If you want to change the world, don’t be afraid of the circuses.

A circus was an extra two hours of workouts a SEAL trainee would have to do if they didn’t meet standards on their daily tests.

McRaven talks of how those who consistently had to go through the extra circuses ended up being stronger and better. As long as they didn’t quit.

The lesson comes through clear as a bell. Embrace the extra work and lessons that come from failure.

We will all fail at one point or another. The question is what will you learn from it?

Maybe you are overweight and are now going to have to diet and exercise much harder to make up for poor choices in the past.

Maybe your in debt and behind on your bills and your budget isn’t going to be much fun until you pay off the debts.

Maybe your marriage isn’t doing so well and it is going to take a lot of hard work to rebuild trust and love in that relationship.

Whatever your challenge, use it to make you stronger.

We all will face adversity. Successful people use those moments to build inner strength and experience.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Here is the text of this section of his speech:

Every day during training you were challenged with multiple physical events-long runs, long swims, obstacle courses, hours of calisthenics-something designed to test your mettle.

Every event had standards — times you had to meet. If you failed to meet those standards your name was posted on a list and at the end of the day those on the list were invited to-a "circus."

A circus was two hours of additional calisthenics — designed to wear you down, to break your spirit, to force you to quit.

No one wanted a circus.

A circus meant that for that day you didn’t measure up. A circus meant more fatigue — and more fatigue meant that the following day would be more difficult-and more circuses were likely.

But at some time during SEAL training, everyone — everyone-made the circus list.

But an interesting thing happened to those who were constantly on the list. Over time those students — who did two hours of extra calisthenics — got stronger and stronger.

The pain of the circuses built inner strength — built physical resiliency.

Life is filled with circuses.

You will fail. You will likely fail often. It will be painful. It will be discouraging. At times it will test you to your very core.

But if you want to change the world, don’t be afraid of the circuses.
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If you want to change the world get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward.

You will have to read the text below to get his reference to a sugar cookie.

His point is that no matter how hard you try, sometimes things just don’t work out. You have to make the conscious decision to move forward anyway.

Life is full of little setbacks. Things that don’t go the way you want them to.

Each setback comes with a choice: give up or keep going.

These are the choices that separate success from failure.

Failure doesn’t come from not being perfect, it comes from giving up.

Which will you choose?

Make it a great day.

Jake

Here is the text from his speech:

Several times a week, the instructors would line up the class and do a uniform inspection. It was exceptionally thorough.

Your hat had to be perfectly starched, your uniform immaculately pressed and your belt buckle shiny and void of any smudges.

But it seemed that no matter how much effort you put into starching your hat, or pressing your uniform or polishing your belt buckle — it just wasn’t good enough.

The instructors would find "something" wrong.

For failing the uniform inspection, the student had to run, fully clothed into the surfzone and then, wet from head to toe, roll around on the beach until every part of your body was covered with sand.

The effect was known as a "sugar cookie." You stayed in that uniform the rest of the day — cold, wet and sandy.

There were many a student who just couldn’t accept the fact that all their effort was in vain. That no matter how hard they tried to get the uniform right — it was unappreciated.

Those students didn’t make it through training.

Those students didn’t understand the purpose of the drill. You were never going to succeed. You were never going to have a perfect uniform.

Sometimes no matter how well you prepare or how well you perform you still end up as a sugar cookie.

It’s just the way life is sometimes.

If you want to change the world get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward. ​

If you want to change the world, measure a person by the size of their heart, not the size of their flippers.

This was the third lesson offered by William McRaven as he made a commencement speech based on his time as a Navy SEAL.

We all make assumptions and judgments about others as we go about our day. It is a necessary part of interacting in so many ways at the pace at which we move today.

McRaven has an important point to make about those assumptions and those judgments we make: don’t judge a book by its cover.

I know I often make these assumptions only to be proven wrong in the end.

But we must learn a new way of doing things – judging others by their hearts.

This is harder, to be sure, but I think it is worth it in the end.

Who in your life do you need to spend time looking at their heart instead of their flippers?

Is there a situation or a group of people who deserve a closer look?

How could you build more empathy for others into your daily interactions?

Make it a great day.

Jake

Here is the text from this section of the speech:

Over a few weeks of difficult training my SEAL class which started with 150 men was down to just 35. There were now six boat crews of seven men each.

I was in the boat with the tall guys, but the best boat crew we had was made up of the little guys — the munchkin crew we called them — no one was over about 5-foot five.

The munchkin boat crew had one American Indian, one African American, one Polish America, one Greek American, one Italian American, and two tough kids from the mid-west.

They out paddled, out-ran, and out swam all the other boat crews.

The big men in the other boat crews would always make good natured fun of the tiny little flippers the munchkins put on their tiny little feet prior to every swim.

But somehow these little guys, from every corner of the Nation and the world, always had the last laugh — swimming faster than everyone and reaching the shore long before the rest of us.

