement requirements, It's early and with distinction. Think about that. Recognized expert sought out by all. That means no one is above you in terms of expertise in your field. And I'm looking at this guy who, like I said, was a strong average. And as I said that to him, he realized that wasn't him. And then it was like quality of work needs no supervision.

Always produces exceptional work. No rework required maximizes resources. Now, think about these terms, always and exceptional. There's not too many people that, that's what you need to be to be in a five-o category. Always produce exceptional work. That's not, hey, these four out of five projects were really good. We're exceptional, even. No, it's five for five.

You know who is doing this? You know who does five for five like that? Not this guy. Military bearing in character. What does it take to be a 5.0 in military bearing in character? It takes exemplary personal experience model of conduct on and off duty leader in physical readiness exemplifies Navy core values honor courage and commitment. Let's just face it when it comes to the word honor there's you're throwing that out there and you're saying hey I'm the maximum

grade in honor that's a bold statement and not too many people are running around making that statement. And then there's the leadership bullet. To be a 5.0 in leadership in the Navy, you have to, you have to achieve the following. Inspiring motivator and trainer, subordinates reach highest level of growth and development, superb organizer, great foresight, develops process improvements and efficiencies, leadership achievements dramatically further command mission and vision, perseveres through the toughest challenges and inspires others, exceptional communicator, makes subordinates safety conscious, maintains top safety record, constantly improves the personal and professional lives of others.

Come on. That's legit, right? And, you know, so after reading this guy all through this different criteria, he realized he wasn't a 5.0 sailor. And then on that podcast 174, I went deep into the Marine Corps evaluation. system, which is a superior document. It's a superior document. And I was looking at them today. You know, the Navy one is front and back.

It's two pages. It's front and back. The Marine Corps one is six pages. So three pages front and back. More comprehensive. And what it does, it does a similar thing, which is set like the ultimate standard for what the highest level qualified Marine would be. And they have this Christmas tree thing that I talked about on podcast 174, and it's at the highest level, there's one that would be like the star on the Christmas tree.

And then as you get into the middle of the categories, there's more Marines because there's more Marines that are, you know, high average and there's even more that are just average Marines. But then the funny thing is the bottom of the Christmas tree, it's not a bell curve. It's not like even on both ends. at the, like the lowest ranking Marine or the lowest ranked Marine, there's just one of them. Like, loser Marines is a very small category. But what they describe that one person,

that one Marine at the top, they describe that Marine as the eminently qualified Marine. Very powerful document. And it does, like, sets out, In no uncertain terms, the qualities and behaviors that a Marine has to exemplify in order to be a eminently qualified Marine. And, you know, I actually, I think I originally called you, Dave, to say, did I talk to you about this in Ramadi? And it ended up not being you. You're like, no, I never talked to you about that.

Because I was in the brigade tactical operation center, and I was in there for whatever. And I was, you know, talking to, it must have been, it was obviously, it was another Marine who was sitting there writing, writing EV. for someone it's probably my boss yeah and he was sitting there doing whatever and I started I just picked up the document we were talking about whatever and I just immediately I'd never looked at one before and as soon as I saw the eminently qualified brain I'm putting this together you can see the wheels are spinning in my I'm like this is legit and I talked to you about it and the fact of the matter is that in order to become something well then you have to have clear guidance on

what you need to do to become that thing And so that's what we covered on that podcast. And I closed out by talking about the fact that we as people, as human beings, don't really have any documentation like that. It doesn't really exist. And that was a big thing that I learned as a young seal was the first time that somebody sat me down and read those descriptions to me, I said, yeah, you know what? I got some room to grow.

But it wasn't until I saw what the highest level qualification was that I realized I had room to go because, you know, you're 22 years old. and you think you're awesome until you see what awesome actually is like. So before I even recorded that podcast, when I talked to you, Dave, and I was like, hey, was this you? And you're like, I don't think so.

And I said, well, we're probably going to have to do something with us because this is going to leave a mark on people. And it did. And it did. And it's, I've been got more, all incredible amount of feedback. on that podcast people have done podcasts about that podcast and I told you that we were

gonna have to do something to to assemble some kind of document where people could grade themselves to try and become an eminently qualified human being and that was over that was almost a year ago we have been eminent failures at getting it done but the weight is over and And it is now available on Amazon. It is called the code, the evaluation, and the protocols, which is, and look, I was going to say it's a weird name for a book, but it's actually, it's maybe not fully classified as a book. Maybe it's a handbook, because it's not super long. It's not some grand articulation.

But I did add. We had to start with the code, the evaluations, and then added the protocols in. that allow someone to try and realize what it is like to create a vision of what it of the human that you want to be and on the first podcast I only talked about evaluations but then as we put this together I started thinking to myself that in order to follow evaluations you need objectives to achieve you need some kind of rules you need some kind of some kind of code and you know part of this is from the fact that I wrote Way of the Warrior Kid and then the Warrior Kid,

I got all kinds of feedback about the Warrior Kid Code, including that one guy that wrote the, one of the few things I've read on the podcast, which was, remember the guy that wrote, hey, I've lost this much weight and I've got a promotion, and he turned his life around. And then at the end, he said, and the book I read was Way of the Warrior Kid.

So, look, and I explain this in Way of the Warrior Kid, that Warrior cultures have code. that they try and live by and I did the codes from the Rangers and the Marine Corps and the SEAL teams and the code of Boshito and the code of Chevalry and there's a reason that those codes existed and and the code that I wrote in there for the way the warrior kid is a kid's code but the book encourages kids to make their own code and this book does the same thing but you know this gives you a place to start so um we came up with the general categories to evaluate you Your progress towards this code and then the last part is about the protocols and Again, this was just another thing that kind of came out of the podcast of me talking about protocols

And I think the first time I talked about we need a protocol People need a protocol was you break up with your girlfriend and I went on this thing and I said here's the protocol You order a pizza you get extra cheese and sausage you you know you you take two days of being miserable you complain about it to your friends and then you get up you work out you move on you know like here's the protocol that you follow and a bunch of people were saying yes we need a protocol and I've also talked about the protocols the fact that in America since we have so many different cultures all mixed together we don't really have a good protocol anymore for death and so when someone dies you know in some places in the world I always

think of Ireland that you know they have a protocol like you're gonna the you're gonna go to this pub you're gonna go to this pub you're gonna go to this wake you're going to perform this religious service you're going to do this that they go through that protocol and then they move on and different religions have that but in america since we have all this everyone kind of consolidated together we lost some of that so there's some sometimes people don't know what the protocol is when someone dies so there's another situation where something happens and it would be really good if you could follow a protocol so we added some protocols to get people through certain scenarios in life and Dave and then Sarah Armstrong as well who is a friend of

mine, a very successful business woman, very successful business leader and a in a long time just old school OG trooper straight up. And y'all help me put this together and we ended up with this book. So what did I miss Dave? No, that's it man. I mean when we first did the podcast, I think we had the sense that we were just kind of kind of replicate that. And as we started to really dig into what this looked like, we realized we need to have something else in there. That's where the protocols really came from,

is this sort of tells you what you can be, but we realized there's a whole bunch of things you have to do. And it was pretty cool. Look, there's no way it should have taken me this long. But we did figure out along the way there was more needed to go into that. We needed to write a code, and we needed to figure out what some of those protocols are to help people understand the things they needed to do. So here we are 11 months later. Yeah, I guess we've been busy and instead of prioritizing and executing properly, we failed. So anyways, here we go. The book.

Let's go to the book. The book is called the code, the evaluation, the protocols, striving to become an eminently qualified human. So the book is out on a publishing company called Jocko Publishing. And what's cool about that is, look, we turned to. if this was a normal publishing route to the year it took us to get it done, added another year. So the other thing that's cool about it is when you open the front cover, it says first a dish. Literally it says first a dish. See?

See, yeah, Coach? Yes, sir. So we got first a dish and let's roll into it. It starts off the first section is called the code. And the whole book is less than 100 pages and not a ton of writing. Not needed. The code. Here we go.

Without an objective, the objective will not be reached. Without a goal, the goal will not be achieved. Without a standard, the standard will not be met. Without a mission, the mission cannot be accomplished. Without an ideal, the ideal will never be realized. Without a clear path, the path cannot be followed. Now, that's pretty simple and straightforward. But how many people do you know that are going through life without an objective, without a goal,

without a standard, without a mission, without an ideal, without a path? Right, they're everywhere. They're everywhere. So continuing, yet we as human beings often go through life without any of these. And so we wander. We wander aimlessly without making, moving without making any progress. Days, months, and years pass us by. Time is wasted, which means life is wasted.

You don't think about that, do you? That when you waste time, you're wasting life. And when was it I was talking about the fact that I don't know when I was talking about this. Maybe it was on the podcast. Maybe it was to a client. But if you take all this time that you wasted and you were able to physically pile it up

and see it and how you'd feel sick to your stomach after two or three years to see just this pile of wasted time. So when we waste time, life is wasted. and potential is wasted, our own potential squandered. Meandering through life instead of becoming who we could be, instead of attaining our highest possible manifestation of being,

we simply become whatever we become. We fall short. In so many ways, we fall short. Well, that's what happens. That's what happens. It happens to all kinds of people. happens to me where I fail to do what I should be able to do. You know what I was thinking about this the other day?

If you got something in your head, if you've got some idea in your head, some thought, some dream, some something that you want to create and you don't execute on that, that is a mortal sin. Think about that. you got something in your head you got some idea you got

you got this thought that wants to come out but you don't have the discipline to get it out and you let this thing die inside your head that is that is a mortal sin that's my opinion you got to get it out that's it there

that that's what I think about though just the saying when we wrote this is you simply become whatever we become is such a failure to think that if we don't do that thing you just described we just become well I don't know what we become we become whatever and I think part of the reason I got I think I got more feedback on 174 that podcast and more people reaching out asking about it than any other podcast we did because this that struck a court with people that and you weren't even on it you had mentioned the Marine Corps and how does the Marine Corps do this and people were asking me

And I think very shortly after you mentioned, we were going to do something, and write something about it. I think I mentioned it on the podcast. Yeah. People are asking, how do I download, you know, the Marine Corps? It was like Google Marine Corps performance evaluation.

But I was getting questions all the time about that podcast because people wanted to know how the Marine Corps did this and making the connection between that and themselves. Because I think this idea of, if you don't become what you're going to become, you're going to become whatever. And there actually is criteria out there, which was the crazy part,

as we put a little thought into this was how many people, how many times have I just done whatever I did, which sucks so bad to think about that. Yeah, and this book right here, this little 96 page or whatever it is book, right? To not put this out is wrong. Totally. It's wrong.

It's wrong. We had to put it out. And you know what? It's not easy. It's a pain. There's a bunch of iterations. You're sending me edits. It's, you know, it's all just a pain, right?

But if you let it sit there and just die, you're wrong. You're committing a sin. Yeah, and not just for yourself, but for your family, for the people around you, for God knows how many number of people that can actually benefit from that effort you put into creating something that won't just help you, but it could help everybody. Yeah. And you know what, I guess what must scare people is they might think, well, you know, what if I do this? Actually, this is probably more an excuse than anything else of, well, what if I do this and no one really likes it? And I've said that some people, some people say, I really want to start a podcast. And then they'll say something like, or I really want to write a book.

And they'll say, but you know, I'm really not sure if anyone would be interested in it or, you know, whatever. And I always say if you're writing it or you're recording it so that other people will listen to it, you're already starting off on the bad foot. Because if that's your, look, you need to write it for, or write it or record it or do whatever because it wants to come out because you need to get it out. out there and then the world can judge it however the world judges it which is fine and if you get told hey yeah you're the thing you wrote it was pretty dumb then you go okay lesson learned maybe that was a bad idea you know I know some of the ideas that you let out of your

head echo Charles to me sometimes sometimes they take some abuse yes sir they did well actually I mean in a way that's kind of what I was thinking when you're saying that I was like yeah it's a sin to come out but like bro what if it's like Because in my mind, it has like a non-rigid approval process. So, you know, it comes... Expand, which I don't ask you to do very often. And I may never ask you to do again. Like I said, non-rigid.

So, you know, you come up with an idea. You get reminded of something or inspired, whatever. And then you're like, oh, yeah, that'd be cool if I did this. And then it hits like the first small roadblock. And you're like, okay, that's not a good idea. Like kind of the realism of the world kind of introduces itself. And idea kind of fizzles. And then, but what if it passes that, you know, in your little mind or whatever, or in my case, my little mind?

And it comes and it actually like has like, you know, you get positive feedback. Like maybe you tell your wife about it. She's like, oh, that sounds like a really good work. Oh, no, not even. We're not even there yet. Oh, you're just there. I think that's like the third layer, whatever. The second layer is kind of like you kind of think of all the the criteria and all the elements of the world that need to fit in place for this to be a good idea.

It's like, oh, yeah, it's kind of clicking, you know? You can kind of see the success, you know, in the future kind of in your head. Then okay, that's another layer. Okay, it passes that. Most of the ideas, to be honest, don't even pass that. Yeah. So you're saying. Well, you tell me about this because you have a bank of ideas.

You know, videos that you started for the most part, right? Started this video. And then you say you have a bank of them. And some of them you go back to them and you say, you know, that was a pretty good idea. But it failed here. Or sometimes you say, I'm going to carry through with this idea. Yeah. And yeah, exactly.

Yeah. And there's a lot of those little criteria. Like now you could, I could look at them and be like, okay, that was a a good idea for that time, but if I finish this now, I won't land now. That'd be like, everyone would be like, oh, that's the kind of old school concept kind of thing. And yeah, it's a whole spectrum of things. There's probably more videos and stuff like that than in that bank. So I guess, I guess maybe you don't need, maybe if you don't produce, like you don't have to finish the thing, but you got to at least get it out there into the world. I don't know. I think

you kind of got to finish it. Well, I think you're correct at the end of the day. As long as it gets like through those, however many layers, I'm sure we all have different layers of approval in our own head. But then as long as it passes, kind of that one standard layer that it needs to pass, you know, you know the one where you're like, you know what? At the end of the day, you stop thinking about it. But before you stop thinking about it, you came to the decision, okay, that is, in fact, a good idea.

