#89 - For Tactical Athletes Who "Meet Standards" & Feel Nothing - The Everyday Responder Solution for the Exceptional

To be exceptional, you need to do exceptional things.

Not just training to train, or suffering just to suffer.

It's about discipline with a deadline.

That's the Everyday Responder strategy.

In this episode, we break down:

• Why discipline with a deadline creates purpose-driven training
• How it makes you a more fulfilled leader
• What to do next to put it into action

Everyone could use the same excuses. You choose to be the exception.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, what's going on, everybody? Welcome to the Everyday Responder podcast. And I think this is my earliest earliest podcast to date. So we are getting after it this morning. I do have some uh some different things coming up that are gonna be taking up a lot of the calendar. But I told myself, I'm like, you know what, we need to get a podcast in every week. So we we gotta get after it, right? We got to think strategically and and get some stuff done. So that is what we were doing this morning, but very excited to talk about this topic um because I did a lot of different thinking on you know myself, all the events and and different things that that I go for, as well as all my clients. So we've definitely made some changes in what we get after with the everyday responders. So I'm gonna talk to you a little bit of that, but more so um get you to to practice what we preach, discipline with a deadline, right? So um I've noticed with many, many different people, and again, myself in this camp and all the tactical athletes that I've coached, we are never satisfied, which is is great, right? It's what makes us great, but at times that can kind of also beat us down, right? Sometimes we have that loud inner critic, and we can be almost competitive to a fault, right? Because everything needs to be perfect. We always need to, you know, make sure we're we're doing X, Y, and Z. And it can get completely overwhelming. But at the same time, with this person, baseline standards don't do it for you, right? We are terrified of that, you know, drifting till failure, just letting atrophy drift set in and getting rid of those excuses of, oh, well, the uniform, it it makes me tired, or or kind of that victimhood of the uniform where it's like, oh, well, you know, I'm tired, and and that's the reason for me, uh, you know, always being tired, or that's the reason for me falling off a little bit physically, or that's the reason for me of training like an asshole and then complaining that you were injured and then blaming the uniform or using it as a scapegoat. But at the same time, you have this person who, you know, friends, family, coworkers, all those different types of people in your lives are saying, Oh, you're you're doing great, like you're crushing it, you're getting after it. But you know deep down there's still something missing, right? I think that is very important because ultimately, like, we need to keep feeding that competitive drive that keeps us great, that allows us to never be satisfied. So that is what we're gonna be talking about today. And it is something that gets me extremely fired up. It's something that I definitely practice. And again, I encourage every single one of my clients. I don't want to say it's a requirement, but I'm getting close to saying that. I know everybody has uh a ton of different requirements already in the uniform, but what we're gonna be talking about, I think should be mandatory for everybody. And I am I am on everybody's ass that I work with, where it's like, hey, what are we doing? Let's put something on there. We need to reverse engineer that um because of uh essentially what we're gonna be going into today, into today is is why I think it's so important. Um, so again, all that, all with all that said, with the competitive drive and making sure we are getting after it, never satisfied. Again, it is what makes you great. I would just argue, and what I'm gonna argue here today is it just needs to be caged differently, right? It is very important that we keep that and we feed it. Like I said, we just need to make sure that it's it's caged in a sense where we are not going to burn out, we are not going to get hurt, um, and we are still going to exceed uniform standards while chasing something that that nobody else is making you chase, right? That is not a quote unquote mandatory requirement for you. So if you are new here, again, everyday responders, what we do is we coach leaders in uniform to chase hybrid goals, right? And I want to be specific with the hybrid goals because we need to understand that we can't just go all in on certain things that we put on the calendar, right? We can't turn you into a little skinny, and I I feel like I always come at uh skinny runners, um, but we can't turn you into a skinny, maybe fragile runner, right? We need to make sure that you are strong, you are powerful. So I think the hybrid goals is obviously extremely important. Now, a couple different big mistakes that I see with people chasing hybrid goals, especially in uniform, is number one, people always say, and you know, I've been guilty of this. We always say, uh, there's you know, no off season, right? We need to be ready all the time, which I agree with. However, we can't just keep burning the candle at both ends and just full sending it, right? Because that is what's ultimately going to burn you out. So you can't be ready 24-7, 365. So I truly think that seasons are important. And what we're going to be talking about today is discipline with a deadline, putting something on the damn calendar. But at the same time, we need to understand it can't just be like goal hopping of like, okay, hit this. What's