The People, Process, & Progress Podcast - Embracing "Good" by Jocko Willink | FF34

Episode Date: September 10, 2021

Sharing how Jocko Willink's "Good" helps frame my mindset during hard times and how we can all benefit from accepting hardship and looking for the "Good" that comes from it.

Welcome to Foundations Friday number 34, Embrace the Concept of Good by Jocko Willink. And this concept that I'm talking about comes from an episode, a speech, if you will, a concept, a mindset from Jocko Willink where he expresses bad things happen, you don't get the job, and you think to yourself, good. And then insert opportunity there. Now, it's hard to think about that. But for me, years ago, and I mentioned this here, I was inspired by a friend of mine to listen to Jocko. He was the catalyst to get off my butt, stop eating as much like crap.

I still enjoy snacks every now and then or a lot, but exercise every day. Put more into your life and your job and your family to get out of a job that it absolutely did not like. And just make that change, right? And you hear that to embrace your own darkness that you've been exposed to. And certainly over the past almost couple years now, we've all been fed up and frustrated and tired. And I think it's pretty timely. Go to Google. Type good by Jocko Willink and watch the video.

Whether you've lost a job, you're getting back into the workforce because you lost your unemployment benefits, this new vaccine mandate, you've had loved ones get sick, work, whatever, good. There's opportunity. There's opportunity to remember the ones we lost. There's opportunity to think about new professional pathways we want to go down. There's opportunity to think about new professional pathways we want to go down. There's opportunity to think about new ways to exercise. And I'm going to read part of that good transcript that I got just to give you a sense.

And then I really would like you all to go listen to it because I think, as I mentioned, all of us have contributed in some way, I'd like to think, or at least a lot of us, to this country that contributed to Labor Day that I spoke of earlier this week, that we celebrated with this short week. But all of us are facing a lot of stuff. But we're not alone. And if we embrace this concept of good, and it's hard to do sometimes in the face of horrible times, we can accept maybe, okay, good, and then that. So I'm going to read just one small part of this. Oh, the mission got canceled. Good. We can focus on another one. Didn't get the new high speed gear we wanted. Good. We can keep it simple. Didn't get promoted. Good. More time to get better. Didn't get funded. Good. We own more of the company. Didn't get the job you wanted. Good. Go out, gain more experience,

and build a better resume. Got injured? Good. Needed a break from training. Got tapped out? Good. It's better to tap out in training than tap out on the street. Got beat? Good. We learned. Unexpected problems? Good. We have to figure out solutions. That last one I think is particularly pertinent to all the public safety responders, incident management folks in whatever field, and project and program and product managers, people that plan things and do processes and all that stuff. There are going to be unexpected problems regardless of what anybody expects us to be.

Have the perfect plan and the perfect outcome and nothing's going to go wrong and they won't have to change what they do. Well, that's all nonsense. Good. Let's figure out new solutions to do it better, to be more efficient, to be better teammates, to be better leaders, to be better individuals. Start it with effort in the morning, some exercise, some fresh air, and then get into your day.

I thank you for getting into your day a bit with me on this podcast. Over 27,000 people have downloaded or the same person maybe 27,000 times. Either way, I'm grateful for it. Grateful for my teammates in jiu-jitsu this morning really pushing me. If you haven't tried a jiu-jitsu class, I know I'm not the only one in podcast land talking about it, but it's great. Practical stuff. It's hard. Good. Makes your mind and your body harder. Thank you so much, everyone. Stay safe.

Do the best thing you can for public health by washing your hands and Godspeed.