Post by wayde on May 30, 2018 9:28:29 GMT -8
Greetings from up here in Guelph, Ontario Canada.
I'm Canadian but also a US Army veteran. I'm a bit older than Jocko and only did a single peacetime term when I was a rebellious kid in the 80s that grew up half in the US and in a divided Can-American family. Cro-Mags and other hardcore punk rock were my thing in those days and I loved the interview with Harley. The Army was a pivotal experience, it taught me discipline and work ethic. Most of all it taught me to put my mind into a minimalist space that sets aside conventional comforts and gets shit done.
Any thought that being into hardcore punk rock was incompatible to military life dissolved when I met and started working with some of the LRRPs I met in the Army. I was not one of them, I only happened to share Headquarter's Troop with them because of my MOS. But many of them wore that Ranger tab and they were the embodiment of work hard, play hard. They left a lasting impression on my 18 year-old self.
Today, I'm a middle-aged man working as a self-employed digital marketing consultant, very unrelated to anything I did in the military or went to school for afterward.
I fight the daily battle of keeping myself and my small family afloat in the world, and as I find myself sliding into age 50, keeping in shape. Every Wed morning my routine has me at the gym when the latest episode of the podcast drops and when I hear - "This is... Jocko Podcast." Something in that baritone, I swear boosts my test level and makes me hit that workout ever harder.
Thank you to Jocko and all of you who make the podcast and books possible. Thank you for the inspiration, to pick myself up, dust myself off after a rough divorce and become a bigger, better version of myself. The inspiration to strike out on my own and become my own business. Even the inspiration to keep in shape, keep hitting the gym and playing at martial arts, despite the wear of years and a meagre collection of nagging old injuries.
When I started dating awhile after my divorce, a woman I had over to my apartment, the one who is now my wife, still laughs about her first visit. She opened the cupboards to see one, knife, one fork, one bowl, one plate. I was deep in that minimalist mindset of self-improvement at the time and I thank my time in the Army for the discipline. Even if parts of that routine seems ceremonial, it was important at the time.
As a military history enthusiast I particularly enjoy the book reviews/partial readings. I've bought at least two Jocko recommendations. I'm about to embark on one of Jocko's books, Discipline Equals Freedom: Field Manual. I'm confident it will provide more of the same inspiration and maybe some clever tricks to keep and maintain that minimalist headspace.
I don't know if you have many Canadian followers, but up here in the Great White North, we're strongly pro-American, despite what you might hear in the media sometimes.
Thanks again to all.
Wayde Robson
I'm Canadian but also a US Army veteran. I'm a bit older than Jocko and only did a single peacetime term when I was a rebellious kid in the 80s that grew up half in the US and in a divided Can-American family. Cro-Mags and other hardcore punk rock were my thing in those days and I loved the interview with Harley. The Army was a pivotal experience, it taught me discipline and work ethic. Most of all it taught me to put my mind into a minimalist space that sets aside conventional comforts and gets shit done.
Any thought that being into hardcore punk rock was incompatible to military life dissolved when I met and started working with some of the LRRPs I met in the Army. I was not one of them, I only happened to share Headquarter's Troop with them because of my MOS. But many of them wore that Ranger tab and they were the embodiment of work hard, play hard. They left a lasting impression on my 18 year-old self.
Today, I'm a middle-aged man working as a self-employed digital marketing consultant, very unrelated to anything I did in the military or went to school for afterward.
I fight the daily battle of keeping myself and my small family afloat in the world, and as I find myself sliding into age 50, keeping in shape. Every Wed morning my routine has me at the gym when the latest episode of the podcast drops and when I hear - "This is... Jocko Podcast." Something in that baritone, I swear boosts my test level and makes me hit that workout ever harder.
Thank you to Jocko and all of you who make the podcast and books possible. Thank you for the inspiration, to pick myself up, dust myself off after a rough divorce and become a bigger, better version of myself. The inspiration to strike out on my own and become my own business. Even the inspiration to keep in shape, keep hitting the gym and playing at martial arts, despite the wear of years and a meagre collection of nagging old injuries.
When I started dating awhile after my divorce, a woman I had over to my apartment, the one who is now my wife, still laughs about her first visit. She opened the cupboards to see one, knife, one fork, one bowl, one plate. I was deep in that minimalist mindset of self-improvement at the time and I thank my time in the Army for the discipline. Even if parts of that routine seems ceremonial, it was important at the time.
As a military history enthusiast I particularly enjoy the book reviews/partial readings. I've bought at least two Jocko recommendations. I'm about to embark on one of Jocko's books, Discipline Equals Freedom: Field Manual. I'm confident it will provide more of the same inspiration and maybe some clever tricks to keep and maintain that minimalist headspace.
I don't know if you have many Canadian followers, but up here in the Great White North, we're strongly pro-American, despite what you might hear in the media sometimes.
Thanks again to all.
Wayde Robson