Maybe not a level five good idea, but even like a level three, a doable level three, you know, once it gets to that level and then you don't do it, then yes, I agree. 100% it's a sin interesting and then that's interesting how you're like um even if it ends up not being a good idea and it gets judgment by the world or whatever like the fact that it's out like that is the reason it's true it's that's true for everything that's true for your own face really like what like you got in the world everyone's going to look at what you got what you have to give to the world and they're going to evaluate it that's just the way it goes if people don't like your nose then they don't like your nose what should you not have been born

I don't think so. But nonetheless, yes. You're emphatically shaking your head over there, Dave. Wait, I think something you said earlier, it really doesn't have anything to do with whether or not you produce this for the world to consume it. If you got an idea in your head, there's something in there. And look, I know what it feels like to have ideas in your head. You have to get that thing out.

Yeah. Whether anybody else, your brain, your body actually needs that. That is like exercise. That is a thing that you need to do. and if you share it with somebody, that really has nothing to do with the part where you need to get that thing out of your head. You got to squeeze your brain

and get something out. And you know what? If it goes to somebody else, that's awesome. But that's like saying, hey, you know what, I don't need to work out today or I don't need to rest today

or I don't need to eat healthy today. If you got something in your head that's an idea, you have to exercise your brain to get that thing out. Where it goes next, you can talk about that all day. But, yeah, anytime you don't do it,

that and you said it might be an excuse they're all excuses yeah yeah you know you said squeezing your brain and and then echo repeated it because i've had separate conversations with both you guys about squeezing your brain because the the ideas they're in there but they sometimes you need to squeeze your brain to get them to come out you've got to put a little work in yeah sometimes you got to put a lot of work in yeah that's the counter to the common you know was an advocate of this by the way where if it's like hey if it's not coming to you then it's just not its time yeah you know you're just not ready for it quite yet you know kind of thing and and my solution to quote writers block yeah just keep writing just right right down

yep oh you can't figure out that idea cool write around it and you'll figure it out yeah yeah yeah tension there so we get to the code here's the code one I will take care of my physical health by exercising, eating properly and getting the rest I need to recover and rebuild. I will take care of my physical surroundings, keeping them in order. Does it strike anyone as strange to start with the physical? Oh, sir. I have a real easy answer for anyone that says, well, you know, your brain is paramount. If your body's not working, your brain isn't. So, Number one thing take care of your physical health two I will develop myself mentally by reading writing drawing building creating and engaging in other activities that sharpen and expand my mind three I will not waste time time is precious

Four I will not waste money and I will make prudent financial decisions money is hard to earn Five I will set goals that I will strive toward Six I will excel in my job because work is integral to life. Seven, I will be humble and not allow my ego to negatively impact my decisions. Eight, I will control my emotions and not allow my emotions to negatively impact my decisions. Nine, I will put others before myself.

I will help other people and protect those that cannot protect themselves. I will take care of my friends and family and treat other people with respect. 10, I will be ready to protect my friends and family. My gear will be ready. I will train and prepare to defend myself and others. That's the code. And I just kind of, well, I guess I kind of covered here. Look, then it says this, this code is not perfectly suited to everyone.

But it is not unalterable. You can modify it if needed. Customize it for you and your life. While it isn't perfect, it's a good place to start. And while we may never be able to live up to this code, we will be better for having tried. Now, I don't, I have a hard time conceiving of someone that would look at any of these things in the code and be like, yeah, I don't agree with that one. Is there anything that you can say, well, don't know about that. Yeah.

No. That doesn't mean it has to be exactly like this. And your code can be what you want it to be. But there's nothing in here you would look at and go, humility doesn't apply to me. Actually, if you're, if you look at this and you're thinking that, red flag. Red flag. We're actually, we started talking about this part of it. We're on a plane.

I think we're actually maybe headed to Australia. We're sitting together on a plane. We're talking about, hey, we need to write the code itself. You know, we're talking about the warrior kid code. And it came from this idea of what you were talking about before, which was if we don't, if we're not on the path, we just become whatever we've become. But that's not how it has to be. It doesn't, that is not your, you're not predestined to just become whatever.

You can actually control in a lot of ways what you become and what path you get on, but you need to, you need to know how to do that. You need a code to tell you how to do that. This is less about doing the specific thing that we're talking about and more about having a code that defines who you are. So you are on some path. Yeah. Because if you're not on some path and your path is different than your path and different

than my path, but if you're not on a path, you are destined to become whatever. Yeah. And that, that is not okay. Yeah, and from a decentralized command perspective, look, my troops in the field can make a decision on what they're going to do based on the overall commander's intent, but we go through life with not understanding our own commander's intent of our life. So if you take this and you need to make decisions about your life, this just gives you the broad framework to say, you know what? I'm not going to. Should I should I, should I, should I look at another Netflix show right now? or should I go and work?

Should I do something productive? Well, I will not waste time. Time is precious. Okay, I know what decision to make there. Hey, I want to buy this frivolous, you know, whatever new, what do you buy? Gold chain. New gold chain, right? Now, you could say, well, you know, I really want it and it looks really cool or whatever.

And then you say, you know what? I will not waste money and I will make prudent financial decisions. Yeah, I don't need the gold chain. Like there's a understanding your own commander's intent and and having that as a framework to make your decisions on allows you to make good decisions all the time. Should I have this donut? No, sir. Right. I mean, I'm going to take care of my physical health.

Should I drink this whiskey? Well, it's debatable, but yeah, man, I dig it. Wait, wait, wait. What was that answer? It's debatable. I'm just saying, is that kind of like, you know,

when you're flying a plane, like your instruments? You're avoiding the question. Echo Charles. What? Are we drinking whiskey? I want to see the connection between me flying an airplane

with my instruments and him drinking whiskey. I'd like to see where this goes. We'll see where this goes. You see what I'm saying. I was doing that thing. Oh, okay, whiskey, you know,

maybe if you're building cohesiveness within a team, sure, you know, it could apply. You see what I'm saying? Or let's say you're a right, which I'm not by the way so this hypothetical and you do it to facilitate your creative process I would question that yeah very sternly sure I would say that

that's not gonna help you I don't know and I'd say you might want to check your code wait who's the guy who's the writer he's like a prolific like super famous writer who just drink whiskey all the time or something or just having way yeah I think it was Hemingway I don't know someone talks about I don't think that's actually true I don't know. But I think the people are going to push back the hardest. He blew his brains out with a shotgun. Let's lay off the whiskey.

Everyone's path is different. The people are going to push back the hardest or the people that are drinking whiskey. The reality is, is there's actually a code that you can ask yourself, should I be doing this right now? Yeah, yeah. I dig it, man. That's the point. I understand. Going on.

Like I said, like I said in the book, while we may never live up to this code, we will be, better for having tried. We will get stronger, faster, smarter. We will build a better career. We will be better mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, daughters, and sons. We will be healthier. Our lives will be better and we will make the lives of those around us better. Pretty straightforward. Again, you can look at that code and say, well, you know, you should have said this or you should have said that. It's like, hmm, look at them. And if you feel like there's something that needs to be added, cool. Add to your code. If there's something that you just vehemently disagree with, cool. Subtract. But set yourself up.

Set yourself up with a commander's intent. Set yourself up with a code that you can follow that can guide your decision-making process. And by the way, when you set it up for yourself, why not share it with your family? So your family can kind of all be moving in the same direction. You and I have interacted with literally thousands

and thousands of people, just in the last year. Thousands of people have interacted. And not everyone is healthy. Not everyone's doing the right thing. Not everyone is on the path. But it's almost universal that people want to be, that they want to be. And this is what allows them to run.

Like, I can actually control that fate just a little bit more. And a thousand people, like, they all want their lives to be better. They all want their family's lives to be better. There's just this crazy idea that there was something that seemed as simple as that. What was missing was just the recognition of how to start to do that. It wasn't to try to convince people that they should. It was more to explain people how. they can and closing that gap between what they want and what they are was that there

was something in the middle was telling them how to do it or how to even think about how to do it you're talking about your own commander's intent that's a really powerful way to describe what you're doing is like what is your own commanders intent for yourself it was never a question do people want their lives almost everybody wants their lives to be better and healthier and the people around them better it was not having that understanding your own mind what you need to do for yourself to do that yeah and and you probably hear me talk about the German, you know, decentralized command general talking about decentralized command, talking about Americans briefs and how we have, you know, 120 slides in a

brief. And then the last slide is the commander's intent that says this is what I really want done. And the German general saying the commander's intent shouldn't be an addendum to all those different slides, it should replace them. And so anything you can say about, hey, you know, we could write a book about how to be healthy, right? Like here's what you need to do. Here's your workout. All those things.

You can write all that stuff down. But the most important thing is, hey, you need to make decisions that lean towards good health. That's, you can replace every exercise book and every self-help book with the underlying personal commander's intent of what you're trying to do and it'll solve many, many of your problems. Yeah, for sure. And that goes with financial, that goes with your work, all those things.

If you're going to work with the attitude of like, hey, I'm going to do a good job. Just think of that commander's intent. I'm going to do a good, I'm going to do a good job at my work. That's my goal. You know, I was talking about this on Jocko Live a lot. Not a lot, but I think one or two of the shows, this came up where I got to talking about when I got to the SEAL teams, one of the things that just changed my life and made everything go so well was this idea.

And the idea was, as a 19-year-old, I had this idea in my head. And the idea was, I want to be a good seal. Just I want to be a good seal. That's what I want to do. And then every decision that I'm making is, is this going to make me a good seal? And as soon as I had that as my underlying kind of decision-making process, I started moving in a direction. And so lucky.

It's very lucky for me because otherwise I got all this energy as a young kid. You know, I was a really horrible young kid and I was crazy and I'd gotten all kinds of trouble and caused all kinds of trouble. And the minute I took all that energy and turned it to one thing, I want to be a good good seal. And it took me some time to figure out what a good seal wasn't. I made some errors along the way for sure. But when I was trying to be a good seal and then all of a sudden I did something that was wrong and it was making me not a good seal, I could just correct it because I was like, this doesn't seem like this is being a good seal. So you apply that to all these different

elements of your life to your physical health, to your mental health, to not procrastinating, to be, you know, being a good worker, to taking care of your family, to being prepared. And we wrote this by the way way before you know COVID 19 right and now all of a sudden people go man I wish I was a little bit more prepared yes yes you should be prepared so to get better continuing along with the book and to do that we must strive we must strive to be better in the things that matter the code sets a standard the highest possible standard the highest possible standard reveals and delineates the path we must follow and then it gets into what is the path the path is how you become what you want to be

who you want to be and what the world needs you to be it is how you reach your potential it is the path of discipline that leads to freedom the path is a war against weakness so it leads to strength it's a war against ignorance so it leads to knowledge a war against confusion so it delivers understanding that is the path of life and i've gotten asked you because i always talk about the path we always talk about the path echo charles yes sir in fact we close many of the podcast we talk about hey how do we

stay on the path how do we get on the path yes and of course people sometimes ask what is that what is the path here you go that's what this section is for and some of those you know like it's direct quotes talking about the path but the path is your life

and it continues on the path is your life And so the path is different for everyone. It's your goals, your dreams, what you want to become. The path is yours. But at the same time, much of the path is the same for everyone. The path is how you strive to become an eminently qualified human. And then it gets into how do I find the path? What does that look like?

Because I'm sitting here saying, now the path is different for everyone. Finding the path isn't as hard as you think. Some of it is clearly defined in the code. The rest of the thing, the rest of the thing. the path comes from simple questions you can ask yourself what do you care about who do you want to be what matters most to you what are the most important things in your life who are the most important people in your life and what do they need from you answer those questions then write down what you need to do to achieve them those things that you need to do that you are supposed to do that you

know you must do those things are the path the path the path is in your head waiting for you to follow it. Once again, it's funny that when we talk about the path, even though people like, what's the path? Everyone kind of knows what it is. Like, you know how many people have come up to me? Like, oh, I've been on the path for like two years now.

We never define the path, but they know what the path is. I've been on the path for, I've been on the path. You know, when I used to meet people to come up to me and they'd say, hey, man, it's really good. to meet you, I'd be like, how long have you been on the path? This is something that had never been defined. Never said the path was this, this, this, and this. But they knew what the path was.

Yeah, it's in their head. They know. You were talking about, you said, if you don't do this, it's a mortal sin. He's the mortal sin. You said earlier, the path is what the world needs you to be. That's the moral sin by not being on the path, is that you are failing the world. The world needs you to be this.

That's the mortal. sin of not doing whatever this thing is you need to do, whatever that path is not being on the path is that's what the world needs you to be. I think that's legit. Next section, how do I stay on the path? Once you see the path, you must begin to walk down it. This can be the most difficult part of the journey to break free of the gravitational pull of weakness, habit, and fear. The gravitational pull of weakness, habit, and fear. Those are some strong gravitation. Pals. Yes.

The best way to start is to start. Don't hesitate, don't wait, don't analyze, or plan or research. Just start now. Once you begin down the path, you will soon realize it is not an easy path. The path is fraught with obstacles and distractions. Laziness, ego, weakness, and immediate gratification will try to pull you off the path every day. You must fight them. You will even have to fight.

people who don't want you on the path, but you can fight and you can win. What is it about people that don't want you on the path? You know what I'm saying? Yep. It's that self-reflection, right, thing where, you know, how, I'm sure there's millions of examples, but you know the kind where you see someone like working hard. Why don't you just give us a couple thousand of them? You know, when you see someone like working hard and it's like, man, you kind of,

know in the back of your head. Straight up consciously, though, like, I should be working harder. And that kind of, like, demonstrates it for it. It's like a reminder of how hard you could be working, but you're not. I don't like that feeling. So, hey, if you just stopped working hard, I wouldn't have to, like, do anything hard and I could actually feel better, you know? It's like that kind of situation.

