were you very disciplined as a kid and was there a set day or moment when you
saw how important discipline was and decided to do it well as a kid I think I
was for the most part a kid I was not some extremely disciplined kid I was I
was pretty stubborn when it came to certain things which may be some kind of
an early immature form of discipline you know just being hard-headed but I think
as I got older I saw the first thing I remember along these lines is seeing a
lack of discipline around me I didn't identify it as people having discipline
I saw like a lack of displays a weakness I saw drugs I saw alcohol I saw laziness
and I started to get after it a little bit right a little bit a little tiny bit
but there was no role models there was no internet there was no guidance ID and
I didn't have the sense to to go to the library and and find Bob off man's book
how to be held happy healthy and strong like I didn't know do you I know that
sense to do that and so we did some basic things you know what I mean some
push-ups you know in the the push-up workouts that I did when I was 13 years
old or laughable laughable I mean I think if I did you know a set of 50
pushups I was corner you know boom I'm the man
right no you are the man 13:50 in and we did some silly little like kind of
barbell dumbbells circuit training kind of thing now I always like the military
I recognize that as a some kind of a train of discipline in there
and I looked up to military veterans I knew one Marine Corps drill instructor
and if you know anything about Marine Corps drill instructors so now we're
talking 85 8687 there wasn't any Wars going on but
you know when you're a kid you're just like no he's a Marine Corps drill
instructor he fit the part he was like just perfect Marine Corps bow drill
instructor which most marine corps drill instructors are pretty damn perfect it's
an incredibly incredibly honed job that's very well choreographed and very
and very structured in it's a it's a very fine
real tight tight it's a real tight situation if you're good Marine Corps
drill and I knew one right when I was a kid and I just like he was like a god
right this guy is a Marine Corps czar in and of course he had I think he had like
a 68 Camaro she had a muscle car so yeah it was just
like just the man and so now so I got that going on and then then then was the
hardcore bands that I started listening to and they seemed to have some kind of
there was something there right I recognized something there I recognized
something with Black Flag I recognized something with bang called slap shot
yeah I recognized something with the cro-mags and I saw there was something
in there and and I I did I couldn't I can't I didn't know what it was but it
was some kind of strength right some kind of discipline was in there I I
didn't put it all together though and there was no sort of unified way to go
down this path it didn't I didn't find that I don't know if I found it if it
what it looked like to me you know maybe you could say that that path was the Boy
Scouts right the Boy Scouts are a disciplined group of individuals that
learn how to hike in Ponton I mean so was that it I don't know maybe I didn't
identify that or I didn't have the right personality because I was kind of non
conformist right a little bit you know a little bit of a rebel so I didn't put it
all together in I had some little flashes of like being hardcore were some
of the things I did that would be like you know kind of getting Africa some
really minor way some some some minimalistic level of discipline but it
wasn't until I started training in earnest to join the Navy that I started
to what we could recognize now as getting after it a little bit you know
it's and again it's nothing compared to what people do now what definitely not
what you know now we're talking 1989 I was running through marshes and being
covered in mud and I was swimming in the ocean and I was doing pull-ups and
push-ups and dips and situps and again it's nothing compared to what I do now
or even what everybody does now but I was doing what I could with what I knew
at the time and I didn't really have any idea of what I or really what people in
general were capable of like I just didn't know I didn't know I never would
have thought a good pull-up workout is five hundred to a thousand pull-ups I I
wouldn't have thought that you know for me I need three sets and pull-ups and I
was gone you know so I just I just didn't didn't know and I guess I guess
you could say I didn't even have I didn't know to even explore those those
outer limits of what I was capable of you know which is a bummer
now also you gotta remember I didn't even know another person that did
pull-ups like there wasn't like pull-up bars around it wasn't you know I'm out
in the woods somewhere in the woods in New England there's no
pull-ups people people aren't like hey how many folks can do I never heard that
question and I didn't know anybody that swam in the open ocean I didn't know
anybody that did push-up workouts right I don't know I was just in the sticks
and so when I joined the military I was a blank slate really for all practical
purposes and it was really easy they say you do this this is what you do and you
get advanced this is what you do to be ready this is what you do
and I realized very quickly that the harder you worked that the more
disciplined you were the easier your life was the easier your job was easier
day was the easier physical activities would get and when I got to the teams
and really going through buds when you're going through bulletins when I
finally met guys that were going to buds and we started doing 100 pull-ups and we
started doing 150 pull so we started doing 200 pull-ups to work out and then
it was like oh wow you can do a lot of stuff that was getting ready to go to
buds and you go to buds and you know you realize that you that people it's not
this this individual like spiritual awakening like no you just realize hey
you can do a lot of pull-ups people can it's not that big of a deal and
everybody knows you can find that on the you don't need you go to buds to figure
that out you can figure that out just I'm telling you right now you know
they're mean and all you need is to have that knowledge but I continue to realize
that being disciplined all these things waking up earlier and working hard and
training hard and keeping your gear squared away and studying the material
that we were supposed to know I realized that that work that discipline made life
easier and it made us freer made me free and the more time I spent in the teams
the more this came embedded in my head and not only as an individual that I
realized this but I realized this very quickly we're not very quickly but as
soon as I started moving in the leadership positions I realized that the
more disciplined a squad was or the more disciplined double-teaming was the
better that squatter that platoon was going to be and that's kind of where
will the evolution mmm the evolution of it
process that I'm finally I don't know if it finally about it right now it's
