For those who are reading, LAC MINUS means suck less in Latin.

The goal of any big organization and especially the armed forces is to have all the small parts including the people operate at a high efficiency while giving them the least amount of freedom and care possible. If you disagree, you may not have served…

There is a whole book from my pen coming soon on the military, here are a few ideas to make your service more efficient and effective.

• Choose how to do your tasking – You will be given bad orders, confusing orders and bad food. Choose to do the best you can and work within the bounds to make both life and the mission better. This can manifest in various ways, from checking and fixing parts of the radios before a mission without having to be told to do so or leading your troop in calisthenics so if someone is injured while bullets are buzzing overhead, you have not just the spirit but also the spine to carry them to safety.
• Recognize your strengths and weaknesses – We are all perfect for a moment or two but it does not last. Work diligently to improve on your weaknesses, whether they are navigation, using the tech or pointing the gun properly. At he same time, recognize what you do well and invest energy in that too. You never know when your amateur lock picking hobby or rock climbing past will come in handy.
• Listen – People and nature talk to you all the time. People lie and nature has a weird sense of humor as if you are not the center of the universe. People will tell you what they want you to do and you will choose to either act or react. Choose to act by listening and going inside to see what people really mean and also why nature is trying to kill you with that yellow scorpion in your boot. The scorpion is telling you to take better care of your footwear and your feet and people always give you information, Choose what to do about it instead of being reactive and less in control.
• Moments in time – The machine grinds everything including all of us. Take a moment here and there to work on yourself, breathe, stretch, call Carmen and ask her out in advance or just enjoy a moment of silence. These moment accumulate and help keep both sanity and frame.
• Keep private goals – You will hear songs and watch dances of the mission and me. The mission is important and at times critical but to maintain your humanity, keep personal goals such as writing daily, improving on your harmonica or anything else which keeps you sane.
• Replace bad habit with good habits – Everyone is self destructive to some degree and the military brings those traits to the surface with force. If you tend to get angry and scream at people, channel the energy to leading and picking up the pace, If you tend to eat too much on your down time, all a short exercise block before any feeding ritual and wash your hands when possible.
• The gear is just a part of it – It is easy to rely too much on your gun, on your boots or the Gucci nylon that came in the mail. We are naked without our clothes but we are defenseless without the knowledge we are who we are with and without garments or rank.
• It is not over until it is over – There will be good times and bad time, lots of bad times. When the good time are there, enjoy and know they will be over. When the bad times go, dig your way out and remember there may be an end to them.

Also, remember you are not alone, there is power in moving beyond ourselves at times.

Keep safe and keep the gun powder dry.