“If you haven’t read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate, and you will be incompetent, because your personal experiences alone aren’t broad enough to sustain you.”–
General Jim Mattis, Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead
What’s Important in this Quote and Why?
It’s often not the facts of prior experiences, but the patterns. Recognizing patterns of lessons learned may afford you the ability to rapidly adapt to a volatile, chaotic and rapidly developing situation.
You practice swimming, you practice sparring in sports and/or martial arts. These practices train muscle movement, emotions and strength; as well as psychologically prepares you for unexpected events.
Training and thinking based on continuous proactive self-education does not give you a panacea to always win, but to buy you time to survive, adapt, prevail and potentially win by minimizing risk as much as possible.
Yes, winning is desired, but sometimes your outcome may only allow for survival.
General Jim Mattis, Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead
Recommended Christmas gift – The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene
Excerpt:
“You like to imagine yourself in control of your fate, consciously planning the course of your life as best you can. But you are largely unaware of how deeply your emotions dominate you. They make you veer toward ideas that soothe your ego. They make you look for evidence that confirms what you already want to believe. They make you see what you want to see, depending on your mood, and this disconnect from reality is the source of the bad decisions and negative patterns that haunt your life. Rationality is the ability to counteract these emotional effects, to think instead of react, to open your mind to what is really happening, as opposed to what you are feeling. It does not come naturally; it is a power we must cultivate, but in doing so we realize our greatest potential.”
Despite living in a tech driven world, the core of our society remains in the human domain.
A domain often competing between being driven by reason, or by emotion.
Greene addresses this competition occurring in the human condition and how the condition shapes our lives as a victor, or victim… as a leader or follower… as a person living in poverty or wealth.
The book can be used as a tool for self reflection, regeneration and self development.
“Know the Rules”, Break the Rules; Make the Rules” - Author Unknown
Implications:
Requires being proactive
Requires grit
Requires willingness to take calculated risks
Requires an ability to be willing with being uncomfortable
Requires a sense of humility and willingness to learn and act on that new knowledge
Requires that you focus on becoming BAD … “BALLS, ATTITUDE and DIRECTION” … I like that quote…
Requires consistency
Requires self-reflection
Requires an ability to scale capabilities and growth without outrunning your ability to prosecute sustained actions
Requires an ability to risk moving forward through uncertainty and beyond “Social Proof” to create your own sense of value and reality… thus leading to the creation of new value.
Generally speaking, none of this is clean, perfect, easy… and may not be popular.
Be prepared to move forward alone… in secret if need be.
“You all laugh at me because I’m different; I laugh at you because you’re all the same. “ Jonathan Davis
“Make it happen” 2d Force Recon Co Master Sergeant Wendt USMC Ret mentoring me as a young Staff Sergeant as acting Intel Officer on the importance of execution regardless of the obstacles.
“I want train drivers, not train riders” – Master Gunnery Sergeant Mobley USMC Ret of 2d Marine Division on selecting me to be the intelligence chief for the newly formed 2d Recon Bn. Circa 1995. Side note… he kept a small bottle of whiskey in his desk drawer back in the day…Vietnam Vet… straight talker and a$$ chewer. Awesome man.
“If you want a new idea, read an old book.” General Al Gray USMC Ret. 29th Commandant of the Marine Corps at my masters commencement ceremony at Norwich University in 2016.
Read… act… do…
The common denominator amongst all these leaders is they acted… contended with risk… but executed with vigor and impact.
“Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson.
Ronin21 is focused on self-mastery. Specifically, Ronin21 is about exploring and making your own path… and finding your life purpose.
While the name of this site is Ronin21, implying wanderer or one without a master, martial artists find their purpose through service to nation and a select community, often in hierarchical organizations such as the military, police, government, etc.
At some point we have to retire. This may come by choice, or by mandate. So now one finds themself in a quandary of building a new sense of purpose outside a community for which they may have belonged to for decades. This can be stressful as it is a form of death, leading toward a new life… alone.
