Jocko Podcast - Warrior Kid: Ask Uncle Jake

Episode Date: June 3, 2017

Questions from kids for 'Uncle Jake' from the book 'Way of the Warrior Kid'. Jocko Willink.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

This is episode one of the Warrior Kid podcast. Ask Uncle Jake. Good morning, Echo. Good morning. And we're putting it together this podcast for kids. This is a podcast for kids, specifically. This is a podcast for warrior kids. Based on the book, the way of the warrior kid,

and we're gonna talk about that book and basically answer a bunch of questions that a bunch of kids asked So first of all really quickly if you don't know anything about the warrior kid don't know who uncle Jake is don't know who I am and don't know who echo is really quickly My name is jocco Willink I was born and raised in a little New England town on a dirt road And I joined the Navy when I was 18 years old and I went into the scene SEAL teams and I stayed in the SEAL teams for 20 years I had a great time I love my job I worked with a bunch of great people people that were in the SEAL teams people in the army people in the navy people in the air force and the Marine Corps I fought in the war in Iraq and it was an honor to be there with so many brave men and women and I eventually retired from the Navy and now I have

a business where I teach people about leadership and I live out here in California and I have four kids in my own now Uncle Jake he's one of the characters in the book Way the Warrior Kid and a lot of people think Uncle Jake is me but that is actually not true Uncle Jake is a fictional character which means he isn't real and it but but even though he's not real in real life he's real in my head so when I wrote about him it was very easy for me to write about him because I kind of knew what he was like he's Uncle Jake is kind of the seal that I always tried to be Uncle Jake's better than me he's the the ideal seal meaning that he has the characteristics that I think the best seal would be like

And I was certainly not the best seal. I tried my best, but it's a hard job. And even though I don't know, even though I'm not quite as good as Uncle Jake is, in many respects, in many respects, not even close. But I do know how he thinks. And that's why I think I'll be able to answer some of the questions that people had for Uncle Jake. And then lastly, Echo Charles. He is a friend of mine from Jiu Jitsu. Who is really good with computers and video cameras and voice recorders and he helps make all these podcasts and the reason that

We know each other is from training Jiu Jitsu which he's been training for a long time in Jiu Jitsu and that's how we know each other and he has two little warrior kids of his own how old are they echo Currently nine months and four years Little kids one girl and one boy I have Three girls and one boy and one boy and one boy and and my oldest girl is about to graduate from high school and my youngest daughter is in second grade so that's my that's who I am and like I said this is a podcast for kids and you all sent a bunch of questions and I definitely appreciate it I appreciate that you all you kids put pictures of yourselves doing a bunch of things that are good for you reading a book which is awesome you sent pictures of you doing pull-ups, doing push-ups, studying, making times tables, all those things. And I really enjoyed seeing all these kids doing all those things that are good. A lot of times you hear about kids doing things that are bad.

And this was a complete opposite of that kids doing things that were good. So I got a bunch of questions and I'm going to just try and answer them as quick as I can. Thank you for asking them. So here we go. I'm going to get right into it. Nathan wanted to know when the next Warrior Kids book is coming. It's coming in May of 2018. Benedict wanted to know how many books I have and how many I've read already.

I have a lot of books. I don't know the number, but I have a lot of books. I read books all the time. And when I went to college, I actually studied English, which means I read even more books. I didn't keep all those books. I kept some of them the ones that I liked I kept the ones that I didn't like I got rid of them and But right now I would say I have a few hundred books and I've read probably a little bit well probably around half of them Some of them I only refer to but yeah the more you read the smarter you get so keep reading Next how does a seven-year-old deal with bullying physical bullying and being left out of groups

So this is the best way I think you deal with bullying. Do pull-ups. That's one thing. Do jiu-jitsu. Study, learn, read. And with all those things, the better you get at those things, the more confident you'll be, than the more confident you are, the less bullying occurs. Now, sometimes you're going to get bullied.

Everybody's going to get bullied. I got bullied when I was a kid. It happens. There's always, and I even see adults that get bullied. Even it's not quite the same, but some people have a boss that's a bully or they're in a relationship with a girlfriend or a boyfriend or a husband and wife and they can be bullies. So bullying happens all the time and you you got to learn to deal with it. But some of the best things you can do is try and make yourself better by working out, by studying, by learning.

And those things will help you gain confidence. And when you gain confidence, there's less bullying. Now, as far as being left out of groups, that's not that big of a deal. Because you know what? It's okay to be alone sometimes. And if there's some people that are out there that don't want to hang around with you, find some other people to hang around with. And if there's no one to hang around with, that's okay too.

Go hang around with a book. Go hang around with a pull-up bar. That's okay. It's not always fun, but sometimes that's the way it has to be. Sometimes there's no kids around that are interested in the same things as you. So that's no big deal. All right next question do you get a lot of owies Uncle Jake? Well yes I do get some owies sometimes Well Uncle Jake rarely gets hurt jocco me I get hurt sometimes right now I have a broken

knuckle which is bothering me I cut my foot last night for no reason which is bothering me And I have a little tweaked knee that's what's going on with with jocco right now Uncle Jake gets hurt a little less than jocco but everyone get hurt everyone's a human and who taught Uncle Jake to be a warrior kid when he was four years old and those questions are from Zachie we're gonna get into Uncle Jake and how he grew up but Uncle Jake wasn't born a warrior he wasn't born a warrior kid he had to become a warrior kid and he kind of talks about that in the book he couldn't do a bunch of pull-ups before he joined the military he couldn't do a bunch of poems he had to learn he didn't know to be smart he had to

learn how to study so we'll talk about that in some of the future warrior kid books next up how often could you have a treat without falling for the sugar coated lies and that's from Durham age 11 sometimes you can have treats for sure and you just have to make sure that you're not going overboard and going crazy with the Snickers bars and the Cheetos echo knows that that I eat Cheetos sometimes yes they have bags of Cheetos in our in our office where we record this and so sometimes I grab a bag of Cheetos And the thing is, you just got to be careful

that you don't go overboard with stuff. So if you want to have an occasional, make sure that you earn it. That's one thing I like to do is I like to make sure that I earn it, meaning I'm going to work out hard before I delve into the sugar-coated lies. Just be careful.

