DEF 07: All Failure is Psychological

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Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Jocko Willink?

  Discipline equals freedom. Episode seven, sitting here with Echo Charles and Dave Burke. Other than death, all failure is psychological. And that is from the Army Field Manual FM 1022, the 1951 version that we covered in Podcast 177. And I know you ran this into this the other day Echo, because we were talking about it. You were doing your 20 rep squat workout. And you made it to 18. Yesterday, yeah. And I text, you texted me, you didn't make it. You failed. You made it to 18 and I texted you back, all mental. And you didn't even deny it. Because it's true.

• 0:45Jocko Willink?

  That's one of the things about that workout is that it is mental. Because you can get one more rep. You should be using a weight that you can get one more time.

• 0:58Jocko Willink?

  And you didn't get it because you didn't want to.

• 1:05Jocko Willink?

  It's failure.

• 1:08Jocko Willink?

  We, and we can face this, right? We can all face this. You can face this at any time when we don't do what we are supposed to do. This happens. We don't do what we're supposed to do. And it's really sad because we all know what we're supposed to do. We actually know it. There's very few people that have no idea what they should be doing. We all know what should be doing. We definitely know what we shouldn't be doing.

• 1:30Jocko Willink?

  But it's a failure. It's a failure to control our minds.

• 1:35Jocko Willink?

  It's a failure of mind control.

• 1:38Jocko Willink?

  I wrote about this in the manual, in the other field manual, the discipline equals freedom field manual. Let's go to the book here.

• 1:46Jocko Willink?

  You, your mind, that is you. That's an important point.

• 1:53Jocko Willink?

  When you say you, when you say I, that's you. That's your mind. You have control over that thing. You can control it. You are the machine and you can control it. People ask me, how do I get tougher?

• 2:07Jocko Willink?

  Be tougher. How can I wake up early in the morning? Wake up early.

• 2:13Jocko Willink?

  How can I work out consistently every day? Work out consistently every day. How can I stop eating sugar? Stop eating sugar.

• 2:22Jocko Willink?

  You can even control your emotions. How can I stop missing that girl or guy or whoever broke up with me?

• 2:29Jocko Willink?

  How do you do that? You stop missing them. These are the things, these are the simple answers.

• 2:38Jocko Willink?

  The simple answers. But they're the truth. They're the truth. Every other, look, if you can, if you get someone that says, well, you know, for waking up early in the morning, what you need to do is you need to put an alarm clock across the room and you've set multiple alarm clocks. Those are, those are all techniques. But essentially, there's only one technique that you need to follow. And that is control your mind. Which you have full control over. You have control over your mind. Back to the book. You have control over your mind. You just have to assert it. You have to decide that you are going to be in control, that you are going to do what you want to do. Interesting, isn't it? Interesting, isn't it? That we actually do things that we don't even want to do.

• 3:24Jocko Willink?

  We don't, well, there's, part of your brain wants to do it. There's a little immediate gratification that's screaming. That's begging. That's directing. That's driving. That's strong.

• 3:36Jocko Willink?

  That knows little ways to manipulate. But that's the, that's the inferior being.

• 3:44Jocko Willink?

  That's the, that's the lesser being. It's the weaker being and yet we let it step up.

• 3:52Jocko Willink?

  Weakness doesn't get a vote. Back to the book. Weakness doesn't get a vote. Laziness doesn't get a vote. Sadness doesn't get a vote. Frustration doesn't get a vote. Negativity doesn't get a vote. Your temper doesn't get a vote.

• 4:05Jocko Willink?

  Now, listen.

• 4:07Jocko Willink?

  As I'm reading those, guess what? That's not completely accurate.

• 4:13Jocko Willink?

  Let me rephrase it. I was going hard in the paint, right? Against lazy, cuz hey, does laziness get a vote? It does get a vote, right? Gets a vote. It gets a vote. Maybe it gets two vote. Maybe sadness gets a little bit of a vote. Maybe frustration, they have a vote.

• 4:33Jocko Willink?

  But they don't have the majority. They don't have the dictator veto power, which you have. You have dictator veto power. No matter what, it doesn't matter how many votes they assemble. They could assemble thousands of votes, doesn't matter. You're the dictator. You rule, you have mind control.

• 4:55Jocko Willink?

  You can overrule these votes. Hundred percent. They have no pragmatic control over the situation, zero. You do not have to listen to them. This is like a tyrannical parent. Right? The kids can, the tyrannical parent with five kids. And the kids are like, we want ice cream, we want ice cream, we want ice cream. You do not have to listen to them. The tyrannical parent does not have to listen to them. If you really want to be a tyrant, you can tell them, shut up.

• 5:29Jocko Willink?

  The tyrannical boss at a company, the tyrannical CEO. Oh, the workers are saying that they want to have Friday afternoon. I don't care, shut up, keep working.

• 5:41Jocko Willink?

  That's the control that you have, you literally have that.

• 5:47Jocko Willink?

  Continuing on, so. Next time you are feeling weak or lazy or soft or emotional, tell those feelings they don't get a vote. Or. If you want to, if you need to, you can say, yes, you get a vote, but I'm not going to listen to you. You're getting vetoed. Continuing on, you are declaring martial law on your mind, mind control. Impose what you want on your brain.

• 6:10Jocko Willink?

  Discipline, power, positivity, will, and use mind control to move your life where you want it to be. Stronger, faster, smarter, quicker, friendlier, more helpful, more driven. Don't let your mind control you. Control your mind, then you can set it free. So, it really is under your control. You have the keys. It's not a magic key either. Check this out. Imagine that you had to play yourself in tic-tac-toe, or in chess, or in basketball, or whatever.

• 6:54Jocko Willink?

  Can you beat yourself? Before you get all esoteric on me, I'm not talking about equal echo, separate and complete being from this other echo. I'm talking about you against you. Can you beat yourself? Yeah, of course you can. You can throw the game. You can throw the game. You can do whatever you want against you. Like, there's two echoes, echo one and echo two. They're gonna play each other in chess. Okay, I'm gonna bet $5 million on echo two, and I'm gonna let echo two win. That's what you're gonna do. You completely control the game. It's you against you, and yet, you lose for no reason to yourself. I see what you mean, oh yeah.

• 7:41Jocko Willink?

  So, so the only way you can lose is if you actually decide you're gonna lose. You accept it. And all I'm saying is, don't do that. You have veto power. You know what's good for you. You know what winning will bring you. You know what winning will bring you. You know it'll put you in a better place in life. But what do you have to do? You have to control your mind. You have to control your mind. That's what we're doing. And that's the discipline. For more of this, check out thedefreset.com, check out jockofood.com,

• 8:24Jocko Willink?

  originusa.com, echelonfront.com, jocko store.com, and stay disciplined.