Earl is one of my role models. I don’t have To Do lists, I have Possibility lists. If something needs doing it gets done in the fullness of time, but there’s no rush.
On the other hand, some people might be more inspired by Admiral McRaven:
Summary courtesy of workplacepsychology.net:
10 Life Lessons from Basic SEAL Training
1. If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.
“If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right.”2. If you want to change the world, find someone to help you paddle.
“You can’t change the world alone—you will need some help— and to truly get from your starting point to your destination takes friends, colleagues, the good will of strangers and a strong coxswain to guide them.”3. If you want to change the world, measure a person by the size of their heart, not the size of their flippers.
“SEAL training was a great equalizer. Nothing mattered but your will to succeed. Not your color, not your ethnic background, not your education and not your social status.”4. If you want to change the world get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward.
“Sometimes no matter how well you prepare or how well you perform you still end up as a sugar cookie.”“For failing the uniform inspection, the student [in Basic SEAL training] had to run, fully clothed into the surfzone and then, wet from head to toe, roll around on the beach until every part of your body was covered with sand. The effect was known as a ‘sugar cookie.’ You stayed in that uniform the rest of the day — cold, wet and sandy.”
“There were many a student who just couldn’t accept the fact that all their effort was in vain. . . Those students didn’t understand the purpose of the drill. You were never going to succeed. You were never going to have a perfect uniform.”
5. If you want to change the world, don’t be afraid of the circuses.
“Every day during training you were challenged with multiple physical events — long runs, long swims, obstacle courses, hours of calisthenics — something designed to test your mettle. Every event had standards — times you had to meet. If you failed to meet those standards your name was posted on a list, and at the end of the day those on the list were invited to a ‘circus.’ A circus was two hours of additional calisthenics designed to wear you down, to break your spirit, to force you to quit.”“Life is filled with circuses. You will fail. You will likely fail often. It will be painful. It will be discouraging. At times it will test you to your very core.”
6. If you want to change the world sometimes you have to slide down the obstacle head first.
7. If you want to change the world, don’t back down from the sharks.
“There are a lot of sharks in the world. If you hope to complete the swim you will have to deal with them.”8. If you want to change the world, you must be your very best in the darkest moment.
“At the darkest moment of the mission is the time when you must be calm, composed—when all your tactical skills, your physical power and all your inner strength must be brought to bear.”9. If you want to change the world, start singing when you’re up to your neck in mud.
“If I have learned anything in my time traveling the world, it is the power of hope. The power of one person—Washington, Lincoln, King, Mandela and even a young girl from Pakistan, Malala—one person can change the world by giving people hope.”10. If you want to change the world don’t ever, ever ring the bell.
“In SEAL training there is a bell. A brass bell that hangs in the center of the compound for all the students to see. All you have to do to quit—is ring the bell. Ring the bell and you no longer have to wake up at 5 o’clock. Ring the bell and you no longer have to do the freezing cold swims. Ring the bell and you no longer have to do the runs, the obstacle course, the PT—and you no longer have to endure the hardships of training. Just ring the bell. If you want to change the world don’t ever, ever ring the bell.”
Do either of these approaches appeal to you?
If you’d set me this task in class and give me five hours I’d write you an epic essay. I have only listened to the first two or three minutes of the speech. What the speaker omits to say, and more is the pity, is changing the world “for the better”. Though no doubt that is what he wanted to imply. Alas, the same laws apply to changing the world for the worse.
Earl’s approach doesn’t appeal to me. It’s impractical. Sure, some jobs to be done are inconsequential. Others? Only at the turn of the last year (yes, including New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day) I lived without hot water for twelve weeks. When I say “without hot water” I mean the kitchen sink. I don’t mind washing up by hand. It’s fine. Providing you have a pair of industrial strength kitchen gloves and HOT water. As where I live is rented and not my own I am dependent on the landlord and availability of his plumber and other handymen. Twelve weeks. God knows how many kettles I boiled to create hot water out of cold. Sometimes I think there are only two solutions to most problems: You either, like I do, have the patience of the saintly, or the money to throw at it [the problem].
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It depends on the task. Some I do right away to get it off my mind, others can wait.
PS I think it’s easier to change the world for the worst. Tearing down is a lot easier than building.
you know monk. I was raised by a military man. and even though he left the planet early what he taught us apparently stuck. it’s the oddest thing. even for the marine who only knew our dad for 14 years… I guess where he left off the marines took over.
it’s interesting the things that become ingrained.
to this day neither of us can stand to not make our bed!
and that’s only a symbol of course.
I have never been tested. not like the marine. or his son. they both have.
but I never have.
not really. not in the way of such things. not enough that I can say I’ve been tested compared to what I think a true test is. far from it.
but in so many ways just that approach in facing life’s difficulties has held me in good stead.
order. self reliance. hopefully courage. and just getting it done. or getting through whatever it is you have to get through as well as you can.
the brits in the blitz will always come to mind. order out of chaos. grace and civility and tradition when all around is under fire. or it must have seemed so.
‘keep calm and carry on.’ I aspire to that. I just hope I could measure up.
Your father left you a great legacy, even if you didn’t have him for very long. You’ve had your share of tests in your life, and you’ve handled them, are still handling them, well.
I have no problems with either of them. By and large, I am as disciplined as a SEAL is, including making my bed first thing on waking up. I can also be like Earl at times because, the roof will not fall down if I delay a project. There are also more capable and younger shoulders willing to carry out household chores. It is a pleasure to be lazy and a couch potato. I think that I have earned that privilege.
It’s good to have a balance. I like the one I have between discipline and creativity/spontaneity.
That last personality test hit the nail on the head for me:
Except I don’t just find myself getting lost in my thoughts, I treasure moodling time and make sure I have plenty of it. But when a problem comes up I get right on it and don’t feel frustrated or annoyed, I stick with it and get it done.
I think I’m like Earl.
In my personal life I am
but just recently I’ve decided
not to apologize for it.
I’m actually the opposite at my work
But I’m trying to let things go a bit there too
and be more Earl like.
Our society is sick when people feel they have to apologize for their moodling time. How can we be creative if we don’t value it? And even at work it’s sometimes best not to be too driven.
How are things going with you? I miss your blog, but understand why you need to spend your energy and time elsewhere.
Number 10 speaks to me…. I think it was Vince Lombardi who said something like, “quitting is a habit, just like finishing!” One of the hardest things to see is friends, family etc., who when the going got tough, “rang the bell,” when so many were cheering them on, or even following them. I don’t know what their answer is, but for me, I just try to dig a bit deeper and keep trying. Sometimes when I set some of my goals, I don’t cross that proverbial finish line when I wanted to, but I am a work in progress, and I keep trying.
Well I’m not going to fare to well particularly in the “make your bed mode” – I don’t do that – I fold back the covers in a kind of 3! Although half the time, I also have to get said covers back on the bed…and then there is the sheets, the bottom seems to fare okay but the one between the covers and me – is vastly different…
how could that sheet wind up just below my “chin” – none anywhere they should be…
how could the blankets slide off the bed towards the floor, when I haven’t slid anywhere at all..
and then there is the mattress status – I’m in a bed big enough for me to be in the middle and space on each side for books et al. But now that centre part has gotten lumpy – so for now I’m on the right side…and when that gives in, I’ll be over on the left…
then it will be “curtains” for that mattress…
oh, I forget what am I supposed to address!
I do know how to make a bed with all it’s corners properly mitered – I went to boarding school, I was a nurse-assistant in a very long ago life…