﻿Why I've Journaled For Over 20 Years (Peak Inside My Marine Corps Combat Journal)
[0:00:00] Today's video, gents,
is going to be special. I'm sharing with you 20 years of journaling and the lessons learned, and
we're going to peek inside of my combat journal. Seriously, gents, some really interesting stuff in
here such as helping out a photographer who would go on and get nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Another guy actually went on to become Secretary of Defense. Another guy became
the White House Chief of Staff. Who are these guys? Find out, gents, in today's video.
[Music] So, I first started journaling about 20
years ago, and I know this because I go back and look at the old journals I can see the dates here.
But, there was a big shift that happened for me in the Marine Corps. I went from the wing
being a pilot and I blew out my sinuses, so I had to go to the infantry. I couldn't fly
anymore. But, I went from being in charge of myself to being in charge of basically
my S1 shop, my platoon, my group of marines. I had to have all this stuff I was on top of.
And if I tried to keep it up here, that was not going to happen. I had to be able to get my stuff
together. I initially started reporting to the CO, he turned me over to the XO, said, “XO, train this
guy up.” He was a major and he said, “You need to write everything down in a green notepad.”
We didn't call it the journals. It was like everyone that was anyone had a green notepad
in the Marine Corps. There was just too much information as an officer that you had to keep
track of. And this was key, being able to get all of my [bleeping sound] in one place on one page,
and every single day tracking what needed to be done.
In addition, another benefit for writing things down especially in front of people that are
talking to you that are giving you things that need to get done, you are instilling confidence
in them that it's actually going to get done because you're putting it right there on paper.
So many times, I’ve asked people to do things that are a little bit complicated and you wonder,
is this person even listening to me? Are they getting all the details? When you're going
through when you're writing things down, people know that you're paying attention.
Now, some of you guys are thinking, well, why don't I just journal take notes with
my phone? I mean, it's right there? Here's the thing, this right here no startup time. Boom,
it's on 24/7, doesn't even require a battery. Seriously though, no distractions. You've got
your phone, come on, you got notifications, you got all these things that you can go to,
pop on the internet get distracted. That's what we don't want. You come here, what are
you doing? You're writing out your thoughts, you've got this stillness. Even if it's for one
to two minutes a day, you at least have this time that you're thinking. It's a form of meditation
right there. Actually, taking those thoughts out of your head and putting them on paper.
Now, there are some drawbacks. As you can see, if a journal is not made well, it is not going
to stand up to a beating. This one you can see has seen better days. In addition, I had this rig up,
so that basically I’ve got a pen holder here. I was even proud of this little innovation here.
Put in some paper put the tape over it, so I had my own little folder right there on the back.
Well, gents, if you're in the market for a journal and you want one that's going to be tough,
one that you're not going to have to rig up with tape just to hold a pen,
you need to check out Lochby. Guys, Lochby is a veteran-owned business
making field journals, making pocket journals, making tool rolls, making pen
holders that are built to military spec. What that means is these things are built tough.
So, this is a rugged waxed canvas. It's going to be abrasion-resistant it's going
to be water- resistant. Your journal, your paper is all going to be secured right here
on the inside. I also like how they've got it, they’ve got these nice little pockets in here
for maybe holding a challenge coin. As you can see right here it's got that nice pen holder.
Now, that field journal is cool, but why I was really excited to get Lochby as a sponsor is
they sent me this pocket journal. And, I’ve been wanting to get one of these, and this is just the
perfect size. It fits right into my back pocket. I can put a pen right in here. And, I love this
because the best journal you have is the one that you have with you when you're ready to journal.
And when you look, they got more than journals. They've also got these like field tool holders.
Basically, they're called field rolls. It can hold off from your passport to all of
your pens. Or maybe, you just want to get a pen holder. They've got a really nice pen holder you
want to check out called the Quattro. Another thing I love about Lochby,
their journals are modular. Basically, what that means is you can fit up to six refills in here
with different types of paper. So, let's say you want something for sketching, you know,
you want to be able to do some quick drawings in there. You want maybe something for journaling,
so it's going to have lines going across. Gents, over the years, I’ve seen a lot of
journals. This one is right up there with the best. I’m linking to Lochby down in
the description of today's video with the best deal you're going to find out there on the web.
Now, this discount code is only going to be available for a limited amount of time, so use
it or lose it. Awesome deal, awesome company, proud to support them. Go check them out.
Another thing that journaling does is give you perspective. So, today,
you may think it's a tough day, but you go back and you read through your journals and
you realize, “Wow! I’ve dealt with a lot worse.” Yes. here at my company, I’ve got some issues.
Every single day we've got problems. But, here I’m realizing, wow, I had to deal with casualties, I
had to evac people. I’m going through I’m dealing with KIAs basically killed in action. We've got
people that were injured that were shot. And, you realize, again, you're getting
confidence thinking I’ve dealt with things that are much worse than not what I’m currently dealing
with in my company. And, if I can deal with this stuff, then I can definitely make it through the
issues I’m facing today. [0:04:54]
Now, at the beginning of this video, I talked about some VIPs that I rubbed shoulders with.