I think this happened in Australia at the muster. We would do our workout. So before the muster, we're, like, running. dry rehearsals of the of the PTs, the early morning PTs. And so we'd be out there at 4.30 in the morning. And people would walk by and it was interesting. It's interesting. Because it'd be, you know, some people coming home from the pubs, right?

It's 4 o'clock in the morning, right? We're seeing people, they got their, they got their drink on. And so, but it's interesting how some people would say, some people would just be negative, you know? Well, you don't want you. What are you doing? You know, they're. And what you can just feel it coming out of their system, they just feel guilty and horrible.

Yeah. It's a lot less about you than it's about them. Those gravitational forces of weakness and fear, man, they like company. They like other people suffering from the same. And they see you break it free of those gravitational forces. They don't like that. It's better for them if you stay down there with them

because that forces them to start to reconcile their own weakness and their own fear and their own gravitational pulls. that's putting in the wrong direction. And that's what you're fighting against is them seeing you breaking free from that. And that's going to be a problem for them. Yeah, especially when those people are like close to you. Yeah.

You know, I guess. You know, I see it. I understand. But man, it's kind of even worse when they're close to you. For them. You see what I'm saying? Like what if you're,

what if your drinking buddy is now like doing something else and he's not drinking anymore? He's not drinking anymore. Come on, man. Yeah. Just coming out of a beer with me. Come on. Yeah.

What's wrong with you? Yeah. Yeah, man. But what happened? let's go have some fun come on yeah forget about this path stuff what he's talking about what are you doing improving yourself yeah it's weird that used to really I'm sure you saw this in the Marine Corps but well maybe you did in the SEAL teams you'd see someone trying to step up and you see other people trying to hack away out totally it's freaking nasty yeah worst thing ever

is it you know how like when you're close to someone you kind of have this kind of picture of them, you know, like this, like this just idea of who they are, right? And then when they, and then you kind of, in a way, you kind of get used to it or get comfortable with it, like in the relationship and all that. So when they change, you kind of throw off the relationship a little bit. Like it's like, oh, my whole image of you is like changing. Now I'm uncomfortable. It feels like that too sometimes.

You know, like, wait, you know, if you just, especially if they make a quick, like, drastic change. You know, the idea like, man, I feel like I don't know you anymore. Yeah. Yeah, because it makes it feel uncomfortable in that way as well. You know, like, because it's like that, almost like a social comfort zone, you know, where it's like they're different. It's almost like, oh, the friend that I know, even though you're better technically, the friend that I've come to know and love is different. Yeah, yeah, it's not there anymore, you know.

When Seth Stone was, had this idea in his head that he wanted to go to Princeton, wanted to go undergrad at Princeton. and so he started you know he's active duty on the SEAL teams and there's no program that sends you to Princeton and he he says to me he's like hey you know I'm thinking about trying to go to Princeton like and I guess there was some program that might have been in the process of being created or whatever but it wasn't a real thing yet and I said I said bro that's that's yeah that'll be awesome man that'll be awesome I mean you'll be a degree from freaking Princeton right and he comes back to me a few days later and we weren't in task unit Brewerser at this time he said Yeah, I'm not sure if I should really go.

And I said, why not, man? He's like, well, some of the other officers I've talked to said that it's not a good idea. And it could mess up my timing and my career and stuff. And I said, bro, that is just absolute jealousy. A good idea from Princeton. Yeah, that's a dangerous idea. And, you know, the thing is, Seth had such a big heart. You know, and he was so loyal.

Like, even when he asked guys, he kind of took it at face value. Oh, they're looking out for me. And I said, bro, these guys are jealous. You should absolutely apply. And he did and he went. And, yeah, obviously. That's the thing, though, is the beauty about being off the path and you get on the path, there's a lot of people on the path.

So whatever you're losing, whatever those friends are, those grab, you forget them quickly. Because there's a lot of people on the path that are going to replace them immediately. Getting on the path, fear, whatever you're breaking free from, all those people kind of try to, pull you down, those people fade almost immediately when you get on the path. Because the satisfaction of being on the path with other people that are on the path, dude, that is a way more powerful gravitational force than the fear of letting your friends down. Because hey, just come hang out with me. Come play video games or whatever people do today.

I don't know if that's one of those things. Drinking is a big one, I think. Yeah, and that's not to mention the people that actually come with you, even a little bit. You know how like, I think it's Jordan Peterson saying, like, to find out who your friends are, see who like is happy with your success or something along those lines right and that's kind of what it does too where you know like your old drinking buddy some of them will be like all hating on you's like oh he's too good for us now you know mad or whatever but then every once in a while like you'll get one and be like hey wait what are you doing over here let me get some you know let me try that let me come with you you know to jiu jitsu whatever um so then that'll differentiate and that'll separate and identify kind of like

who's your who's your quote unquote real friends Yeah, and if you see your friends becoming successful and you start feeling that little twinge of You don't you want to bring him down yeah you're being that guy man Continuing on every moment you are alive is made of choices you get to make Little tiny choices that alone mean nothing but when combined together Mean everything you have to make the right choices the hard choices you have to deny immediate gratification and push back against weakness you must impose a unmitigated daily discipline in all things. That is how you stay on the path.

We must stay on the path if we are to become an eminently qualified human being. But what does this eminently qualified human look like? What are the attributes of this person? An eminently qualified human is a person who has achieved mastery in every facet of life. This person has reached their full potential in every measurable way. This person lives the code. but in order for us to live the code, we need to clearly define its parts so that we can evaluate our progress every day.

We need an evaluation system to grade ourselves as we attempt to follow the code. And it should be hard. The bar must be set high. It should be near impossible. But just in striving, we will become better. And we must implement discipline. We must aim to implement unmitigated daily discipline. in all things.

It is the only way. There are countless aspects of life, each with its varying level of importance, but what are the most important? What aspects of life should be focused? Where should the pursuit of excellence be concentrated? It's easy to say that everyone's life is different, and that is impossible to quantify categories that are the most important. But that isn't true. There are some things in life which should be universally placed in the forefront of our efforts

as human beings. To that end, there are the most critical parts of being an eminently qualified human and how they should be measured. This is how we set the standard. This is the code evaluation. And so now we get into this evaluation.

And this is where we tie into, this is where it all stem from, this Marine Corps evaluation, which sets the insane and basically unachievable goals. And I would tell you that even someone that got five-oes, and categories, you could dig those down a little bit. I got five o's in categories.

I can tell you, I didn't meet that standard. Yeah. Not happening. So the first category is health. Since our physical bodies are the support mechanisms for our brains, physical fitness and health are paramount to our existence. To be able to engage in the critical aspects of life, our bodies need to be able to endure the demands we place on it.

We need to exercise, be well rested, and well nourished to reach optimal health. On top of cardiovascular health, a person must be strong, fast, agile, flexible, and mobile. To be each of those things, you have to engage in activities that positively impact all of them. What we put into our bodies and how effectively we rest our bodies play an equally important role in ensuring we can perform at the highest level. You can't reach your potential if you aren't healthy. So this is what you're grading yourself on. This is the evaluation.

This is how you're grading yourself. The number one thing that you're grading is health. It starts with physical fitness. 1.1 physical fitness. Being physically fit allows you to perform daily functions from working to playing with your kids to moving things around the house, all while avoiding injury. Having an effective fitness routine when you're young sets the foundation for being fit later in life.

Maintaining your physical fitness becomes more critical. As you get older, this is a basic daily necessity. And then it talks about 1.2, sleep and rest. Brain and body recovery is rooted in sleep. As scientific studies on the effects of sleep continue to mount, it's becoming more and more evident that you must consistently get your required amount of sleep in order to cognitively perform on the highest levels.

Sleeping too little or too much have dramatic negative effects on your body and ability to perform. establish the amount of sleep you need and prioritize accordingly. Yeah. I've had to point people back to the Discipline equals Freedom Field Manual when they're like, what time are you waking up? What time do you go to bed? You're killing yourself.

You're so unhealthy. No. No. Some people need different amounts of sleep. And if you need sleep, you need to get sleep. Yeah. And then the next part of health is diet and nutrition. There's no part of you.

Your diet does not affect the fuel for your body determines how you look feel and function To determines how it looks feels and functions knowledge and implementation of what constitutes a healthy diet is imperative and will make the difference between maximum performance and substandard performance So there you have it. Yeah that straightforward that right there is health The next thing we go into is called personal development Personal development much like our bodies we need to nourish and grow, much like how we need to nourish and grow our bodies, our brains, and personal behaviors need the same attention. Our brains need activities like reading, writing, building, creative pursuits, and other

actions that promote intellectual health. We also need to train ourselves to improve how we deal with the challenges in our personal world, making the best use of our limited time and money and setting goals all contribute to personal development. So this is one of those things where, you know, if you don't, if you're not growing, That's the point of this evaluation. If you don't grade, if someone doesn't show you, like when I was a young seal and I thought I was doing a good job with tactics and then they show me what it says to be a tactical

5.0, I'm not even close. So how often do we think about from a personal development perspective that we're actually doing an outstanding job? Most people don't even know what that even remotely looks like. So then we talk about intellectual fitness while carried in the chassis of the body, the mind is supreme. It is us. It needs to be protected, nourished, and trained. You exercise the brain and make it more capable by reading, writing, studying, and learning new things.

You need to develop in areas that don't always fit into your normal routine. Even if your job or responsibilities don't demand it, cultivate something artistic like music, writing, or singing. Do things you're not good at and try activities that make you uncomfortable. They promote creativity and intellectual growth. Remember how just psycho we go whenever you and I talk about the fact, the creative aspect of combat and war and how much the Marine Corps talks about this creative nature. Creative nature needs to be developed. The idea of intellectual fitness is being a thing that. that you have to force yourself to do things you're not good at,

to exercise your own brain. It's easy to think about that in the physical term. Like, oh, I want to get better at something. I'll do this physical exercise. I will run or I will lift weights or whatever. I'll stretch. If I'm not good at, I don't have good flexibility, I can fix that by stretching.

The intellectual piece is especially at work. People in the grinder and the routine and they just get stuck in this day-to-day thing of what they're doing is your brain needs you to force it to do things that's not good at. to get better. And it's not that you become a master pianist or a brilliant musician, it's that your brain gets better and smarter and you can do so many other things better by doing that. The intellectual fitness piece is how your brain grows, which it has to every day.

I can never remember being told to think about how you're growing your brain every day. I did not have that grown up. Nobody told me that. I didn't think about that. And it never occurred to me that this is something that I, every day, need to think about how I'm doing. It gives you, and I would say people are now kind of discovering, like they'll tell like, hey, when you're over 60, you should try and learn an instrument or try and learn a new language because it makes your brain, your brain is like your body. It needs work. Yeah. Needs the exercise. And not to mention just how, look, the mind is the ultimate weapon. I was just telling my son that the other day, you know, because all he wants to do is what?

Jack Steele, right? train like that's it said hey man that's awesome I get it but you better you better sharpen that other that other tool you got too because that's the ultimate weapon

yeah and you can feel it I can like I can feel it when I'm when I'm on point when I'm doing a bunch of work with a bunch of clients where I'm digging deep with you know writing something or going

through You know, when I'm preparing for a podcast, I can feel, I feel the, the foundation getting stronger. You know, I feel my own mental foundation getting stronger because I have better understanding and connecting the dots and, and pulling the thread and figuring out where things connect. And that's just powerful. You get a lot of exercise, so to speak, collaborative of your brain just by talking to so many people. Oh, 100%. Like, you ever, I mean, you ever been in a situation where you didn't talk to anyone for like a week? Not anyone at all, but like you've been pretty, whether it be stayed in your house or whatever, maybe just me.

But I don't, let's say I don't have many social interactions, we'll say for like a little extended period of time. When you jump back into social situations, you feel kind of awkward, you know. Same thing as if like you stopped lifting for a while, then you try to get underneath that weight again. And you're like, oh, this is a little heavier than I, then I remember it being, you know. Yeah, you know, when Jordan Peterson kind of hit the scene and people would talk to me about Jordan. And they'd say, man, he gives these incredible answers, right? And I'd be like, yeah, definitely. And then I'd say, go watch his lecture from 1987 when he's a professor at Harvard.

He's given that answer that, you know, someone asks him, whoa, whatever they're going to ask him. He's he's actually given that answer and thought through it at a deep level that he's going to give you be able to give that answer and it's going to sound amazing because he's prepared that answer at that moment for 30 years. But here's the thing. That having that base is what allows you to riff when the time comes. It allows you to make that little adjustment to that individual person. So the more training you get, the more exercise you get, the better you're going to be. And you know, you also see it with like politicians. If you see a politician and someone catches them with the way they don't,

they haven't fought through that answer before, depending on their intellectual fitness, sometimes they can figure out a way around it, but sometimes they're just looking dumb. You know what I'm saying? Because they're just they just don't know how to do it and you can see a good a good politician They get asked something that catches them off guard and they're able to handle it in a good Positive way you know like like hey oh

You know what that's it that's you know when you make that you know they have their answer they have a way of doing it They have a way of contemplating what's going on in real time because they're used to doing it and you know You know Dave this is kind of our life not the political side but working with companies and going in and having people ask us questions and, you know, we're going to score 94%. I've heard that question or a very close, similar question of that. And then 6%, it's like, oh, this person has a unique problem. That's just their problem. How do we apply our leadership principles to that problem that they're having?

And the more, the stronger your foundation is, the easier it is to say, oh, yeah, here's what you're experiencing. I get it. I understand what you're trying to say. and here's a way to approach that. Intellectual fitness. 2.2 time management. There's no more valuable resource in life than time,

and it is limited in quantity. No one knows how much time they have, so you have to maximize all of it. All of it. And yet people waste their most precious resource every day. How well you manage your time determines how productive you are. Next one, financial management. Like time, money is precious.

precious resource so avoid wasting money on anything that is a productive track which you spent money on what you saved and what you invested if you were disciplined with your money you will have more of it to spend on things you want and things you need what's the criticism that says you know it sounds like you're awfully focused on money here right is there a criticism that's gonna come my way that's gonna be leveled at me that you should be disciplined with your money Yeah, yeah. I think the reason what this,

that this leaves a mark where it's something that I think people need to pay attention to is because when I, people that I've known throughout my entire life, when you look at what problems they have, like what is causing their angst, what is causing the problems in their life, there's a large percentage of those problems that are financial problems. For sure. And if you don't think about it.

