Deliberate Development

I find the game of poker interesting. It is a game where you could receive the worst possible hand and still be the winner. The better the hand, the better chance you have to luck your way into success. Life is the same way. Some of us are born into better circumstances than others and can get by for awhile based on this. However, all of us can get ahead if we decide to. When we decide to work hard for the outcomes we want, we WILL succeed. Stop looking at what others have and go get what you want for you.

This is the piece of advice I give so many NCOs. I used to tell them this after they got in trouble and would try to do HUGE things to overcome their transgressions. More often than not, they would come short and look even worse. So, I would tell them to do NOTHING extra. Do the basics and do them perfectly. Then once the spotlight was on another, start expanding and working on ONE extra thing that you can focus on intently. You will eventually become the expert everyone wants to learn from. I have learned this strategy works for everyone and not just those in trouble.

With instant access to any piece of information our heart desires and the ability to order something online and have it at our door in two-days is a great gift of technology. However, this instant access to resources has confused us into thinking everything should be instant. Instead we need to use these gifts to better ourselves. When we put in the work to better ourselves in a deliberate way, we will find success. True success only comes when you put in the work.

What does it mean to have power? I have seen people chase duty titles or rank because of the perceived (or even actual) power. It is curious to see how they act when they are in charge. Do they empower others? Do they demand others to create things for them? We all have worked for that boss who wanted you to use your time and efforts to do something that simply made their lives easier. Power and authority are not given to us to exploit others; we are entrusted with these gifts to move obstacles for our teams to succeed.

We all say we will relax once we accomplish “X”. We either set this goal so high that we have to give all of our effort to achieve it or we get there and feel like it is not enough. To be transparent, I hope one day that my mentoring of others can be become my full time job. I will work daily to get there; however, I constantly remind myself to enjoy the journey. If I get there one day, I will only consider it a success if I enjoyed the ride.