And I think this is really interesting is people at the time, yeah, they were kind of a big deal,
but they went on to do even bigger things. And when you realize, hey, I followed the
career path of these guys, I was in the same room with these guys, I took orders
from these guys, all of a sudden you realize you know greatness isn't too far away.
So, there is this guy, Gen. Kelly John, John Kelly, he went on to become the 28th
Chief of Staff. So, he served under Trump. There's this other guy, you may have heard of him. His
name was James Mattis, served under him. And he went on to be the 26th Secretary of Defense.
A couple of the really interesting people I worked with in the combat zone from the New
York Times, Ozier Muhammad. This guy was a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer.
Another guy, John Kifner. So, he was the senior foreign correspondent with
the New York Times. I didn't even know really what that was. It turns out it’s
a pretty big deal, that dude is a legend. Darrin Mortenson and Hayne Palmour. This guy,
interesting story. So, Hayne lost his memory card. I happen to have just bought a digital camera
and remember I bought a 128 megabyte. It was expensive at the time. That was a lot of memory,
right? Megabytes, not even gigabytes at the time. And, they didn't have his cards, he lost them,
and I gave him my cards. And you know what? He went on to take some amazing pictures
throughout the Iraq war and it turned into a book. The book is called A Thousand Miles to Baghdad.
For history and being able to preserve that information you start to realize
that you're part of just this bigger picture. It's pretty amazing when you go back and
look back at the things you were a part of. Now, one thing that really surprised me about
my journaling that I forgot that I used to do is starting from the front going back, I would pretty
much write about work and notes, all that other stuff. But, coming from the back going forward,
I would actually take personal notes. Now, what's really interesting
is go back to this personal side and see what I was wrestling with and what was on my mind. The
big thing, should I marry this Ukrainian girl I’ve been dating for a few years.
So, I wrote out, my ideal life, and I had seven different scenarios. Five out of the seven,
I was going to stay single. I'm going to be roaming throughout Europe soaking up culture,
learning languages, tasting food, teaching. Another one, I would move back to Iowa and
buy a bar and I would be, yeah, just go back and live in my college town.
I was going to work as a bartender, photographer at night, and during the day live in Bermuda,
Jamaica, the British Virgin Islands. But, the two married scenarios,
let's talk about those. So, marry Lena, who I actually did. Now, we've been together
for over 15 years and travel with her around the world, which we in many ways have. We've
been in probably about seven countries over 40 states with our kids. And then, down below I’ve
also got, and marry her and live in Ukraine. Funny enough, we did live in Ukraine for over a year.
You look at what's your ideal life and it's pretty -- it's pretty darn cool to
see you actually did a lot of things and that I feel I made the right choice.
So, I was scared to get married and I remember writing out a list
of -- because I mean, the big thing on the con of why I didn't want to get married,
I love women. I mean, that's like, “Man, you're making a commitment to one? That means, yeah,
you don't get to chase all these other ones.” And that was the pretty much the only bad thing
I could say why I don't want to get married. On the other hand, you know, I had all these
great things about what I loved about her and it became all of a sudden, you know,
logically you realize like, hey, you -- I want to build a life with somebody.
When you can write things out, and that is the beauty of a journal is no one's going to
judge you. You go in there and you can just see things on paper and it makes things crystal clear
about what the right decision is sometimes. Another gem I found in here, things I would
have done in one year, two year, five years, and ten years. So, let's go through let's see
what I did and what I didn’t. So, first up, in one year
I would marry Lena. I did married my now wife. All vehicles all credit cards paid for. Boom! Done.
I will take a class on taxes and real estate and I will buy my first property. Did not
happen. I never got into property investing, so actually all those going down just didn't happen.
Year two, I will be gainfully employed or taking classes on investing. I actually
went off to get my MBA, so I guess I did take classes on investing.
Year five, I will have all my student loans paid off. Nope, sorry, I still don't have those paid
off. It’s such a low interest rate. I will have my master's degree, I do have my MBA.
In 10 years, I will have a permanent residence for my family. Boom! I got that. I will have made
my first million dollars and have a PhD. Well, I still don't have the PhD, but 11 years out,
I did have my first million dollar year here at Real Men Real Style and, we own our home.
With all that being said though, by far my favorite quote right here, “At this moment,
November 23rd, 2003, I’m very happy. I have next to me the woman I love and I can see
that she loves me. I am not hungry or tired. I am reading a good book. And the temperature
is perfect in her one bedroom apartment.” You know, that last quote as I’m reading
that I’m realizing, wow, at that moment, I understand what I needed in my life to be
happy to be satisfied really wasn't much. It was just a great partner, it was a full belly,
it was, you know, just a nice peaceful place with a book. And to this day, that actually is
still what makes me really happy, having someone to spend time with, having great books to read.
[0:10:11] Here's the thing, this right here can
be the secret to you figuring out what it is that you want to get out of this one precious life that
you have, your time here how you want to spend it. And, if that's not worth journaling, well, what
is? So, guys, again start journaling today. It's an amazing habit that can transform your life.
So, what video to watch next? Well, how about why you shouldn't be a nice guy? Seriously,
don't be a nice guy, be a real man. And when I say real, R-E-A-L, what does it stand for? Find
out gents in this video right here. [0:10:45] End of audio