next? What's next? What's next? What's next? Like, right, there needs to be some sort of quote unquote off season where we focus on on different qualities of fitness. So that is going to be very important. And that's my disclaimer with that. Um, another one I hear is, oh, we, and I just posted about this the other day, we can't peak for certain events, we're tactical athletes, right? And then I what I would say to that is so you're you're never going to reach your peak, like you're never going to keep that upward trajectory. I just think that's a false belief where regardless of what you got going on with the uniform, your schedule, with life responsibilities, there are opportunities to peak for certain events. Now, I I want to be clear, maybe it's not going to be the quote unquote traditional path of showcasing, hey, well, this is the what the professionals do for uh 5K or a half marathon. So that's what I need to do. No, we definitely need to take a different path, and we might have to stretch out that path a little bit longer than traditional or go away from quote unquote optimal textbook definitions of what you need to be doing. But again, you can a hundred percent, and I'm gonna talk about a little bit of my experience with this, but you can a hundred percent do it. Um, and it in my opinion, it's a complete false belief to showcase or to say, ah, I can't, I can't do it. I got I got a lot going on, or I'm busy, I'm tired, I'm stressed, or I have this going on, or I have to compete with mandatory PT and so on and so forth. So it can be done. The last one here is uh the the what I already kind of alluded to. I have too much going on, and that is just saying uh no agency, right? There needs to be an opportunity for you to chase things, and and yes, it's going to feel like you are adding to your list of things that you need to do, but it's a great way to stress test yourself and figure out the priority. So obviously, as I always mentioned, priorities are dynamic and there's ways that that we can, okay, maybe obviously family is the priority, right? Maybe we can, you know, push our training a little bit to the right, or maybe we can focus a little bit more on conditioning and then put strength in maintenance and so on and so forth. So there are ways to do it, but I think this is very important to prove to yourself that you can do it, right? There's so many excuses. Everybody has access to the same excuses. And if you just keep ripping excuses left and right, you are not only lying to yourself, you are actively selling yourself short. So there are a hundred percent opportunities to do it, regardless of what you have to have going on. You just need to think more strategically and then have a plan that you can actually repeat. So that is very, very important. Now, with that mindset, I've seen a couple different camps here, and there's no shade to I know this is a brand, and that's not the intent here, but it it comes with that mentality of uh, you know, train to be harder to kill, right? So we just kind of go after it, we get after it, and we we don't know where we are headed. So to that person that is just, you know, like I said, burning the candle at both ends, or um just getting after it full scale tactical, and they're just they're just crushing themselves. Well, what does that mean? What are we preparing for? And how can we measure that? Right now, I am not oblivious. I completely understand that there are going to be events that pop up and we need to be prepared for them, and they are unknown, right? But the reality is that type of mentality is is just the the train-to-train mentality, right? And to me, and I've done it, to me, it's it's we are just suffering to suffer. There is no kind of end goal in sight, and there is nothing that's kind of driving us to make sure we are moving in the right direction. So I always say, hey, we need to make sure we are chasing progress and chasing a specific target because I know how we all are, right? If we just train to train and we just get after it week after week, day after day, month after month, year after year, it's like, well, where are we going? Right? What are we training for? And there are ways which we're going to go over to be quote unquote harder to kill while hitting specific targets and you know, making you fulfilled from a mental capacity standpoint. So we can't just only allow the real world to kind of stress test you and have you figure it out. I personally think we need to utilize training with that discipline with a deadline aspect. Another one here, another camp. Lose 20 pounds while in uniform or the the fat loss focus. And again, I would ask for what? Where is our performance? Are we losing other qualities when it comes to strength and conditioning? Right? So I again, this is that idea that people, a lot of tactical athletes, just chase arbitrary standards. And to me, that is a recipe to negotiate with yourself and ultimately burn out. Where okay, we want to be our goal is 180 pounds. Why would you be, you know, would you be happy at 185? Could you perform better at 185? Right. So we can't just glue ourselves to arbitrary, especially arbitrary bodyweight goals, and then expect ourselves just to keep, you know, willpowering our way to those results. And again, there is no end in sight, no direction, and no progress checks along the way. So to me, this one kind of reminds me of the hedonic treadmill effect where no matter how much weight you lose, uh the expect your expectations are always going to rise. And that is still going to leave long-term unfulfillment, right? That is going to be unchanged. So you hit that 180. Okay, what's next? 175? 