Jocko Podcast - Jocko Underground: Physically Put Yourself In a Place of Discomfort.

Episode Date: April 17, 2023

Physically put yourself in a place of discomfort. Hygiene and etiquette in Jiu Jitsu. The value of collective punishment. Living up to a father's expectations and standards. How to gracefully leave a job. What to do when your job superiors are taking advantage of you. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

This is the Jocko Underground Podcast. It's number 86. 86th, it's a term. You had that in the, in the, what, the bar community? Yep, the nightclub community. Yes, that's Echo Charles, talking on the other side. Did you ever get 86th from a bar? I have never been 86th.

I've never been kicked out of a bar. I've never been anything, yeah. No, I was always a very well-behaved patron. Jack. All right. Well, that makes one of us. So, speaking of which, I got asked by a buddy of mine this weekend, if I didn't get assigned to SEAL Team 1 when I graduated Buds, would I be different?

Yeah, I just wrote back. He was texting me, and I wrote back. Yes. So the basis of the question is, and you may have heard me talk about this, back in the day otherwise known back in the day and it's not like this anymore

seal team one used to be known as stalag team one and the reason they called it that was because it was the most militant team on the west coast anyways it had uniform inspections it had haircut inspections

it was kind of like the equivalent of seal team two on the east coast which is the second team that I went to and there's a reason why I wanted to go to seal team two when I left SEAL Team 1 But he knew me This is a friend of mine that was also in the Navy But it's someone that who I knew growing up

We knew we were childhood friends So he understood the Navy He understood the differences He'd actually been to Coronado Understood you know the Navy Understood that the different teams had different cultures And so he knew that Seal Team 1 was kind of regarded as like the strict

Of the SEAL teams I remember at some point he had This was back in the 90s Back in the 90s he like saw some picture and it was some Seal and he had like a skateboard Sticker on his gear right skull skates by the way I don't know if they're still around but he was kind of like well that's kind of crazy I go yeah, it's not they're not from sale team one Yeah, I kind of was like hey bro we're not doing that over here

So this friend was asked me do you think you'd be the same if you you didn't go to Steel Team 1. And the answer to me is no, which seems obvious, because I was young and impressionable, impressionable, and malleable as a 19-year-old Buds graduate checking in to Team 1. But I was also, and this is sort of just the kind of known factors of my life, is I was a rebellious kid.

I have a rebellious streak. I've always had a rebellious streak. I have that psychological reactants, don't like to get told what to do. I've told the story. about the fact that when I joined the Navy, my dad was like, you're going to hate it because you hate authority and you don't like listening to people. He's 100% right. He was 100% right. So I was a rebellious from birth, had that rebellious streak. I grew up. I was way into hardcore music, a very rebellious attitude, the hardcore attitude. Listen to cromags, listened into bad brains, listen to agnostic front. That's what I was doing. Anti-social, anti-sociital. I was outside the realm. And so, we, we, we. We're not. We, we. We're not so. We, we. We What turns out, well the way it turned out, I think I actually got what I needed from SEAL Team One.

I think that if I would have been at a team that had inherently a more rebellious attitude, I would have been totally out of control. I would have taken that, be like, oh, that's what we're doing. Okay, I got it. So if I went to a team that would have been more laid back, I would have been like, oh, it's cool to have long hair, cool. Oh, it's cool to be a biker, cool.

Oh, we're fighting everyone. Like, okay, right on. And look, seal team, All the SEAL teams had some of that stuff going on. But when I went to team one, there was at least a, at that time, there was an underlying culture of military professionalism. Like an underlying culture. I mean, when we got there, we were going on our first run as new guys.

And one of my buddies wore a visor. You know what a visor is? It's like a hat without a thing. Yeah, without the top. Yeah, without the top. Well, that's not part of military. uniform and the master chief master chief of the command so like the senior enlisted guy there sees him walks up to him and says like if you ever wear a visor again at seal team one

I'm gonna have you sent to the fleet I was like god like that was insane like thinking about getting sent to the fleet after you graduated from buds and checked into a team and now you're getting sent to the fleet like this is insane and he's and he's a master chief and he means it he wasn't like trying to be hyperbolic he was serious like I will send you to the fleet if I ever see you wearing a visor again so military professionalism was held in high regard and there's a chance that I could have like rebelled again that like this place sucks but like no because I was it's weird I was rebellious but I was also young and malleable like okay that's that's what the match chief is saying that's what we're doing or we're wearing the right uniform that's

So I think it helped me. And this is what I was thinking about that after my buddy asked me this question. If I would have been the authoritarian type, it would have been better for me to go to a team that was a little bit more laxed and a little bit more open-minded about things. Because essentially what I think happens is in the teams, the way it used to, now look, the teams are all kind of the same now. They're very much more of the same than they used to be.