starting to become clear where the whole you know you're gonna pay the price
you know at some point you're gonna pay the price for your actions so if you're
gonna prep it like let's say I'm gonna get in shape right you committing to
working out everyday that's you paying a certain price like this didn't having
the discipline to do it you're gonna pay the price we cannot really it's not
comfortable working out hard every day it's not comfortable you're gonna pay a
little price right there the next day or the you know in regards to the results
of that workout you're not paying the price you're reaping kind of rewards
right or you cannot pay the price early with the workout and stuff you still got
it that tab is still outstanding so when you balance do yeah so when it comes
results time there that's that's when you're gonna pay your little price there
your body your health whatever at some point you're gonna have to pay a price
okay now or pay later yeah man so pay now pay now you get way more benefit
because like no one remembers well we do some of us do we I don't remember and
take pleasure in remembering the time I skip that workout because I wasn't
feeling like doing it you know like that doesn't provide a sense of pleasure in
my life to think back on those days you know yeah not good and at the same time
when I think of like the detriment of doing the workout when I didn't feel
like it that doesn't that's not a bad memory to me you know when I do think
back of like and or think even now if like the result of being in better shape
than the you know the average person or we're going to do this with not gassing
or whatever bringing in all the groceries at one time let's face it
that's something that is a sense of pleasure that I have the freedom to be
able to do that one I what I want you know yeah you know what else is
interesting about this and sometimes I hear this and you did this a couple
times tonight right people go well yeah but your jock
like as if I'm as if I'm not a normal person
but I'm not but yeah but I'm saying like you know I just kind of went through
like this story in in its paints a pretty clear picture that I'm a pretty
normal person yeah right yeah it's pretty normal but I made
decisions along the way that maybe weren't normal and that maybe open the
doors to being a little bit not normal yeah but their choices that you can make
so so I'll have this with my kids too or you know who else sometimes I'll have
them I would have friends will say that would say you know well yeah you're
that's you you know like I'd say no to me if you
want to win this fight for instance you want to win this fight man you got it
but you got to do this you got to get after this you got any well you know
it's not that easy and in that's me that's what you would do but you're
you're you and that's you know it's almost like yeah it's unachievable yeah
it doesn't doesn't apply to me and my kids will say that to me you know my
kids and I think it's actually a pretty big detriment that they think that I'm
not that that oh I do it but but that's because I'm me and I'm you know it's
like I'm not true it's not true and so you know occasionally I have I hear
people say that and I go man this isn't like I guess it's kind of like what we
were talking about the other day with someone saying oh oh that's a good
picture you took what kind of camera did you use well it's kind of like that I'm
like you know oh I wake up early it doesn't it's not just because I'm just
giddy that way yeah yeah or I work out a lot odhh it's because you're super
motivated right like that was gifted yeah I just am born motivated right no
actually I'm a person you know and I grew up you know person yeah and so but
it makes it very clear that these are just choices you can make and you can
after it totally true and I would say that it does when I say one well any
time I would say consciously and meaningfully say well that's you is if I
would be talking about a way of achieving like the same thing like you
would do it this way I would try to do it this way kind of thing if I was
confident that I could get the results you know whatever that is but what when
did I say today about you're sleeping yeah you you can do the four hours or so
more so than you can do the four hours sleep and still function I meant you're
into the four hours five hours sleep thing yeah which is cool but and I
realize there are some genetic points in there I believe right yeah I believe
that there are some genetic points in there I believe there are some genetic
points and in everything right and I've told you this I have one of my daughters
who is most similar to me both physically and mentally sleeps about the
same as I do if not less yeah one of my other daughters who is most physically
and mentally well physically more like my wife she sleeps a lot yeah and so
there's a and my wife sleeps more than I do and so there is a genetic component
to it I believe in I've read articles and people send me a Twitter articles
all the time oh you're one of these you know fast sleepers that 2% of the
population all this stuff and I'm just saying okay yeah that's great but then
people say oh well you just work out every day cuz you're super motivated or
you just train jiu-jitsu all the time because you're just super motivated it's
like okay right yeah well you know what great great great yeah yeah I think
you're absolutely correct and even with the sleeping thing that is like because
okay ultimately yeah you don't have to sleep as much as the next person sure
that's an advantage just because you have more time that's it it's not like
you know someone would would be like hey other than that reason be like hey it's
cooler or it's somehow more beneficial for me to sleep five hours rather than
my normal eight like so I mean that put it this way someone wants to choose
to sleep for hours just because you do it that's kind of weird yeah now that
being said what's awesome is there are a bunch of people on on the interwebs a
bunch of badass troopers that have I retweet almost all these because people
go hey you know I'm I lost 32 pounds mm hey I lost 42 pounds
hey I you know did my first squat today with 300 pounds suits and there's no
difference in what they were doing before and what they're do now
fundamentally in their in their jeans or their or their physiology what they did
is they decided to make these decisions they decided that they were gonna go out
they decided they were gonna step up their game they're gonna decide they're
gonna wake up early they decide they're gonna clean up their diet they decided
they were gonna get after it and when they do that all of a sudden boom
results and you know what you fast forward like six months and people go
well you just do that because you're super motivated anything that we fell be
thinking you don't know I'm not I'm a person you know and I choose to get
after it you know I recommend you all choose to get after it and I encourage
stay in it you know what it's not easy it's not easy
there's the nagging weakness that is pulling you down you know you gotta shut
that thing down