Here, Now

Last night and this morning on way way home from and to work I listened to an episode of the Tim Ferris podcast by ex-US Navy SEAL and now leadership consultant Jocko Willink. I first came across Willink a year or two back through his book ‘Extreme Ownership’ in which he draws out leadership lessons from his time as a SEAL commander in Iraq (in particular). The basic idea of Extreme Ownership is that when you have a problem to solve you have to completely own it and focus your attention solely on what you can do to resolve it rather than looking to blame others or the circumstances or to look for solutions from others. It’s an idea I like and one that is very much in tune with the Stoic philosophy of focusing only on things that are in your control (or which you have some influence over) and not wasting time and effort worrying about things which you cannot influence. Stephen Covey calls this your ‘Circle of Influence’ as opposed to your ‘Circle of Concern’.

Anyway, in the podcast Willink introduces some of the material in his new book on ‘Discipline’. Much of the podcast involve Willink talking about his training regimes and about martial arts. Whilst there was some content of interest here I found this to be not especially interesting or useful because it is very obvious that what he regards as being beginner level is WAY above the level that a mere mortal could manage (e.g. An exercise routine that involves doing 100 of any kind of exercise such as pull-ups in one go is well beyond most people, let alone when that is only small piece of an overall routine!). But there were some elements that I found more applicable. Willink talks about the importance of getting up early and gives a blue print for how to achieve this – basically 1) go to bed earlier and 2) work hard during the day so that you get really tired and have no trouble going to be early! This might sound like trite advice, but really, when it comes down to it, there is obvious truth in what he suggests and any attempt to make things more complicated is probably just an attempt to get out of rising early in the first place.

In a similar fashion, Willink has some extremely simple advice about making a change in life or getting started on something. Listening to him speak it is pretty obvious that he is not the sort of person who you would suffer procrastination as an excuse for not achieving something. He cautions against over-thinking things, doing too much research, reading about what you want to do etc. and again, in a definite nod to the Stoic approach, urges ACTION. He answers two questions ‘where should I start?’ and  ‘when should I start?’ both of which can easily derail someone who proscrastinates in the simplest possioble manner…

Where should I start?

HERE

When should I start?

NOW

I have copied these words onto post-it notes which are now stuck on the top of my computer monitor to provide a continual kick up the backside from Jocko:

That’s it for today – I’ve got work to get on with!