Do you have routines to get things done? Or do you make it up every day?

There is a story about Steve Jobs and his black turtle-neck sweaters. Not sure if it is true, but it makes a point. It was part of his routine. The story goes that black turtle necks are all he had in his closet. That way he never had to make a decision about what to wear and when. It was always the same. He used the routine to move faster, save time, and get more things done.

I do like having a uniform of sorts at work. I have one type of shirt, six of which I wear with jeans and the same boots daily. I am living groundhogs day that way. But I never have to think about it and it is just part of my morning routine.

Routines help me do everything better. It has an order to things so you don’t have to stop and think of what to do.

In the military, we have lots of routines. All of them are called different things. The most prevalent, life-saving routines in the infantry were called IAs, or Immediate Action Drills. It is what you did when there was an ambush, contact with the enemy, or took incoming fire. Those things that you should be doing without thought. The more things you did in the military the more IA drills you learned. And then you practiced them all the time.

I’m a civilian now and actually take pleasure in the fact that no one has tried to kill me in over a decade. It’s a more peaceful way to live.

But we can learn things from IA drills. IA drills were set up to have the most probability of success when things were really bad.

Why don’t you set up your life and execute and/or practice your own IA drill daily or more often?

I actually have one I’m doing very well, my morning routine. And in the morning it’s an IA drill because I roll out of bed, grab my clothes for a bike ride that I stagged the morning before, and head downstairs to the bathroom.

In the bathroom I do my thing, take a progress picture, weigh myself, change into my bike clothes, and head out.

I grab a glass of water, already staged, and a water bottle, already staged, and head to the garage to ride my Zwift trainer for 20 to 30 minutes.

After that, it’s back to the kitchen for another glass of water, to make coffee while I’m changing out of bike stuff and into shorts to read. I finish making the coffee and sit down to read my 10 pages.

When the 10 pages are done I look at what needs to be done for the day and head upstairs to take a shower and shave and get dressed for work. I give my wife a kiss as she is waking up to start her day and am out the door for work.

The days that I do my routine go way better than the days that I skip my morning routine.

And for any of you that think I can go to work any time I want so you couldn’t do something like this, I’m up at 5 am and at work by 8 am. If I can do it, so can you.

It is worth it.

Now I’m working on starting a morning routine at work and a nightly routine to wind down and get more done. It works in the morning, I don’t see why it can’t work everywhere.

What about you? Do you have a routine for things? Do you set up your routines as IA drills that you do without thinking?

Set a routine and follow it for 75 days. You’re life will improve.

Ben Branam

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Just do one more… Everything

I just listened to Ed Mylett’s book The Power of One More and it inspired me to do one more every day towards being great.

In everything you do in life, if you do just one more you can be great. No one knows at what exact point the greats have gone from just good to amazing but there was a point, and all it took was one more time.

In selection for special forces, it’s going just one more leg of the race, one more day of selection, or just one more time doing the drill.

In Marine Corps Boot Camp it was just one more past your limit; One more push-up, one more pull-up, one more mile, or one more time around the drill field. One day during Boot Camp the Drill Instructor gave me the advice to not even make it one more day just make it one more meal. Since we were fed three times a day it was just make it a little further, or just one more.

When I got out of Boot Camp and to the Fleet Marine Force we measured days with one more, just two more days and a wake-up. It was a way for us to tell each other just one more.

Now in real life, it is just one more thing
In my sales job, it is just one more call sales call
In my marriage, it is just one more nice word to my wife
With my kid, it is one more moment together.

A life of greatness can be built on just one more.

If you do one more of whatever it is you want to succeed, you will eventually become great.

No doubt, it takes time to do just one more. And it takes time and work to b e great at anything. But this one more all the time compounds and before you know it, you will be great.

Do one more act of kindness
One more thing to get in shape
One more thing at work
Just one more to become great.

It all starts with you.

Learn more by reading the book The Power of One More.

Ben Branam

The post Just One More appeared first on 75 Hard Experience.

In everything you do be humble.

Leadership is something I’ve been taught since the beginning of everything… or so it seems.

As a Boy Scout when I was younger, leadership is one of their core principles. There I was taught the Scout Oath and Law. Both fail to mention being humble.

I grew from scouting to being a United States Marine. Leadership seemed to be the one constant from day one. I was taught leadership principles, traits, and core values. Of 5 traits, 14 principles, and 3 core values, not one mentioned humility.

