100 Episodes of the Scuttlebutt Podcast
Thanks for being here.
Hey there, good morning.
This last week we hit the 100 episode marker for the Scuttlebutt Podcast. To commemorate, I wanted to look back at some of the most influential lessons from guests and that I’ve taken away personally.
If you’re more of an audio/video person, you can check the video out here on Youtube.
1. Purpose isn't found, its created.
You aren't born with one static purpose that you should have figured out by some arbitrary point in time.
You can have many purposes and they can change. Purpose is crafted over time by the things that you do.
It's not silly to "look for purpose", but it is silly to remain idle while you do that. The path reveals itself over time.
At one point in time I thought it was silly that anyone would stay in the military longer than one term. It took meeting people like Dan Blackmon and Don Reynolds, career military guys, who have found purpose in giving back for me to recognize that.
2. When lots of ideas are possible, choose what you want to win at.
Most decisions aren't binary. There are lots of influences to everything.
These factors allow immense customization of your life. What Michael Madrid called "Choose your own Adventure."
There are two inputs to figuring out what direction to go.
1. What is long term winning?
2. Trial aggressively
When thinking about the big picture, assume complete success. What does being hyper successful in your proposed path look like?
Picturing yourself there, is that winning scenario appealing?
Long term military "winning" wasn't appealing to me. Senior officers are still going on the same deployments I was going on.
I wanted time agency - winning at the military wouldn't give me that.
Trial aggressively means to find the fastest and cheapest way to figure out as many paths as possible.
Talk to people ahead of you. Read a book. Take a course.
The wider the net, the more things you'll know you don't want to do.
Winning has multiple definitions. You can find lots by spreading yourself out, trialing, and talking to a lot of people. Brendan Aronson called this increasing your luck surface area.
3. We are too insulated from impacts of our decisions.
Josh Steinman hammered home the importance of placing yourself in a position where you can make decisions and ACTUALLY feel the repercussions of those.
Most environments we are in are designed to protect us from those.
Lack of connection to consequences impairs decision making long term and pushes you further away from accountability.
We combat this to use a phrase of Jocko's, extreme ownership.
You're in control of your own destiny regardless of your environment, upbringing, or other circumstances.
The quicker you accept that, the quicker you can start doing something to institute massive change.
4. Be a man or woman of action.
How do you combat lack of purpose? Act.
How do you combat insulation from decisions? Act.
There are people who talk about doing things and there are people who do things. Be the latter.
Lots of people in the military and vet space are all talk.
"I do this for vets."
"I'm going to get out and go do this."
Show me then.
Most don't.
You don't want to be that person. People who don't act repel success.
This applies to your career as well as your life and hobbies. You want to start a side gig? You better be willing to lose to some sleep.
You need to be willing to work 5-9 after your 9-5. The price of admission on being above average is doing things average people don't.
Traps to avoid:
- Excuses; nobody owes you anything
- Time; you have time for what's important to you
- Planning; act and plan as you go
Acting gets you closer to decisions and shows people you're a winner.
Favorite Alex Hormozi quote:
"You don't gain confidence by shouting affirmations in the miorr, but by having an undeniable stack of proof you are who you say you are."
Stack proof all day through massive action.
Break goals down into small enough pieces to meet the skill and time constraints you have available. If you can't deliver, they're too large.
I've literally made goals that I need to finish in 30 minutes. Small wins are meaningful in the long run.
A few final thoughts
Find your life’s work - this tweet is a good read on what that means.
“A lifelong quest to build something for others that expresses who you are”
If you feel imposter syndrome, good.
We're imposters here.
We're doing hard things that we don't feel qualified for.
We don't let fear of failure inhibit our massive action.
We want to be the dumbest person in the room so we can learn.
Be an imposter.
Meditations Book 3 Section 4
Marcus Aurelius is talking about the man to be.
"someone who refuses to put off joining the elect...undefiled by pleasures, invulnerable to pain, untouched by arrogance, unaffected by meanness, an athlete in the greatest of all contests the struggle to not be overwhelmed by anything that happens."
If you've been with me since episode 1 or episode 99, I appreciate you.
Here's to the next 1000 episodes.