MTI Collective 3.21.24: Love your career? How did you get started and advice to your younger self

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">Dude, get your mind, body and spirit prepared for a wild ride that will take you all over the globe and expose to you situations, people, and culture you could have never imagined. </span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">Don't stop looking for your ideal job.</span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">Telling myself that I am not in high school anymore and that I need to continue my physical work</span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">Be humble, don’t think you have all the answers just because you’re the only one doing it. Lean on the ideas and experience of your team. </span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">Take the exact same path!</span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">Network early. Get your name and face out there asap!</span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">If you don't love people, don't do this. If you are just looking for a job or a paycheck, don't do this. It is rewarding on so many levels, but it requires everything in you to be a learner, a leader, and a lover of God and others. But in a self-centered and often self-serving world, there are people who are selfless and want to make a difference. If that's you, then pastoral ministry is a definite option.</span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">If you don't love people, don't do this. If you are just looking for a job or a paycheck, don't do this. It is rewarding on so many levels, but it requires everything in you to be a learner, a leader, and a lover of God and others. But in a self-centered and often self-serving world, there are people who are selfless and want to make a difference. If that's you, then pastoral ministry is a definite option.</span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">I’d give the advice I got along the way so I’d have it sooner. Long list. </span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">Maintain a high level of physical fitness; take every training/learning/certification offered; save and invest as much as you can because you can’t do this job forever.</span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">Get engineering degrees no matter what. A bachelors and masters in Engineering creates the largest amount of opportunities in military and civilian flying as well as competitiveness for Astronaut selection. </span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">"Airborne.<span class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>All the way."<span class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>With the "community college" caveat of "but also" to remember to take care of myself better, especially for the wear and tear associated with being on active Jump Status.<span class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>Like it is stated in the film "Fury:" the Army was the best job I ever had, so I wouldn't talk myself out of it.<span class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>The Army makes a person a better human being and American, if they want it.</span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">Corrections will change you. Change you're entire view on things. Keep your eyes open and mouth shut as long as possible and invest. Invest more than what you think you can.</span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">Just get used to the fact that "pay for play" is a staple in outdoor media. If you want an article about a new product, you'll have to write a check for it. Also, outdoors knowledge is great but study marketing trends and the latest news about social media algorithms. Realize your KPIs may shift from month to month. Authenticity matters, the public is more media savvy now than ever before. If you want to market to Gen Z, your Gen X ass needs some help from a youngster. </span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">Begin a professionally-designed PT program (such as MTI programs) and religiously track your efforts. Study technique and anatomy and physiology. Dedicate time to recovery and mobility and sustainable habits. Understand that consistency is more important than intensity, but still bring all the intensity you can muster. Balance your time to maintain skill sets such as marksmanship and combatives. Those can count as physical training as well.</span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">I wish I would have started sooner, but better late than never. Be patient, the tough days will pass and things will get better. Always listen and pay attention to the guys who have been doing this a long time.</span>

 

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">With the same dedication that you seek physical dominance, you must also study the profession and the universal aspects of human nature that you may also acheive moral and mental dominance. Napoleon said that in war, the moral is to the physical as three is to one. That's why he ended up losing at Waterloo. It's closer to ten to one. Boyd accurately listed the precedence of the domains of war with the moral at the top, followed by the mental, and then the physical. But these domains are not always mutually exclusive. As Maj Winters said, physical stamina is the foundation of mental toughness. </span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">Build habits that reflect an inherent commitment to excellence. Arete. How you do anything is how you do everything.<span class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>The "how" is more important than the "what." "We are what we repeatedly do..." displace from your life that which detracts from your realization of what you see you potential to be. Spend less time with toxic friends. Spend less nights drinking and smoking. Find a romantic relationship that is mature and mutual and loving. Pursue meaningful and beneficial pursuits. </span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">All of the hours outside of your training time do more to determine your performance than hours spent within training sessions. "If you love life, then don't waste time, for time is the substance of life." </span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">Discipline is discipline. Be disciplined. Research is now confirming this. The Anterior Mid Cingulate Cortex is plastic throughout life. It can be trained just as a muscle can be trained. Do hard shit. </span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">Don't ever be caught without your knife. </span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">DBAB.</span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">Stay in government service. </span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">Continue to work hard. </span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">Surround yourself with those like minded people and don’t allow people to negatively influence your passions and goals. </span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">Hard work and determination with this mindset will trump everything. </span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">Stay abreast of the industrial trends, look into adding another hard skill degree like registered Dietitian to broaden my opportunities. </span><span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">Do it. You’re going to see and do a lot of things that few others will, and many would pay to see/do. You’re going to get to live where others pay thousands of dollars to visit for a few days and wish they could stay longer</span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">Don't feel like you need to be super cop from day 1. Nobody expects you to know everything when you're new (even if it feels like it) and people will actually respect the honesty if you ask for help because you don't know how to do something, or what to do. Try not to care too much what other people's opinion of you is. Some (but not all) people you will work with will have decided their opinion on you before they even meet you, and no matter how many times you prove yourself they will never change their mind. It's not worth your time or energy worrying about what they think. Just focus your time and energy in becoming the best you can at your job and in being a good team player.</span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">See what work life balance actually is. Not what it appears on the good days but all the days. What does work look like when you have something important come up that requires you to miss? Do the hours of work line up with how you want to live? </span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">I know I took a job and chased a dream of big pay check and more freedom. The job never offered the freedom of being the “employer” and now facing tough decisions. </span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">Don't wait! It's going to be a great adventure, but don't skimp on sunscreen or water. </span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">Stay out of trouble, be kind to everyone - even your adversaries, set an example for your children - do it for them above all, and always aim higher until you know you have reached where you want to be.</span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">Find the most successful people and offer help and ask questions. </span>

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">Start sooner. </span>