- Joined
- Nov 8, 2010
- Messages
- 899
My take has always been similar to themes folks have already posted. Chunk up things into doable actions and ignore the huge mountain of things that have to get down I did this at the Academy to get through the million requirements and I still do it on missions today. Focusing on little, achievable things keeps me from feeling overwhelmed and builds into momentum that gets me through the rest.
The Academy also taught me how to deal with failure. The Academy and the military are always going to ask you to do more than you can reasonably achieve. Figuring out what are the glass balls versus the tennis balls in your life are key, because glass balls are things that cannot be dropped because they’ll break. Not doing a glass ball task has serious repercussions either for your mission or well being of the people you’re responsible for (including yourself). I prioritize these over the tasks that if I dropped, they’d bounce and I could catch them down the road if necessary. When I have that mountain of tasks I need to do, I’ll rank prioritize them and then start breaking those glass balls into the smaller chunks I can achieve until they’re complete before then moving onto the tennis balls if I have time. Sometimes the tennis balls never get caught up to and that’s fine. They weren’t mission critical.
With that in mind, having a sense for the “why” behind why you’re putting up with your current conditions also helps. Having the perspective for what you’re working for makes the suck worth it even if it still sucks at the time. During my time at the Academy, that goal was because I wanted to fly and serve my country. Over time that’s evolved to seeing the strategic impacts our military has at the day to day level play out in real time coupled with wanting to take care of my teammates so when operationally we’re asked to do something that feels dumb, there’s a bigger “why” I could explain to my Soldiers about the purpose of why the Army has decided we are going to miss Christmas for the third year in a row or whatever reason I’m back in the desert or location the Army has decided to send me on vacation that next time it happens. I love flying and I always will but leaning into trying to understand senior leader decision making so I could translate that to folks at my level takes some of the bite out of when I’m doing stupid things that it (generally and hopefully) is not being done for stupid reasons just because.
Last thing I would say is figuring out your support system and what releases you need to maintain your sanity. My team was that for me at school I could lean into during the grey periods when things seemed overwhelming, and when all else failed I’d go for a long run and then take a hot shower. Running is an easy stress reliever for me. Gives me space to decompress and if you run long and hard enough, your body starts just focusing on trying to get enough oxygen in that it doesn’t have the energy to worry about whatever test is coming up. Plus you can do it anywhere as long as you have a good set of shoes.
The Academy also taught me how to deal with failure. The Academy and the military are always going to ask you to do more than you can reasonably achieve. Figuring out what are the glass balls versus the tennis balls in your life are key, because glass balls are things that cannot be dropped because they’ll break. Not doing a glass ball task has serious repercussions either for your mission or well being of the people you’re responsible for (including yourself). I prioritize these over the tasks that if I dropped, they’d bounce and I could catch them down the road if necessary. When I have that mountain of tasks I need to do, I’ll rank prioritize them and then start breaking those glass balls into the smaller chunks I can achieve until they’re complete before then moving onto the tennis balls if I have time. Sometimes the tennis balls never get caught up to and that’s fine. They weren’t mission critical.
With that in mind, having a sense for the “why” behind why you’re putting up with your current conditions also helps. Having the perspective for what you’re working for makes the suck worth it even if it still sucks at the time. During my time at the Academy, that goal was because I wanted to fly and serve my country. Over time that’s evolved to seeing the strategic impacts our military has at the day to day level play out in real time coupled with wanting to take care of my teammates so when operationally we’re asked to do something that feels dumb, there’s a bigger “why” I could explain to my Soldiers about the purpose of why the Army has decided we are going to miss Christmas for the third year in a row or whatever reason I’m back in the desert or location the Army has decided to send me on vacation that next time it happens. I love flying and I always will but leaning into trying to understand senior leader decision making so I could translate that to folks at my level takes some of the bite out of when I’m doing stupid things that it (generally and hopefully) is not being done for stupid reasons just because.
Last thing I would say is figuring out your support system and what releases you need to maintain your sanity. My team was that for me at school I could lean into during the grey periods when things seemed overwhelming, and when all else failed I’d go for a long run and then take a hot shower. Running is an easy stress reliever for me. Gives me space to decompress and if you run long and hard enough, your body starts just focusing on trying to get enough oxygen in that it doesn’t have the energy to worry about whatever test is coming up. Plus you can do it anywhere as long as you have a good set of shoes.
