Transcript
A (0:00)
This is the Jocko Underground podcast number 154, sitting here with Echo Charles and we have some questions from the troopers at this time. Yep, let's get into it.
B (0:09)
All right, first one. I'm a 28 year old married male. For a long time I've been trying to figure out what to do with my life career wise. My current job is intrinsically meaningful, but I feel it's not for me. I sit at a desk all day and a big part of me feels I should be doing something more physical, a more physical job. I mean, I'm in great shape and would like to be in a career where I can be more active and problem solve. My dad is a retired cop and my brother is a former Marine. I've considered a career in law enforcement for a long time. The sense of duty, camaraderie and mission are attractive to me. But each time I get ready to pursue it, I have a bunch of mental roadblocks. Fears of how the day to day will affect me and my eventual family, the shift, work, dangers, etc all enter my mind. I've thought about this for years and I can't tell if I'm coming up with excuses, holding myself back or if that particular career is really not for me. I've struggled with accepting not having a quote unquote badass job to and find myself envious of those I've who pursue things like military, police, fire, etc. But I wonder if that is more of a fantasy I've created or if I need to stop with the excuses and get after it. Any thoughts you and Echo have would be greatly appreciated.
A (1:30)
So one thing I want to say is like we. You don't hear a lot of information about, for instance, police that are perfectly fine. You know what I mean? Like PTSD. Look, do. Do police get PTSD? Yep, they do. Did some quick, you know, research. 35% of police get PTSD right now. Normally it's only 7% of the population, so there's an increased chance, but there's also a bunch of police that don't get PTSD, you know what I'm saying? There's like 10% higher levels of stress and whatever problems are associated with stress, mental stress and what that does to your health. So there's like a 10% higher when you're for a police officer, but there's a lot of police officers that are totally freaking normal. There's a lot of police officers that are like, yeah, oh yeah, someone got shot today. It's what my job is. I Did my best to process through it. We got the person that. You know what I mean? Like, there's people that get away with it or get on with it. There's people that have squared away family lives that are police officers a lot. Divorce rate is 2% lower than the national average for police officers. There you go. You. You always hear like, the police are getting. Okay, okay. Just a little reality check. So the percentages of some of those are high. Look, the PTSD thing is definitely higher. But also, like, PTSD doesn't necessarily mean you have, like, a ruined life. It just means you got some stuff you gotta work through, you know, like, you might get, you know, you get some kind of a little injury. You gotta. Oh, I can't do this certain part of the exercise. I gotta work my range of motion a little bit. I gotta warm up more. Whatever. It's like you just. It doesn't ruin your life because you got a bum elbow. You know, you can't lock out your bench press. Okay. Can't go as heavy as used to, but you're still doing. Ben. You see what I'm saying?
