Jocko Podcast - Jocko Underground: A Message For You If You Think You Should Be More Than You Currently Are.

Episode Date: January 26, 2026

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This is the Jocko Underground Podcast number 198 sitting here with Echo Charles. We have got some questions from you troopers out there in the field. And we're going to provide some guidance, provide some answers possibly, and at a minimum, provide some courses of action that you can follow to get on the right path. That's what we're doing. Let's get into it. All right, first question. I was supposed to be more than I am.

I'm 27 now. At 17, I tested high. It was good at science and writing. The people believed in me. I even recognize the significance of AI early but failed to act on it. Even then, I felt time was running out. Ten years later, I feel stuck. I've worked jobs that built character, construction, and long-term grunt role at psych hospital.

But I still live with my parents, paycheck to paycheck. I help care for them, which I value, but I struggle with depression, distraction, obsession, and media addiction. I have a plan. MMA, Jim, cutting media, building businesses, reading. But I've always had a plan. After a decade of failed follow-through, I've stopped believing in myself. I've collected unused habit trackers, abandoned routines, and gear for pursuits that never stuck. I want to say, I'll execute despite the lateness and doubt.

But another voice says I've been saying that for years, since I'll say it one more time. Or still, I'll say it one more time. What's wrong with my thinking, though? Okay, so you're in a rough spot that probably a lot of people have been in. And there's a little bit of event horizon. You know what that is? Yes, I do. An event horizon is it's a point or a line on a black hole where once you go past that line, you never get out.

So at a certain point in life, I hate to say this, at a certain point in life, you go over the event horizon and you're just, that's what's, that's what's happening. You're going to go down that black hole. I'm going to say that at 27 years old, you're not even close to the event horizon. So we got that going for us. Now, my assessment in this situation is, it kind of sounds like you are lying to yourself in what could be a couple of things. of different ways that you're lying to yourself. The first way of lying to yourself is that you say you want to do all these things, but you really don't. It's it's it's kind of a lie. You you actually are satisfied with the long-term grunt role at you know the psych hospital. You you make enough money to get

by and that's kind of okay and you don't really have any responsibility because you still live at home, so you don't really have any I mean you're you're you're not going to be. You're not going to be. going to be homeless because you live at home. Whatever money you make, you can kind of just put towards whatever you want. And this is where you are and this is where you're going to be. And you're, the truth is you're okay with that. The truth is you're okay with that. And it's a lie to say, you're lying to yourself when you say, you know, I'm supposed to be more than I am, right? Does that make sense? I know it's a little hard to follow what I'm saying. But so far, so good. Yeah. I'm supposed to be more than this but really you're actually pretty happy with what you

know with what you got like you're you have some test at school and you're you're not ready for it and you roll in there and you get an 82 and some girl the smart girl in the class like oh how'd you do on the test you're like oh i got an 82 i wish i would have i could have done better i wish i would have done better i can do better but in reality in your heart in your soul you're like man i'm glad I got an 82. So you're kind of, this could be the lie that you're telling yourself. Kind of like you would tell that girl like,

oh, I could have done better. You know, I should have done better. When you, like your heart, you're like, man, I'm so thankful I got it at 82. So that could be you.

That could be the lie. You're telling you. And here's what, there's a little bit of evidence to that, right? Here's the evidence. The evidence is, when you really want to do something, you do it.

when you really want to do something when it's when it's when it's when it's just boiling up inside of you then you wake you can't never mind like oh I got to get up in the morning you can't sleep in the morning because you got stuff to do so that's a little evidence that that could be the truth now that could be the lie that you're saying right the other another lie that you could be telling yourself is all the things that you're quote unquote dealing with right the distraction the obsession the media media addiction let's let's think about that we're not

gonna do what we want to do with our one shot at life because I want I'm gonna spend four hours a day on on the gram that's what we're saying that's a level of addiction right I I'm gonna throw away my dreams because I want to look at a screen. Obsession. Obsessed with what? Distraction. Distracted by what? Depression? Depressed about what? Your 27 year old healthy male human that lives in America. I'm assuming you lives in America, which means you can, which means you can do anything. And it's like an excuse. This is a weird, a weird concept. but the excuse is I fail to follow through.

You see what I'm saying? Isn't it weird to say my excuse is I fail to follow through. My excuse is, uh, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, how's that new workout program going? You know, it was going good, but I always abandoned my routines. That's like, isn't it a weird to take something that you control and you, It is an excuse. Right.

Right. That is a bizarre world thing to do. And it's a lie to say that, oh, I always abandoned my routines. No one's forcing you do that. You're choosing to abandon your routines. That's not, that's a lie that you abandon routines. That's a lie. It might be true that you do it, but it's a lie that you have to continue to do it.