Good way to look at that and how I go over it with my daughter is things like Cheetos and M&Ms and all these things. They make you weak. Other fruits make you strong. So, yeah, if you eat a bunch of strong food, if you have some Cheetos, sure, it's going to make you weaker,

but you'll still be strong overall. Yeah. So it gives them an idea, you know, of like eating a bunch of strong food, you're still going to maintain that strongness. Right, right. And then, okay, so every once in a while you can have some weak foods, but you'll still be strong. The more weak foods you have the weaker you're going to get.

Yes, and you don't want to let the weak foods be more than the strong foods because then you're going to be weak instead of being strong. Yeah. Or even because you eat a bunch of strong foods, you get all strong, and then you eat a bunch of weak foods, then now you're back to zero. Yeah, we don't want to be zero. No. We don't.

All right. Levi sent a video question. That was pretty funny. And a good question. How many pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, burpees should I be able to do by the end of summer? And I had to ask him back, how many can you do right now? And he said he could do five pull-ups, 14 push-ups, 36 sit-ups, and he didn't know how many burpees. And so I answered him back and said he should try for 12 pull-ups, 35 push-ups, 60 sit-ups, and 30 burpees in two minutes.

And he said, thanks for helping with his exercises. So that's something that everyone is going to want to know. Is how many should I be able to do? Well, it's as many as you can. And you're always working to try and get one more. That's what I'm always doing. So if you can do four, hopefully next week you can do five. Once you can do five, hopefully the week after that you can do six.

You're always trying to build and get stronger. And what's really nice about being a kid is it's a year able to keep getting stronger and stronger and stronger for years and years and years. Once you're an old man like me, then it's harder to make those gains. Yeah. But that's okay. We still keep working because otherwise we start going backwards and we don't want to do that No next one from Colin I'm 14 so I guess I'm still considered a kid Love to know what would happen if you ever took a day off from your routine

I guess he means by my routine working out and getting up early and if that happened You know I would just have to get back on the routine the next day and I think what you have to watch out for is You take a day off and then that turns into two days off and then that turns into a week and then that turns into a month and then the next thing you know you've been off your routine and you're getting you're not getting stronger you're getting weaker you're not getting smarter you're getting dumber you don't want that you beat next one you beat the sun up every morning what time do you go to sleep and how important is rest and nutrition to a warrior kid rest and nutrition is really important and you should

sleep a lot that's what makes you recover that's what helps you grow especially kids that are still growing, you need to get as much sleep as you can. So go to bed. I'll tell you when you go to bed. Go to bed when you feel tired. And a lot of times these days, that means putting away the iPhone and the iPad and stuff that keeps you awake for no reason. Put those things away and go to sleep because when you're going to sleep, you're getting

stronger. Next one. My little warrior wants to know if all kids have to train Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Are there other options? She's in another sport for 10 hours a week. well the most important thing and that's great is that she's training and she's training hard and there's all kinds of sports and all sports are good for you and it's good to train hard in sports and it's good to focus on sports so you don't have to train jiu jitsu to be a warrior

that being said if you get the chance try and take a little jiu jitsu and i'll tell you why because one thing that jih Tijitsu will give you that other sports won't give you is the means to defend yourself and stand up for yourself if someone's picking on you or bullying you. So it is important to train jiu-jitsu, but if you're training really hard in other athletics, you might not be able to do as much as you want. But that's okay. Just try and squeeze in a little bit so you know how to take care of yourself and defend yourself. It's good for autonomy as well.

So like if you play team sports, there is this element. This is a good thing, by the way, that where people are depending on you to do your job, you're depending on other people to do their job so you can collectively win in jiu-jitsu or track, which there's a small element of that, but mainly it's the... It's you. You have to go in, you have to take it upon yourself

to get the job done for you. And it's essentially all on you, and you learn that. So if you play team sports the whole time, you get less of that. There is that in team sports for sure, but it's more prevalent in jiu-jitsu or wrestling or track,

something where you're, it's just you. Just you. Yeah, those are good sports. Very intense. Yeah. Very intense sports. And you like I said you learn how to defend yourself

Next one Bennett from Michigan wants to know uncle Jake Why did you want to be a Navy SEAL? Well Uncle Jake always wanted to be some kind of commando ever since he was a little kid And as soon as he figured out what the SEAL teams were That's what he that's what he said to go for Next one uncle Jake my son McCoy wants to know when you will have your own TV show I don't know, but we do have right now the first Warrior Kid podcast. So we'll see what happens with a TV show.

I would rather have a bunch of kids reading books rather than watching a TV show. Next, Anderson turns eight today and asks what would win karate or jiu jitsu? And the answer to that question is jiu jitsu, actually. That's been gone over a bunch of times. Now there's a bunch of good stuff you get from karate too. You learn a lot about discipline in karate. You learn some good striking in karate, so that's good too. But if you can, try and train some jiu-jitsu as well so that you learn some grappling.

It's a different type of fighting. And when you put pure striking, which is punching and kicking each other against pure grappling, most of the time it's the grappler that wins. Next one. How do you be a warrior? Well, we talk about that a lot in the way of the warrior kid book. and Uncle Jake explains to He explains to Mark exactly Well, kind of not exactly, but he explains to him what a warrior kid is

And he and he explains to him in a pretty good paragraph I just opened up the book here's what here's what a warrior kid is A normal kid doesn't push himself a warrior kid does a normal kid doesn't work constantly trying to improve himself a warrior kid does all these problems that you cried about yesterday mark a warrior kid wouldn't cry about those problems a warrior kid would do something about those problems so those are some of the things that a warrior kid does also if you read the code that mark writes at the end of the book of what it's like to be a warrior and his he makes his own warrior kid code that he's going to live by

that the rules that he's going to have and those are very good rules to be a warrior and I think I think mark did a great job of of coming up with those rules and I'll tell you what they are number one the warrior kid wakes up early in the morning number two the warrior kid studies to learn and gain knowledge and asks questions if he doesn't understand number three the warrior kid trains hard exercises and eats right to be strong and fast and healthy number four the warrior kid trains know how to fight so he can stand up to bullies and protect the weak

