In Military Mindset, Ant Middleton explains how the battlefield is the most unforgiving environment on the planet a single mistake or split second moment of indecision can mean the difference between life and death between victory and defeat.

 

Below are my key takeaways from the book which he splits into different phases and key lessons:

 

Training

1. Don’t get carried away with the destination

• The problem with this is when people fall short they can be  consumed by their failure
• Breakdown goals into phases of commitment and what am I going to learn from each
• Learning is crucial to understanding the difference between the journey in destination
• We told it’s okay to fail but that’s only true if you learn and absorb the lessons from the original failure

 

2. Set achievable goals

• The key to achieving goals is to break it down
• Allows small  victories
• Making goals part of everyday life makes goals sustainable- if too far between the energy and enthusiasm will disappear

 

3 Sees the opportunity to improve

• Be humble enough to accept criticism, be honest with yourself and work to improve every day
• 1% increases will add up over time

 

4.Be consistent in your discipline

• Discipline is doing the things you don’t want to do but know you need to do

 

5. Don’t let your mistakes win 

• The greatest virtue of man lives in his ability to correct his mistakes and continually make a new man himself

 

6. Push through the pain

• Training your brain in regards to messaging helps you push through the pain
• You need to understand your own personal pain threshold your mind can tell your body to keep going

 

7.Don’t rest on your laurels. 

• Don’t become complacent or comfortable
• Constantly expose yourself to challenge or hardship
• There is no growth in comfort

 

8.Show grid and determination

• This is not about succeeding in your goals it’s about making the journey, having the courage to see something through to the end and identifying the real you in the process
• When you feel anxious before a task tell yourself this is a good thing- I’m about to push past on my normal limits,  I’m going to learn from this

 

Planning and Preparation

 

9.You cannot be too prepared

• Identifying what you know,  don’t know,  gathering more information or adapting your plans accordingly

 

10.Pay attention to detail

• Asking questions and gleaning as much information as possible to prepare

 

11.Eliminate distractions

• Giving room to something else in your head will only hinder your performance
• Make sure your head is highly focused on the job and leave everything else behind

 

12.Don’t make assumptions

• Only act on things we have seen
• Arm yourself with credible information or when that isn’t available proceed cautiously so you can adapt as needed

 

13. Make sure your house is in order

• Sort out the things within your control and you’ll be on the way for sorting out your headspace

 

14 Keep it simple

• Commit solely to the starting point and see where it goes from there
• Over planning can mean people become fixated on solving the problem in a very specific way –  the moment it doesn’t go according to plan they ditch the project

 

15.Delegate tasks

• Each support team is a vital cog in the overall machine
• Don’t micromanage but trust your judgment.
• Know your teams capabilities and weaknesses

 

16. Use your time efficiently

• In a tight deadline don’t overcomplicate things by taking on too much stress-  strip everything back in focus on the basics

 

The Combat Zone

17.Focus not frustration

• Disciplined focus can easily bleed into frustration which will create a disconnect

 

18.Eliminate self-doubt

• Your attitude and mindset is critical to determine whether you’ll succeed or fail at a given task

 

19.Make a decision

• When you learn to nurture a mindset based on reason rather than emotion you’ll start to take control of the decision-making process

 

20. Make your emotions work for you

• Although we can’t control how old when our motions present themselves we can influence our response to them the way we choose to interpret them

 

21.Take control of your actions

• Positive commitment to action has to be made during the entire action otherwise you’re surrendering control at least partly to an outside force
• Self belief is it about being able to trust in yourself during action stage of a commitment-  that means learning to distinguish between actions that you control versus actions you don’t control

 

22 Embrace the positive mindset

• Allowing negative thoughts to penetrate your mind means you’ve given it permission to surrender power giving your physical self the psychological affirmation to shut down

 

23 Don’t be afraid to break the rules

• Sometimes to solve problems we need to be willing to dick old ways and come up with new solutions

 

24 Be Bold

• Being bold is being naive about a challenge in a positive way
• Having the confidence in yourself and your own capabilities to solve any problems you might encounter without overthinking them before you begin

 

25 Be the good soldier

• Have good intentions in whatever you do

 

Disaster and Adversity

 