Not that they were all like totally different, but there's a definitely, you had a culture at each one of the teams. And now the teams are much more the same because people get switched more. Like you used to, I spent freaking seven years at SEAL Team One, like seven years, bro. I mean, I got there and they just stayed there.

And that was very common. There was a lot of guys, they were just Team One guys. There was Team Five guys. There was Team Three guys out on the East Coast. There was guys when I got to Team Two. Those guys that had been at Seal Team Two for like 20 years, bro. They were in the game.

They weren't going anywhere. Wait, so you can just, so it's more, you think it's more common to jump, not jump, but just. Nowadays, you'll do like two tours at team one, two tours at team three, two tours at team five, or two tours at team eight, then you'll go and you'll do like, you'll go to trading, trade debt,

then you go back to eight, and you won't be like, oh, like, dude, I'm not, I'm waiting to go to team one. No one's saying that. They're like, oh, I can get orders, I can do a platoon chief, or I can do my LPO slot over at, team two cool I'll go they're not like I'm I want to go to this team they don't

really care as much as they used to again the teams there's still obviously tradition and history at the teams but it's not as there's not as much of the differentiating culture as there used to be but this is the thing that I think is cool is if you if you leaders that want to control everything you will find out that you can't control everything and that's a positive thing. The other end of the spectrum is leaders that want to pull the that don't want to pull the reins in and just kind of like oh I'm kind of laid back. Everyone's cool. Eventually you'll watch things get totally out of control. So depending on the type of leader that you are, it's good to go into the environment that's the

opposite. You see what I'm saying? So if I would have been like a super crazy leader or just a crazy guy it was good and it kind of was a little bit right I was kind of rebellious I went to team one it was very good for me if I would have been like a like a very militant person that was like oh I went to a military school it probably would have been better for me to go to another team or it's like hey dude you need to chill out like occasionally they would take guys and they'd send them officers they'd send them to ranger school ranger school is totally militant totally strict and sometimes they would come out of that And it would enhance their militaristic attitude and you'd be like bro this ain't the Rangers Yeah, yeah, yeah, like you don't we're not doing that and some guys were so wild

You'd have to send him to Rangers school and it was good for him because he'd be like bro, this is the military Yeah, you're not just able to do whatever you want So I got put into an environment as a rebellious cocky kid that kind of corrected that attitude and if I would have been a militaristic tyrant if I would have been a militaristic tyrant type of guy, team one would have been good for me in the short term. Like I would have been like, heck yeah. And then I would have been the type person that's like,

hey, you need to get a haircut. Right? And I was never like that. Even though I came from team one and even though like in Tasking and a Brewers, like, hey, we need to wear square to wear uniforms, I did it for the mission. I wasn't doing it for my own authority. You see what I'm saying?

There's a huge difference. Yeah, fully. Like when we were on Camp Mark Lee, I didn't care what you. I didn't care at all I don't care what uniform I wasn't like hey lay for you come into my office to talk to me you better be in a freaking uniform no I'm dude you roll in with flip-flops surf shorts shirt is optional like we're in the day well I don't care when we go out and talk to her a battalion commander be

freaking squared away that's the way it is but if someone has a militaristic tyrannical attitude it might be good for them in the short term because they fit in the long term in the long term it doesn't develop them as a person Yeah. So I had kind of an open mind and team one focused my mind a little bit, right? If I would have had a closed mind, it would have been better for me to go to a team where the atmosphere opened up my mind. And the reason that I'm saying all this, this is a long wave of me, for me to get to this point, is that it's good to put yourself in environments that challenge you and your belief systems. Yeah.