Number five, the warrior kid treats people with respect and helps out other people whenever possible. Number six, the warrior kid keeps things neat and is always prepared and ready for action. Number seven, the warrior kid stays humble. Number eight, the warrior kid works hard and always does his best. Number nine, I am the warrior kid. So that's What being a warrior is Especially for a kid

Next Hi Uncle Jake my name is Chris I'm eight years old I go to jiu jitsu class every week How can I get better the bigger kids always beat me Well that's what happens in the beginning of jiu jitsu When you first start off jiu jiu jitsu you get beat all the time It happened to me when I was starting jiu jitsu And it happens to everyone when they start jiu jihitsu

You get beat And the way that you get beat and the way that you get better is by keeping training keep training all the time as much as you can and that's how you get better and eventually what's good about jiu-jitsu is when you know more jiu-jitsu than the other person you can still beat them even if they're bigger than you so that's why I really like jiu-jitsu next my son wants to know why no matter what the situation or problem mark has uncle Jake always says good so the reason that uncle jake always says

good when there's a problem is because he always looks at things in the most positive light. And when he sees things, other people might see something as a problem, he sees them as a challenge that he can overcome. And that's why when he sees a problem, he just says, good. Let's find a solution to that problem. Next, hi, Uncle Jake. My nephew Lincoln is a military kid, second grader, loves your book. What would Uncle Jake tell Lincoln about being sad when his friends move away?

Okay, so when your friends move away, one thing that's good is that when they're moving away, you can still talk to them. You can write them letters. You can write them emails. So it's no problem when friends move away. And then the other thing that's good about when friends move away is it gives you the opportunity to make new friends. So go shake some hands with some new kids and get to know them. Next, would you ever consider making this book into a movie?

And is there ever going to be a part two? Yes, there's going to be a part two. A movie, that's not up for me to decide. I'm sure someone will want to make it into a movie. Make it into a cool cartoon. Maybe a cartoon. We'll have to see. Rebecca asks, what time should a nine-year-old get up?

And first of all, you need to go to bed early enough that you get plenty of sleep. And then you need to get up early enough in the morning that you are ready for the day. and if you're going to try and do some kind of exercise in the morning, got to get up a little bit earlier. And if you need to get up and do some extra studying, you've got to get up a little bit earlier. So, you know, get up early enough that you can have a good start to the day. That's what you want to do.

Next, what is your, what is Uncle Jake's favorite gun to shoot? Uncle Jake's favorite gun to shoot is the 50 caliber machine gun, which is a big, heavy machine gun. And it's very fun to shoot. Next, Jackson from Ohio says, asks Uncle Jake, how can I be a better gentleman? It's a great question. And the answer to that is,

treat people how you would like to be treated. So if you follow that rule, and that basically boils down to a word that we use called respect, You treat people with respect. In other words, you treat them how you would like to be treated. That's a great way to be on the path to becoming a better gentleman. Next, would Uncle Jake have treated the kid the same if Mark was a girl? Or would he have let up?

Well, the answer to that is Uncle Jake would have done the same. Treated if Mark was a girl and her name was Marcia instead of Mark, Uncle Jake would have done the same thing. Taught Marcia how to do pull-ups, taught Marsha how to study, taught Marsha how to defend herself. All the problems that Mark has in the book are the same. I have three girls that are as kids, three girls and one boy. They all have had the same problems. So Uncle Jake would have done the same thing?

And it says, would he have let up? And the answer is no, Uncle Jake would not have let up because that wouldn't have helped her. Next. I'm eating good, but any tricks or tips to eat fast. It's an interesting question in the military you learn to eat very fast First of all there's no reason to eat faster you can take your time and it's probably better to take your time when you eat If you are taking too much time you're probably doing something else while you're eating like talking So stop talking and eat my daughters asked if mark in the book is named after mark Lee

Yes Mark Lee was a seal that was worked with me in Iraq and he He was killed in Iraq and yes, Mark in the book is named after Mark Lee. It's another way for me to make sure people remember Mark. Next. What can a kid say if kids use too much social media to convince their words to limit use in their free time? Well, if your friends are using too much social media, I think what you want to say to him is, hey, let's go play some basketball.

go do some pull-ups let's go wrestle let's go do some jiu-jitsu let's go find bugs in the yard let's put that computer screen away and let's go get better that social media stuff is not making you a better person next nine-year-old girl that struggles to make friends at school and sometimes feels left out well like I said earlier it's hard for people to make friends and sometimes the people that are around aren't going to be the best friends with you and that's okay I know different grades that I had different classes that I had I didn't always have a bunch of friends in them sometimes it was hard to get along with people sometimes

they were interested in things that I wasn't interested in and what I would do in those times is just find something that I am interested in and I would go and do it so if you're having trouble making friends go find a book read a book go look at what they're doing maybe they're playing a game that you haven't played before and you're a little bit shy about getting involved in it don't be shy about it walk over and say hey can someone teach me that can someone help me learn this and if you open up the conversation if they're nice to you maybe you make a new friend if they're not try and find someone else that maybe is doing

something else that you could be interested in so I think a lot of times kids when you're a kid and I know I felt this way when I was a kid you feel like you should always have people around and if you if you're alone maybe it's not a good thing but it's okay it's okay to be alone it's okay to spend some time yourself you don't always need friends everywhere its friends are great and it's great when you make them but you can't force people to be your friends so I always found it comfortable or comforting that if I was by myself I was okay with it and I don't feel bad about it next how can I this is from Benjamin how can I

discipline myself to work out every day and I have a lot of adults ask me this question too and you know how you discipline yourself to work out every day you discipline yourself to work out every day there's no magic trick it's not easy you get up and you work out and you do it every day that's how you do it no magic trick there what kind of workout routine for mark and pull-up program well what if you want to do pull if you want to get good at pull-ups the best thing to do is pull-ups you do lots of pull-ups if if you have a choice between doing sprints and long runs I like to do sprints more so all these things you know

don't get caught up around kids don't get caught up around doing some specific program that's what your parents are all concerned about I want to get told the program to do what you do is you just do a bunch you do eight sets a set is when you get on the pull-up bar and you do as many as you can do that eight times do it ten times do it four times do it six times and then do as many push-ups as you can and do that three or four times Maybe five times. So don't get caught up on the program.