After the Marine Corps, I wanted to be a cop. In my training, I didn’t find humility anywhere.

The first time I started learning humility was when I started studying Jui-Jitsu. Humility in Jui-Jitsu is more a form of survival than anything else. You think you are going to go into a fighting place and be the loudmouth, you are going to get humbled, fast. You get to learn the hard way.

Then as a Security Contractor, I started to learn a little more about humility. Trying to be “a quite professional” means you have to be humble.

Now from a Navy SEAL, Jocko Willink, I finally am getting training in humility. He has an easy saying, “Be humble, or get humbled.”

There are a lot of places you can get away with being egotistical. And many people can get away with it for a lot longer than anyone around them would like, but sooner or later, they will get humbled.

If you want to be the leader in your family, a leader at work, or a leader in life, you better learn to be humble.

As a Marine, I was pretty good at war fighting. I did not like the administrative or uniform stuff. In fact, I was outright defiant of it. I never found my humility as a leader. But the leaders I loved the most around and above me were the ones to come at me with humility. Since I was good at my job as an infantry Marine, I knew a lot about my weapon system, and tactics, and continually studied them. In fact, I read manuals and books so much I was given the call sign “Brain”.

The leaders that were humble would tell me about how good I was with my weapons and how they aren’t as good with them or knew anything about some of the technicalities of my job. But they asked me what I needed to be better at that job and used that to help me be better at the rest of the administrative and rear echelon stuff that I wasn’t good at and hated. I was never the uniform-wearing poster boy that you think of when you think of a Marine. I was the dirt on my face, rifle carrying warrior part.

As a civilian, I still shoot competitions and go to firearms classes and even teach self-defense with a firearm from time to time. While I’m always one of the best, there is always someone better and someone I can learn from.

In fact, as a Marine, we all take great pride in our skill with our rifles. And every time you are on the range there is always a top shooter. And I was always one of the best there as well. But, be humble or get humbled. Every time we went to the range I was never top shot… I was always second. It didn’t matter if we went with the platoon (30 Marines), my company (100 Marines), or even the battalion (almost 1,000 Marines) I was always second by a point out of 350. Very humbling.

This week, while you go about your life, try to practice humility. I know it isn’t something we do very well or practice, but if you can lose your ego humility is easy.

Try it,

Ben

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Those who are crazy enough to think they can change the world just might do it.
Whether you think you can or think you can’t you are right.

Are you grateful for what you have?

Do you express gratitude for it?

How often do express gratitude to yourself? The people around you? The world?

If you are like most people in this crazy busy world, we don’t stop enough to express gratitude to the people and things around us. And the fact that we don’t do it just makes it harder. It is a habit that needs practice.

But if you are grateful for what you have life will become abundantly easier and better.

This is simple, but not easy.

Here is your challenge to make yourself a better person and the world a better place.

Every day for the next 75 days take to social media and express something you are grateful for.

I know it sounds too simple, but have you tried it? Do you express gratitude every day? Do you let the world know of your gratitude?

This challenge will make you better by stopping to think once a day about what you are grateful for and then expressing it to the world. We all know that social media should be called the social shit show. If it bleeds it leads has gone from the “old media” to the new media. And continues to get worse.

Here is your chance to influence that. Here is your chance to make social media a better place for everyone that sees your post. Yes, you will get more likes, shares, and interaction if you post that the world is ending over your bike ride was fun. That was my post yesterday. I crashed pretty hard about one minute into my ride. Got up and pushed on to ride 30 miles. And then posted I was grateful to be wearing my helmet because I bounced my head off the pavement and was able to continue on.

Don’t worry about measuring the likes on your post. Worry about helping the one person that will see your post. If you can change one person for the better, and they can change one person, and that person can change another person, we really can change the world. It all starts with you.

Ben

The post 75 Days of Gratitude appeared first on 75 Hard Experience.

It’s the everyday things that change us.

“Watch your thoughts, they become your words;
watch your words, they become your actions;
watch your actions, they become your habits;
watch your habits, they become your character;
watch your character, it becomes your destiny.”
– Lao Tzu

For some reason, I remember the end of the quote as your habits become who you are.

I sit right now trying to make my habits into who I want to become. But it seems like that daily grind of doing something everything every day is what is getting me.

I want to be a motivational writer and podcaster. And this blog is my attempt at doing that. I am working to make myself better, and helping those around me become better, so they can make the ones around them become better, and if everyone becomes a better person, the world would be a better place.

