Until We Can’t Get It Wrong #1663

In our last +1, we chatted about The First SOF Truth and reminded ourselves of the fact that people are more important than hardware.

More specifically, we chatted about the fact that YOU (and your family and friends and colleagues and clients and communities!) are THE most important part of our Mission to help create a world in which 51% of humanity is flourishing by the year 2051.

I repeat: If we’re going to have a shot at fulfilling our Mission, we need YOU to close the gap and be your best self.

Then we need you to share your Wisdom and Discipline and Love and Courage and Gratitude and Hope and Curiosity and Zest with your families and friends and colleagues and clients and communities.

Today I want to continue our discussion of some Big Ideas I picked up from my day at SOCOM.

I took TEN pages of notes.

I asked General Fenton if I could share some of the wisdom I gained with you. He told me I could and he encouraged me to do so.

So…

Let’s get to work.

We’ll start on Page 1 with one of the VERY first things I wrote down.

During his introduction, after establishing SOCOM’s commitment to helping his Force AND their Families be the best they can be, General Fenton said that they are RELENTLESSLY trying to improve.

(I have goosebumps as I start to type the next line…)

He said that they train “OVER and OVER and OVER again” until they “never get it wrong.”

We’ve discussed this idea many times—reminding ourselves of the fact that the average performer practices the fundamentals of their craft until they can get it right whereas the ELITE performer practices those same fundamentals of their craft until they CAN’T GET IT WRONG.

But…

There was something about the way General Fenton communicated it that struck me at a profoundly deep level.

It was so PALPABLY obvious that this wasn’t a nice and warm and fuzzy pep-talky kinda thing to say to fire us up for a moment or three.

It was an ABSOLUTE practiced TRUTH and an ABSOLUTE necessity for these individuals to perform at THE highest levels when it matters most.

And…

That’s Today’s +1.

I repeat: The average performer practices the fundamentals of their craft until they can get it right whereas the ELITE performer practices those same fundamentals of their craft until they CAN’T GET IT WRONG.

How about YOU?

Here’s to raising our standards and embracing the MASTERY of the most basic fundamentals of our lives such that we KNOW we can do what needs to get done ESPECIALLY when we’re at our worst and it matters most.

It’s time to move from Theory to Practice to Mastery.

TOGETHER.

TODAY.