Decisive
7 pax arrived for a frigid PFT at PHS.
Pax: Josey, Snake, McQueen, T-Bone, Bluegrass, Chitwood, Poacher
Down Painment:
Warmup: Windmills, Imperial Walkers, Mucho Chesto, Finkle swings (for Meat Sweats), Floor Sweepers
The Thang:
- Mosey 1 mile
- 4x fartlek runs (1 min @ 75%, 3 min mosey) – 1.5 miles
- Abs de steel
- LBCs – 30 OYO
- Leg lifts – 30 OYO
- V-Ups – 15 OYO
- 1/4 V-Ups – 30 OYO
- American Hammers – 30 OYO
- Plank – 1 min
Announcements: Q Source, Tuesdays following the workout; Men’s Fraternity – Wednesdays
Prayer: T-Bone led us out in prayer. A special praise for a positive outcome from T-Bone’s M’s medical test. All is well.
Moleskine: Be decisive.
Unfortunately, @Dockers showed up feeling a bit under the weather. NOGO for him to serve as the Q for PFT. (@Meat Sweats – he didn’t have a whistle and a clip board handy for us to follow his lead.) When he asked if any of us wanted to lead, I immediately jumped at the opportunity – no hesitation, an absolute yes. @Chitwood was particularly excited about my decisive response. After all, @Beano and @Squirrel cornered the market on all of the Qs for the month of January.
This caused me to reflect on a number of events and decisions that required decisive action throughout my life, personal and professional. Of course, not every decision or action requires an immediate action or response, but decisiveness, while keeping the mind open for other trusted advisors’ input has always worked well for me. Decisions, like committing to Army service at age 17, marrying the M, choosing to have children, remaining in service for a career, choosing to lead as a geographical bachelor, accepting hard assignments, choosing to retire, and, even recommending to end life support for my father in his final days all represented decisive decisions. Many were hard and took some time to come to the decision. However, as I recommended to others, who worked with me over the years, once I assessed and weighed all of the relevant data, I made an informed decision and never looked back. I made many decisions and, with those decisions, plenty of mistakes, but I have few regrets and feel comfortable that I made decisions with the best information, oriented on the best possible outcome each time.
When I trained with the 160th SOAR, my first instructor provided really important insight. He indicated, “We are going to make you one of the best helicopter shooters in the world. When you shoot, you will not miss. Once you pull the trigger, you cannot take those rounds back, so you better be sure that you are shooting at the right target.” We had to ensure that we were right, each time, about the target that we identified. If unsure about the target or whether we would shoot too close to our friends on the ground, we never shot.
When I prepared to take command at the senior level in the Army, a crucible experience for the Army’s leaders, I had a mentor who provided really important advice. He said, “Matt – you will have access to and should listen intently to your staff and trusted advisors around you. They will provide tremendous analysis, great advice, and counsel. However, trust your gut. It got you to where you are. You would be wise to account for both advice and Commander’s intuition.” Based on experiences that I had in the subsequent years, his counsel was sound and spot on. As we age and gain more experiences, we find that both aspects to decisions and decisive leadership are important. It’s a careful balance.
Believe me, this aircrew required decisiveness to achieve success.
Thanks, @Dockers, for another opportunity to prove decisiveness. Without it, leadership and decisions will be made, but often not the best ones for our organization. How do you balance your professional and personal decisions to achieve a decisive outcome?