It's good to put yourself in that type of environment. Now, that being said, there is a, I just got lucky that I got sent to team one. No one was like, let's do a personality assessment of Jocko. Oh, this guy listens to freaking hardcore and punk rock music and he's a wild kid and we, we need to give him some more military. They didn't say that. They just randomly, I got team one. Me and Giff going over to team one. Actually, a bunch of guys from my class went to team one.

And a bunch of guys went to other teams as well. But what I'm saying is you don't necessarily get a chance to select your environment, but pay attention to if you are comfortable in that environment. Because if you're comfortable in that environment, it may not be conducive to your own growth as a person. You may be, you know, it's like we're doing jiu-jitsu. And there's like a class where they're doing. doing a lot of takedowns.

And you're like, dude, I love takedowns. I wrestled in high school. This is awesome. You're stoked, right? But once you get to the ground, hey, we're just gonna stand it back up. You're kinda stoked on that. So you go to that class more often.

That's what I'm saying. What you need to do is you need to go get engaged in those classes where they're doing a lot of groundwork. Or vice versa. You're like, hey, do I'm a jitzyg, I'm not a wrestler. Well, okay, let's, you still need to get some takedowns on. So you can't just conform and accept what feels good. You need to push back on yourself. You need to feel some resistance in the world.

And if you can't, if you don't feel any resistance in the atmosphere that you're at, that you're in, then you need to check it and make sure you develop some resistance and you think about things from an outside perspective that you detach so that you can use that resistance. You might have to create some resistance like, hey man, look, I know I could just skip the warm up and skip the takedown part of this class. but that's not the right thing to do. I can do it, but it's not the right thing to do. You know, I'm going to get in there. I'm going to make it happen. I mean, that's what we want to do. We use that resistance to get better

because we don't improve if we are staying in an environment that's not forcing us to reassess where we're at. Kind of a long way for me to say that, but does that make sense? Oh, yeah, fully. So, you know how, and I guess the idea, what's the idea, right? the saying there's no growth in the comfort zone but that you're interesting I never really thought about this until right now like this very specific thing it might have been came in my mind before but not really think about it where you're talking about from a physical perspective like

physically placing yourself in an environment or being in an environment that challenges you outside of your comfort zone like even like a day to day or just like just in life you see him saying you've watched the movie American History X yes good that was a solid one so so so remember right where uh what was this was his name started with a D right was it Darren or I don't know either the main character yeah Ed Norton Ed Norton yeah so he goes he goes to jail you know and he's a white supremacist dude he goes to jail and he does not like black people at all dislikes on obviously right supremacist you know the gig so he goes and he gets paired up in the laundry room right with the black guy yeah and

this black guy's like kind of the surface like real stereotypical he's talking a lot. He's doing all this stuff. And he's like, he doesn't like him. He won't even say one word to him. But he has to work in that environment. Got to work with him. So over time, because the guy's talking, he's making jokes, all this stuff. Over time, he kind of like, essentially, in a nutshell, slowly opens his mind. Slowly opens his mind. Maybe these black people aren't as bad as I thought kind of a thing. You know, this one right here is making jokes. We're actually, and they become friends. And his mind slowly gets open. He gets to stretch like that. Mm-hmm. I'm saying. But physically being in that environment you're right man right it's funny like with I used to go to competition

training with Dean Lister at other schools and that's kind of the same gig where you know when you're a stranger in a oh yeah they're gonna bring that heat if you're a teammate if target practice like you're a target you might as well just be a grappling dummy yeah and there's more stuff on the line too so like think about it in your back in our competition days you come to the main spot you come to victory for competition training, you know the guy, I'm Jocko, Andy, all these guys, know these guys. You know, so there's no, there's an element of comfort in that, no matter how it's hard the training is.

But you go to the, if you're a stranger in another, you know, academy and they're doing competition training, that level of comfort is gone, straight up gone. But you get used to it and you can actually feel it when you go back home to victory. You're kind of like, oh, this is like real kind of cruise. It's easier to be honest with you. And it's more from a mental standpoint. Right. It's easier.

Unless you're a foreigner. coming into victory and then you're like oh these guys are out again oh right which is the same gig just flipped around yeah exactly right so yeah you apply that kind of in life where yeah put yourself in those physical physically put yourself in the the weird thing too isn't we covered this on the psychology of military incompetence but a lot of times people that are attracted to so that is a little excerpt of what we are doing on the jaco underground podcast so if you want to continue to listen go to jaco 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

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