“First we make our habits, then our habits make us.”

  Charles C. Noble

I first discovered this during my time in, good old, Marine Corps boot camp.  Actually, it wasn’t discovery as much as it was brain washing, in a good way.  The Corps took 13 weeks and stripped away every habit of mine, good, bad, ugly, or otherwise.  The Corps doesn’t care whether you think you are disciplined or not. It doesn’t care if you think you are physically fit or not.  It doesn’t care whether you think you can shoot or not.  It doesn’t even care if you are a reigning Olympic Gold Medalist at Marksmanship or are the CEO of a huge corporation.  If you are going to a Marine, then you have to go through the process.  And the Corps’ process starts with the Smokey Bears stripping it all away.  Then followed by the building of the habits that will make you a successful professional warrior. They build a pretty complete package with those habits: leadership, courage, initiative, judgment, integrity, honor, loyalty, character, physical fitness, mental toughness, marksmanship, defensive tactics, teamwork, results oriented mindset, and on and on.

I got lucky, I had the benefit of over 210 years (at the time) of combined institutional knowledge, in the art and science of building the right habits and purging the wrong habits.  Actually, it wasn’t luck at all.  I waited outside the Marine Recruiter’s office for 3 hours.  The Navy recruiter, bless his heart, tried to get me to come into his office.  

“Ummmmmm, yeah, I’m going to have sit here, and wait for the Marine to get back.” (No offense, Lumbergh, I mean that in the most-nicest possible way.)

I knew exactly what I was doing, luck had nothing to do with it.  I knew I needed what the Corps had to give me, and a lot of naysayers were lined up to tell me how stupid I was for joining the Corps.  Now, I have the ability to apply that process to my life every single day.  Always assessing my activities, which ones I’m tending to repeat enough, that they are in danger of becoming habits.  I keep doing those things which will get me closer to my vision and goals, and turn them into habits.  I stop doing those things which will take me farther away and I keep doing the good things I’ve already assimilated into habits.

If you need help with the process, holler! I’ll give you a hand. (A good start is to subscribe to the newsletter.)

Boo Yah!