170? Like, where are we going? Right. But again, if we kind of switch that focus to being more performance oriented and we are taking care of our nutrition, say we're in a deficit, then you are going to move in the right direction. But again, performance is not as arbitrary, right? We could see the data, we could see numbers. And I know how all of us are. We are very data driven. And if we just say, oh, we're only using the scale as our metric here, we are going to lose in the long run. Again, trying to get off of that hedonic treadmill. The last one here, and I already kind of alluded to it, but it's the go all in on X goal and then forget about everything else. Well, my questions would be what it what about readiness? Like, what about the the uniform standards? What about all the other domains of fitness? So we've seen this often, or I see this often, where people are like, okay, I want to improve my run, therefore I am going to do a running program and strength can wait, or power can wait, or nutrition can wait, right? I I nothing you know gets me more frustrated when I see uh or hear like couch to 5k or different things like that. And I'm like, you think that's going to make you uniform ready? Like you must be out of your mind if you just think that a normal couch to 5K or whatever that may be, couch to half marathon is going to be beneficial for you while you were in uniform. Right. So we can't, when we're going after specific targets or trying to improve certain domains of fitness, we cannot sacrifice other qualities because that's going to leave liabilities elsewhere. So again, this is why we need to get after hybrid goals, especially if you are a leader in uniform. So, with all that said, what I propose to tactical athletes is again put a specific date on the calendar, sign up for something. And I always say when people pay, they pay attention, fill in your registration, put your card in, and sign up for the damn thing. Right. That is going to be our tool, and that is what we use with the everyday responders to turn that vague motivation or discipline into a forcing function. And I promise you, that is in turn going to make you harder to kill, both physically and mentally. You're going to lose the pounds if that's the goal. And most importantly, you are going to be multicapable, especially if you have a good system that respects everything that the uniform demands. So that is what I call discipline with a deadline while in uniform. Again, putting something on the schedule. I have every client that I'm working with right now. There's a couple different targets that we're after, but we have uh of all the uniforms, we have 5K's, people's first 5Ks. We have a 5K every hour for six hours, um, high rocks, Spartan races, half marathons, foals, warrant school, wildland firefighter assessments, CPATs, shooting competitions. People have been talking about the best warrior, public speaking, skydiving. The list goes on, right? There's no specific rules to this, I would say, other than just putting something on the schedule, because that is what's going to empower you to keep being great, to keep exceeding the standards and getting after it. So, with that said, we need to obviously have been talking a lot about this as, and it's obviously very popular of hybrid athletes, right? So, what is a hybrid athlete when we are chasing that specific goal? Hybrid athletes is the concurrent training of different athletic disciplines, right? So, and those athletic disciplines don't explicitly support one another, right? So if you think about say, okay, we're going to do strength and we're going to do uh conditioning, right? Those don't uh necessarily support each other. So to me, it's like, okay, if that is what a hybrid athlete is, how can we make that applicable for tactical athletes? So I think it's a little bit different. This is my opinion here, but it's like, okay, the tactical hybrid athlete, what does that mean? Well, we have the uniform standards, which I always talk about. I think uh our last podcast was about that. I can't remember. But we have uniform standards, readiness, right? Those are things that that we need to do regardless of what we have on the schedule, regardless of what life's throwing at us, right? Those are mandatory, especially for tactical athletes. I don't care which uniform you wear, they are applicable. So you do the or you you are respecting the uniform standards. Now you also have a competitive milestone that you've chosen for yourself, whether that's a race, high rocks, uh, a school, um, you know, something more mental capacity driven, skydiving, public speaking, those different types of things. So now we have a competitive target and we have the uniform standards. Now, if you go back to the definition of a hybrid athlete, we have two disciplines that don't explicitly support each other, right? So we have the uniform, which I am completely aware doesn't necessarily, you know, support uh seamless hybrid goals, right? So you have the uniform, all the stress that comes with it, the crazy schedules and the responsibilities. But you also have training for something relatively hard. Again, those two don't necessarily support each other, but that is what the hybrid that I'm talking about is, right? So again, many people don't think it's possible, or they sit with their excuses, or you know, uh not being able to fathom them getting through or hitting the finish line or different things like that, right? All excuses that say, oh, you know what? Um, maybe when the season opens up, or what maybe when life gets a little bit less stressful, that's when we can get after it. Or, you know, after uh X, Y, and Z or after this life event or something like that, right? But I want to showcase what I've been able to do um through through my experience, through the chaos, through the uniform, um, through life, just life being absolutely