And, you know, if you're going to talk to, if you're going to have a code and you're 18 years old, look, you're not going to start thinking. I shouldn't say that you're not. Many people don't start thinking about money when they're 18. They don't start thinking about their finance. You know what their finance is when you're 20 years old? Do I have enough money for Saturday night? Cool. Made it.

You know? And then they'll go through the week and then they try and scrape together a little bit more money. And then the same question, do I have enough money for Saturday night? Cool, made it. And the only time they adjust is if they didn't have enough money for Saturday night. And then they go, I've got to need to work some more hours. So they work a little bit more hours so they have enough money for Saturday night. Not the way to go through life.

No. And most people that get on the path, they're not jumping on the path so they can end up with a Ferrari. Like that's not the path that they're on. This idea of financial management and recognizing that this is a precious resource. that everybody needs to fulfill whatever is that you want. If you want to take music lessons, you want to put your kids through piano, that's going to cost a little bit of money.

And this idea of financial management is really the recognition that whether you want to admit it or not, whether you like it or not, this is a resource that is hard to come by. It's hard to come by, and it's going to influence your life. It doesn't say your goal should be to be rich. That's not what this says, and that's not even really the point.

But this is a resource that is, is going to impact your life for your entire life, for you, for the people around you. And what it means is that you need to acknowledge that, you need to make decisions that impact that so you can have as much of that resource as possible to do the most good with that resource when it matters. And there is very few things in the world that you can do

where money does not influence it for better for worse. And you just, when you were talking about, what do people think about when they're 20? You're talking to every 20 year old that's out there right now. I mean, we can all relate to that idea where am I thinking, how far down the order am I thinking? That is not a path.

That is not the way to go through life. This is a resource that people need to live the life they want. It doesn't mean you have to be rich. Doesn't mean you have to drive fast cars and have a nice house. It means you have to have this resource to help the people around you do the things that they need. And if you don't think about that, you're not going to have it when you need it. Yeah, if you don't put the goal in place, you're going to always be looking to Saturday night. Yep.

Or whatever that. you know, equivalent is in your life, which is, do I have enough money to pay the rent? Do, you know, when you're, do I have enough money to feed the kids? Do I have enough money for the car payment? Whatever those things are. Yeah. You don't have to end up there. No, you don't. And if there's a massive disruption, like what we're going through right now, if you're on the path, you can deal with that better. You can respond to that better. You can take care of your family better. Uh, this is about recognizing that this resource, it impacts your life. And it will forever. Yeah. I guess anybody that, you know, I guess anybody that,

would say, you know, well, money's not important. It's tough to convince me of that. Because even if you're saying, hey, you know what, I'm going to live in a van down by the river, you need gas for the van. Yeah. And that means you're going to have to do something to get money for gas for the van. You know, that's the way it is. So you can even, and part of financial management is setting your expenditures in a point

where you can handle them. You know, like, I forget whatever podcast we talked about financial management. I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah, here's what you do. Spend less than you make. Start with that. Spend less than you make. Cool. That's going to put you in a great place in life.

You know, you don't need the brand new car off the lot. No, sir. You don't need that, Echo Charles. I understand. Check. Well, the living in the van thing too, which I'm not saying no one thinks about this or whatever, but like you need, okay, so even your safety, right? You know, like medical or whatever.

Like if you break your leg or get some infection or something, living in a van, bro, you can be in bad shape compared to, you know, if you're kind of on the path there. And you're like, okay, medical, no problem. I got insurance or I can pay for it or whatever, you know, however you sort yourself out in that way. But yeah, if you're like, oh, money doesn't mean. anything so I make zero money I'm gonna live off the land or whatever yeah but unless you're like yeah what I mean if you're trained in medical stuff you can be jammed up you get an infection or something like this yeah what about also what about when you can't take care of your family oh yeah because that's a whole other ballgame yeah you know and all of a sudden you go

yeah you know what if I'm if I'm sick or whatever I'll just suck it up and but what if your kids get sick yeah like then what are we going to do yeah that's why financial management is important and if you're not paying attention to it if you're don't have a clearly defined goal if you don't have an underlying commander's intent of how you're going to live financially you're going to be caught in a hamster wheel that never ends of chasing that dime you know the people that pay more here's what here's what here's the weird dichotomy if I'm a person that don't doesn't care about money and I'm like you know money's not important to me I'm going to be chasing that dollar for the rest of my life

versus someone that says you know what money is important I'm going to figure out how to take it and keep it and grow it. That person will end up not having concerned about money, not having any concerns about money. Whereas the person that doesn't care about money and doesn't think it's a big deal and doesn't want to worry about it, they're going to be worrying about it forever.

So there you go. Yeah. It's kind of like that one where people, someone asked us, I don't really want to fight. So why should I learn Jiu-Jitsu? And I said, if you don't want to fight, you are the number one person that should learn jiu-jitsu. So if you're out there thinking,

I don't really care about money, you're the number one person that should care about money. Yeah. You can set yourself up for freedom or you can be a slave. Next, personal goals. You have to know your objectives. You have to know what your objectives are to put meaning around the things you are doing.

Set physical goals like running a 5K or deadlifting 8,000 pounds. Set intellectual goals like learning a language or pursuing a degree. Set goals for diet, time money man time and money management evaluate every day if your goals need to change and if you move closer to them track major milestones for school work competitions setting and achieving goals is a critical human pursuit make your goals hard to achieve when you achieve them they will have more meaning pretty

straightforward next up this is the next section that you are grading yourself in section three professional development being good at your job allows you to provide for you and your family set an example for your children and achieve long-term objectives your professional success is key to your personal success performance 3.1 performance being secure in your position at work provides stability minimize the risk of losing your job and the means to support yourself or your family by performing well get better at your job each day and seek take

seek and take feedback from others when there is an opportunity find ways to actively support others and improve your team okay so now we'll go down the same path the path of, hey man, I'm not going through life just to work. That's not my thing. I'm not going to focus on work. Okay. So that's what you're going to do. You're not going to focus on work.

So for the rest of your 40 years of working as a human, from 20 to 60, you're not going to focus on that thing. Guess what? You're not going to progress. You're always going to be at the bottom of the chain of command. You're going to have little to no control over your fate. and I was just talking about that with a client right before we came here. In the Navy,

I couldn't give anyone a pay raise. I mean, I could get them promoted. It takes two or three years, whatever. I can't give someone to pay raves. The way you pay people is you give them control over their own destiny. So when you work hard, you end up with control over your own destiny. I'll tell you what, man.

I was in the military for 20 years. I would say 15 of those years. I had almost complete, unmitigated control over my own destiny. As crazy as that sounds. Like as crazy as that sounds. 15 years. I'm talking day by, like, you know, maybe one hour of a day.

You know, last week, I had a guy that was like, hey, you need to get this done. I was like, hey, Roger that. And I didn't have control over my own destiny. The other 90% of the time, I was, I had things set up in a way that, I control my own destiny. What I remember, I was one of the few kids. grown up in my circle of friends in school that wanted to join the military. Most

people didn't. And the common thing was, I'm, I don't want people telling me what to do. You know, I don't want to be, you know, getting yelled at by people who are, you know, outranked me, whatever that idea was of what the military was like. And I didn't really know what the military is like. I was just kind of enamored by it. And I actually sort of thought there would be some yelling involved and I'd be told what to do. There aren't a lot of jobs in the world where you don't work for somebody. And what you described, even in the military, which people think is like the most rigid hierarchy. Bro, the amount of autonomy that I had

when I was the squadron commander of the world's only F-35 squadron in the world, I could do almost anything. I could do almost anything. Yes, did I have a boss? Of course. Did I have Metcich? I had to meet?

Of course. Just like almost every other job in the world. I answered to somebody. But the tool that gave me all that autonomy was years and years. and years of, and years of actually doing my job well. And the freedom that being good at your work gives you down the road, you could be in the military at any rank.

If you're really good at your job, you know what you get, you get freedom. You get autonomy. You get a little control over your life, and everybody wants that. When we get asked, we get asked all the time. People talk about problems that have at work. And the two simplest ways to get through what the problems are. One is typically connected to relationships. Hey, how's your relationship with this person, whatever problem you're having?

And the other one is, how good are you at your job? because most people that are really good at their job don't have a lot of problems at work. They just don't. And it's the ones that have, I have friction with my boss or my leadership and they talk about all these problems. Oftentimes, the thing they can do to make most of those problems go away

is just do a better job. Because if you're doing a better job, your boss is going to stop bugging you. Your peers are going to stop bugging. Your support and your support giving you a hard time. So this idea of performance, that's the best thing you can do, whether you're working for the man or for the sergeant.

That gives you the most amount of freedom and self-control over your life is just be good at work. When I was writing leadership strategy and tactics, that was a very in-depth review of my life and my career in a lot of ways. And, oh, that's one of the things. I dug down and said, why was I, what did I do to build trust? What did I do to get autonomy? What did I do to get ownership?

What did I do to get all those things? And it was, you know, I'm sitting there squeezing my brain one night. I was like, I don't actually know exactly what I did. I worked really hard and did a good job. And when you work really hard and do a good job, people start, and actually working really hard is just what I had to do to do a good job.

If you can just do a good job, you don't really even have to work hard. That's right. I had to work a little harder, but that idea of performance, and again, if there's someone that's sitting here listening going, well, you know,

I don't like what I do. Cool. Do awesome out. And other opportunities will open up, including saying, Hey boss, I really have appreciated working here. I think I'm going to move on to a different career. Can I get a letter of recommendation?

Absolutely. You've done great. Thank you. Boom. So the other viewpoint would say, oh, if you're not into it, you know, you don't want to invest a bunch of time into it. Okay, what are you going to do then? What are you going to do? Yeah.

This is your job. This is your vocation. Go and do it and do it well. And you know what? Sometimes it actually involves just doing what you're told. Sometimes when you're the new guy, you're brand new, and even if it doesn't quite make sense, maybe you don't want to do it.

Sometimes just do what you're told in the beginning. Build a little credibility. Don't push back and everything. And if that just means just following orders at the beginning, which is what all brand new people do, they just kind of following orders. We hope they do. You start to figure things out a little bit.

You understand what your boss's intent was and really not just giving orders. He's actually had a larger purpose, but you follow through that you get some credibility, you get a more autonomy. And yet does that mean, sometimes you're just going to get on board and just do whatever you're asked to do to make things happen? Yes, it does. But that doesn't last forever. That usually doesn't even last a very

long time. It actually is a really short period of time. And the best way to get to that is just just be the guy that's outperforming everybody else. Keep your mouth shut and do good work. And very quickly, very quickly, you find yourself with the freedom of autonomy. And you get to be in charge sometimes. You get to make your own decisions with other folks. So this idea of being good at your job, it affects every part of your life. Yeah. Every part of your life. And once again, if you've got the miserable job that you hate, the best thing you

can do is be awesome at it. Invest, do awesome at it because you'll get promoted out of that job or you'll get openings to another thing in the world that will allow you to do something that you like. Speaking of which next section, advancement and qualifications, figure out what is required to promote or advance and take deliberate steps. to do so determine what certifications or qualifications are required to outperform your competition then earn them find meaning in your job if your job doesn't have meaning design an excellent strategy to move to one that does a lot of our time will be spent at work

make it matter and hey this idea of find out what it takes to promote you know there were some guys in the teams that like would go through that little book and go well i get this call and then i'll get this Quak, okay, now I'm ready for, that's not what I'm talking about. No, no, no, no. It's not what I'm talking about. But that is part of performance. So do it with the right, with the right context. Yeah.

No, I mean, that's, yeah, I think you've talked about this a bunch. And I think in the Navy in the Marine Corps, there's a same, I think it's the same phrase. We call them ticket punchers. I think it's the same. It might be, you know, like, you know, checking the block or whatever. There's some lingo out there. That is not what this is.

This isn't, I'm a ticket puncher. But there is a little bit like, hey, do I want some control? What do I need to do to get a little better on here? Well, you do this for a while, and then there's a certification that you can be kind of a master craftsman in your trade, or you get to get a certification where you get to be an instructor in this, in this capability. Hey, I'd like to know what that is. You learn about it. You get better at it.

Those are two very different things. And you're doing it to make yourself better, make your team around you better, and make your world better. It's a lot different than I'm going to, you know, trick the system and I'm going to just get my ticket punchers succeed until they don't. And when they don't, it's usually pretty bad. when you get kind of highlighted and revealed it's a ticket puncher, things don't usually end well for those people. Yeah. Yeah, the interesting dichotomy that just kind of showed up on these last two

is if you don't want to care about money, you should care about money. If you don't want to care about your job, you should care about your job. The exit comes from discipline. Yeah. The freedom comes from discipline. Period. Next section, 4.0. Character and leadership.

Who we are as a person is perhaps the most. defining quality in our life our character impacts those around us and the world we live in and we are in complete control of it learning humility managing our egos and leading and mentoring people in our world are ways we can choose to develop our character remember you don't need to be in charge of anyone or anything to lead everyone has the ability and the obligation to lead 4.1 humility this is the most important quality in a leader ego is the biggest killer in combat business in life be honest in your self-assessment of your own ego and control it if your ego gets out of control you will lose watch out for your ego emotional control stifle your emotions emotion everyone is

emotional but we but not everyone can control their emotions we are not effective when we are emotional we don't have productive conversations send good emails or make smart decisions when we lose control of our emotions know your red flags and learn to identify when emotions start to take over children struggle controlling their emotions eminently qualified humans do not yeah that's who gets upset that's who gets angry kids little children kids so if you're not a little child get control of your emotions how many people echo charles have pushed back on stifle your emotions.