Just go do some stuff. It's not that hard. It's, well, I shouldn't say it's not that hard. It can be hard when you start working out and you're going to get tired. And that's one thing that you do need to do. When you get tired,

go a little bit more. That's what working out is. When you get tired, go a little bit more. So go do, you know, I like to say eight to ten sets of pull-ups, eight to ten sets of push-ups.

Do some squats. Do some burpees. One thing that's good with burpees is do many purposes you can in two minutes see how see how many you can do do that do that do that do that every few days maybe do that do that on Tuesdays and Thursdays many burpees as you can in two minutes on the other days do some pull-ups do some push-ups next what should middle school young men ages 11 to 13 be working on to prepare to become a productive young man hmm well these are really easy to answer

study learn learn as much as you can work Work hard, work out, be nice to people, make friends, read. Those are the kind of things you do. The other question about social media, that's not going to help you become a productive young man. What made you know what you wanted to do in life? So like I said earlier, Uncle Jake, he always wanted to be a commando. Next. My kid cares about other kids, even the bullies.

He doesn't tattle but doesn't stick up for him. himself how can he grow confidence and courage again people want to grow confidence and courage confidence and courage don't grow on trees confidence and courage grow from work from working from working out from studying from learning from participating in sports that's where you get confidence and courage from so try all those things out a four-year-old girl says how are you doing uncle jake uncle jake is doing really good right now and a six year old boy says did any of your friends die in the Navy and yes uncle Jake lost some friends very close friends while he was in the seal teams that's part of being in

the military in the military your job is to fight a war and in war people die and it's very sad and very tragic and also it's the job of the soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines to go out and fight next Uncle Jake, how long has Uncle Jake been in the Navy? In the book, Uncle Jake has been in the Navy for eight years when he goes to stay at his sister's house, who's Mark's mom. Nine-year-old son wanted to know if Uncle Jake ever wanted to quit during training. No, Uncle Jake never wanted to quit.

And a nine-year-old girl says, how can I get over not doing things perfectly? I get so frustrated when I don't do something perfect. Oh, that happens to a lot of people. And what you do with that is, you have to realize that wanting things to be perfect is imperfect. You're not perfect if you want everything to be perfect. And also, if you're trying to do everything perfect, you'll never get anything truly done because you can't do anything perfectly in the world. So look to be, look to do a great job.

look to do an outstanding job, look to do an excellent job. But when you're going for perfection, it's going to be too hard to do. Next, how does Mark work on self-awareness and frustration outside of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu? Well, when you get frustrated, you have to realize, you have to realize the things that you do when you start getting frustrated. So if you start tensing up your arms or you start gritting your teeth or you start getting tears in your eyes, you have to realize what? What's happening? You know those tears in your eyes are just frustration and the and when you start getting all red in the face That's just frustration. So what you have to do is realize that you're getting frustrated and then take a step back

Take a deep breath think about something else relax so that you don't let that frustration take over your brain Next eight-year-old girl asks was Uncle Jake bullied or a wimp like Mark? And the answer is yes. All little kids are getting bullied. It happens to, well, it happens to just about it. Maybe not every single kid in the world, but most kids get bullied, especially when you're 10 years old.

When you're 10 years old, there's always going to be somebody that's bigger and stronger than you. And, you know, anyone that's 12 years old is bigger than you. They're stronger than you. Even a lot of times smarter than you because they've learned a little bit more. Next. Is Echo going to make any movies about Mark? He made one little short movie about Mark.

I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen with that. We'll definitely make more books about Mark. Okay, a kid, Lucas, that wants to be a seal, same answer. You want to be a seal? The advice is, study hard, work hard, train hard, be a good kid. Don't get in trouble. Do the best you can in school.

Play some sports. Study hard. That's it. Okay. This boy is three and a half years old and wants to take Jiu-Jitsu, but the school doesn't allow it until six years old. So the question is, should he go and watch or take kid karate? What do you suggest?

I would say definitely let him come watch. Maybe once a week. Just let him go there and be on the mats and see what it's like. And then, yeah, if they've got a karate kid, if they've got a karate kid, if they've got a karate program that he can get into until he can start jiu-tzu i think that'd be good for him so would wrestling a lot of times if you can find wrestling they start a little bit younger and same thing with judo maybe you can find a judo program they start him a little bit younger i would do wrestling first then judo second and then do those when he's younger until he can get old enough for jiu-jitsu

how do you stand up to a bully it's all in the book way the warrior kid you got to train hard you got to work hard you got to be in good shape you've and then you got to stand your ground And guess what? It doesn't mean you're going to win. You might not win. I know, this is Jocko. Jocko got beat up when I got my first fight. I got beat.

And I got putting a headlock, taken down to the ground. I think I was in fourth grade. And taken down to the ground, held in the headlock, and punched in the head. Luckily, it didn't last too long because the teachers were pretty close. So I stood up to the bully. And I got taken down and putting a headlock. And punched in the head. You know what, though?

I didn't die. And I felt good about it. I was okay with getting punched in the head. And a lot of times, bullies, you know, just like in the book, bullies, the reason they're a bully is because they're mean and, but no one ever challenges them. So once they get challenged, a lot of times they will back down. Can you teach me to face my fears? Well, again, we have things that we're afraid of.

We're afraid of them because we don't understand them. So prepare as much as you can do as much as you can to get ready for that thing that you fear and Then when you've practiced the thing that you fear the final step you have to do just like in the book is you have to step You have to you have to go for it. That's what you eventually have to do Can you teach me how to recognize things that aren't good like poison ivy and stuff? That's from Emma these questions were all from Emma Yeah Emma I can't teach you because I'm on a podcast right now, but luckily there's so many good books out there and you can make little flashcards, just like Mark does in the book

with pictures of all the bad stuff out there in nature. And that way you know what poison ivy looks like. Let's see. Most important thing about being a warrior kid, I think the most important thing about being a warrior and a warrior kid is to be humble. And to be humble means you don't think you're the best thing in the world.

