Jocko Podcast - Jocko Underground: Proclaiming Victory Can Be A Trap

Episode Date: December 11, 2023

Proclaiming Victory Can Be A Trap.Going direct on an obnoxious person.Feeling inadequate in the dating market.The right decision: Follow your heart? Or Security?How do you measure up after one year of training?Jocko's opinion on waterboarding.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

This is the Jocko underground podcast number 111 triple ones sitting here with Echo Charles Amy jocco willing I got to this is an admission of sorts but there's a lesson to be learned I believe maybe I am superstitious or paranoid because I go to a pretty extreme level of not counting chickens before they hatched all right so what that means is in my mind I won't not I almost said never but I will very rarely very rarely say something like oh we're definitely going to win Mm hmm or we are a hundred percent gonna close this deal or like this deal is done in the back It's in the bag I don't say that I don't say that and it's because I think they're a jinx

I think they're a jinx I think they're a jinx Do you know the etymology of the word jinks? I don't know it either. But superstitious, right? Like it's a jinks. We know what the jinks means. I'm going to look up where it comes from. But here's the thing.

I just don't think it's a jinks like, ooh, you know, what's that word? Some mysterious jinx like supernatural power. That's not what I think of. What I think of, it's a real jinx on the way. that people think and the way that people act when they say, we're definitely gonna win. When someone says that, there's a thousand little tiny changes that take place

and they're almost imperceptible. They're so small. Little tiny changes in your attitude. Like the way you present yourself, when you already think, oh, I'm 100% gonna win, but the way you present yourself, a little bit different. A little bit of a different tone.

A little bit of a little bit less effort, right? Because we already think we're going to win. Maybe your thoughts are different now. And that means your intent is different. And as we know, your intent has a smell. So we got to watch out for that. In the books, we talk about time we're training with. Actually, I think it's in the books.

But we teach us a lot on front for. Sure. We're task unit bruiser. We're going through close quarters combat training and the master chief that's running the training, great dude. And, you know, I know him and our task units kicking ass. And we're doing a debrief after one of our runs through the house. And he's like, guys, you know what?

This is the best task unit I've seen come through here. And it's like on cue. The next run through the house sucked. It sucked. Why did it suck? Well, because, you know, the, 36 guys all had a little tiny change. A little tiny change in their attitude,

a little tiny change in their focus, a little tiny change in cutting corners, a little tiny change in their attention level, just a little bit, because we're already there. We're the best. And as soon as you take 36 people, by the way, you're doing close quarters combat, you're working together as a team.

And when everyone on a team is doing everything they can, to win and work that that all compounds itself when everyone's not doing everything that they can to win all that adds up to that compounds as well so you know I pulled the master chief sound like hey dude do not please ever say anything like that to the troop again like we can't handle this no one can handle this so I'm not going to say this those words are not going to come out of my mouth now this doesn't this is not a lack of confidence And you know, we did that podcast a while back where I was talking about the moment of execute, just prior to the moment of execution, I'm going to be a little bit cocky.

I'm going to be my confidence level is going to go high. Like if I'm getting ready. I just was out hunting. I was hunting white tail out in Iowa. Oh, yeah. And, you know, you're waiting in a tree stand or a blind for 14 hours a day. Waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting. All of a sudden, boom.

And actually, what it is, if it was all of a sudden, if it was, if it was in three seconds, you wouldn't have time to think about it, like you're watching a buck come in. You have time, it takes, in this particular case, for me, it was the whole thing was probably over in a minute. Like, from the time I saw this buck, coming to our field of view, the whole,

the shot was taken in probably 45 seconds to a minute. Like, that's how long I had to think about it. But that's actually a long time. Like you see it coming, he's 280 yards away, and he's walking down. and looking around and walking down. So you know the chances that you're taking a shot are pretty high because he's walking in your direction.

So you can definitely get into like a panic mode. And you actually can, there's a name for that. There's an actual name for it. Buck fever. You heard this name before, right? From you. Okay, yeah. Buck, it's a real thing that has a name.

It has a name because people freak out. I was talking to. Who's I talking to? I was just talking to somebody, one of my archery buddies, and he was saying like, he was getting ready to take a shot and he was looking at the broad head of his aeron. He's just like shaking all over the place.

He's freaking just freaking out dude because that's what's happening. Now when I saw that buck right as he started to like walk in I got into the mode of like total confidence you know just like all right I'm about to slay this thing like this is what's happening and not arrogance but just yep I've got this

this is what I practice for I didn't say all these things in my head, but I know, that's what I practice for. I take these shots all the time. This is what I do. Going to go through the protocol, and this thing is done. The same thing in the last.

I didn't get an elk this year, but I think it was last year, same thing. Like, I range this elk. He's at 50.0 yards. I'm like, this thing is done. Like, there's no escape. This thing's going down.

And so you have that at that moment. It's not arrogance, because if you get arrogant, And you won't go through your proper protocol. So we talked about that on this podcast where in that moment, just before the moment of execution, I'm going to get into a hell yeah scenario. Yeah.