It's a lie that you have to continue to follow, that you have to continue to fail to follow through on things. That's a lie to say that's part of your personality. It's not part of your personality. It's what you choose to do. So that's a lie that. could be the lie. These are just like some little ways that you might be lying to yourself and it's kind of again it's like if I paint myself as a failure that

becomes the excuse but then again again that is a choice I never get anything I never get any I never get lucky nothing ever comes my way these are all things you're you're manifesting those not even manifesting you're you're imposing those on yourself here's another lie you might be caught in. You might be lying to yourself, telling yourself that in any way, shape, or form, any of these goals that you have are easy because nothing is easy. None of these things that you're talking about, whether it's MMA, whether it's building a business, none of these things are not easy to do. You want to go out and get a house somewhere? You think it's easy to get a house?

In order to get a house, you've got to get a job, you've got to excel at that job, you've got to save money you got to not squander money on stupid things like that is a hard thing to do and by the way each one of those steps is a hard thing to do so it is not freaking easy to be more than I am it's freaking hard now one thing that caught my eye a little bit here is it seems like you were had a little bit of natural ability right this is one of the things they say about some seal candidates some seal people, people in buds. One group of people that historically have problems are people that were really natural athletes.

They were the captain of the football team. Again, there's plenty of guys that make it that are this, but there are some guys that everything was easy for them. They were the fastest runner. They were the fastest swimmer. They were the fastest so-and-so. They got the girls. They were kind of a winner.

And when they lose for the first time, they get discombobulated and they fall down. They quit. So it sounds like you tested high, you were good at science, you were good at writing. People believed in you. They're like, oh, man, you're going to be good to go. You're going to be so successful. Well, what they forgot to tell you is you're only going to be successful is if you work

your ass off. You can't have the idea in your mind that stuff is going to come on a silver platter. Never mind a silver platter. It's not going to come on a ceramic plate. Never mind a ceramic plate. It's not going to come on a lunch tray. Never mind a lunch tray. It's not going to come in a brown paper bag.

It's not going to be delicious. to you period end of story you got to go make it happen you have to earn it you have to fight for it you have to scratch and you have to scrape and you have to grind you know that that that uh that term you know it's kind of a a term in the in the in the ether right now right the grind well where's that come from sure you could say it's a little trend oh it's whatever but it is a real thing like you have to grind to make things happen grind that means taking too hard objects and smashing them together that's grinding so these are some various ways that you may have been lying to yourself or or in some similar way that I don't

know but there's something that you are there's you're asking what's wrong with my thinking I think what's wrong with your thinking is it lacks the truth of the situation. So what you have to do is you have to start telling yourself the truth. That's what you have to start doing. You have to be hard with the truth. You have to be hard with the truth on yourself. Now here's the good news. Like I said, you're only 27 years old. You have not, you're not even close to the event horizon. You could start today and be a world beater in four, no, not four years. Six years. Six years. You could have like, you might not be at the time. You could start. You might not be at the top of where you want to be, but you could be well underway.

You know what I'm saying? 27 years old, bro, can I trade places with you? You can have everything I have right now and I'll be 27. Can we do that? Can you send me an email and I'll swap places with you? I'll be 27. You can have my everything I have. You can't have my family, I guess.

But you can have all the material things. You can have all the, all the credentials or whatever. You can have it all and I'll be 27. Can we do that? because I would take that in a heartbeat. So you're 27 years old. You can, you can change the world possibly,

but I know for a fact you can change your world. So that's what you have to do. You have to figure out what it is you want to do. You have to write those things down. You have to figure out what your strategicals are, what you're trying to get to, and you've got to write those things down, and then you've got to figure out the little,

tactical daily disciplines that you can execute in order to make those things come true. Oh, Jocko's going on this thing again. Yes, I am because that's what you have to do. That's what you have to do. You can't just, you can't lay in bed and wish for things to come your way because they're not going to. You have to get out and you have to go and make things happen. That's what you have to do. You have to execute those things day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. This is the way you move forward. And if you don't do that you will be 37 in the same situation 47 in the same situation 57 in the same situation and if the lie you're telling yourself is that you want all the success and that's that you really don't want that

then okay man be take care of your parents i know you take care of your parents that's cool you can be 37 you can continue to work that job you can take care your parents you live at home you have no responsibilities if that's if that's the truth then do that it's okay it's okay i don't i don't i don't look down on that i i truly do not look down to the that at all. If that's what you want to do, then embrace it. And be like, you know what? I live at home, but I take care of my parents. I make a decent salary. I don't really have to worry about bills. You know, this is what I'm going to do. I'm taking care of. There's nothing wrong with that. But don't lie to yourself and say you want to do this other stuff when you're not willing to get out

of bed. So that is a little excerpt of what we are doing on the Jocko Underground podcast. So if you want to continue to listen, go to jocco underground.com. And, subscribe and we're doing this we're doing this to mitigate our reliance on external platforms so we are not subject to their control and we're doing this so that we can support the jocco podcast which will remain as is free for all as long as we can keep it that way but we but we are doing this so we don't have to be under the control of sponsors and we're doing it so we can give you more control more interaction, more direct connections.

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