chaos. Um, again, not to not to show off or or showcase like look at me, but just to give you a a kind of inclination or an idea of what can be done through the chaos. So, a couple of things. This was a while ago, but two powerlifting competitions, and this started with me saying, I'm not strong enough. And I had a coach help me through this at the time, but I would say he he was like, Oh, why don't we, you know, do a powerlifting competition? You want to increase your strength? And I was like, Ah, I'm not strong enough for a powerlifting competition. Well, I completed two powerlifting competitions, exceeded my own standards, did really well, and both of those preps were on night shift. Again, far from ideal. And I wouldn't necessarily recommend that to people, but I am uh just as stubborn as the rest of us. And I'm like, you know what? I I proved to myself that I am strong enough. And again, that started with discipline with the deadline. I started looking. I was like, you know what? Screw it. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna look right now, I'm gonna find uh a good federation, and I'm going to sign up for the damn thing. And then it's we're we're going to put the pressure on ourselves. This is the date, it's not getting any further away. Either I'm going to train and do the best I can through the chaos, or I'm going to show up on game day and get embarrassed, which nobody wants to do that. So it is the perfect forcing mechanism to be able to make sure you are consistently showing up. Tough Ruck. I did the Tough Ruck, which was with the Boston Marathon Association. Um, it is a marathon, so 26.2 miles in uniform. And I completed that two times. One prep was during night shift, which again, brutal, don't recommend. And the other one was during it during the days. But again, dealing with all these different life stresses and and not, you know, a lot of getting a lot of time on feet, hitting a lot of different uh rucks or yeah, rucks and prep, all these different aspects, going haywire. But again, who I became throughout that journey, or who I became in the miles, or who I became as a leader crossing that finish line is is untouchable. Another one here. So 50K's and or 50K and 25k races. And again, this is starting from me saying, ah, my my endurance isn't there yet. And I will tell you, uh, I talked about this before, but I signed up for the 50K years ago. And then I made every excuse. I I started, you know, talking, make not making up injuries, but like, ah, you know, now's not the time. I have a lot going on. Um, I'm going to, you know, it's not quote unquote healthy to get all those miles in and so on and so forth. I made every excuse of as to why my endurance wasn't ready, and I bitched out. I did not do it a couple years ago, and that absolutely pissed me off. I was like, you know what, that that really, really, really pisses me off that I I bitched out and I didn't do it. So what did I do? I hired a coach and we came back and absolutely crushed the the 50k, right? And that was during a time I'm running a coaching business, going to drills, uh, and going to school full time. So the the coat the coach kind of offboard or I offboarded a lot of that thinking to my coach, and he was just like, Hey, we'll we'll just execute the game plan. Don't need to think. You wake up every day, your program's there, you just need to execute. And I did, and it did really well. And again, that started like with my endurance at the time. It was pretty bad, right? I started, like I said, my endurance isn't there yet. Pretty bad, right? And some of my longer runs, some of the the longer efforts, especially in the beginning, were walk runs. And I'm like, damn, this is gonna be a long, this is gonna be a long ass 50k. There's no way that that I'm not going to finish this thing now. Um, I have some support in my corner, I'm in a different mental state. I'm going to get this done. But even so, started with walk runs and still got it done uh towards the towards the the 50k or at the date, and it feels freaking amazing. So, again, if you are somebody who's like, uh, I've always like in the back of your head, I've always wanted to do some sort of race, but you know, now is not the time. Or, like I said, my maybe your endurance isn't there. You need to prove to yourself silence that inner critic and just get in reps. But again, I think that pressure mechanism or discipline with the deadline is a perfect solution. A couple other things here. So, best warrior competition with the army, and this was you know always something it would come. through my unit. So I'm in the Air Force, but it would come through my unit and I'd be like, ah, you know, that would be pretty cool. Kind of stress test myself, get out there and kind of, you know, showcase um what the uh what the what the Air Force is capable of from a physical capacity. And uh I I eventually was like, you know what? Screw it. I'm gonna sign up. Right. And the whole time it's like, well, the the one thing that was stopping me was like, what what if I get embarrassed, right? I've never done land nav. Um I've never done the uh army's like shooting qual. I've never done those things. Um I don't know like what if the what if I get embarrassed on the board I don't I'm not like up to date on all on all the board questions or type of questions. What if I get embarrassed in front of everybody? So again this was a time I was working swing shifts teaching myself land nav and essentially just learning the army way and I was like this is gonna be this is going to be brutal. I got out there I obviously didn't win but I put on a a good showing for the air force and it was an amazing time and it was like wow I am much more capable than I give myself credit for this is even me like learning land