5 Stupid Simple Habits That Took Me from Jail to an Elite Operator
22 years old, walking out of jail that morning I knew something had to change. I had just spent another night in jail due to excessive drinking.
On top of it all, I had no money and was about to be kicked out of my apartment.
It was a long day that day. A lot of time thinking, and reflecting on the choices that had brought me to this point.
A week later a close friend of mine was killed in a drunk driving accident. That’s when I knew.
I have to get out of here or I am next.
The Military
The decision to join the military was all I could come up with. I started seeing commercials for these elite Special Operations teams. So I talked to a recruiter.
Of course, he tried to talk me out of going that route, told me how hard it was, and gave me the failure rate and a million other reasons why I shouldn’t try. This only made me want to try it more.
So I signed. I had 6 months to prepare.
These are the habits I built and utilized that helped me survive some brutal physical and mental training over the following two years.
Without these, I would have never made it.
1.) Visualization. I started each morning spending five minutes visualizing myself achieving this goal. This created focus and motivation for me right away.
I had read about some of the very difficult things that need to be accomplished from the 100m underwater swim to the 12 mile timed ruck runs through the mountains. I visualized myself accomplishing all of these. When it came time to tackle this, it was no problem.
I had already done it.
2.) Goal Setting. I had my one big goal. Breaking it down into monthly, weekly, and daily goals is what got me there. I created easily measurable goals, that I could tackle each day.
I knew I needed to be running 3 miles in 18 minutes and was currently at 24. 6 months to drop 6 minutes. 30 days to drop 60 seconds. You get the point.
I set these goals for everything.
3.) Silent Reflection. I end each day with a ten-minute session of sitting in silence and recapping my day. What went right? What went wrong? What are 3 areas to improve?
Doing this helped me improve every day. I was ruthlessly hard on myself. I had to be.
4.) Digital Detox. During this initial period, I was unable to pay my phone bill for a few weeks. The best thing that ever happened to me. So good, once I was able to pay it again, I would turn my phone off outside of the hours I was working.
Focus is a superpower. To this day I still maintain this habit.
5.) Power of NO. It was very difficult for me to say no to my friends. Every weekend, they wanted to go party again. I would have never been able to summon the power to tell them no without all the bad things that had happened to me prior.
I said no to everything. If it interrupted my training or wasn’t aligned with my goal, No.
The best thing you can do is say no to things that do not align with your goals.
Conclusion
Five simple habits. Done consistently daily. Then I did them for twelve years on the teams and still do them today. These five simple things can take you anywhere in life.
Let me know in the comments below if you have tried any of these before.
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