Right? I've heard it all. I've heard it. If you do that, that's what drives mental health problems. No, look, I'm not saying don't have any emotions. Control them, though. How about you act like an adult? Yeah, there's, because when we did analyze that or whatever, if you call it an analysis,

it's not that you're like bottling them up. You're dealing with them in a, in a, a specific or general way. Yeah. So you, you know, there's a difference between how you feel and how you behave.

So if you just relate like, however I feel I'm going to behave, that's like an emotional behavior, emotional decision, emotional, whatever. But if you run it through like a little filter, whatever that filter is, and don't behave emotionally,

it'll help develop your capability to deal with it, to control your emotion. Yeah. And it's good character. You know, that's this section is character, right? It's character and leadership. Be humble.

Keep control of your emotions. And then the other part of character is mentoring and charity. So part of your character is, to the book here, helping others, having outlets to provide support to those that need it in a way that is productive for them. Set your best example, mentor someone, help set goals for friends and family members. Take care of other people. I mean, the thing that's so important about what you said at the beginning is that this kind of defines who we are, but you're in 100% control over this. You were in control over all of this. It doesn't say don't have emotions, but you should never let your emotions control you.

You should be in control of how you react to your emotions. And the difference is, and we get this all the time, is, hey, I had this issue at work, and I tried to work it out with this person, and I lost my temper. I'm like, had that conversation go. How'd that work out? The problem gets solved? No, it didn't because I could not, I can't tell them don't feel angry. I can't say that, don't feel angry. But as you find yourself feeling anger, you can actually control how you respond to that anger.

And it could be you just deal with it, put in this place and continue the conversation. It could be that you find a different time now that conversation. But the anger is not in charge of you. You are in control of this. I have yet to have had an interaction with someone where they lost their temper, lost control of their emotions, lost control how they were feeling and the outcome was good. Yeah. Yeah. I'm thinking about how in my life, like at some point realizing that this was not a good thing.

And I was definitely watching, you know, leaders that I had lose their temper. And then just getting to a point where, you know, you're not going to phase me. Like I'm not going to, you're not going to, you're not going to see that I'm getting. frustrated right okay I'm I'm I'm listening and if I do show you some frustration it's gonna be actively trying to show you that I'm frustrating because I'm trying to send you the message that like hey what you're saying right now it doesn't make sense and you don't see that and it's so insensible that I'm actually gonna show you some frustration so you go oh

Jocco's getting frustrated which I don't see very often and now I'm feeling it yeah But yeah, that's, uh, I feel like he's talking about you, not me. I was definitely, definitely. Actually, you know, I don't really get, I don't think, I don't know if you, I don't think you've ever done anything that's frustrated me, actually. Could you think of anything? Well, yeah, a couple, but what?

No, they're, they're all essentially jokes. Oh, okay. Just like you're, yeah, they're just jokes. Like, you know, even sometimes you'll, you'll be like, um, you'll take extreme ownership, but it'll be real obvious that you're blaming me. You know, like, oh, maybe I, actually, you know what, that's my fault. I should be pressing record on that thing. You know, it's up to me, you know, like that kind of stuff, but no, no, no.

Yeah, those are just fun. Yeah, yeah, no. Those are just good times. Yeah, because it's going to be hard to frustrate me. It's going to be hard to frustrate me. Even on the mats of justice. Yeah. You know, fatigue.

Is fatigue and emotion kind of? Yeah, it's a feeling. It's a fear. Yeah. And you can act tired, right? You can allow people to see that. I don't even like to do that. Yeah, I know.

Actually, I learned that was a major lesson I learned from you. Which was what? Straight up directly. Like, don't. I mean, I guess you could oversimplify it and put like, don't show weakness or whatever. But it was like, don't act tired, even if you are tired. Like, don't act tired. Because, you know, that's a common thing, especially in the beginning where you're like,

you have a hard round or hard three rounds. or whatever, and then after you're like, oh, and you flop on the mat or whatever, you know? And it's like, oh, you're acting tired right now. I know it's part of the thing and, you know, whatever. Even when you come home from work, same thing. You know, when you flop on the got, oh, what a long day. Kind of thing, right, you don't have to do that, you know.

And there's no real benefit in doing that, like, overall. Maybe some short-term benefit, maybe some feelings or something. But anyway, so in Djiritsa, yeah, I learned that. And it's weird how it kind of your mind and your behavior kind of play off each other, you know, Because if the more and more I not or I would avoid actively avoid acting tired. The less tired. The less tired I feel, yeah. It was weird.

But yeah, that's a big deal. Yeah, and I always have and still kind of do have. I mean, I'm starting to figure it out. I used to think Brad Jocko just never gets tired. It never does it. But now I'm starting to figure out, I'm sure you do. You just deal with it in certain ways to kind of mask it, you know? Like, just way better than what I'm used to.

Is this part of the ongoing debate? is whether Jocko is actually a person and deals human emotions. You were talking about, you know, when you're making that connection of that light bulb going on. And a lot of when we wrote this was, you're just trying to help people

make the connection sooner in life and have some sort of template to get that light bulb to go on. That feeling of losing emotion, I remember at some point early in my military career, it was kind of a cool thing for senior guys to fly off the handle. It was like a thing.

And, you know, like senior enlisted or senior officers to like to their juniors. and it was almost like a technique, like a leadership style. And I remember thinking every time I saw it, every time I saw it in the back of my mind, I'm thinking how dumb that person looked and how weak that person looked.

But for me, what the connection was is that I didn't make the connection at how I looked when I did it. Because I would think when I did that, I looked cool. And at some point I started to realize that that feeling that I have about what other people look like,

that's what other people are seeing in me. And it's not, cool when I do it. I don't do it the right way. It's still the same sign of weakness that I was, it was very easy for me to see it in other people and really hard for me to see it to myself. When I made that connection, that's what made it much easier for me to just stop acting like that. And I was never really one of those guys. But earlier in my career, I almost kind of like copy the example that I was seeing. But it always bothered me because it never made sense to me. And when I made the connection of, I look as stupid as everybody else that I think looks dumb doing this to other people.

And that's when I made the connection and just kind of just stopped doing it. It's pretty rare to really, very rare to fly out the handle. But even pretty rare to just show a bunch of emotion because most of the time when people brought me problems, what they needed me to tell them was like, hey, hey, there's no factor. We can solve this. This is a solvable problem. Hey, appreciate you saying, let's work through the solution. And they were happier and more satisfied than if I got emotional with them, I got all riled up.

and they walked out and nothing got fixed. Yeah, I think I'm going back to Delta Charlie, who I talk about leadership strategy and tactics, my second two commander, who replaced the guy and fired. That guy was so unflappable that I think I remember this time, like watching him get chewed out by someone. Yeah.

You know, like a fleet officer, you know, and he was a lieutenant. He's a prior enlisted senior chief, but you know, a lieutenant and some, whatever, whatever we did or the platoon did, Something happened and you know he like you know Roger that sir and and I just thought to myself Wow and then he turned around and just the way he handled it I'm like man That's legit and I remember another time one of the guys in the platoon got in a lot of trouble like big trouble

Borderline international incident trouble and I remember I was expecting him and it was some somehow I ended up having a conversation with him directly and and and and and and and and and I'm gonna I was something somehow I ended up having a conversation with him directly and and and and and and and and and I'm And he said something like, he said something like, you know, you got to expect things like this to happen. And I was like, dang. Like he took this whole thing where people are worried about their careers and the freaking, this, that. The other thing, he goes, you got to expect things like, you know, you know, Jocker, you got to expect things like this to happen. That was his reaction. And I'm thinking, this is badass right here.

This is so badass for him just to, you know, shrug his head a little bit and saying, you know, expect things like this to happen and I thought to myself damn imagine this something crazy is happening and you're the leader something totally unexpected and you go you got to expect things like this to happen that's so legit I tried to always be that guy that said you know what got to expect things like this to happen next section relationships which by the way if if echelon front so many answers boiled down to You know, okay, well, how's your relationship with that person? My boss does this, that, and the other thing.

My subordinate does that, oh, how's your relationship with that person? And then you hear the moment of silence, you know, because they know that it's not good. And then you go, okay, let's start with building a relationship where you can actually have a conversation with another human being. So relationships are your most powerful tools for long-term success. This is true for everyone in life. You can't accomplish much on your own and you need people in your life if you are to reach your fullest potential. Since time available to spend with people is limited. you need to get the most out of every minute you have with them.

Interactions with family members should strengthen relationships, not weaken them. Relationships with friends and coworkers should be built up at every opportunity. Spending time with the people in your life should increase trust, espredecore, and mutual support. And I would say one of the more poignant points I've made in my life is telling people, if I'm going to have a conversation with someone, I'm going to build a relationship. go into it with that. Go into it with like, I'm going to sit down with Dave. Look, we have a tough topic to discuss.

We've got some problems, some issue came up. My goal going to this is our relationship's going to get better. That's the goal. And that problem's going to get solved too, but my goal is to build that relationship. If that's your mindset, doing what it says right here, interactions with family members should strengthen relationships, not weaking them. Think of what that does to your interactions. Think about what that does to your family if what you're trying to do is build not weaken Friends and co-workers build every time you talk to them build that's a that's the way you win

And then this last section is Preparedness and safety the world can be dangerous and bad things happen violence is a daily occurrence and can present itself without warning You need to be prepared both physically and mentally and ensure the people closest to you are well prepared as well. You need to train effectively to respond to a crisis. Martial arts and self-defense. Be able to protect yourself and your family from physical violence. Weapons training. Be able to protect your home from intruders or intervene and escape accordingly if required to in public. And lastly, home safety, emergency, and disaster, have a plan and ensure everyone in your home execute that plan under stress, rehearse that plan,

and assess how prepared your family is, have all the required equipment and supplies. Everyone in your family should know CPR and basic life-saving steps. I heard Pat Mac. Pat Mac said, what do you say? He was doing one of his little Instagram things.

And he said, in your family, something along the lines of you can have assets and liabilities. Oh, think about that. You have assets and lives. So the people in your family, if something happens, can either be an asset

or a liability. Where are they at? Where are they at? And what kind of effort are you putting into your family to make sure that when the time comes, they're an asset, not a liability. And here's what's cool. And I talk about this with firearms training a lot. Look, hey, firearms training is awesome. And if you need to defend yourself, there is no better solution than either, oh, okay, I guess avoidance is the best solution. But if you are confronted in a situation that you cannot avoid, firearm training is the best thing for you, right? Having a firearm. But firearm training isn't only good for that. It helps with all kinds of things.

It helps your reaction time. It helps you learn to relax. It helps you control your emotions. It helps you get your breathing under control. It helps you with all these other things. Well, it's the same thing with family preparedness. Like, oh, it's cool if you start, it's cool in a moment of turmoil if you have assets in your family, if your family members are assets and not liabilities.

But not only that, as you teach them things, it makes builds a stronger family unit. It makes them more prepared for life. You're not going to be there all the time for your daughters and your sons. They're going to be out there on their own in the world. So have them be prepared. Yeah, and bad things are going to happen in their life. And they need to be prepared for that. I remember when we were starting to put this section together, this prepare.

I know there's one more, but when we doing this preparedness and safety, I was kind of thinking, like, how does this fit into the bigger picture? All these things are kind of building on each other. And the martial arts and the weapons training kind of came very quick. Like that made sense. You know, hey, just like you just described, you should be able to get away from a problem. If you can't, you should be able to take care of yourself or your family. And then we started talking about home safety, emergency disaster.

We had this whole section on this neighborhood community thing. And at the time, it was interesting trying to figure out how it works. And we pieced it all together and we added like two words to this after. This is all written before this thing going on now. This whole COVID-19 thing that everybody is dealing with. We added two words, but the rest of it was, how doesn't this stuff help you? Every one of these things,

like you just talked about, the weapons training helps you with breathing. And like, holy cow, would you like to be able to control your heart rate? Yes, you can control your own heart rate. I remember learning that for the first time when I was learning how to shoot the pistol. And my coach taught me how to breathe and just,

and all of a sudden now, this thing is having impact across ways that I never thought that there's any connection. And it isn't just responding to the crisis, which you absolutely need to be able to do. It's how that infiltrates all the other things that you're doing and all the stuff we talked about too. And, you know, certainly coming full circle with what's going on now. But do you want to have a strong relationship with the people in your neighborhood to help respond a crisis? Yes.

You do for any number of reasons. Yeah. So the last section is neighborhood community impact, develop relationships with other leaders in your neighborhood to protect against violence, disease, or disaster, and create a safe environment for other residents. Is that a good thing? Is there anyone that's saying, no, isolate yourself? No, don't be prepared to help out. Do not have good relationship with your neighbor,

so when something goes wrong, they won't be there to help you. And like I said, we wrote this, we wrote the word disease and disaster in there. Because, hey, you know what? That should be in that. That makes sense. But the rest of us was just things we're thinking about

is how do you be a leader in your neighborhood How does it help you? How does it benefit you? And where else does that affect your life? And anybody that's in a community where they know they can rely on other people knows that that's important for a whole host of other reasons beyond just what we're dealing with right now. Yeah. The network that you develop is how you survive.

It's cover and move to what it is. And you won't survive alone. Dude, I had that, we had massive rains in San Diego like 10 days ago. Massive rains up in where I'm sorry. Carl's bad. Not San Diego. Thank you. And it was.