Lately, I’ve let everything get in the way of this simple goal. I haven’t been writing or podcasting. I haven’t been working on myself as much as I should. And I haven’t been growing. Everything has a season, but I think we shouldn’t let a season go by without improving ourselves.

I just let a season go by without improving me and it sucks. I feel horribly behind at everything. At work I haven’t been doing the simple things to keep going. I’m a salesman, and I haven’t been prospecting, which means I haven’t been bringing in new business. I’ve just been working the business I have and now I’m behind.

At home, I haven’t been working on being a better husband and father and I think it is affecting my relationships with my family.

Physically I’ve been missing workouts and eating poorly so I haven’t been losing weight or improving my physical prowess like I want to.

It all comes back to the simple habit of trying to improve yourself every day.

For me, that is reading at least 10 pages a day out of a self-help or business book, listening to a book, and listening to podcasts that help me be better. (Andy Frisella’s Feal AF, the guy that came up with the 75 Hard Program that motivated me to start this site is a good one to listen to).

Over the last week, I’ve started reading again and listening to more podcasts. I’m hoping to motivate myself into getting better a little at a time. As I get better at me, I’ll get better at doing the grind, which includes this blog.

If you are still reading this blog, thanks. I hope it is helping you become better.

Ben Branam

The post The Grind… appeared first on 75 Hard Experience.

Changing you and your focus.

How to change you and your focus in life is simple, just not easy. You just have to reprogram yourself. And it takes a long time.

I’m going through a tough time with my sisters and father. My mother passed away suddenly about two years ago and my father spent the time since her passing in the bottle.

He was an alcoholic growing up but gave it up about 15 years ago because a doctor told him it was killing him. So he quit. Simple, not easy.

But my father is a great man when it comes to stuff like that. He had smoked for 18 years and a doctor told him the more he smoked going into surgery, the less likely he was to wake up. So he quit.

He retired a couple of years before my mom passed so once she was gone, he had no reason to get up in the morning. It’s easier for me than for my sisters because once he started drinking I knew it wouldn’t be long and I excepted his passing and spiraling health.

It is also easier for me since I live in Texas and they are all in California.

My youngest sister just can’t let go of the worry and stress. And it is starting to affect her and her husband’s life very negatively. I told her to stop it and she said it’s just who she is.

She has told herself this for years and years. It’s just who she is. Our mom told herself the same thing for her entire life. So my sister just assumed it is genetic and she got it from mom. Whether it is genetic or not, I don’t know, but I know it can be changed.

My sister programmed herself her entire life to care for others first, then herself and her husband. I gave her some Zig Ziglar advice, look yourself in the mirror every morning and tell yourself that your husband and you come first above all else. Say “I will take care of myself and my husband first. Then I will take care of the rest of the family.”

You can reprogram yourself with anything the same way. Anything you want to change about yourself, you can change. Get up every morning, look yourself in the mirror, and tell yourself who you want to be.

For years I was a very negative person. I could see the bad in everything. It was just who I was. And I thought that was how it was going to be forever. In 2009 I decided to change that when I came back from Iraq for the last time.

It took me years and asking lots of people to help me, but now I’m a much more optimistic person. I still have self-help cards that I read and one of them says “I am a happy, grateful, and joyful person. I will spread that joy to those around me to make the world better. Being positive will help me do everything better.”

Every so often I slip and say something very negative. But I have people to remind me and this card to read. But now I’m seen by others as a positive and optimistic person.

What do you need to reprogram yourself to be? What do you want to reprogram yourself to be?

Ben Branam

The post Changing You appeared first on 75 Hard Experience.

Books will change your life even in the most unusual way.

In 2002 I was part of an Anti-Terrorism unit on Camp Pendleton as a U.S. Marine. By then I’d figured out I liked reading and was into spy novels and saving the world adventure books.

When my unit was activated and placed on alert as part of an Anti-Terrorism unit after September 11th I started reading everything on weapons and tactics I could get my hands on. At the time Marines could do MCIs (Marine Corps Institute) as a way to earn credits and advance in rank. I’d already done all the ones I could by the time we settled into strip alert.

Once we started training more I had access to libraries of different units and areas. I got more books on combat, terrorism, and war. Most of the books were from the Vietnam era and World War II. Not much new had been written. So I actually ordered books on terrorism from outside the Marine Corps. And people, agencies, and other services sent them to me. And I read them all.