You know, hell yeah, this is going down. Yeah, yeah. Hell yeah, I can do this. You're going to go on, you're going to do a presentation, like to a group. You know, I'm not walking on the stage thinking, I hope they, I hope I do a good job. No, I'm walking the stage. Like, I'm about to educate these people and teach them leadership,

a lesson that they're going to learn and it's going to help everything that they're doing. Oh, that's how I'm rolling out. Hey, an hour prior, I'm looking at my notes. I'm going over my stuff. I'm making sure, you know what I mean? So I'm not getting cocky an hour before, and definitely not a day before, but in the moment of execution, I'm going to get a little bit cocky. But prior to that last, you know, putting your night vision goggles down, like when I put my night vision goggles down, it's on. I can't be stopped.

Like, I'm going to win. When I knock an arrow on my bow, it's going down. I am extremely confident at that point when I'm getting ready getting miced up to go to talk to people yep I I'm ready on a good day on the mats of justice sure you know what I'm saying because let's face it sometimes you're like yes but on a good day you're going in there like that's probably the difference between a good day and a bad day you're like going in there like oh I'm gonna give these people problems I'm a problem I'm a problem I'm a problem I take that from Dean Lister who uses that terminology Dean will be like if someone gets in this position

here it's a problem and when Dean Lister says something it's a problem it's a real problem so I don't want to I don't want to overlook that fact I'm not saying that this attitude is a lack of confidence I know I can win I know I can win I know we can close this deal I know we can make this happen But it's not guaranteed. It's like we here's an example not oh, we're definitely going to close this deal. It's hey, we have a great opportunity, but we definitely have to execute properly. That's a world of difference. Hey, we need to stay on point to make sure we get this done right.

These are all things that's a small little tiny adjustment and it has a huge impact. Do not tell yourself that victory is assured. It never is. Until maybe you're about in the moment of execution, then you can be a little bit more confident. But up until that moment of execution, until seven seconds before the moment or 30 seconds or one minute, right before execution,

you should say to yourself, I'm going to go crush this thing. Until then, stay humble. Stay on the path. There you go. That's what I got. I agree. Yeah, I heard you.

say that before some very useful or good advice if you will so it's like it's kind of like you because I did that to myself jam myself up I think it added to my superstitions in high school we're playing this Japan football team by the way and we're like they're from Japan they don't really know football like you know and I remember saying out loud right before the first kickoff I was like oh it's over and I remember saying that out loud like to you know my friends were kind of around and we're and I remember because I never I don't use that expression oh it's over but I like said it or whatever and I'm searching my feelings and I'm thinking like I was kind of nervous at the time because there's so much unknown they don't even speak English you know but for some

reason my brain arrived at like these guys can't like beat us they're like from Japan yeah we literally invented football yeah exactly right in fact it's like a whole day football in other places is soccer like they don't know about football like we know and they just obliterated us like kind of bad too yeah because they were doing all kinds of weird stuff they were passing on first down like they were just past and they beat us 30 to either zero or like 30 to six is bad and I remember thinking I know part of it was superstition like because I said it was over but you're you're right about that though it was kind of like hey I wasn't concerned with my the preparation and I wasn't concerned with execution I was like almost concerned with when it's in the bag the celebration

almost kind of a part the part that part you know And you think and you take your whole team and they all take that effort and just it loses a little bit of focus. Just a little bit of focus. Just a little bit of focus. Think about the things that you've done in your life that you got it done.

It took everything you had. Yeah. Whether it was like a tackle, whether it was winning a jiu-jitsu tournament, whatever it was. It took you everything. Yeah. And if you didn't do that, you won to one.

And now you had multiplied, that times the team the whole team yeah then next thing you know it's 36 to zero or 30 30 to six you know so don't let this happen do not do not say it out loud is it superstitious yes it is it is is it is it's like it's like these little micro concepts creep in like you know and they're all mixed together right where you got an element of complacency that comes in 100% there's like an element of focus that you lose on the critical like moments, which moments moment to moment, you know, like you were breaking it down into like, okay, there's preparation and there's a moment before execution where you got to kind of in a way, time that perfectly for it to really land.

And yeah, so you're like taking away the focus off of the important part and putting it on the unimportant part, which is like the outcome that is determined on this execution part of it. So, you know, the outcome essentially takes care of itself when you focus on the execution part of it. And meanwhile, you're taking your focus off of it. It jams you up. And it's most prevalent when it's a whole team. Because if it was like you and you're in a jih Tjitsu tournament and you like slack off for half a second and you get taken down, you're like, okay, I can square my shit away and you can step it up.

No, no, it's not guaranteed. I don't recommend doing this even with individual efforts as well. But you multiply that times a team. Yeah. And it's a problem. Yeah. It's a problem. Yes, sir, it is.

Jack. Some Q&A. Yep, let's get to it. Let's get to it. Okay, Jock, I'm in, I, yeah, yeah, yeah. 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 jaco underground.com and subscribe. And we're doing this to mitigate our reliance on external platforms.

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