nav on from or from YouTube university and that was the extent of of uh or that was my my training right so um I I will tell you quick little story my uh my welcome to welcome to land nav um was it was uh absolutely amazing and I still laugh about this story to this day so again I was talking about you know learning land nav on your from youtube which is is good like you can learn certain things um but it's not going to you know be on the land nav course right it's not going to directly transfer transfer so there was a course uh a couple courses on my base and I'm like you know what I'm gonna give it a try you know I I watch some YouTube videos I should be I should be I should be good to go so the sergeant who was running it I go I check in I get you know all the all the map and every the the maps everything like that and he's like do you do you know what you're doing like are you you good to go like you're you're you're good and I'm like yeah like I I'm good to go I know I know what I'm doing and I'm like yeah in my head I'm like I watched a couple youtube videos I should be good so I get out there I get so freaking lost I am my heart's kind of pounding a little bit I'm out in the middle of nowhere I have no idea and I was with a I was with a coworker we both didn't know what we were doing so I I'm out there or we're out there absolutely lost and we're like you know what let's just find a road and then just let's regroup let's go back to the start line so we finally find a road we just the because I remember the the sergeant just said if you walk in a certain direction long enough you're gonna find you're gonna find a road if you get lost we're like no we're we're not gonna get lost we're good so we finally we just keep walking we finally find a road we figure out where we're at on the map and we're like all right let's just go back to the starting line and and let's kind of regroup so we are on the road we're heading down what we to what we think is the starting line and we see a truck pull up and we're like oh God who is this it it was it was the the sergeant who was running the land nav and he's like what the fuck are you are you idiots doing you are roadkill right now and we're like oh yeah we're kind of laughing we're like yeah he's like I thought you I thought you idiots knew what you were doing and we're like yeah we we are we're just we're kind of just we we got a little lost so we're regrouping we're going back to the starting line and he's like oh you're you're going back to the starting line and we're like yep yeah going back to the starting line and he's like the starting line's the other direction like you guys are going in the wrong way he's like you guys are all right he gets out gives us a couple of different tips and advice and and helps us to or gives us the direction to the starting line finally take off and and it was not I'll be honest not a successful land nav day but it was just so funny getting out there and he's like you guys are fucking idiots like you guys are doomed but again like I I say all that and it's obviously funny but just having the courage to get out of your comfort zone and sign up for something it is the perfect forcing forcing mechanism to be like you know what I don't know what I'm doing but I believe in myself I am smart enough to figure it out say all that to say when the best warrior happened I was a go on land nav both day and night and again this was all from you know practice reps and again uh getting out there on the course with somebody who actually knows what they're doing so I can learn. But you know stuff like that again wouldn't have happened if I didn't stress test myself or have the courage to get in the ring. The last thing here I have not completed I literally just signed up for it I think it was last weekend um but a 5k every hour for six hours. So again running a business going to school going to drills all these different aspects but it's like you know what I am I I saw this race it's around me it's it's going to be fun and uh it's gonna be you know a stress test for me to to figure out my priorities and quote unquote balance all these other things. So just signed up for that super excited to to keep building prep with that making sure uh you know overall strategy is good from a fueling perspective thinking about race specificity with fueling and and I just love that game planning aspect so it's gonna be a lot of fun but I will say with all those different types of things there is uh you know I did not feel ready for any of those events we talk about I talk about this a lot but imposter syndrome loud inner critic fear with a side of excuses all these different types of aspects are were a hundred percent in play right but all of those get silenced as you start closing in on the finish line so what I learn what my clients learn we're gonna go over a couple different things throughout that and and why this is so important. So the first thing that you learn from putting something on the calendar right discipline with a deadline is pacing with a purpose right and we are not just talking about pacing with like milestones or or throughout certain uh certain training sessions or different things like that. We are obviously talking about that as well but the big thing is big picture pacing with the purpose right so we understand and I know this is always the the case with tactical athletes you will start on Monday or you know be fired up to try this new thing and all of a sudden we burn out in a couple of weeks. So again if you look at it from a big picture perspective say you have something that you signed up for in three months and make sure you give yourself enough time but three months maybe six months you have that and you're like okay well I need to outlast to