Jocko Willink

When leading up the chain of command, use caution and respect. But remember, if your leader is not giving the support you need, don’t blame him or her. Instead, reexamine what you can do to better clarify, educate, influence, or convince that person to give you what you need in order to win.

calm but not robotic, logical but not devoid of emotions;

Don’t ask your leader what you should do, tell them what you are going to do.

In the SEAL Teams, the bond of our brotherhood is our strongest weapon. If you take that away from us, we lose our most important quality as a team.

Such concepts are simple, but not easy,

Once people stop making excuses, stop blaming others, and take ownership of everything in their lives, they are compelled to take action to solve their problems.

Don’t fight stress. Embrace it. Turn it on itself. Use it to make yourself sharper and more alert. Use it to make you think and learn and get better and smarter and more effective. Use the stress to make you a better you.

An opportunity to come out of the gate like a man possessed and attack the day: Without mercy. Today: I’m taking scalps. I’m putting the pressure on. I’m the aggressor. I’m on the attack. And of course: I will get tired. I will get beat up. I will get knocked down and drained and will have some bad days. But I will not Stop.

There were no more questions. The most important question had been answered: Why? Once I analyzed the mission and understood for myself that critical piece of information, I could then believe in the mission. If I didn’t believe in it, there was no way I could possibly convince the SEALs in my task unit to believe in it.

Once people stop making excuses, stop blaming others, and take ownership of everything in their lives, they are compelled to take action to solve their problems. They are better leaders, better followers, more dependable and actively contributing team members, and more skilled in aggressively driving toward mission accomplishment. But they’re also humble — able to keep their egos from damaging relationships and adversely impacting the mission and the team.

You have to detach from those emotions — step back from them a little so they don’t control you. You can do that by taking a deep breath and telling yourself to calm down.

People are not who you want them to be. Kill your idols. Sure there are things we can learn from people — but people aren’t going to be what you think they are — what they should be. People, even those people you have put up on a pedestal, are going to be faulted, weak, egomaniacal, condescending. They are going to be lazy, entitled, shortsighted. They will not be perfect. Far from it. That’s fine. Learn from their weaknesses. Of course: Learn from their strengths and mimic and copy them in what they do well. But equally as important: Learn from their faults.

Prioritize your problems and take care of them one at a time, the highest priority first. Don’t try to do everything at once or you won’t be successful.” I explained how a leader who tries to take on too many problems simultaneously will likely fail at them all.

remember: the enemy gets a vote.

If you do not believe you are disciplined, it is because you have not decided to become disciplined. Yet.