“Didn’t Acquire Enough Votes to Stay President?” — “Good.”
Translating Jocko’s principle into a daily practice session.
To begin with, I should provide you some context. In one of his podcast episodes, Jocko Willink shared an anecdote on how he would respond in the military when someone presented him with bad news. It was a short yet intriguing response: Good.
It begs for an explanation, which Jocko provided. Fundamentally, it’s about seeing the positive aspects of every allegedly negative preposition. If you can say “good”, he elaborates, it also means you are still breathing and, therefore, still capable of doing something about the problem. This message is about taking action because, ultimately, that’s how you can change and improve your circumstances.
“Didn’t get the new high-speed gear we wanted? — Good, we can keep it simple.
Didn’t get funded? — Good, we own more of the company.
Didn’t get promoted? — Good, more time to get better.”
- Jocko Willink
You get the idea — taking an initially suboptimal situation but still looking for the positive aspect. In his community, his followers made a game out of it by imagining various negative scenarios and then coming up with a positive aspect. I believe that this could be a great cognitive-behavioral exercise — without having any qualification in the psychological sphere to make such a statement.
But doing 10 minutes of this exercise daily could train your creativity and wire yourself to look for positive aspects in everything happening around you. It’s like a gratitude journal, but with situations that aren’t directly connected to yourself. Just imagine a scenario that any person could have and look at the bright side of it.
Here are some more inspirations:
Didn’t acquire enough votes to stay president? — Good, more time to play golf.
Living in isolation because of Covid-19? — Good, no commute and more focus to study.
Encountering early baldness? — Good, less money spent on haircuts.
Had a car accident? — Good, you may be eligible for compensation.
This exercise’s goal isn’t to see every event as something ultimately positive. It’s about priming yourself for gratitude and optimism. Because this will put you on the offense and in a position to find solutions.
Or, as Jocko would phrase it:
“Get up. Dust off. Reload. Recalibrate. Reengage.”