One of the common threads that links humanity together is our quest for balance.<\/p>\n

Often viewed as a somewhat elusive lifestyle, Jocko Willink, a highly decorated Navy SEAL and combat veteran who was awarded the Silver and the Bronze Star, sees it differently.<\/p>\n

He is widely known as a co-founder (and the Chief Executive Officer) of Echelon Front, a leadership consulting firm where he teaches the leadership principles he learned on the battlefield to help others lead, and win\u2014which includes finding that sense of balance.<\/p>\n

An accomplished black-belt Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner, he also owns Victory MMA and Fitness in San Diego and is the co-author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers, Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win and The Dichotomy of Leadership: Balancing the Challenges of Extreme Ownership to Lead and Win, as well as the author of Discipline Equals Freedom Field Manual and the best-selling Way of the Warrior Kid children\u2019s book series.<\/p>\n

His podcast, the Jocko Podcast, boasts over 17,000 reviews, and at the time of this writing, ranks as the 60th most popular podcast in the world.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As if that\u2019s not enough, he\u2019s also a husband to his wife Helen for over 20 years and dad to four kids ranging in age from 10 to 19. Suffice it to say, Jocko can speak to the importance of balance.
\nJocko, whose real name is John Getton Willink, is a retired, decorated Navy SEAL who spent 20 years in the military, eventually reaching the rank of Lieutenant Commander. He has, perhaps, always had military \u2018in the blood.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was a little kid, I turned every stick into a toy machine gun. I painted my face with burnt cork for camouflage and ran around in the woods. I always wanted to be a commando of some kind.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Deployed twice to Iraq, Jocko has firsthand experience in \u201cvery hard, violent fighting\u201d in direct-action missions and heavy, sustained urban combat operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll I wanted was to be a good SEAL\u2026 to do that, you have to work hard. People are relying on you, and you of course want to take care of your friends. That’s a really powerful driver in life.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

As one might expect, his experience on the front lines of war changed him as a man.<\/p>\n

\u201cWar made me a better person. I\u2019m more appreciative of what is available in the [non-combat] world, and of every day I am alive. I was lucky enough to lead troops in combat, capture the lessons learned, and now use them to help others. Yes, war is horrible. I\u2019ll say that the worst days of my life absolutely were in Iraq, but the best days of my life were there, as well.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

That type of dichotomy\u2014the balancing of extremes\u2014might seem even more elusive when integrating \u201cnormal\u201d life with a past largely centered around war. Jocko\u2019s view on it, though, is simple:<\/p>\n

\u201cHave you ever known someone who was diagnosed with cancer and made it through? So many times, those survivors say it changed them\u2026 because they learned to appreciate life. They learned to appreciate family. They learned to appreciate every single day. They learned what real suffering is, and even though they wouldn’t wish it on anyone, they’re glad they experienced it. I think war is pretty similar to that.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Balance is something Jocko relies on in all areas of life: in the military, as an entrepreneur, and as a husband and dad. On the surface, the contrast between the military\u2019s finite guidelines and the fatherly duties of encouraging children to forge their own paths could offset that balance.<\/p>\n

But Jocko says, \u201cLeadership is leadership. Whether you’re leading a platoon or your family, you need to utilize the same concepts. I use total decentralized command. In a SEAL platoon, if someone knew what he was doing, and had the right mission in mind, I would give him complete freedom. I\u2019d let him run, clearing the path for him. If someone wasn\u2019t squared away like that, he\u2019d probably tell you I was the biggest micromanager and never let him do anything. And he’d be right.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI run my company and my family the same way. Everyone knows if they’re doing the right things for the right reasons, they can pretty much do whatever they want.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Jocko\u2019s book, The Dichotomy of Leadership, further demonstrates how nothing works in extremes\u2014a principle that applies to ALL areas of life.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the SEAL mantras is to never quit. And when you’re going through training carrying logs around, and you\u2019re wet and cold, and it\u2019s all there to make you quit, you never quit. But when you get to a SEALs Team, and you’re running missions, and what you\u2019re doing isn\u2019t working, it\u2019s different, right? Let’s say you’re taking a lot of casualties. Going forward in the \u2018no-quit spirit\u2019 doesn\u2019t make sense. If you did, before you know it, your entire platoon could be dead, and then, you can’t do anything.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSame goes in the business world. If you keep investing money into things that don’t work, the next thing you know, you’ve burned through all your capital.<\/em><\/p>\n