Consequently, I always had a book on hand and would read a lot in my downtime. One of my academically challenged leaders asked me why I always had a book. So I told the truth, I was trying to learn. He said what do you think you are ”some kind of brain?” as a snipe meant to tear me down in front of my Marines. It didn’t work. My Marines gave me my nickname and call sign right then and there, Brain. I’ve been that ever since.

Even in other units I went to and eventually as a contractor that continued to fight terrorism years later, my call sign went with me. It’s actually an honor to get a call sign assigned to you. And in conventional forces, not everyone gets one. In the contracting world, you get a call sign for some stupid thing you do. So I enjoyed walking in with one and not getting a horrible nickname.

But my love for books continued. I can’t tell you there is one book that changed my life, I just know that books over time make me more motivated, better mentally, and better physically. I still read, or actually, listen to, a lot of books now, anything that looks interesting that could improve me.

Books will change your life, but not in the way most people want them to. It takes a long time. And a lot of them.

I wish I could give you one book that would change your life and put you on the path to being the best person you could be. I can give you a couple about combat and leadership that changed the way I thought, but most of the books I read take years to work.

It could be me. You might be able to read a book once and change your entire world. I hope that works for you. My experience is it is painful, hard, and takes way more time than I want it to. I guess that is the painful lesson I’ve gotten from every book I’ve ever read, it takes time. It takes lots of time.

Yes I will give you a list of books that could change your life (in a minute). I want to let you know it is okay that it takes time. I want you to be patient. Life change takes a while. Keep working on it, you can do it.

Ben Branam

My Favorite “change-your-life” books:

The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker can teach you what fear actually is and how to use it. In today’s world, we don’t deal with real fear (something is going to kill you right now fear) as much as we use to. So w don’t understand it. Read the book and see how you can use it and why we have it.

Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink is one of the best leadership books ever. Whether you are leading a team, your family, or just yourself. If you put the concept of Extreme Ownership into your life it will help you be a better person. It’s a simple concept, but it sure as hell isn’t easy.

Profit First by Mike Michalowicz is the best book on business accounting for a business leader. It flips traditional accounting practices on their head to give you a way to think about accounting in a business fashion to help you make money and keep your expenses in check.

Take Charge of You by David Novak is what I’m currently reading and hoping it will change my life. I’m going through this one slowly and doing all the exercises and answering all the questions. I want to coach myself to make myself better and learn something along the way.

The post Books Will Change Your Life appeared first on 75 Hard Experience.

You have to go your own way when setting and accomplishing goals.

No one will set goals for you; this is your first thought, right? But lots of people will set lots of goals for you over your life. When you are a kid, your parents set lots of goals for you. Most of them you probably don’t even know about. Or at least didn’t know about it at the time. Bet you didn’t know that they just wanted you to walk on your own after carrying you around for the better part of a year.

As we get older more people set goals for us. You have goals at work that your boss expects you to achieve. You still have goals your parents expect you to rise to. And you have goals your spouse, your siblings, or your closest friends will try and set for you.

Sometimes we care about those goals, but most of the time I bet you are like me. I don’t really care what my parents’ goals are for me anymore. I’m a grown man. My spouse has all sorts of goals for me and half of them I don’t even know what they are. I don’t care about most of those goals. If you think that is mean, the problem is that I don’t really care about most of the goals I set for myself. But I’m working on it.

For me, working on goal setting means going my own way. All these people around me have goals for me. But I have to set my own, on my own, and do them on my own. Strategically looking for partners, not just using people around me.

I was trying to run a 5K with my wife. I’m horribly addicted to Monster Energy drinks (I like the blue lo-carb ones) and my wife hates that I drink them. I hate that my wife is a couch potato and doesn’t have any physical goals. One of my wife’s good friends wants to run a 5K without walking for her 50th birthday in June of this year. I thought it would be great if my wife and she did it together. They could push each other and make both of them accomplish something big. I roped my wife into it and said I would do it with her. I also said I will completely quit drinking Monsters if she finishes the 5K without walking.

My wife trained for two weeks a month ago and hasn’t hit the pavement since. I’ve been hitting the treadmill for the last month twice a week trying to get up to a running speed so I could keep up with them. I really have no desire to run a 5K and my friend invited me to do another bike race.

I loved doing the bike race last month! Now there is another one right here in San Antonio that is at the end of June. And I can go from doing 25 miles to doing 40 miles this time. A nice progression.

