Transcript
A (0:00)
This is the Jocko Underground podcast number 186, sitting here with Echo Charles. We've got a bunch of very interesting questions from you all, and we will provide answers in some cases, recommended courses of action in other cases, and maybe just overall guidance. Yeah, that's where we're at.
B (0:18)
Helpful guidance.
A (0:19)
Yes, indeed.
B (0:20)
All right, first question. Good evening. I listen to your podcast a lot, and it helps me stay disciplined in many areas of my life. In my. In my mid-20s and after starting to work out consistently for the first time in seven years, I decided. Decided to increase the plank time I was doing by 10 seconds after about a week and a half. So, plank is, you know, when you go on your elbows, your feet, you know you're rigid anyway, you time yourself. It's a thing. So for a week and a half k, the first time I tried this, I found myself engaging in all this negative self talk, like, wow, congratulations, sarcastically, you're now 10 seconds of planking less pathetic than you were a week ago. My question is, why can some of us struggle so hard to be happy with growth and acknowledge when we are acting with discipline and commitment in other ways as well? Beyond my planking, sincerely and with appreciation.
A (1:15)
I. I was kind of wondering how that was negative until you read it in a sarcastic voice, you know, because in my mind, it's like, oh, yeah, you actually are better there than you were a week ago.
B (1:25)
No, he said less pathetic. See what I'm saying? Like, he's.
A (1:28)
Yeah, yeah, I get it. But it's like, bro, wow, congratulations, you are less pathetic now. You know what I mean? Like, that's a positive thing. And look, do you need to use the word pathetic? Probably not. I can tell you've been called things a lot worse than the word pathetic, especially in, like, basic SEAL training, they're telling you they're calling you, you know, all kinds of words that are way worse than pathetic. But here's the thing, man. I think what you should actually just focus on. And to answer the question of how can you struggle so hard, well, it's because you're focusing on the wrong thing. You need to focus on where you're going and what you're doing. Good. If you're constantly looking at all the mistakes that you've made and all the times you lack discipline and all the places where you went off the path, that's not helpful. That's not helpful for anyone. It's not helpful for me right now. I can tell you about a freaking house that I should have bought in 1993, that if I would have bought this house in 1993, maybe it was 1994. If I would have bought that house in 1994, I would be a freaking real estate mogul right now. You see what I'm saying? I think about that probably once a year. I don't dwell on it. You know what I did do in 1998? I bought a house. It took me another five years before I was like, okay, I gotta buy a house. But that five years is a big timeframe. You know, when you take away the compounding progress I would have made by buying a house five years earlier in a clutch zone. You see what I'm saying? It could have been a game changer. My dad used to work, used to work on computers in the, in the early 80s. Early 80s, okay. We had a Commodore Vic 20. Have you ever heard of that before?