MUSTER 013

 My husband and I listen to audiobooks on leadership together and then like to have discussions about them: how we can implement strategies, what our biggest weaknesses are, what might be difficult about the strategy we are listening to, etc.  One of the leadership books we listened to was Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin who are both former Navy Seals.  Well, those two incredible gentlemen took what they learned from the military and their book and started their own leadership consulting business called Echelon Front.

Last week I had the opportunity to attend their MUSTER conference in Dallas, Texas.  It is a two-and-a-half-day leadership conference where you are immersed in extreme ownership and get to meet other leaders from various industries around the country.  In my honest opinion, this was the best leadership seminar/conference I have ever been to.  Their principles of extreme ownership are impactful and one of the parts that really made me think was "tactical victory, but strategic loss".

When we are thinking strategically, we are thinking big picture: the purpose, goal, or mission that you have in your work or home.  When we are thinking tactically, we are thinking about the little things that pop up and cause chaos in our lives, and they are not necessarily key in advancing the overall mission/purpose.  They even gave an example of this happening in your personal life: when you bring work home and focus on it so much, that it is at your family's expense: hard work pays for a good and solid lifestyle, but if you are doing that at the expense of missing out on your kids' life, is it a strategic or tactical win?

For some reason, that just hit home for me and it made me analyze what I do and work on that help propel me to the goal (graduate with my doctorate and take over the world...kidding on that last part) and what are things that are white noise and distractions.  

Overall it was so empowering and I made not only great connections but great friends!  Below are a few photos from the event; I normally do not post photos, but when you take pictures with former Navy Seals, it is worth sharing.

Me with Jocko Willink

Me with Leif Babin

*They look super intimidating but were some of the nicest people I have ever met*

When You Need to Detach

     One of the things my husband and I like to do together is listen to a book on Audible, either together or separately, and have discussions about it.  The types of books he is drawn to are leadership books, books on strategy, and books by military leaders.  To be honest, I'm not super interested in battle strategies or recounts of success by military leaders (some, but not all) and he is not going to have any interest in my Outlander adventure; but, leadership is something that is critical in his line of work and something I hope to also have an impact in.  Leadership books it is!  

    We started with Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin and that was so good we moved right into Leadership Strategies and Tactics by Jocko.  His books were encouraging, motivating, eye-opening, and very pleasant to listen to (anyone who listens to audiobooks understands how important that is).   I was fascinated by his notion of "detaching" from the situation and immediately recognized it as something I do not do very well.

    I am an emotionally based person, I feel with my whole self, am very empathetic, and anyone who is around me can usually tell how I'm feeling by looking at me.  I wouldn't say emotions drive my decisions, but they are a factor.  Even with communicating with my husband, he detaches and focuses on the issue, and I don't quite operate that way.  After listening to Jocko's two books, I decided that this is something I wanted to work on; how to take a step back from the situation, and analyze it more critically versus emotionally.  

    I would be misleading if I said this is something that has been a snap, in fact, quite the opposite.  It is something that I actively have to incorporate into my life when situations don't go as I want them to or unexpected chaos pops up that I have to handle.  But, I do find that when I detach successfully, I find the mental energy spent on the angst of emotions actually goes into handling the situation itself.  In my goal of finding mindfulness and being resilient, this notion of detaching is something I am going to continue to work into my regime.

Do you detach?  Does it help you analyze situations more clearly?

*I have also enrolled in the Women's Assembly from Echelon Front (the organization Jocko and Leif have built) and they give a free one-hour seminar on different tactics once a month.  If you are interested, you can find their website here for more information*