I tried having a heart-to-heart with my wife about the 5K goal and she really didn’t seem into it. So I went my own way. I signed up for the Tour De Boerne bike race on June 25. I’m going to do 40 miles and I’ve already started training. Today I rode 32 miles with a group. Next week I’ll try and ride a bunch.

I’m learning that despite what others do or don’t do, have goals, or don’t have goals, you have to find your own goal and go after it for your reasons. That way the monotony of every day doesn’t get in the way of you achieving your goal.

Your goals are something that you have to work on every day. So you better like working on your goal. If you don’t enjoy the process, if you don’t like the direction of your goal, you aren’t going to get it done. And if you do complete the goal it will be empty and have no meaning.

Go your own way. Pick your own goal. Then work on it every day, of every week, of every year until you achieve that goal. Once you hit that goal then go on to the next one.

The last thing I’m learning about goals is you can only work on as many as you can work on every day, of every week, of every year. If you don’t have time, energy, or enough drive to work on all your goals today, you need to put some of them on the back burner and do the ones you can work on every day.

Now get after your goals,

Ben Branam

What I’m using to work on my goals right now:

• The Full Focus Planner by Michael Hyatt: I used this on and off and back onto it. It is a daily planner that puts your goals upfront. I think it needs a little more. Use it, but cut your goals down to a couple. There is room for like 20 upfront. Then add a section on the daily pages in the notes or other areas that says what you are going to do that day to work on each goal.
• The Bucket List Journal: I’m just starting this one, but heard the writer, Ben Nemtin, on a podcast and was so inspired by how his life changed by working on his bucket list (I hear BIG GOALS) that I bought the book and the planner to work through it.

The post Go Your Own Way… When it comes to your goals appeared first on 75 Hard Experience.

How do you get back to what you know you should be doing after a lapse in time?

Have you ever hit a goal and then just stopped doing things you know you should be doing? Or worse, in my case, have you given up lots of things you know you should be doing to hit a goal and now have to restart all those things that you shouldn’t have given up.

It’s like getting back on target after a hit or miss with a rifle, handgun, or even a mortar system. As a U.S. Marine, I was an 0341, infantry mortarman. I worked with the little tubes, the 60mm man-portable gun systems.

A mortar system is an amazing weapon that can fire an (in the case of the 60s) 3-pound exploding projectile out miles and hit within 25 yards of where it is intended. Which is plenty close enough with your projectile is basically 2 pounds of high explosive wrapped in a pre-cut metal tube. The weapon is devastating when used correctly.

But you have to use the system correctly to get consecutive, repeatable results. We fire a round to seat the base plate which is almost a throw-away round because it probably won’t be accurate or repeatable.

Seating a Base Plate

After that everything has to be repeatable to adjust from. Mortarmen do this by setting the weapon up to the exact same position after the round was fired as before. Then they wait.

When we did direct lay, meaning the gunner could see the target and was firing without outside direction at the target, once the round was fired and the gun is back up (or bubbled up as we would say) he would wait with his eye in the site, on the target waiting to see the round to hit.

The time of flight on a mortar round is between 15 and 45 seconds. So the gunner gets to wait a while. When firing live rounds even in training that seems like forever. And the rest of the team is prepping for the next shot or doing other things in combat waiting for that round to hit.

In the real world when we fire something out into the world it could take weeks, months, or even years to see where that round impacted. We still have to watch our target and wait.

What happens, if you are like me, you take your eye off the site (or our goal) and nothing happens. Then we stay out not looking for longer. And nothing happens. Then something happens and we miss where that round impacts and we try to adjust anyways, or just give up.

In the real world, everything has gone cold and we need to reseat our base plate to start again.

That is where I am with this blog. I started it to help people and then let distractions get in the way. Then I missed where my last couple of rounds hit entirely. I even ignored one I sent out in January even though people were pointing it out to me when I asked if anyone wanted to do a 75 Hard Challenge for the new year with me on the podcast associated with this website.

Now I’m throwing away time, effort, and rounds trying to reseat the base plate and get going again. It’s all because I let things get in the way of what I’m trying to do. I took my eye out of the site.

How often do you let things get in the way of what you are trying to do?

How often do you have to reseat your base plate to start again?

I don’t know a different way because just jumping in there and starting again. We are all looking for the easy button, but there really isn’t one.