This TEDEX video, featuring a man by Adam Leipzig, provides viewers some excellent considerations into shaping a new personal vision and sense of purpose and fulfillment. It’s about growth, adaptation, and hope.
Adam highlights happy and truly successful people are guided by the following considerations. Considerations he discusses in his video; “How to know your life purpose in 5 minutes | Adam Leipzig | TEDxMalibu”
1. Knew who they were
2. Knew what they did
3. Knew who they did it for
4. Knew what those people wanted or needed
5. Knew what they got out of it, and how they changed after the result
Daily toils wear us down. Competing, perfecting and growing sucks energy. There are times when we should pause and connect, or reconnect — with the the world around us — as well as ourselves.
Growing is good, but so is reflection.
One of my reasons for joining the Marine Corps was to learn more about the world and its cultures… not necessarily about war or adventure. My biggest reason was challenge and to explore transcendence…. Experience beyond oneself.
I was fortunate to serve in the Marine Corps when it was truly expeditionary in the 80s and 90s. I’ve seen/observed conflicts, contingencies and war in the Caribbean, Africa, the Balkans and various parts of Asia. However, I’ve also learned to appreciate the history and culture of each of those people during those expeditions in Marine Expeditionary Units, or when we pulled into ports.
Coastal Spain, Gibraltar and North Africa were most visceral. I once stood on the flight deck of ship as we crossed through the Straits of Gibraltar. The spring winds blew strong. On my right would be huge sandstorm clouds blocking the sun coming at us from North Africa. Below us was the blue ocean with porpoise frolicking the waves as we neared sunset. To my left was coastal Spain where European, Jewish (Sephardic) and Arab cultures mixed in the form of architecture, war and history. Below our ship decks in the sea were remains of past historic battles, lost souls and expeditions of those centuries before. Two continents bridged by a small maritime channel.. representing disparate civilizations, cultures and histories. It felt as if the spirits moved inside me.
Tennyson mentions this -experience- in the poem Ulysses; “I am a part of all that I have met.” When we travel and explore we have the opportunity to become part of the environment and its people.
Now, I don’t travel so much. I explore more online. That’s where I came across this musical piece played via a Kalimba.
The Kalimba – This little girl’s poignant music from Asia drove a spike inside me bringing me back to the aforementioned memories. The little girl’s music, softly sewing together memories and emotion.
Enjoy. Enjoy Life.
“Pipa Language, Relaxing music for sleeping, Peaceful Chinese Music (Kalimba)”
“It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.”
What is an Offensive Mindset? It’s a mindset whereby you take a disciplined approach to designing and executing your life on your terms.
Some core elements of this mindset follow:
Identify Opportunities and set conditions to exploit them.
When pitted within a constraint, exploit what you can do until you work your way out of the constraint. You can create new opportunities through the limitations.
Internal Locus of Control – critical…. be centered… you can only control what you can control… remember you always have maneuver space whether it be physical, mental and/or spiritual… identify, exploit and expand the maneuver space… create new opportunities, exploit them and move forward.
Opportunities/Dilemmas – they come together. Learn the art of turning lemons into lemonade.
Combined Arms Approach – think in terms of forward movement and affecting your will as often as possible… using multiple capabilities in a symbiotic way along the time, spatial and perceptual continuum.
Offensive Action is decisive action; Defend only enough to consolidate resources and position for another offensive attack, or counter attack. Have a bias for action.
Speed, flexibility, adaptability, agility and offensive… are as important, if not more, than being strong and intelligent in terms of survival.
Daily actions determine the direction we go in life.
Happiness occurs when we live life on our own terms. This is freedom.
Unhappiness often results when we live our life in accordance to someone else’s terms, or to the whims of circumstance. This is slavery.
Yes, other factors come into play that can enable, or disable, one’s ability to live a life based on will. Health, fortune, relationships and other factors come into play. However, consistent daily action, or inaction, drive the sum of our lives.
You choose your path, or you follow your path. They both lead to your destiny – freedom, or slavery.
Ronin21 