We shouldn't think that. The minute that you think that, you aren't trying to get better anymore. You aren't trying to improve yourself. You're treating people poorly because you think you're better than them. So there's a key word. It's called humility.

And you always want to stay humble. 11-year-old that wants to go towards a goal of being a seal. Same thing. Work hard. Work out. Study hard. Favorite Brazilian jiu-jitsu move for Uncle Jake. What do you think Uncle Jake's favorite Brazilian jiu-jitsu move is?

I think it's the rear naked choke. I haven't confirmed this yet. And Uncle Jake joined the next. Navy after he got done with high school. He was 18 years old. Oh, Lucas wants to be a seal or a ranger. But he has a hard time controlling his temper and following orders from his superior. Uncle Jake would say that in the SEAL teams and in the Rangers, if you have a bad temper,

you're not going to make it. And you know what? A lot of kids have bad tempers. I had a bad temper when I was a kid. And at some point, you got to realize that that bad temper is not good. And so what you have to do is learn to control your temper. So it's what I talked about earlier. If you start feeling that temper, if you start feeling your face getting red and you start

feeling those tears coming in your eyes, you got to say to yourself, oh, I'm losing my temper. I'm actually being weak right now by losing my temper. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to take a breath. I'm going to step back. I'm going to calm down. Even if you have to walk away and go in your room for a minute and just sit down and take a breath and get control of your temper. And the older you get, the better you'll get at controlling your temper.

And then as far as following orders from your superiors in the military, seal teams, rangers, you absolutely have to listen to the people that you work for. And it's the same thing in the civilian sector. So a good way to practice that is by listening to what your parents say. Now, you might not think what your parents say, you might not feel like doing it. You might not feel like cleaning your room. So it's good practice to look at your dad when he says to clean your room and say, no problem, dad. I got it.

That's good practice for when you get in the military. Now, you should also have a conversation with your dad and say, hey, dad, why is this important? And have them explain it to you. So that way you're more of a team than just your dad barking orders at you. Once you understand why it's important, that will help you get motivated to do the job that's in front of you. And we got a bunch of questions from a guy named Mike Hurley. Mike Curley from, he's a teacher. So I'm going to have to go through these pretty good.

pretty quickly. First one is from, I think this one's from Mike as well. How did you get the idea of writing Way of the Warrior Kid? A lot of the kids' books that I read went from my own kids. I didn't like them very much. Do I have any new books coming out?

The new book is coming out in May of 2018. Favorite book I have written. Well, I've only written two books so far. One is called Way of the Warrior Kid, which is for kids. And the other one is called Extreme Ownership, for adults and I like them both did I relate to Mark when I was younger yes I think that's one of the reasons why this book is so popular is because everyone can relate to Mark there's no one that woke

up and when they were when they were 10 years old they were the best at everything no everyone has problems with different things what inspired me to become an author I wanted to kind of teach some of the lessons that I had learned let's see Kay asks how to improve your grades in math, how to improve your marks. You've got to study. That's the thing. Just like Mark in the book. He didn't study his times tables and therefore he didn't know them.

So make your flashcards and study. And then the other big thing that I learned from being in the Navy is when you don't understand something, you have to ask the question in class. You have to ask your teacher. You know why you don't want to ask it? Because you're embarrassed. Because you feel if I ask this question, that means I'm stupid. And people will laugh at me.

It's not true. And even if they do laugh at you, you know what? It doesn't matter. Because when you take the test, you're going to do better. So don't be embarrassed to ask questions. Ask questions and study hard. Next, what mental challenges did you face training to be a Navy SEAL? Well, there's all kinds of challenges that you face trying to become a Navy SEAL.

And I'm trying to think of my personal ones. well there's a bunch and the biggest thing for me is I wasn't great at anything I wasn't the fastest runner I wasn't the fastest swimmer I wasn't fastest at the obstacle course I wasn't the best shot with a pistol or rifle so everything for me was hard and I had to work hard at everything that I did and so for me there was never a mental rest some guys they might not be the best runner but they're a great swimmer so during the swim it was kind of easy for him I didn't really have any break so that was probably my biggest mental challenge Next is from a reader. How am I supposed to stop missing one of my friends that live really far away and we've been friends for over five years? Okay. Well, when you miss one of your friends, the best thing to do is write to them, write them letters, call them if you can, write them emails, and keep in touch with them. And it's normal to miss your friends when they leave. So you shouldn't even try and stop missing them.

Just write them letters, tell them what's going on, and maintain contact with them. Next, Uncle, dear Uncle Jake, you are so wise, you are the only person who knows the answer to this question. How do I stop eating junk food? I can't stop, help me. So, actually, the only person that can stop you from eating junk food isn't Uncle Jake. It's you. It's you.

You're the one that has to stop eating junk food. And the way you do it isn't as hard as you think. Actually, it's simple. It's not easy, but it's simple. The junk food that you want to put into your food. mouth don't put it into your mouth don't do it you know it's weak food like echo said earlier it's weak food and we don't want to eat that weak food we want the strong food so when it when you get tempted to eat that weak food don't do

it don't do it don't take one bite don't even say I'm just gonna have one cookie instead of four don't have any because once you have one it's oh no so the way that you stop from eating junk food is by stop eating junk food that's what you need to do next why did I write decide to write this story because I thought there was a lot of kids that could learn from it even my own kids that's one of the main reasons I wrote it do I have any other books coming out yes May of 2018 I also have a book coming out it's more of an adult book coming out in October what's the favorite book I've written I already answered that one

what have I ever been in Mark's situation when I was a child yes like I said of course it was hard I couldn't do a bunch of pull-ups I was not one of the stronger kids I had trouble in school sometimes so every I I relate to everything that Mark went through and I saw my own kids go through those same troubles how can I stop eating so much junk food I already answered that stop eating junk food how can I convince my parents to get a puppy now if I could answer that question I'd probably be the most popular person in the world It's really hard because what kids don't realize is that puppies are a huge, huge responsibility and it's I have had dogs a lot in my life and I have kids a lot in my life and I have four kids and I will tell you that the responsibility of a dog is almost as much as the responsibility of having a kid. So it's not really easy to get a to own a dog. So the best thing you can do, I think if you want to commit your parents to let you get a puppy, which is a,

It's just no guarantee. The best thing you can do is be a good kid. Work hard. Show responsibility. Get good grades in school. Help with the chores. Help with the cleaning up. Because the bottom line is when you get a puppy,

there's one big issue with a puppy that no one wants to talk about. And that's puppy poo-poo. Right? What's going to happen? Who's going to clean up the puppy poo in the yard? Is it going to be you? Because your parents don't think you're going to do it. And that's one of the main reasons they don't want to get you a puppy,

because they don't want to pick up puppy-poo. So show that you're responsible. and how can I convince my parents to allow me to be on social media more than I am now? I would say your parents are doing a great job. The social media is not going to help you and don't try and convince them of that. Work on the puppy instead. That's going to be better for you. Next, my brother bullies me and makes me do everything for him.

