Am I Willing

Looking back on my career and analyzing it from a higher perspective, I have distilled it down to willingness. How did I tell myself to go into compromised areas? How did I tell myself after a failure, to get back up? Why did I keep going into hostile situations?

In business we are given opportunities, what we do with those opportunities is our choice. Just like I had a choice every time I stepped into battle. You have a choice. The foundation of the choice you make is rooted in, Willingness. The path to finding out how willing you are can be a hard proposition. So how do we know we are on the right track?

There is only one step in the process, asking yourself:

1. Am I Willing?

During my time in the SEAL team, I was constantly tested. When I went to Military Free Fall (MFF) school, I did not sail through. MFF was a fast paced school where we were given 2-3 weeks to learn how to jump out of a plane, jump with and without combat gear, execute precise landings, and practice parachute formation. The rubber hit the road fast, and I was struggling in the beginning. I was not relaxing enough in the air; it wasn’t that I feared jumping, it was just an unfamiliar feeling. A feeling of nothing to push against or grab onto to re-stabilize myself. For those of you who have taken your first flight, you know the feeling. I was at a crossroads in training, I was progressing but not enough to go to the next phase unless I nailed my next jump. Shortly after realizing I was on the chopping block, I was given some advice from my instructor. He told me, "When you jump out of the plane you have the rest of your life to figure it out."

Something had to change. I knew I could do it, but I wasn’t sure of the path. I pulled myself to the side and asked myself a simple question, "Am I Willing?" Once I asked myself, I started to discover new avenues to answer the question. The avenues led to a path. I found a wind tunnel, I practiced in my room, I thought about it constantly even writing reminders on my hands. I went on to nail the next jump and continue on through training finishing strong. Sure I could have figured this out some other way, but it would have taken longer. Ultimately, I could have stubbornly gone through training and possibly failed. But I believe it is more important to learn from micro failures? Adjusting as you go and being more in control of the result. Awareness of micro failures protected me from failure and set me up for success. “Am I Willing” got me to realize and analyze the micro failures immediately. Helping me make a dynamic plan and come out successful.

Asking yourself, “Am I Willing,” will get you started on the path to success. It will determine your inner motivations. If you think through your current scenario and discover you are not willing to put in the extra time, then it may not be for you. Because in order to start, you have to be willing to fail, succeed, find solutions, study, put in the hours, pick yourself up and compete. What are you willing to take control of by asking, ”Am I Willing?”