Ok, which one of you heroes hid my discipline? Seriously? Did I leave it at CIF with my attitude? I know many of you are asking the same question. What happened to that get up at O dark thirty, do more before 9 am than most people do all day, spit shine my boots each night, and Yes Sir all day long discipline? This is one of things that made us who we are, or were.
But, here we are, a few years down the road with a beer belly that could tell a lot of stories of nights gone wild, long hair, a sorry excuse for a beard, and the only PT in sight is a visit to the massage parlor. How did this happen? In Chapter 2, my time in service, I was a beast. In Chapter 3, my life after service, I only smell like a beast. Tell me you haven’t been there. Maybe you are there now.
So, let’s talk about how this happens. First, the building of discipline in Chapter 2. From the moment we enter service, discipline is the foundation of literally everything. Everything we are taught to do involves the application of unquestioned, unmitigated discipline. When your Drill Instructors scream at you to do something, the only thing out of your mouth better be YES DRILL SERGEANT while you perform the task exactly as they have described over and over. It doesn’t matter if your cold, wet, tired or miserable,you do it, by rote, the same way every time. You must have the discipline to do what needs to be done, the way it must be done, whether you want to or not, whether you can or not! This is how we build a fighting force capable of fighting and winning on every battlefield.
I spent a lot of time conducting cold weather and mountain operations in the most extreme and austere of environments. I have trained at -98° with the wind chill; at 20,000 feet above sea level tied to a rope on a 4-foot wide ridge with thousands of feet on either side; rappeled out of a helicopter in winds that were too high. (Judi you should skip this part) The one thing that kept me and my brethren alive, discipline. Dressing up and down as the temperature and level of effort changed. Tying knots with large gloves in the dark. Ten thousand opportunities to die. But, rarely worried because I was disciplined, physically and mentally tough.
In Chapter 1, as I grew up around my hero, the first Sergeant Major Bean, I knew discipline. It applied to our fishing, our hunting, learning to drive and in building a garage. This formed the basis of my discipline.
As I grew up in Chapter 2, I learned discipline from some great leaders. Special Forces Vietnam Veterans, Rangers, Task Force 160 pilots. They instilled it in me through their words and through their actions. As I got to be a junior leader, I got to be the one to teach younger Warriors through my words and actions. I know one West Point cadet, later LTC, remembers my discipline lesson to this day. Then, when I became a senior leader it was imperative that I lived every moment as the shining example of discipline. Not always easy to do as we are all human so I probably had a slip here or there. The act of setting the example of proper discipline is exhausting. Simply exhausting. Everything you do, from training to physical fitness, from eating to marksmanship, from going to the bathroom to briefing leaders, disciplined, period. There are no grey areas, no levels of discipline. A Warrior is simply disciplined. And for those of us who grew up in President Reagan’s zero-defect Army, it was even worse.
And on we go the next chapter in life, Chapter 3, our life as a Veteran. The exhaustion, the daily push to be the perfect Warrior, now doesn’t exist. Oh, we try, in the beginning. We join a local gym, still get up at O dark thirty and cut our lawn with ridiculous perfection. And then it happens. We age and we forget. Our bodies start to break down and we forget why we are still doing 100 pushups before work. We see our new friends partying and enjoying life. And boom, we drink and eat a little more, workout a little less, the lawn looks like it was mowed with a tomahawk missile, we sleep in on the weekends, we shave our face with the same tomahawk missile we mowed the lawn with, and we stop following all the safety rules we beat into our Private’s thick skulls.
I think we all know that this leads to disaster. So, what are we to do? We can’t maintain perfection our whole life. It’s just not feasible or fun. What we can do is maintain a different level of discipline, of perfection. We don’t need to be perfect in Chapter 3. But, we can still be disciplined. We know how good it feels to bring order to our lives, to have discipline, to have a plan, a schedule, a path to each day. Chaos is crazy, order is sanity. My Household 6 will tell you how I feel about order and how it drives her nuts. I can tell you how it prevents me from going nuts.
So, Warriors, let’s bring back some discipline into our lives. I said discipline, not perfection. There are no benefits to being perfect, nor any repercussions for not being perfect. There are rewards for being disciplined though. Let’s remember some of those skills we were taught that helped us be disciplined. First, do it whether you want to or not. That is likely the hardest. This couch I am typing away on seems an awful long way from my next work out. It is closer to my bottle of Jack. But only one of these things are going to kill me.
Maintain your gear in Chapter 3 the same you did in Chapter 2. It’s even more important now than in Chapter 2 because you paid for all of it! So, mow the lawn on schedule, put your clothes away, fix that broken flag pole, tighten up the wheels on your kid’s toy, change the oil in your 4X4. You know what I am getting at. Not only do what you have to do but do it the way it is supposed to be done. The couch, the burger, the whiskey will all wait.
I would be remiss if I didn’t reference Admiral McRaven’s commencement speech at UT in that you are going to make mistakes. You are going to slip up. Lord knows I have. I have focused solely on partying, avoiding PT and just being as undisciplined as possible. Likely a result of the overwhelming and exhausting need to be perfect. A revolt from virtue. But, discipline brought me back. I quit drinking and quit eating so much, got back to regular PT, took more pride in my lawn, my healthcare and hence, my life. I still slip, I’m human. But today I won’t slip, I will go do PT after I proofread this a couple of times. I will eat right tonight and avoid Jack and Bud.
So, be disciplined, at least for today, make mistakes, but accept them as proof you no longer need to be perfect. Don’t beat yourself up over them, it’s exhausting. Do what needs to be done, the way it must be done, whether you want to or not, whether you can or not! And read more of my blog to keep you focused. Until next time!
—SGM DTB—
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