And if not, he says he will take something from me and hide it or hurt me. Well, you got to negotiate with your older brother. First of all, he's running around being a bully. That's not cool at all. I would talk to your parents about it and say that you're being bullied and tell your parents what's going on. But I would also talk to your brother about it and say, you know, why are you doing this to me? Why are you treating me like this? Do you think it's fun for me?

And if he doesn't seem to care, well, then you might have to go into some kind of guerrilla warfare against you. your brother and start maybe if he wants you to do something for him maybe you don't do it perfectly do it a little bit less than perfect or maybe take a long time to do it and it's really hard it's really hard growing up in a in a house with older brothers and older sisters that bully you so talk to your parents about it and as always start doing a bunch of pull-ups try and learn some jiu-jitsu learn to stand up for yourself study hard and Also, the worst case scenario in this, if you, let's say that you can't stop your brother from bullying you because that's just the way it is and your parents aren't around enough.

You know what you can do from this situation is you can learn from it. You can learn from your brother. By the way he mistreats you, you can learn that you're never going to do that to other people. You're never going to do that to other kids and that you're going to treat people much better than your brother treats you. So even if you can't stop him and he ends up bullying you until he moves out of the house He's taught you such a valuable lesson about life and about human beings That it'll be worth it in the long run

So I know it's tough I know it's hard But learn as much as you can from it and in the meantime also take those steps so that you can stop him Good luck with that buddy. It's a tough one question one. What is the meaning of life? I I guess that you are not playing around with any easy questions for Uncle Jake. Uncle Jake will tell you that the meaning of his life is to try and help other people and try and do good in the world. That's what he's trying to do with his life. How do I stop my friend from laughing so much? I would say if your friend is laughing so much, I don't know why you'd want to stop them.

Unless they're getting in trouble. And if they're getting in trouble, just go sit in a seat that's not a lot. in a seat that's not so close to them in class I had a friend named writer when I was a kid and he would have laughing attacks and he would laugh so hard that he would get kicked out of the classroom and I remember one time he was laughing so hard he got kicked out of the classroom and after about five minutes went by I looked to the door where the window was there was a window in the door to the classroom and his face came up into the into the window he was still laughing hysterically after five minutes So sometimes people laugh and and normally people laugh hard when you're not supposed to That's one of the things that makes laughing hard funny is you're not supposed to be laughing so yeah just move away from him and tell them to calm down or else you can't hang out with them during classes Most push-ups okay no matter how much stress I put on myself the most push-ups I can do is 50 how do I improve just keep doing push-ups if you can do 50 right now do two or three sets of 50 and keep doing push-ups that's how you get better better at any of these things. Can you join the Navy at 12 years old?

No, you can't join the Navy until you turn 18. Let's see. How are we doing on time? Oh, I think we're going to make it. I'm trying to keep this to an hour, everybody, because I know I got a great letter yesterday from a kid that wrote and said, hey, thanks for writing way of the warrior kid and putting all the lessons in it that you talk about on your podcast, but we don't have to listen to your whole podcast,

which gets boring to learn the lessons. So honesty. Yes. Kids are always honest and that's well kids most of the time are honest. What is the question on this one? Was this book a kid and adult guide to becoming strong and healthy because the books talks about things what Mark needs to do to become smart and fit? Yes, that's exactly what the book was for.

The book was a guidebook for kids to become smarter, stronger, faster, and better people. That's what the book is about and also I wish I would have had this book when I was a kid Let's see I have a question about the book I always fight with my brother. What should I do? Well, that's That's a tough one because kids fight with their siblings. I had two sisters growing up and we got in fights all the time and I wish I could go back and be more mature Because I was you know a kid and when you look back you say what was I doing fighting with my two sisters? That's ridiculous So what you need to do is look at the things. This is one thing you can do to start with. Look at the things you're fighting about.

And I can pretty much guarantee that the things you're fighting about are the most silly and ridiculous things. Right. Like what piece of carrot do you get? I want this carrot. No, I want that carrot. And then you're fighting about it. Where are you going to put your head on the couch? Don't put your head near me.

Don't put your foot near me. Right? That's the kind of things that kids fight about. So what we have to do is instead of letting those things annoy you just say you know what he's gonna put his head over here I'm just gonna move my head a little bit there's a great war hero that we had that I talked to named Captain Charlie Plum and he was in the Vietnam War he was a fighter pilot in a Vietnam War and he was shot down and he was held in a prison camp for six years and one of the things that he said if if you can imagine you know you you think it's hard living with your brother because you have to spend, you know, a couple hours a day in the same house,

imagine being in a little tiny prison cell for six years with other people. Day in, day out, 24 hours a day. So what they figured out was if they got mad or they got annoyed at something someone else was doing, they didn't blame the other person. They blamed themselves. So if you don't want to fight with your brother, stop blaming him for being annoying and start blaming yourself for getting annoyed and just try and be a little bit more mature about it. Next, I enjoyed your book. I'm going to middle school and I don't want to lose touch with people.