get me to that date. So now we can start making better tactical decisions of showcasing okay maybe we need to slow down a little bit on this easy run. Maybe we need an additional off day or maybe we need a D load to ensure that we get you to that end date where you are thriving or or hit that that peak point to be able to crush. Right. So again I think this is very very important it's not just about pacing that you learn for certain training sessions obviously that is important but you learn how to pace the uniform training and life. So when things pop up when things go haywire it's like okay well we still have this date coming in let's move this around maybe we can focus on this and maybe we can you know get rid of this bad habit to make sure we can we can pace ourselves but it is very very important and I think that's one of the best things that that you learn throughout this process. So again that pacing with a purpose transfers over not just for the race I want to make sure that that's you know reiterated not just for the race but you learn to start pacing things. So when you do have something coming up in the future or you decide to do it again, right? Maybe you go from a 5K to a half marathon in the future or maybe a full marathon maybe an ultra right all those things kind of um kind of get that momentum but it's very important now we understand okay well we need to pace ourselves right I think this is the one of the most important skills that tactical athletes can learn and a lot of people butcher but I'm I'm sure that once you you start seeing that deadline creep in you're like all right well I need to outlast it we need to make sure we are good to go there. The second thing that we learn throughout this process is strategic thinking. So I talked about this a little bit but even from a dynamic persistence perspective. So I always talk about you know not worrying about Monday through Sunday or worried about day one through day seven and now we can have that autonomy at the tactical level of showcasing okay I can't train today everything went you know crazy it was just chaos and now I can't train well now we can practice dynamic persistence and say okay well I can do this tomorrow or I can slide my schedule to the left or slide my schedule to the right and we can start thinking about you know everything dynamically. I just had a client recently who is training for a 5K uh every hour for six um and he's like oh we have a uh a mandatory morale event and it was a pretty aggressive hike and different things like that and he's like well I'm I think I'm thinking about replacing this day with this moving things to the right what do you think about it and I'm like that is perfect execution hell yeah that is autonomy that we try to teach here and it's super important because now you have that skill or you have that strategic thinking when shit pops up or when you know life is punching you in the face. So it is a skill that that definitely needs to be practiced and learned but it's going to be very very important. It's also thinking from a a smaller or scoped in perspective of saying uh you know I have repeats on the schedule my legs are absolutely smoked um I didn't get a lot of sleep I didn't fuel properly so now we need to think about that long-term vision or have that thinking instead of just bulldozing through through the repeats I will never get mad at somebody who's like hey I I just honestly just didn't have it today right we're not gonna always have it we're not always gonna be perfect and it's like so what I did was an easy run with some strides and I I called it a day. Like to me that is a major win and I would never be mad or disappointed in somebody for making that pivot because again we have a bigger end goal that we are training for the repeats are obviously there for a reason they're important but at the end of the day we need to focus on that long term vision so that also connects with pacing with a purpose. Number three here is courage over confidence right I say all the time you will not have or you will not feel confident the the minute or the time that you sign up for something. And I think that is the whole point. Right. So which means that you need to figure out how to match that fear with courage and now you start building up your your mental capacity you start building up your confidence by just saying you know what this point deadline I'm going to sign up for this thing and then uh we're we're going to figure it out. Right. So now all of a sudden you have you're starting to touch on untapped potential you're starting to move in the right direction and you have that forward momentum. So what do you think is going to happen when you are you're terrified of public speaking and you're tasked with giving a briefing or uh you're terrified of having this conversation but you say you know what I'm gonna have this conversation on Wednesday at this time. Right now we're going to, you know, we're gonna use the same kind of segmenting aspect that that we talk about where it's like we're gonna segment that we're gonna get it done and we're going to detach from the outcome and make it happen. Right. So with this when people say have all these different excuses of um or people say I'm not confident enough or they have all these different excuses of to why they can't get X, Y, and Z done, why they don't think now is the right time, why they need to focus on other things I would say that it's not a confidence issue. It's usually a courage issue. And maybe you're not courageous enough yet right that is the aspect that we're tapping into. So if you think about from a leadership perspective from a professional development perspective that courage is what's going to improve those things. Another one here mental endurance