SEAL training was a great equalizer. Nothing mattered but your will to succeed. Not your color, not your ethnic background, not your education and not your social status.

If you want to change the world, measure a person by the size of their heart, not the size of their flippers. ​

If you want to change the world, find someone to help you paddle.

This is lesson number two from William McRaven that he recently shared in a commencement speech.

It truly is amazing what human beings can do when they work together.

Think of any major feat accomplished and each time there were a group of people working together to make it happen.

In the SEAL training it sounds like they get a lot of very specific experience working as a team. His speech is so good because it shows you how something simple like paddling together is the difference.

Working in unison great things can be accomplished.

Think about the teams you are on.

Are you rowing in unison?

What part of getting back into unison do you own?

What is the next thing to do to get back in unison?

Make it a great day.

Jake

Below is the text for this section of his speech:

During SEAL training the students are broken down into boat crews. Each crew is seven students — three on each side of a small rubber boat and one coxswain to help guide the dingy.

Every day your boat crew forms up on the beach and is instructed to get through the surfzone and paddle several miles down the coast.

In the winter, the surf off San Diego can get to be 8 to 10 feet high and it is exceedingly difficult to paddle through the plunging surf unless everyone digs in.

Every paddle must be synchronized to the stroke count of the coxswain. Everyone must exert equal effort or the boat will turn against the wave and be unceremoniously tossed back on the beach.

For the boat to make it to its destination, everyone must paddle.

You can’t change the world alone

http://youtu.be/cJqjlFGZxtE

I have been thinking of this one a lot lately.

Something about these mornings where the sun is up and isn’t cold any more makes me think just how beautiful the morning really can be.

I know it can be difficult to wake up with a positive attitude and have your first thoughts of the day be around what will go right, instead of what might go wrong.

Something that helps me is to look for the beauty in the morning sun and the sound of the birds chirping.

Make it a great day.

Jake

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Someone recently shared with me the commencement speech given by William McRaven where he shares the top 10 things he learned in Navy Seal basic training.

Here is the video:

http://youtu.be/pxBQLFLei70

I thought I would break down and share each of those lessons over the next week or so.

First lesson: If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.

He explains that making your bed starts your day off with a task accomplished and reminds you to take pride in getting the little things right.

Do you make the bed every day?

Do you have some positive task that you do every morning, first thing?

If not, find one. And do it.

Make it a great day.

Jake

There is no more lovely, friendly and charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage. – Martin Luther

Mikie (our Director of Controllled Chaos here at Mavidea) and my in-laws both had major wedding anniversaries over the weekend.

Every time I see a couple post one of these milestones, it reminds of the something special that a good marriage is.

Marriage is a unique opportunity for those that engage in it.

Essentially, you sign up to spend the rest of your life placing another person’s before your own. Sure, you sign up for this when you become a parent as well, but you have to live with your spouse for the rest of your life.

I believe more and more each day that our happiness lies in those moments when we can be of service to others and to place our own needs behind that of another’s.

Marriage is a lifetime of those opportunities.

And for those that seize that opportunity, it is a lifetime of bliss.

I am sure even the best marriages miss most of those opportunities, but I am also sure that they capitalize on far more than the average marriage.

I am thankful every time I hear or see of someone reaching a major milestone year with their marriage, because it reminds that it can be done. It is possible to put another’s needs before our own, to let go of that selfish side of ourselves in order to love another better.

Seize the opportunity to be of service today.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Bonus point – when you see someone who reaches a milestone like this, seek out any wisdom you can get. Ask them questions. Ask them to mentor you.

Bonus point 2 – for the singles only – practice, practice, practice. Want to find a spouse? Want to be a better husband/wife when you do get married? Practice, practice, practice. Find others to serve and serve them. Find a way to put others first and do it. ​

In honor of Memorial Day yesterday, I went in search of a speech or poem or something else inspirational.

After a few minutes searching, I remembered that the Gettysburg Address is better than anything I had found.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.

We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Thank you to all those who have and are serving our great country.

Make it a great day.

Jake ​

MS – It is better to give than to receive.

BAD – When people show you—or tell you—who they are, believe them the first time. – Maya Angelou

EB – Just remember, these are the good old days.

JD – Find someone who is willing to share the truth with you. – Jim Rohn

JW* – A problem can’t be solved with the same level of thinking that created it. – Albert Einstein

These are the good old days.

I think of that often (I usually think of “the best of times” from Styx).

I hear people talking about how things aren’t what they used to be. And how we are “going to hell in a hand basket”, whatever that means.

But these are the only times we have. We only have today to make the best of.

Make it a great day.

Jake

http://youtu.be/CmrOB_q3tjo

"The glow that the sun gets
Right around sunset
Helps me realize
This is just a journey
Drop your worries
You are gonna turn out fine."

We all have those times when we need to just keep our head up.

There is always a better day around the corner.

If this is where you are right now, keep your head up. It’s gonna turn out fine.

Make it a great day.

Jake

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