Hey, if you're, this happens when kids move around, just get out, get their address and start writing letters. That's what you need to do. Let's see. How do you improve in pull-ups? Do pull-ups. How do you improve in running? Run. How do you overcome your fears?

talked about that one. You train, you practice, and then you face them. And what are healthy foods other than milk? I think the key thing with healthy foods is to eat things that are made by nature, not by man. So if it comes in a big plastic package in a box and when you look at the list of ingredients, it's 147 words that you can't pronounce, that's the thing you got to watch out for. But if it's a carrot or it's an orange or it's a steak or it's a piece of chicken and the ingredients in the chicken are chicken and the ingredients in the steak are steak and the ingredients in the fish is fish and the ingredients in the in the lettices lettuce those are the things you want to try and eat those are the healthiest things major question for uncle jake need more money for fidget spinners anime merch hockey and robux but my parents won't let me have money for it what should i do really easy get a job not that's

What's what you do when you need money you get a job you don't get things for free you have to work so if you need money for all these ridiculous things that you want to spend it on which by the way they're all ridiculous you should save your money for some things like pull-up bars or just save your money for your future save it for when you go to college But you're not going to get your your parents aren't obligated to give you money for junk which is what you want it for your parents are actually smart for not giving you money I wouldn't give you money to buy that junk so if you want money get a job mowing lawns, pulling out weeds, throwing newspapers, whatever it is you got to do. But if you want to buy junk, you got to do it with your own money, not your parents. Next question. If someone's too lazy to get up in the morning and doesn't want to get woken up by someone who's smashing utensils or anything in your eardrum, what is a more easier way to get up?

What is an easier way to get up? And you are talking about yourself. That's from R. Well, what you need to do in those situations is get an alarm clock. And when the alarm clock goes off, get up and get out of bed. And if you still feel tired in the morning, then you need to go to bed earlier at night. So it's never easy to get up in the morning. Getting up in the morning is hard.

That's why it's such an edge over normal people. Because normal people, well, they want to sleep. They want to sleep and sleep and sleep. And when you sleep, you're not being productive. Now, of course, you need sleep. It's good for you to sleep. You're going to be stronger. The more you sleep, the stronger you're going to be.

But if you sleep and you don't work out and you sleep and you'd miss your schoolwork and you sleep and you're just being lazy, that's not going to be good for you. So get an alarm clock, set your alarm clock. When your alarm clock goes off, get up and get out of bed. How do I stop eating food that's not healthy? You stop eating the food that's not healthy. That's it.

Also tell your mom. Another thing, for those of you who are asking this question, tell your mom and dad not to buy that food. You don't want it in the house. That's what you need to do. Tell your parents, you don't want the ice cream in the house. You don't want the Cheetos in the house. You don't want the, what's another good one, Echo? You don't want the chocolate chip cookies in the house now if you're out and you just had a nice

You know at ball game and you play to baseball or you played a soccer game or a football game And your mom stops at a shop on the way home and says hey son you played a great game you want a chocolate chip cookie and you go Yeah, that sounds good little reward. That's okay. That's great But if you have those chocolate chip cookies in your house and you just got done playing two hours worth the video games and you're feeling a little bit hungry so you go in the kitchen there's a chocolate chip cookie box and you eat nine of them that's not good so don't do that or soda well yeah soda is horrible you shouldn't you should beg your parents not to bring soda in the house if there if your if your parents bring

soda in the house you should say oh do you not like me because why are you feeding me this this is poison don't feed me poison I want water just bring me some water mom and dad please let's see how to start a good habit such as working out you start working out okay next how old was uncle Jake when he joined the seal teams he was 18 can you join at 10 years old no how was uncle Jake's experience in the seal teams he loved it all uncle Jake I have a question for you how do you get stronger and not get bullied already answered that one You work out

You train Jiu-Jitsu you train boxing you train wrestling you train judo And you stand up to those bullies Like I said Not always gonna win But you'll win in the long run Five year old wants to know why you have to do pull-ups to be a warrior kid You don't have to do pull-ups to be a warrior kid But pull-ups is a great exercise

Like there's some people that maybe they have some issue Or that maybe they got a hurt shoulder or a heart shoulder or a heart hurt arm and they can't do pull-ups and that's okay you can still be a warrior kid but if you if your arms are healthy and you can do poops they're a great thing to do because it means you can handle your own weight it means you can carry yourself it means you can take care of yourself so that's why pull-ups are a great a great exercise and they're also I've read a lot of stuff that if kids can do pull-ups it it it helps their overall health so pull-ups are great for you it's a great exercise if you can do

them do them if you're injured or you've got some kind of an issue where you can't do them try and find a different exercise that you can do and focus on that one next questions from six-year-old boy McGee is Uncle Jake real no Uncle Jake is a fictional character how old is uncle Jake uncle Jake in the book is I think about 26 years old and what keeps Uncle Jake moving during really hard times when the going gets tough for Uncle Jake you know what Uncle Jake does he actually enjoys it. He knows he's being challenged, and so he pushes himself.

Next, when you're working out and feeling under the weather, should you still give 100%? Well, actually, if you're feeling sick, maybe it's time for a little rest. If you just don't feel 100%, like maybe you're feeling a little tired, a little mopey that day, still get in there. And you're not going to be able to give 100% every day. No one can give 100% every day. You'll run out a percent. So you've got to save some of that percent. So you can't give 100% every day, but give what you can.

Do what you can. Get in there and make it happen. How is Uncle Jake doing in college? Uncle Jake is doing outstanding in college. Did Uncle Jake respond to Mark's letter? Yes, he did. And what was his response? You'll find out in May when the next book comes out.

How Uncle Jake's knows so many languages. and how does he know the warrior code in the book? Uncle Jake studies languages. When you're in the military and you go to other countries, a lot of times you'll study the language that they speak there so you can communicate with the local people. So that's how Uncle Jake knows a little bit of a lot of different languages. And how does he know the warrior codes in the book?

He studies and reads about the past and reads about history and reads about what other warriors were like so that he can figure out what they did well so he can do the same thing. How many pull-ups can Uncle Jake do? Uncle Jake can do 75 pull-ups. Has Uncle Jake ever jumped off a bridge into a lake before many times? What was your job in the Navy Seals and what team were you on? Well, this is Jocko.