right so this is going to be very important I would say that the majority of what we are going to be facing is going to be uh mental challenges obviously physical comes with that but I I would say nine times out of 10 it is mental challenges that that we or where we break so humans are resilient as in nature we are are much much much more physically capable than we give ourselves credit for and I would say that the mental capacity is usually the the first the first casualty so if you think about that and you have a prep coming down the pipe right you have a date or a deadline that's closing in I promise you you will be tested there will be your motivation will be tested your discipline will be tested uh your uh ability to to handle stress overall resilience will 1000% be tested whether it's the schedule whether it's stress whether it's a life event you will a hundred percent like I said be tested and now we have intentionally chosen that path of struggle so you are going to be tested along the way now once you prove to yourself right you prove to yourself in training you build that self-efficacy and you you keep going right you get through it you are pressured from that deadline you keep going now what do we think is going to happen from our mental endurance aspect when you do cross that cross that finish line or you prove to yourself that you can consistently overcome adversity that comes your way right that finish line is a reminder that you can do it. So I always talk about and I always persuade people to have that wall of fame in your office in your room or somewhere in your house where it is like okay this is the wall of fame these are the things that I've accomplished that I am super proud of right now when you are faced with certain adversity or you have something coming down the schedule where it's kind of overwhelming you a little bit well you take a look over to your wall of fame and be like you know what I got through that that 50k I got through the best warrior that was really cool. I got through those um excuse me those marathon rucks I I can do this. I already proved to myself that that we're more than capable right so now you are stacking evidence in the mental endurance aspect that you will 1000% you know uh overcome adversity and you are both physically and mentally resilient to be able to do that challenge ahead the last one here is leadership and professional development. So this is kind of the the all-encompassing but very important right there's going to be aspects if you have something competitive on the on the schedule and you want to truly perform there's going to be aspects that need to change from a nutrition perspective from a lifestyle perspective there's going to be ebbs and flows with energy levels with tasks that you're being you know given all these different aspects and now we need to be able to to figure out how to endure those things right and that is directly applicable to leadership and professional development right so you are going to be forced to maybe focus on your sleep a little bit better so you can recover. So you can you know have a really good training session. You're going to need to focus on nutrition right you're going to need to focus on stress management and kind of figuring out how we can decompress to enhance that recovery aspect well what do we think that's going to do from a readiness perspective when it comes to leadership capabilities, when it comes to your overall readiness right so this is where that segmenting thinking really comes in and it's like okay how can we break this apart to improve ourselves right who do we need to become as a leader to be able to cross that finish line all of those qualities are directly applicable to what we want to be able to accomplish in uniform. And again it's not just about you know meeting the standards or being a go on certain things. It's like okay how can we exceed that how can we be exceptional with our performance it all starts from discipline with a deadline right now from my own experience I can't really talk about clients uh experience or experiences or how they feel or who they became but for me personally the only thing that scares me when I sign up for something or when I don't sign up for something is who I would you know or or who I would or could have become without doing the thing or by doing the thing. Right. So you start thinking about that and you know imagining where I would be if I didn't start putting pressure on myself if I didn't sign up for those things. I probably wouldn't even be in Texas. I would probably still be at my old house and just saying you know what like this is good. Let me let me settle in let me you know just kind of turn a job into a Monday through Friday and and just kind of you know coasting right but you start building that confidence and you start building that the those reps and showcasing damn like I don't even want to think about where where I would have been if I didn't do some of those things from a leadership perspective from a coaching perspective and also from a mental capacity standpoint. So that is what we do with the everyday responders right we reverse engineer performance targets we respect the uniform and most importantly empower you to endure because I promise you you are well well well more than capable of of doing these goals or having these specific targets that are in your mind. Right if you are anything like me you've had certain events or you've seen things maybe maybe it's an ad on Instagram or seen certain things where you're like damn that would be pretty cool. Well sign up right make sure you give yourself enough time obviously play it smart with uh the pacing strategy and different things like that but sign up reverse engineer it and watch who you become