5.30 in the morning. I was awake, but I didn't, and I hadn't piece together that was going on, and I heard the rain coming down. Turns out my backyard completely was flooding, and I'm back there at 5.30 with brooms and squeegees, just trying to keep the stuff from overflowing into the house, and my right and my left neighbor showed up at my house

10 minutes after. They got up, they checked their backyards, they checked each other's backyards, and then they came to my house and saw me, and they both grabbed brooms. I didn't call them, I didn't text them, I didn't ask them, they just made it happen. that cover and move

to relationships yeah relationships and I obviously would do the same thing for them but that was a pretty impressive thing for me and I'm like all I did was kind of look at the one guy who was like just we're getting dumped on water and I go thanks bro and he just kind of gave me the head nod like nothing was really needed to be said or anything

he just was there it was good to go man yep there you go that's what we do so those are the things you get graded on the evaluation and then we say most people are capable of getting better. Once they know the right attributes and understand what the parameters are and how to assess their performance, a lot more people will get closer to their goals. Can we actually get there? No, we can't. Being eminently qualified isn't a status we achieve or a conclusion we reach. Being eminently qualified is being on the path that does not end. It's the way of living life

where we accept that every single day there is more to do. The eminently qualified Human understands this and recognizes that no matter what success that has been achieved in one place, there is more to do elsewhere. And as we shift our focus from one to the other, that success we just achieved will begin to erode. Our gains will decay and we will have to rebuild what we have lost. The eminently qualified human knows there is no end. Since there is no stopping point on the quest to becoming an end, eminently qualified human what are we really trying to do the answer is simple we are trying to get better every day this requires growth in every facet of personal and

professional development this requires action we have to turn our words in action we have to turn our ideas in action we have to turn our skills into action we have to turn our goals into action there are many resources out there that help us understand what we should how we should be hanged and what is important what we don't have is an evaluation system for human beings that lets us define our goal identify the critical attributes required to achieve it and track our progress along the way until now here is the evaluation now we get into this evaluation and all this does is it breaks it down and this was this is I guess the

root of when I said hey we'll have something out for everyone in a week or whatever I said whatever freaking horrible assessment I made of how long this was going to take. This is what we were actually talking about. And what it does is it breaks down like what you should be striving for. We already went through the categories, but for health, I'll read a couple of these just so people get the general idea. Health, physical fitness activities that increase cardiovascular strength, flexibility,

mobility, daily actions that promote physical health. Here's the score of zero. Did not perform any activities that contributed to my overall physical fitness level. You get a zero that day. Here's the five highest score you can get. Participated in training that reached a level of exertion beyond my perceived limits. The most intense physical training that I was capable of performing set a new baseline for maximum useful effort. So you're going at it.

Got one for sleep and rest. Got one for diet and nutrition. Here's the diet and nutrition. Did not eat properly and did not provide any nutritional benefit to perform critical daily tasks. You get a zero. The other end of the spectrum consumed ideal food intake and maintained perfect adherence to diet or fasting. Every calorie was optimal and nothing was consumed

that didn't contribute to health and nutrition, allowing for a sustained peak level of performance throughout the entire day. That's what you're aiming for. And that's what the eminently qualified person does. Yes. And that's why a five, not a lot of five

around the same thing with the performance evaluation of the military you know it was that five was like that dude is legit and I look at that I'm like nope that's not me I'm not a five personal development next one intellectual fitness

time management financial management personal goals you're going to get graded on each one of these the intellectual fitness one I'm going to read five because I like this one listen achieved a major breakthrough in understanding grasped a concept that made significant impact my life and my ability to impart knowledge and skills.

You know what's funny about that? Dave, have I ever called you up and said, hey, or sent you a text? I sent you a text the other day. That was an actual breakthrough and understanding grasp a concept that made significant impact in my life. Right?

That happens like once every, I don't know, three months to me that I actually do something where I go, oh, Dude, it doesn't happen often, but those are really good days, man. Like that call, that text became a phone call, became a long phone call. Like, those are good days, man. Those fives are when they happen are so awesome.

They're so legit. But they don't happen. No, they don't. Hardly ever. Then you called, no, you called me the other day. And it was maybe four or five days after we had this legit conversation about a major breakthrough and you go hey you got a minute and I go oh damn I'm like this is the call from Dave he's got the breakthrough coming at me and it was a client call you know let me know

what's going on with the client I was like I said I said I thought you had a you know something sorry yeah so that one's all about you know just personal development and getting better the next one is the next one is professional development the little definition productive impactful meaningful and lucrative professional life pursuit of and growth in a career field that provides financial security and freedom along with the personal fulfillment and satisfaction performance here's a five for performance outperformed all expectations vastly exceeded requirements and set new standard for job performance completed all assignments ahead of schedule with a high degree of accuracy helped others complete their assigned task consider the impact of work Up down and across the team and contribute Contributed fully to maximize it. That's a 5-0. It's going to be tough to get.

Gonna be tough to get. Here's a zero. Performed work below the standard or did not work at all was counterproductive regarding individual and company-wide success. I'm going to actually photocopy this and blow it up for Echo Charles. I'm just going to set, you know, like a goal. We also kind of set a baseline, you know, that zero, you know, you didn't do anything. And the five is pretty hard.

But there's a little bit of baseline too, like what a one is. Because a one on a scale of zero to five, not a great score. Yeah. But a one is probably what a lot of people are doing. Yeah. You know, one is go, yeah. Yeah, here's one. Completed, this is one performance in your profession.

Completed basic assigned tasks, identified areas for tasks where additional guidance, for additional for additional guidance in order to complete assignments but did not perform in a noteworthy manner That's a lot and I think what I think when we talked about the Marine Corps yes the the Marine Corps minimum Like when you when you're below average you're doing a decent you're doing your job That's right doing your job is like the minimum and you're kind of a below average Marine This one is like oh that's what I do yeah and you to be the most Basic qualification like the lowest level of qualified because you know the the stump I think says Unqualified Marine and that's why there's one of them like there's not a lot of unqualified Marines out there

But everybody else if they're qualified you're a one you're just you're doing your job just doing your job You're doing your job. You're doing your one yeah and that's good to go but if you're on the path to being the eminently qualified Marine or end of the quote You have a long way to go that reap this kind of re-baseline what the scoring system really was about you're not getting three's before for doing your job. You get a one. You're going to go above and beyond and you're going to have to extend yourself in ways you didn't think you could

to really improve that score over time. This is a scary thing to do to yourself. You know what just made me scared? Echo Charles, you're going to like this one? Because it has to do with lifting. You know what I'm saying? How many days are you, you go in there?

Look, you got it done and you're kind of proud that you got it done, right? Yeah, yeah. But it's like a one. Yeah. Like you went and did your duty in the gym. You went, you lifted, you did whatever. You got a little Maccott, but you know.

Right? Yes. How often is it a one? What's a one for physical development, uh, physical, physical fitness? Here's a one. Engaged in basic fitness routine or activity. Yeah. Yeah, that's pretty weak.

I do usually do more than that. Yeah. And then, okay. That to me sounds like you, you know, you took like an aerobics class. Yeah. Or like something you could do in the. middle of like a barbecue or something like that. Yeah, but two to four is engaged in intense physical activity and demanding exercise that

increased overall fitness levels while addressing weaker areas. That's that you give yourself between two and four. I bet I get a lot of threes. Yeah. I bet I get a lot of one. I'm like, yeah, that was a, you know, I got better. Yeah. Also sometimes I'm maintaining some of them to two.

Yeah. Here's the, I think like, well, in my specific case and I'm sure other people like this, too, where it's kind of a gift and a curse situation where that, you know, Yeah, one, to me, you might as well not even work out. Depending on how long you're putting out ones and zeros, but like a one is not worth the workout. We're not worth the mental energy, not worth the momentum of... What about just the discipline that you got it done?

Okay, yeah. I give some credit there's my curse. Yeah, right there. To me, it's like, okay, but no, I don't think about that kind of stuff. Well, now I do more, but I'm just saying routinely, no. And not like, ooh, the fact that I did it, I wish it played more of a part of my mind, put it that way. but when I go lift, it's like three, four, sometimes five, or why even lift kind of thing. But again, that's good because I get good workouts routinely.

But the junk part is like, if I'm not in the mood to confront that three, four, or five, it's going to just be a zero straight up. So I'm throwing up more zeros than maybe I should be. You see what I'm saying? Did not work out at all. Yes. You know, those will present. Do you stretch if you don't, if you're not, no, let me say this, if you're not feeling,

like you don't feel like confronting a three, four or five, which is a good way of putting it. Because let's face it, when you're staring at a four, because I got some of my workouts doesn't matter whether you want to put out or not. If you execute it, you're doing a five. Like if you go in there and do it, you're doing at least a 4.8, right? Maybe you could hold something back, but it's just going to be pain. It's just going to be pain. So if you don't feel like confronting that, you go, well, I,

don't feel like confronting that, but I'm going to go stretch and improve my mobility. At least you get a one. No, not worth the time. In the words of Echo Charles, a one is not nothing. And it's something. And look, we spent, you know, we built this out. We used that model and try to come up with a human version of that. You know, this isn't designed to punish you.

But it's a little bit of the recognition. Like if you just kind of get up, you get downstairs to the gym and you kind of knock out a workout, Hey, look, that's good, right? But you're grading yourself on this. That's also just a one. You just sort of did the basics, the baseline of what you needed to do. You didn't get better.

You didn't improve. You didn't get faster. You didn't get it stronger. You might have maintained. It's a hell of a lot better than a zero. But you also got to be honest for yourself, and we're just doing one of like 20 different categories. Those ones, as I look at those ones and I'm like, man,

I do a lot of ones. And that keeps me, you know what? That keeps me at a one. Yeah. And if I want, want that one to become anything else, there's a lot of, a lot more work that needs to be there. And again, it's not, you shouldn't punish yourself for a one, but you got to recognize if that's what you're doing, guess what you are? You're a one. And you want to get better?

You got to put in some work, some real work, in any of these attributes. This is, we're talking right now just one thing. That's true for humility. It's true for leadership. It's true for all these other things. A one is you coming up and you're doing your job. You're coming to work and you're doing your job. That's a one. Yeah. And that's good. That's clever to give it numbers like that too because like who wants to be a one like who wants to roll in be like threw up a one today I'm a strong one no

and who wants to admit that they've what they've been doing is a one who wants to really look in the mirror and go you know what man I've been cranking out a lot of ones yes and I'm not as good as I need to be those ones don't add up put it that way too no where and here's part of like the I guess

maybe my it's partially an excuse really where it's like why even go out there. You know, out there meaning to the gym or whatever. Why even go to the gym if it's just going to be a one? If I,

if I can smell the one coming on, like why even bother with that? Because what's that going to do to my brain? Is it going to get me a little bit more used to throwing up ones? How many times do you've gone in to do a one, you end up with a three? Yeah. I mean,

technically I'm going in with the goal of a three and then I get like a four or something like that. But it's always like a baseline highlight. high standard workout. And that's why I used to skit workout so much because I'm like, man, I can't, I can't do it. If I had the mindset, oh, I can just go in and stretch and maybe warm up. Or if I ever had that mindset, it's like, bro, that's easy to make it in the gym. But then again, I guess thinking about it more, that could just help you.

Because you know how when you get in there. Yeah. You're like, all right. I read something the other day. I think it was you set up yourself up for three minutes of practice on guitar. Like, hey, you got to practice three minutes a day. That's it. Three minutes.

Tell me you can't find three minutes. And what they know the power behind this is, if you get out your guitar and you get it in your hands and you, you know, pull out your guitar pick and you start strumming, it's going to be at least seven minutes, right? It's going to be 12 minutes. The hardest part was going,

I don't feel like practicing for an hour right now. You don't need to practice for an hour. Practice for three minutes. And if that turns out to be 12, cool. Yeah. Yeah. I guess like if but then I guess the other part of my little maybe it's partially excuse maybe it's legit I don't know but it's like I don't want to get into that routine of setting low bars

you know as a goal of a workout you know what I will see here's what happens to me I will be like sore I'll have oh that's a zero that's a rest day right there no I'll have big doms and but what I'll do is I'll go in and be like okay maintenance day maintenance routine run the maintenance routine. I'll just do like some, I'll row or hit the aerosolpike for a few hundred calories or whatever and then just

yeah, kind of take a, it's a one. Yeah. Well, but it's not a zero. Yeah, but then again,

if it's like, if you have DOMs and you need recovery, that's, Dom's just an indicator that you need recovery. You know, there's more to it than that, for sure. But I'm going to simplify it.

It's an indicator, right? So if you, for real belief, for real belief, not convinced yourself or, you know,

made an exorably that you need recovery and you go in and just to get the blood flowing get some stretch some mobility stuff whatever that could wind up not being an exertion hard hardcore workout but literally achieving the goal of that workout is you saying because if you do some hardcore workout when you need recovery

so you could get a four in recovery you could get a four with a little mobility technically it seems like you could yeah all right next section's character and leadership and And again, you know, the emotional controls in there, the zero for emotional control is lost control of emotions when interacting with people around me during the stressful encounter. Set back any progress toward controlling emotions. Actually, it should have been a low stress encounter, right?

That would be the worst. You're in a low stress encounter and you get emotional. We'll have to change that. Because the other end of the spectrum is maintained emotions under duress in the most difficult situation possible. Because that's true. Like that's that you get credit for that. You get a five. Things are going crazy.

You maintain. Was able to immediately identify my own red flags or those of people around me detach and make ideal decision to get the best possible outcome that otherwise would have been missed. The best possible outcome. That's good. Yeah. And that's under most difficult situation. Yeah, because that's easy to follow up.

You actually need your environment needs to help you get a five. If you're not dealing with a stress, you can't even get a five in a number. Yeah. I mean, that's why the one is what the one is what the, one is. Maintained control of my emotions in normal situations was aware of periods of heightened emotions that did not let them get out of control. If you had a normal day and nothing really went on in your day, you didn't even have

the chance for a five. So you get a one. You get a one. Yeah. And you talk about, hey, this is kind of, this is a little scary thing. Like the scary ones are the one like, dude, that's most of my days. Well, yeah, guess what? You weren't even in a situation to respond like that.

You did not have this overwhelming situation. where tons of emotions were coming out because you just had a regular normal day. But you don't get credit for that either. You know, it's cool. You add jiu-jitsu to your day and all of a sudden you can get a two for sure. You can get a two for sure

because you're going to get emotional, like there's going to be stress moments. You get, you know, you're getting tapped out. Whatever. That's character and leadership. Relationships is in there. That emotional one. Yeah.