26.Embrace failure

• If you’re not embracing failure, it will stop you from actually looking
• When you don’t commit you don’t learn – when you’re not learning you never realise what you’re capable of

 

27.Survive hardship

• When faced with hardship think rationally, have a conversation inside your head, understand why you’re feeling the way you are don’t overthink the situation.
• Ask yourself how am I going to get through this and going to overcome this
• Hardship is a powerful learning tool when you know how to use it

 

28 Be honest

• Have the courage to face yourself and ask the hard questions
• If you’re not honest with yourself or the progress you want to make you can easily become complacent. Aiming for your goals honesty creates accountability

 

29 Don’t switch off

• Stay focused for every second of the task

 

30.Deal with catastrophe

• Teamwork at its most fundamental is coming together as a team when the shit hits the fan
• The one thing you should never do is take it personally

 

31 Get out of the trench

• Don’t stop looking for your purpose if you do you’re going to get swallowed up

 

32 Be the blacksmith of your own destiny

• Don’t let other people define you

 

33.You don’t need to be perfect

• Life is about progression of perfection – you don’t have to do something you only have to be in close proximity to that peak
• When you approach life like a series of lessons you’re looking at it through a positive lens

 

34 Don’t rely on outside forces

• Self-reliance comes from having a standard you refuse to compromise on and hold yourself to consistently

 

Strategies

 

35 Focus on the things you can control

• I understand there is sometimes nothing we can do that will make the slightest difference when this happens you must remember anything you can control is your reaction will you stay calm or surrender to be emotional panic
• Stress or pressure because of something you can control is positive anxiety
• If you’re anxious about things outside your control this is negative and is wasted energy

 

36 Make me work for you

• Stepping into the unknown impacts you no matter –  whether you make it to your destination is irrelevant – you’re entering a new learning space which can only be a positive thing
• When you look at the unknown in a positive light instead of being afraid you’re going to grow from it and become a better version of yourself

 

37 Shut out negativity

• You can’t eliminate negativity completely but a negative attitude will stop you from achieving your goals

 

38 Take the hardest path

• The hardest part is usually the most effective option because it’s the one and we will least expect it to take
• It allows you to master your headspace condition
• To expect the hardest becomes the only way – it becomes the norm

 

39.Negotiate obstacles

• Take time to consider any obstacle in your path –  gather information and assess strategically

 

40 Be forward thinking

• Ask what you can change and use it to the advantage of yourself and act on it

 

41 Be adaptable

• When we make a mistake, don’t waste a lot of second beating yourself up, recover from your setbacks, reorganise and reattack the problem from a different direction

 

42. Organise your cage

• Compartmentalisation everything you do. There is a crossover between problems you can solve together –  if not keep them separate and solve them individually

 

43. Gain an edge

• Don’t blindly stick to the same tactics, when a particular approach to problem stops working.
• Looks to mix things up, draw on different voices and find a new approach.

 

Leadership and Teamwork

 

44.Communicate effectively

• Trust is important, very good communications depends on the bond between you and your powers
• Unspoken communication is just as important as verbal

 

45 Sing from the same hymn sheet

• Create a shared ethos or belief systems

 

46. Seek good, followship

• A leader, should I aim to have the people below them want to take their position?
• Admit your mistakes and leave ego at the door
• Train people up and give them responsibility to show that you trust them to one day to take on your role.
• Empower people by bringing them into the decision-making process

 

47 Have the courage to ask

• Don’t be afraid to ask
• Dont be afraid to say you dont understand-  breakdown even a small thing till you’ve completely got it

 

48 Build a consistent team

• A good leader should know their team inside out
• Need to make sure all team members have strong, physical, mental, and emotional stability
• Sometimes necessary to identify a team members, disconnect and help them work through it

 

49 Get everyone pulling in the same direction

• Need to look after each other  -work together making your calls with each other and it will build momentum

 

50 Be a leader in your own life

• People who show discipline inconsistency in their own lives, will later demonstrate in their careers

 

51. Take personal responsibility

• Be accountable and admit and learn from your mistakes

 

52 Be each other’s lifelines

• Unconditional dedication and commitment to each other-  always having the team’s best interest at heart.
• Need to ignore mistakes in the moment and deal with it later concentrate on the job at hand

 

Author: Donna Bruce