When it comes to firing a mortar system, every time you pick up and move you have to start all over again, set up your system, reseat the base plate, and fire another round to adjust from. Not to mention the actual work of moving the system. Even the 60mm (by far the lightest weight at about 50 pounds for the gun and all the accompanying stuff plus ammo at 3 pounds per round) is a lot of work to move from one spot to another.

Maybe, if possible, you should dig in where you are, keep your eye on the site, and adjust instead of moving, resetting up, reseating your base plate, and starting your mission again.

Do the work,

Ben Branam
75Hard.biz

The post Getting Back on Target; How to Get Back After it appeared first on 75 Hard Experience.

The command to execute a breach, mission, or takedown of anything in the Military is always given in threes.

My Marines waiting on the execution plan in the trash pit

In 2003, Iraq, just outside of Baghdad I sat in a trash collection area with my mortar team waiting to rain fire on the enemy to support my fellow Marines breaching an intel compound and prison where political prisoners were hunted, jailed, and torched. Our intelligence was thin at best, so we had no idea what we would find. Which was just another day for us after spending the last 22 days pushing through Iraq from Kuwait.

I remember hearing the go signal to breach the wall of the compound and laughing when they used the wrong rocket launcher to make the hole. The line platoon (basic infantry) used an AT4 anti-tank weapon and blew a 1 foot perfectly round hole in the cinderblock wall. Marines in full battle rattle would not fit. So they backed up and hit it with the right weapon system and made a hole the size a truck could drive through.

Marines poured into the 1-mile square compound to clear it. It was a mess and took forever going from building to building looking for bad guys and intelligence to collect.

Marines of Golf 2/23 Clearing the Intel Compound

I sat in this trash collection area waiting on the go signal for my mortar section to either fire a mission or run to consolidate with our company. In combat, everything always seems like an eternity especially sitting in the open with multiple buildings looking down at us. At the time I wanted to be in any position other than where we sat.

But it was the only clearing we could work from inside the city. The mortar system has to be in the open for the rounds to clear the buildings. Cover isn’t really something a mortarman gets. So we waited.

We finally got the word over the radio to displace and consolidate on the second objective, a UN Compound another mile up from the Intel Compound.

“CSMO! CSMO! CSMO!” I shouted to my team and they shouted back ”Grab your shit and go!” It was an inside joke that we used for the last year of training knowing that this was going to have to be fast or suck a lot. My Marines packed up their mortar systems and rounds and were prepared to go in less than a minute. At the time we were the best in the business.

After packing up, we headed toward our company to link up. Our security is in our speed, so we ran the mile or two with full gear, packs, and weapon systems.

My combat loadout was about 80 pounds of ammo, grenades, and everything else a modern Marine carries to do battle. In my pack were 4 mortar rounds, food, clothing, water, more ammo, more grenades, and a bunch of other stuff totaling about 60 pounds. Every one of my 20 Marines had about the same load. And we ran for our lives.

Nothing like running over the bodies of dead Red Cresent workers to motivate you to run faster. We ran the couple miles. When one of my Marines faltered with some of the gear I picked that up. By the time I had to stop and shoot at a couple of guys that tried to run up behind us, I had two ammo cans full of mortar rounds. I had to drop those and grab my rifle off the sling, shoulder it, fire a couple of rounds to keep them back, and then push on.

We made it to the relative safety of our lines without much incident. We were spent but had to go again to set up our weapon systems. And then about half an hour later we were attacked by a squad and fought to a stalemate. Never a dull moment in Baghdad, Iraq 2003.

How do you prepare for something like that? How do you prepare for life? You know when things happen they happen in threes. I should have known we would be attacked after we reached ”safety” because things always happen together.

When you are training, working, preparing, or just living life, You have to be prepared for things to happen one after another. I know my story is in the extreme and I hope you don’t have challenges like that in your life. It sucks to have someone trying to take your life.

But right now you have things that are trying to do it slowly to you. The TV is probably trying to kill you over the next 20 to 40 years. The internet is trying to do it a little faster with all the crap. Like most tools, the internet can be used for bad or good. Make sure it isn’t killing you.

Take on challenges one right after another. Make them hard for you. And just keep going. It is how life is. It’s how to move forward. It is how to win.

If you get used to doing challenges one right after another you will be able to handle life when it throws things at you one right after another.

If you do hard things now, back to back, and harder and harder, by the time life throws crap your way, it will be easier for you.