That was a good little addition when you say the best possible outcome. Because let's face it, some people can delude them with the emotional outburst, you know, just kind of how you mentioned. Like some people, they do their little emotional tirade and then they kind of feel solid. Like, yeah, I probably look pretty powerful in that moment. So they almost have this little sense of pride, but they ignore kind of the outcome, you know?

They just, they focused too much, in my opinion, on how they felt at the moment, and then they're kind of recalling that feeling. And they kind of chalk it up as a little bit of a little success moment. They're giving themselves a five when they really didn't get the best possible outcome. Yeah, because they saw some movie where, you know, look cool or whatever so like dang i look like christopher walking or whatever he looked like or whatever meanwhile the outcome is all terrible you see what i'm saying yeah that's a good i liked it uh cool leave it at that relationships quality time with your family quality time with friends and co-workers um

the next one's preparedness and safety you know did you train martial arts today did you do weapons training did you do fire safety emergency training did you get connect with your neighborhood in your community here's a here's a here's a here's a score of two to four what for martial arts was part of aggressive training and significant learning that advanced my ability for self-defense learned important new skills and techniques and made major improvement I I rarely hit that now in the beginning it's easier to hit that you're learning more easier yeah but dang like once someone's a black belt like echo you weapons training let's see if I'm biased when I wrote

these participated in an aggressive training and significant learning that advanced my weapons proficiency and comfort acquired new equipment and skills that enhanced self-confidence and ability with self-defense no actually that's that's that's solid is that well written yeah it's solid glad to hear that did you write that I'm trying to think of I thought I might skew it or I thought we might skew it towards like hey as long as you shot today you're good

like as long as you got rounds down range that's a one you think well here engage in limited here's a one in weapons training engage in limited training to maintain proficiency but took no steps towards acquiring needed weapons or advanced proficiency

that's that means you got on the range and you still get just a one. You know, maybe dry fire you still get a little bit of a one. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. What if you didn't go to the rain, but you dry fired?

This is what we're saying. It's hard to get. It's hard to win. It's hard to be a three, four, five. Yeah. And then it goes on to explain this. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Because it's really easy to be like, oh yeah, you know what? I'm shooting twice a month. Like, bro, twice a month doesn't get you there. Yeah. No. Wrap up to kind of explain the evaluation. And then what to do if you fall off the path and this leads to I think this part about the evaluation

About how this works is actually kind of important to think about how you are going to approach that matrix we just talked about And how you are going to assess yourself and what it really means to give yourself any of these grades and what's really going on there Well, it says it is designed is not designed just to grade yourself but also so you know that that you're trying, what you're trying to become. It requires humility and a brutally honest self-assessment. No one else is scoring you. Don't compare yourself to others. This is about your capacity compared to your performance.

Oh, Echo Charles likes that. It's your capacity compared to your performance. It's you against you. Ask yourself how much effort you put into something and measure it against what you are capable of. The more effort you put into something, the more progress you will make. This is different from person to person and different for yourself as time goes on.

If you've never exercised before in your life and you walk a mile, you may have exerted yourself close to the limit. That might be a five. That same workout might be a one for someone who's been in the gym for years. It might even be a zero. But as you get better and improve that one mile walk no longer represents your maximum capacity, so it no longer represents a five for you. As you move down the path towards an intimately qualified human, your capacity, will increase. As a result, improving actually becomes more difficult over time. You have to work

even harder and do more to make even the same amount or even less of an improvement. This system only works if you understand what you're capable of. And if you're honest about what you have done, being easy on yourself doesn't help you or the people in your life. You must commit. You must stay on the path. So yeah, we all know that the stronger you get, the harder it becomes to get stronger. The better you get at jih Tutsu, the harder it becomes to get better at Jiu-Jitsu, which is weird because there's a ramp up session, even with working out

and you don't think about this. But when someone just starts working out for a little while, they can't really do the exercise. They got Doms every day, and they're just not really making the gains, but then after a little while, they start going oh, same thing with Jiu-Satoo. You start learning and all of a sudden you can process it. Like, I think your optimum, I think where you're learning the most

is probably when you're a blue belt. Do you think? Yeah, it depends on what you mean by what you're learning. So, You're learning the most information is being absorbed. Yeah, the big strides. The big strides. Yeah, I think you're right. At a white belt,

that's when you're learning the most moves. I'll tell you, I think that. But you can't assimilate them. Maybe it's the high end of white belt. Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure it's around in that zone.

In working out, it is a common thing. Well, I think in trainers or in the training community, that's a normal thing. It's called newbie gains. So you get gains in the beginning, like way more than towards the end.

You know, so like if you're advanced lifter, bodybuilder, whatever. Yeah, your gains come slowly, but the new guys, newbie gains. Newbie gains. That's what they call it. That's what, you know, I'm just saying it's a thing.

Next section, what do you do when you fall off the path? You can and will fall off the path. It happens to everyone. Sometimes we do it to ourselves. Sometimes life hits us with something we didn't see coming. People get sick. Accidents occur. Things happen in the world.

We can't control. And those things can push us off the path. but you can control how you react when you fall off what you do to get yourself back on the path it's up to you the situation doesn't dictate what happens to you you dictate the situation you decide when you fall off the path ask yourself why why are you not doing the things you know you should do an unsparing self-assessment identify corrective measures and ruthlessly implement those measures take action get back on the path for anything that affects your health or mind of your health for anything that affects the health of your mind or body

see your doctor or a professional in the field right you sometimes you got to go to a mechanic that's a doctor that's a psychologist this is not a time to rely on friends or family members you need professional help so get it that being said there are protocols to help get you back on the path these are some protocols and again I talked about where these came from do do I'll do this one I don't want to do them all but I'll do this one. Break up. I don't even know why I'm doing this one because there's like you you put out a video and everything of this one.

Well, here's the, here's the clean version, right? Here's like, here's what you do. Breakup. My relationship is over and I don't know what to do. Number one, detach. Your emotions are your enemy during a breakup. They will not enable you to make good decisions or make good choices. Of course, this will be hard.

The core of relationships is built on emotions. So in order to detach from your emotions, take a step back. Look at the situation from someone else's point of view. You might think no one else understands and you are right. They don't understand the emotions you have, but that means the emotions are not blinding them. Try to see that. If you have trouble detaching, go to step 1A. Step 1A.

It might also help to let your emotions out, but do so in a way that does not affect the situation. Find a private place where you can scream, cry, or otherwise release your emotions. Try physically exerting yourself to get rid of the emotional aggression. Hit a punching bag, go for a run. B, repeat step 1A as needed. Got to get those emotions out sometimes. That's a way to detach. Two, assess the person you have separated from and evaluate who they actually are.

So this is why it's simple. You have to detach before you do this. Assess the person you have to. have separated from and evaluate who they actually are. The truth is that person is not who you thought they were. The person you cared about does not exist. The idea that this person was a trustworthy, faithful companion is not true. You created an ideal around their framework, but they do not actually exist.

They have proven they do not exist by their actions. Do not dwell on what it was because it wasn't. do not dwell on what it could have been because it couldn't it was a lie which is this you see so many and I I guess I'm going to talk about it from a guy perspective because in the teams you'd get guys that would break up with the girl and that's why I saw it over and over again from the guy perspective and that's what they know what it was she was so good and it's we could have and it's always that hanging on to this lie and it's a lie it's not true That person doesn't exist.

That girl that you thought you were going to marry and everything's going to be. No. No. Not going to work because she didn't exist. Step number three. Be thankful. Be thankful that this lie was uncovered now instead of later before you invested even more into that person. That person who you now realized was not who you thought they were.

Be thankful that you found out when you did that this person is untrustworthy. Be thankful that you can now move forward. man it's tough to tell tough to tell that to the crying human step number four wish them luck yes perhaps it is a final conversation perhaps it is a note but wish them luck they are going to need it do not harbor any ill feelings those ill feelings do you no good let them remember you not as a spiteful vindictive slave to your emotions and whims but as a good mature person ready to move on positively in the world. That's one of those things where look one before I get into this. Step number five, walk away. You know this person is not who you wanted them to be and

you can't change that. So walk away, move on. Don't look back. Step number six, don't look back. Your mind will play tricks on you. You will lie to yourself. Tell yourself that maybe it can work and maybe I was wrong and if I can just try one more time maybe he or she will change no that's not happening they aren't going to change and the fact of the matter is the more you crawl back to them the more you belittle yourself and push them further away don't do it walk away don't look back and that's that's the part that I was going to kind of venture into is if you're in one of these situations where you like oh if only I could say one more thing if I and that's that's is what drives people away. That's what they don't respect and they don't like.

So the best possible thing you can do is say, hey, good luck. I'll see you later. Walk away and don't look back. The minute you look back and throw out the lifeline and beg for whatever, they want to get rid of you even more. So the best possible thing you can do, the win-win move is walk away and don't look back. It's the win-win move. And then seven, get back on the path. Wake up early, workout, read, write, learn, playing an instrument, train Jiu-Jitsu, eat clean, clean your room, clean your car, get ahead at work. When someone breaks your trust, when someone breaks our trust, we question ourselves. We think our judgment is bad because we put our faith in this person who hurt us. So how do you build that trust back with yourself?

Look back and learn from the relationship. See the mistakes you made and the red flags you missed, then look for them next time around. Recognize that there are plenty of people out there in the world that are trustworthy and faithful. Go find one of them move forward in that relationship with a clean slate don't bring baggage So there's your protocol And I think the humorous protocol the original protocol was like order Pete you know I made something up off the top of my head But this is the legit protocol And man if you can execute this

It's hard to execute because people get all wrapped around their they get wrapped around this thing so deep and so hard So but it's a program It's a protocol. It's a way to handle these things. We got a way in here to handle death. A protocol for death. What do you do when someone dies? Here's the protocol.

What do you do when you have some kind of financial problems? What's the protocol? What do you do? How do you handle it? What do you do when you have a betrayal of trust, right? Because it's not always in a relationship like a, like a spouse or a girl, an intimate relationship that you have a betrayal of trust. Sometimes it's going to happen in a work environment.

Sometimes it can happen just with friends. So betrayal of trust. What do you do then? How do you handle it? What's the protocol? We got problems going on at work. What's the protocol? How do I handle it?

What if I said or did something that hurt someone's feeling and I need to make it right? In other words, what if I need to make an apology? What's the protocol to apologize? How do we do? Some people go through their whole lives. They don't know how to apologize. What do I do when there's an accident or there's an illness, like severe medical diagnosis? What do I do? How do I handle that? What's the protocol? What's the protocol for addiction?

What do we do? How do we handle this? What's the protocol for trauma? I suffered a psychological trauma and I don't know how to deal with it. What do I do that? And again, look, these these topics of trauma these topics of addiction look, that's why we say you might need to get professional help in fact you should But even when you get professional help, you're going to see these protocols. Protocols to follow. And then there's this last one, the unknown. What do I do when I don't know what to do? Something bad happened. I don't even know where to start.

I'll go through this. This is the strategy protocol. Every scenario cannot be addressed. So this is the protocol for what to do when you don't know what to do. One, start by taking a step back, detach, take a breath, and look around. Make sure you assess everything that has happened. Two, think about your possibility, think about what your possibilities are and what decisions you could make right now and what are the likely outcomes of those decisions.

Three, write it down. What a success look like in this situation? How can you get there? How long should it take? Do you know anyone who can provide guidance or advice? Four, work the plan. Take action that moves you forward. Don't stay stagnant.

Don't dwell. a small step towards what you think is the best decision. Not a giant step because you don't know exactly what is going on. This is a step that allows you to assess again before you decide on what to do next. Five, push forward and then pause and reassess again. Repeat and press forward to the point of friction. Press until you reach the point that you see a new opportunity or need to pull back and reassess again. Six, allow yourself room to maneuver. When it gets hard, don't surrender. Don't give up, don't quit. Then you haven't failed.

All it means is you need to regroup and re-attack. You've learned. You've gained experience and you're still alive. There's going to be things in life that you don't expect and you don't know what to do. And there's the protocol. Yeah. The beauty of the protocols and we were writing them,

it connects back to the very beginning is that even with death and illness, you are in control. Maybe not everything. Maybe you're not in control of everything, but you have so much more control than you might give yourself credit for and you have to take control of that situation. You are in control of how you react

and how you respond. And running through those protocols is you being in control. And you talked about, hey, that's hard. Walking away from the girl, the one, the one you know is the right one for you, but it turns out they're not. That's hard.

But if you can do that, if you can control that situation, think of how much more in your life you can control. And that's what those protocols are about is you being controlled these situations as much as you can. Yeah. And we've all said that it's an echel in front to a bunch of our clients. You know, what do we do now?

What do we do with COVID-19? We can't control this. We control how we respond. That's what we control. That's right. And you absolutely control how you respond. The book wraps up. You're on the path.

You are seeing the results of your hard work and your efforts are paying off. Unmitigated daily discipline and all things is not. just as saying it's your life your health is excellent your work and personal performances exceeding expectations you are leading in all aspects of your life so what now thank those who helped you along the way take stock in what you have achieved then go harder lead lead your family your community your country lead everyone and everything in your world lead others to the path show them the way and you

Called me out on that. You said, hey, there's one line. I just wrote. It's so good. And you said go harder. I was like, yes, I like it. And then it closes out unmitigated daily discipline in all things. It's the only way. We've got downloadable evaluation forms at joccoopublishing.com slash downloads. So you can take those forms and you can start filling them out for yourself. And there you go. So on 174, podcast 174, I said to think about where you're at. Are you really a five? Really? Or are you a two? Can you aim for a three or a four?