And Jocko, I was on my job. I started off as a radio man, which I meant I carried the radio. and then I became an officer, which means I would be in charge of a SEAL squad or a SEAL platoon or a SEAL task unit. And then the SEAL teams I was on, I was on SEAL Team 1, Seal Team 2, Seal Team 3, and SEAL Team 7. Question from Warrior Kid Aiden. What kind of workout would you recommend for a 12-year-old boy to get stronger? Push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, squats, squats. And I would do a lot of those like I said eight to ten sets and and that's what you build up to when you first start you might only be able to do three or four sets and then sometimes you do one day you do pull-ups

eight sets of pull-ups the next day you do push-ups eight sets of push-ups the next day you do squats eight sets of squats and just keep working next what is the middle name Uncle Jake's middle name you can have to find that one out in the second book and what was it like to be in the Navy SEALs? Being in the SEAL teams is so fun and it was a great job and I loved every second of it and Uncle Jake loved the SEAL teams as well and It's also a dangerous job So a lot of people think that they want to join the SEAL teams because it's a lot of fun and it looks cool and you get to do cool stuff But you also got to remember it's a very dangerous job and Being it being in the SEAL teams isn't just fun all the time. It's hard work a very hard work and it's a very hard work and it's a very hard work and it's very dangerous sometimes so if it's something that a lot of a lot of kids have been

asking about what do I do to get ready for the seal teams you need to make sure that you have the right attitude about danger because it's a very dangerous job sometimes but it's also a lot of fun will uncle Jake come back to mentor mark in his teenage years yes he will he's gonna mentor him for about six books until he's done with his high school career Let's see, Nolan and Brady ask, how are you so smart? Well, I'm not that smart. Uncle Jake is very smart.

But the way you get smart is by reading. To me, that's one of the most important. Reading and studying. That's how you get smart. So read and study as much as you can. And find books that you're interested in. I read a lot of books about war because I'm very interested in war. But those are the kind of books that I'm interested in.

And there's a lot of books about that. But anything that you're interested in, If you're interested in cars, read about cars and how they work. If you're interested in computers, read about how computers work. If you're interested in space travel, read books about space travel. But the more you read, the smarter you're going to be. Let's see. How can I get my little brother more interested in the story and reading the book if he doesn't like reading that much?

Read it to him. Sit down with him and read it to him. Five-year-old question here. What should I do when my friends don't want to play with me at school? I say you play by yourself. I say you go over and find the pull-up bar. and find a swing set and do things that you can just do by yourself and every once in a while go over and see what they're doing and ask them about it and see if you know if they need anyone else to

play with them and if they don't then that's fine like I said it's it's okay to be alone sometimes and and sometimes kids you know one of the hardest things one of the another reason why I wrote this book is that being a kid is hard and kids can be really mean and when I was a kid I felt both sides of that sometimes I had kids be mean to me and sometimes I was mean to other kids like I said because I was immature and I didn't know. So the older I got, the nicer you can be. But sometimes when you're, you know, six and seven and eight years old, sometimes kids can be really mean. And that doesn't mean you should be mean.

In fact, what it means is you should be nice. So if you got kids that don't want to play with you, that's okay. Spend some time by yourself, look for some other kids that maybe do want to hang out a little bit. What do you do on a daily basis as a Navy SEAL? It's really hard to describe what you do as a Navy SEAL on a daily basis. basis because it changes every day. Sometimes you're parachuting, sometimes you're shooting guns, sometimes you're blowing things up, sometimes you're working out, sometimes you're doing paperwork. Sometimes you're traveling. Sometimes you're going on long patrols, which is like a hike through the

desert or through the jungle or through the mountains. Sometimes you're in the water doing diving. Sometimes you're, it's just a very, it's very hard to describe what you do every single day because it's different every day. And that's one of the things that makes the job very exciting and fun is that you get to do different stuff all the time what tips and tricks would you have for getting up and getting after it when I'm not feeling it that's from Gavin I think that was that was a video one Gavin said he's not feeling it sometimes those are the special days where you actually have to do it so the days when you're not feeling it or the days where you get better the days that you don't want to study those are the days

you get smarter the days that you don't want to work out but you work out anyways those the days you get stronger so when you're not feeling it tell yourself Oh, good. It's an opportunity for me to step up, overcome some weakness, and get better. What made Uncle Jake and Jocco want to be a Navy SEAL? Like I said, always wanted to be a commando. Kids in class want to know what Jake's purposes for going to college. What's his new goal?

Well, Uncle Jake has been an enlisted guy in the SEAL teams. And he wants to become an officer. He wants to move into more of a leadership role. And so what he's going to do is he's going to go to college. he's going to get his degree and then he's hopefully going to go back to the seal teams as an officer so he can be in charge of a seal platoon that's one of his goals the inspiration for mark like I said was mark Lee and that's who he's named after but also mark represents all kinds of kids even myself and my own kids is you know it's like I said it's hard being a kid so mark is a representation of some of the

struggles that kids face and then the struggles aren't going to be the exact same right some kids might be good at math but they're not good at spelling some kids might be good at math and spelling but they can't memorize any history facts so your challenges are going to be different some kids might be good at pull-ups but they're not fast runners some kids might be fast runners but they're not good at throwing a baseball so the challenges are different but how you overcome those challenges are the same and that's through hard work and practice. So that was the inspiration.

And like I said, the Uncle Jake to me was always in my mind just the ultimate seal. And that's what I tried to make him to be like. And Mark was an average kid that's going to do above average things through hard work and through discipline. And so those are the questions that we had for this podcast. and appreciate all those questions that everyone sent me. I know it's a lot of stuff out there, and I know that it was hard for me to go through them all,

but I was really thankful that we got all those questions, and I'm sure we'll have some more questions in the future. Thanks for reading the book. Thanks for showing all those cool pictures of everyone out there, reading the book, and doing their times tables and studying and using flashcards and doing pull-ups. that's great for me to see and like I said I like seeing kids do things where they're getting better So thanks for reading the book and and telling your friends about the book. I appreciate it and most of all

Thanks for training hard. Thanks for studying hard and thanks for working hard to get stronger Smarter faster and better So stay on the path of discipline and keep getting after it Until next time From Uncle Jake and Echo and Jocko. Out.