Running through the streets of Baghdad with my own bodyweight of gear was something we had prepared for a little at a time, with challenge after challenge, each harder than the last. We made everything a challenge.

What are you doing to challenge yourself now so when times get hard you can handle things back to back?

I’m doing a bike race next month and then going to run a 5k with my wife and her friend the next month. That may not sound tough for you, but it’s been almost 15 years since I’ve run more than around the block. I’ll have to work on it to survive the 5K. It’s going to suck a lot. But I’m going to get the challenge done.

I’ll ask you again, what are you doing to prepare yourself for life? What hard thing are you doing now to make the impossible easier? It may not be someone actively trying to kill you, but cancer may try just as hard to kill you as Saddam’s soldiers had tried to kill me in Iraq.

Prepare now. Do hard things

Ben Branam

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Challenge can teach you everything you would ever want to know about yourself and becoming better.

Finishing a challenge isn’t how you get better, it’s the road there that makes you who you are.

Think about the hardest things you have ever done in life. When you finished, was it about the destination or about the climb that made you great?

For me, most of my accomplishments in life made me who I am by having to overcome the challenge and grow into that person.

In 1998 I set foot on the Yellow Foot Prints at MCRD (Marine Corps Recruit Depot) San Diego to become a United States Marine. The Yellow Foot Prints are the first place you stand when you get off the bus going into a three-month challenge that would make you part of an elite group.

The Marine Corps is the smallest branch of the U.S. military and has by far the longest and hardest initial training of any other force. In fact, all the other branches take Marine Boot camp as their basic training, but the Marine Corps won’t take anyone else’s.

All through Boot Camp, I was told to gain the coveted title of Marine. During Boot Camp, you are a Recruit. It isn’t until you finish Boot that you become a Marine. In fact, there is a private ceremony to give you the Eagle Globe and Anchor (EGA) to wear on your uniform signifying you are a Marine. Later you get a gradution ceromony. But no one cares. All of us just wanted that EGA that said we were a Marine and would be called that.

I was on a high for about 10 days (that is your leave after Boot Camp). Once I reported to the next step, MOS (Military Occupational Speciality) School no one cared that I was a basic Marine. In fact, everyone there was a Marine and had gone through the same thing. But it was on to the next step, School of Infantry for me. Now I had to become an Infantry Marine.

And so our journeys go. I was a much better version of myself after every evolution of my training as a Marine. And I become better after going to combat and then battling my PTSD demons. Now I’m a much better version of myself mentally.

But there is always the next challenge. If there isn’t one, you need to make one.

Right now I’m signed up for the L’Etape of San Antonio. It is a qualifying race for the Tour de France. No, I’m not really racing with those guys. There are fun rides normal people can sign up for. I signed up for the 25-mile race. Which is a lot for me. I’ve never finished 25 miles on a bike before signing up. Now I have. And it was painful but it makes me better.

Every training ride is harder than the last and makes me better physically and mentally.

I believe you are either growing as a person or regressing. Do you want to grow into a better person? Or regress to something you use to be? Or worse, become the worst version of yourself there has ever been. All three are possible. It’s your choice.

The growth is in the struggle to be ready for a challenge. Do you want to be the hero of your story and overcome the challenge or the victim that someone has to come and rescue?

You become a hero by moving towards challenges in life. Look at any movie. No hero wants to go on the journey but does for sometimes great reasons and sometimes dumb reasons. But they all reluctantly go at first, then go all in.

Most of the time they have had a life of struggle that prepares them for the journey.

If you are part of the modern world, struggles are getting less and less. Which is both good and bad.

But you can decide to take on a challenge and make yourself better. Then do another and another. Sometimes physical challenges are the best, and sometimes you might have to take a mental challenge. Sometimes they are great challenges like completing a physical race that is further than you have ever gone before and sometimes they are mental and as simple as taking a couple of minutes a day to read a book to improve yourself.

Find a challenge that looks almost impossible to complete. Sign up and go after it. It will make you a better person.

As you complete that challenge, find someone to help along the way become a better person. Then they can help someone else, and someone else, and pretty soon, everyone will be better. And if everyone in the world was a better person, the world would be a better place.

Make yourself better and make the world a better place. Find a challenge and complete it.

Ben Branam

P.S. Check out my guide to completing the 75 Hard Challenge here. If you can’t find a challenge, this one will make you better. All you have to do is complete it.

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