Is there any quality that you can reach five on? It's a good question. Let's try. Let's try because we might not be able to reach five. but we can absolutely get better. We can absolutely continue to pursue the quest that never is going to end, trying to become an eminently qualified human being. And if you live that way,

if you live trying to become an eminently qualified human being, what you'll end up doing is living an eminently honorable life and a life eminently worth. Anything else, Dave? Well, Echo Charles, you know what that means? Yes. Since it looks like we are attempting to head down the path, what do you got,

what recommendations do you have that can help us, you know, proceed, shall we say? I've got a few. So, first thing, as always, is Jiu-Jitsu, although at this current exact moment in time, We're doing a lot less, if any, Jiu-Jitsu. Because we've got to stay safe.

Because that's part of it too. You've got to stay safe. In fact, that's probably one of the things this whole thing is about. Well, yeah, that's preparedness. Yeah, prepare a safety of yourself and others. Unless this is how we're going to do it. All these things I'm about to say right now are all included in the path. Like their path, what do you say, like worthy or inclusive, whatever?

Pathworthy and path inclusive. I would say you could say both. You can pick your, pick your pronoun. No, that's not a pronoun. You can pick your wordage. Pick your verbiage. Yes. So, jih Tzu, when we can, part of it, for sure.

You say martial arts. I feel like you were like fighting your pen back because you just wanted to write jihitsu, but you just got to go martial arts. No, that's not necessarily. Actually, that's not true. Okay. Because jih Tzu is definitely really good,

but you got to learn that boxing, that moitai and that wrestling. You can't get it. five by just just limiting yourself to just you just you just straight up totally and being rigid to it yeah yeah yeah you got you do more yes sir all right well but we are doing jiu jitsu yes sir big time it's it includes jiu jitsu included but not limited to we'll say that all right so when you do when you do jitzy you need a gie and a rash guard because these are the uniform so get the best gee best rash

guard from origin origin main dot com is where you get all this So geese, rash cards. A bunch of other cool stuff on there. Also, jeans. So getting origin-made jeans, American-made denim, does improve the community around you. That is a good, very valid point. Yes. Very valid point.

And right now, it is April 21st, 2020. And there's a pandemic going on. We at origin, the origin team has shifted to making face coverings is what they're officially called because we don't want to imply that they have the medical qualities that an N95 mask has on, but the government has recommended and medical professionals have recommended that people wear face covering. So we are making a massive amount of face coverings right now. so people that have ordered jeans we actually shut down those lines right now but we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and we are ready to open the jeans line back up the geely lines back up and we'll be doing that shortly so just check origin main.com if you want a pair of jeans if you want a pair of boots we're there we're making them we had to do a little adjustment because of the demands of of of um of this pandemic put on America. So we made some adjustments. But in the end, we're going to make American products.

We're going to make American made jeans, geese, rash cards, t-shirts, the whole nine yards. So appreciate everyone's patience as we, you know, try and support America through this pandemic scenario. Also supplementation. Keep you on the path. Keep you in the game. Big time. So what do we got?

Mulk, additional protein, the form of a dessert, by the way. Discipline and discipline go. Essentially the same thing in different what? Delivery methods. Yeah. Yeah. It is essentially the same thing in different delivery methods.

That's for your brain. Yeah. Yeah. Discipline go. RTD. Ready to drink. That's kind of. Is that a.

Yeah, that's like a term from that industry. Right? Like you wouldn't say, hey, can you grab me an RTD? No, you'd say, grab me a can of go. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, but in the industry, which I had to learn about, it's called RTD, ready to drink, crack it open and drink it. So yeah, we got all that.

We got Molk, Warrior Kid, Mulk, we got Jocko White Tea. And by the way, all these products, you can get them online at origin, maine.com. Or you can go to vitamin shop. If you go to a vitamin shop in your A.O. You can get some. What's your biggest, you look like you want to say something about. Yeah. So I'm on the milk train.

Everybody knows that. I would like to think that I'm well associated with discipline go. And last time we said I thought it was ready to deploy cans because I grab them and I go with them. Oh, check. But I'm on another train right now. I don't know if I'm supposed to be announcing this train. But I'm on the Cold War train.

Oh, yeah. So that cannot go unstated that the that supplement, the Cold War supplement right now is I would say a requirement right now and something that is part of my Kermit Repporteur. Yeah, well, especially, you know, a month ago, we're traveling all the time. And I was, I was at ground zero for, I did a gig in San Francisco, Seattle, and New York, like the three first kind of areas where the pandemic broke out. You know also in every one of those places Shaking between a thousand and two thousand people's hands totally In each one of those places traveling on an airplane with a bunch of other people in between those places So yeah you got to have that immune system engaged

Get your cold war on yeah, I feel like cold war is more of a tank than a train You see what I'm saying? I do Because yeah, I look at like protective armor. Yeah, so maybe tank Yeah, could be there Does Cold War tank, does that even sound like a thing, though? Because Maltrain sounds like a thing. Yeah. And Dplane kind of sounds like something too.

Brother, deplane all day. At least it sounds like something you tried to implement. Oh, it's implemented. Put it that way. Indeed. All right. Unless. All right, cool.

Yes, these are all things approved by the path. 100%. 105%, really. Let's face it. Also, we have a store. It's called Jocco store. It's where you can get items to represent while you're on the path. In quarantine or not.

I'm saying as time goes on, you see, I'm saying. Anyway, we got shirts on there, hoodies, more rash guards. Discipline equals freedom, you know, all these good stuff. Hoodies, hats, truckers hats, beanies, flex it, all that stuff. The boxes. I forgot about the boxes. The boxes are, we put, I put together a bunch of boxes for the live games. I was doing the live gigs got canceled.

So we got a bunch of these boxes. We just reassembled. I put some of them up there, and they sold out, so we just assembled some more of them. So if you want to get those boxes, there's a Warrior Kid box, and there's a Def Corps box. They're like...

They have the flags. You get a Warrior Kid flag. You need to just be able Freedom flag in there. Then they got a bunch of other cool things. It's like a little toolkit for the path. That's what it is. Yeah. That's what it felt like when I got mine.

I like where you're out. Yes, sir. Yes, we have those all on jocco store.com. Also subscribe to this podcast if you haven't already. Because it's important in many ways, arguably. Yeah, real arguably. And I'll tell you what, if you're two hours and whatever many minutes deep into this thing and you haven't subscribed. Well, I don't know.

I really don't understand you as a person. We got some other podcasts. We got the thread, which is with Daryl Cooper, murder made. So you can check that one out. We got grounded podcast, which is a podcast about jiu-jitsu in life. The thread is about the threads between history and the past and how they tie into what's happening right now in the world. So that's been cool. The Warrior Kid podcast for the Warrior Kids.

And then we also from the Warrior Kid podcast, we got some Warrior Kid soap, Young Aden, Irish Oaks Ranch.com. He's making soap. He's making killer soap. That's the name of the soap. Oh, yeah. And if you get that kind of soap, it will definitely give you the capability to stay clean. Which is part of the path, too, by the way.

Don't be all dirty. Yeah. I guess you've got to be willing to get dirty, but not stay dirty. You want to stay clean. That's why you're going to stay, but with varying levels of capability to endure dirt and germs. Okay. I'm trying to put it into context here.

Anyway, also, we have a YouTube channel. for video video version of this podcast and other in excerpts as well this uh turns out to be a cool way I think to listen to the podcast be more immersed in the conversation I think you can see what good deal Dave looks like

yeah man good looking guy at the end of the day for sure um so yeah YouTube channel Jocko podcast official now checkmark you know the checkmark you know the check mark they give you in your fit just so that you can recognize the real one from the impostors once yeah yeah it's not

uh utility Chaco Motivation channel. Sure. Yeah, and we also have psychological warfare, iTunes, Google Play, and MP3 platforms. If you want to check that out. We have Flipside Canvas, Dakota Meyer, making cool things to hang on your wall that will keep you on the path. Got a bunch of books.

Leadership Strategy and Tactics Field Manual. Dave Burke, you were the first people to read that. You might have even been the first person to read that. So you get some credit there. I appreciate that. That book, that should be an RTD. Field Manual ready to deploy. That thing needs to be at the ready anytime.

Immediate reference, any issue you got. That thing stays with you. It does not go on the shelf. That things are ready to deploy. Yeah, I like it. It's just about everything I get asked, I can answer it in that book. So pretty straightforward. Also got Wayne the Warrior Kit.

One, two, and three. Are your kids still reading that book? They are reading that book. Readed number three. Finish number three. three last night last chapter with Matt last night. Didn't want to go back to one? Was he his first time getting through it?

No. Negative, but they're ready for four. They're super pumped because you had some new word kid podcasts come out. Oh, yeah. So they're stoked about that. Yeah, Johnny Kim was on one. Yes.

Because who doesn't, what kids not, what kids not saying I want to be a, dude, a Navy seal, a doctor and an astronaut? Whatever. Like every kid. What else could he add on there?

I guess he needs to be a fireman. A firefighter, what else? Oh, and a pro baseball player, right? He needs to knock those out. Johnny Cam, get busy. That's no, bro. Come on, bro. So we also have Discipline equals freedom field manual.

Oh, Mikey and the Dragons. Don't forget about Mikey and the Dragons. There's a bunch of police officers right now around the country that are doing this kind of reading of Mikey and the Dragons. I've seen a bunch of them. I appreciate them all spreading the words. Discipline equals Freedom, Field Manual. Extreme ownership and the dichotomy and leadership.

the leadership lessons from combat that I wrote with my brother Laibben. So check those out if you haven't gotten them. Eschlon Front is our leadership consultancy. What we do is solve problems through leadership. Go to eschlonfront.com. Yes, we are live. Yes, we are engaged right now. We're doing it digitally.

How's that working out for you, Dave? Awesome. So legit. It has been awesome. Yeah. It's instead of us flying out and spending five, Five hours in an airplane to get to talk to you for two hours or three hours. No, we're there two hours or three hours.

We're face to face with you on the internet. We're answering your questions. And since we didn't waste five hours coming out there, we're going to do it again with you next week and the week after that. So it's been a really cool transition. And I'm sure, you know, we'll go back when the pandemic is over. We'll go back and we'll do live stuff. But man, if we aren't, we are completely, we are having such an incredible. that we weren't able to achieve before because we were always logistically moving around.

And now it's like, no, we're right here. You know, I was talking to a client today and I was doing an example of what it's like when the subordinates are blaming up the chain of command. And so the woman that asked the question, you know, and I was saying, I was pointing right at the camera and I was right in the camera's face and I'm like yelling and it's just if, if, if, if, if, you know, I'm just, if, if, if, you know, I'm just, if, you know, If that wasn't on a, if that wasn't on the internet, you know, she would have been, whatever, 10 rows back and I would have been, you know, there would have been a disconnect. There's a little bit of a disconnect. No, I'm right. You know, I'm just, you know, I'm joking around. I go, this is what happens when you don't tell the team what's going on.

They start saying, you don't understand. You don't give us the support we need. And I'm doing it right in the camera. It's, you know, it's funny. I'm just having fun with it. But that's like an effect you don't get. You don't get that live. So it's been very cool.

and the other thing that we've really kind of kind of just gone after right now and gotten after is EF Online. So EF Online, which was a very static platform of hey, you can come on here, you can go through these courses, and we got great feedback on the courses, but right now, since we're all,

since we all have this opportunity to step up, we're doing this live stuff on a, well, we're doing it three times a week right now, we're stepping it up and what's great about it is once again look there's 200 people or 150 or 100 people that are sitting on the internet during a call and people are can ask a question right there on the spot can say hey jaco i got this you know i got a subordinate that's doing this what do you think i should do oh okay boom here you go oh well explain give me some more detail on that so it's like on the podcast you do q and a we do q and a i read the question but that's just my interpretation of the question there's no feedback So when live, EF online, it's like, hey, explain what you mean. Explain the relationship you have. Give me some expands. Give me some more commentary on what it is you guys are trying to achieve.

So you get these detailed questions going on. And by the way, you got a bunch of people there. We're all listening to each other and everybody is going, oh yeah, I had that happen. Oh, here's another way to handle it. So it's been phenomenal. Go to EFonline.com. If you want to check that out, we got. the leadership primer.

We got immediate action drills. We got Q&A's going on. So check that out. The muster. We are still going to go live at some point. The one in Phoenix canceled. But September 16th and 17th in Dallas, Texas,

or sorry, Phoenix, Arizona, September 16th and 17th and Dallas, Texas, December 3rd and 4th. Many of the people that were going to come to Orlando, which was canceled, just moved to either Phoenix or Dallas. So those are gonna sell out quicker than normal.

Everything we've ever done has sold out. So go to Extreme Ownership.com for details if you want to come to one of those events. And we have EF Overwatch and EF Legion. So taking veterans that understand the principles we talk about and placing them either at an executive position through EF Overwatch or frontline leaders through EFlegin.com, EFoverwatch.com.

Come and find the leaders you need to help your team win in those locations. And if you're a vet, go to EF, if you're a vet, go to EF Legion and sign up. Go to EF Legion. We got companies calling us right now that need to hire. Look, there's a lot of companies that are laying people off. There's also a lot of companies that business has gone through the roof that are hiring right now. Go to EFlegin.com so we can get you out there and the world can can know about you that are looking to hire good people and if you haven't had enough of my droning overbearing voice or you haven't had enough of echoes digressive ramblings or Dave's hyper enthusiastic viewpoints then you can get more of us on the

interwebs on Twitter on Instagram and on line the Feisenbook Dave is that David R. Burke B-E-R-B-E-R-K ECHOES at Equich, and I am at Jocka Willink. And to everyone that's out there right now, overseas in uniform, protecting our great nation. Thank you. And to police and law enforcement, firefighters, paramedics, EMTs, dispatchers, correctional officers, border patrol, secret service. Thank you for protecting us here at home. And also to all the doctors and nurses and medical personnel that are on the front lines every day right now. risking disease to fight disease thank you for stepping into the breach and to everyone else out there

the path is hard and it is filled with obstacles and you may never get to the top in fact you probably won't but keep striving keep pushing keep maintaining unmitigated daily discipline in all things by going out there every single day and getting after it. And until next time, this is Dave, An Echo, and Jocko. Out.