It makes more sense to take a step back, do a tactical retreat, regroup, complete another assessment, and maybe find a different, more effective angle to take in both situations. This would be an example of taking a random mantra from SEAL training and trying to apply it across the board in your life. It will end up with negative results.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Jocko credits balance with his successful marriage as well. In a world where 50% of civilian\u2014and 90% of Navy SEALS\u2014marriages end in divorce, Jocko relies on the same basic concept.<\/h2>\n

\u201cMy wife and I work together as a team. We control our emotions. It’s not weak to have emotions, but there is a balance. If you lose control of them, you have moments of weakness. We don’t make good decisions when we’re emotional. If your spouse is emotional and you respond by reflecting those very emotions back, that’s going to escalate into a bad situation. Now, this doesn’t mean the opposite end of the spectrum, either. It\u2019s that dichotomy. If my wife is mad about something and I say, \u2018You need to calm down,\u2019 that won\u2019t work. I use a strategy of \u2018reflect and diminish\u2019: if my wife is super emotional about something, I’ll reflect some of that emotion, but I’ll diminish it\u2014bring it down a level\u2014deescalate it, so she can still see me as being on her team. I’m not talking about being devoid of emotions, but you can’t let your emotions get out of control.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Of course, so much of emotion is based on perception, and our life experiences affect our perception. It\u2019s easy to become overwhelmed by our everyday stresses, but putting ourselves in the shoes of Jocko Willink goes a long way to provide perspective.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou come home from deployment and see someone losing it over something trivial when you were just getting shot at, and that has to become your new reality.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019ve learned to always try and see other people\u2019s perspectives. I’ve also learned that I\u2019m not the center of the universe. Other people’s perspectives and what they have going on in their lives are really important to them. In their world, whatever is happening is a big deal. If you dig deep enough, you see that life is rough for everybody. It\u2019s all about perspective.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

To further illustrate the point, Jocko shared the story of Captain Charlie Plum.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was lucky enough to have Captain Charlie Plum, an F-4 Phantom pilot in Vietnam, on my podcast. He was on his 75th mission when he was shot down and immediately captured by the North Vietnamese. He spent the next six years of his life being starved, tortured, and beaten. He told me how there was a lot of \u2018turnover\u2019 in cellmates. The rule they lived by was, \u2018If my cellmate does something that annoys me, that’s not his fault. It’s my fault for allowing myself to be annoyed.\u2019 And when you think about things from that perspective\u2014when you take that much ownership of your thoughts, emotions, and life, it’s one extreme that really is hard to beat.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Jocko takes these life philosophies\u2014discipline and leadership in business, war, relationships, and everyday life\u2014and expands on them on his podcast, the Jocko Podcast, which launched in 2015 after Tim Ferriss and Joe Rogan encouraged him to do so.<\/p>\n

Though the show is based on the premise of leadership consulting, Jocko believes it\u2019s really about human nature. Fascinated by the way people respond to different situations, particularly in the harshest of circumstances\u2014combat, war, atrocities like concentration camps and POW camps\u2014Jocko looks at life through the lens of war and leadership.<\/p>\n

And podcast fans love it. The Jocko Podcast has risen to the top of a saturated market, generating millions of downloads, likely due not only to the powerful content Jocko provides but, also because of his authentic nature.<\/p>\n

The connection the medium allows fuels Jocko\u2019s motivation to podcast.<\/h2>\n

\u201cWhen I started my show, I knew I had interesting things to share and talk about. I thought some people might want to hear it, sure. I didn’t know it would be this many,\u201d<\/em> Jocko said. \u201cPeople now tell me they feel like they know me because they listen to the show. That\u2019s accurate. You actually do know me, because the podcast is me. There are hundreds of hours of me talking about very meaningful, sometimes heavy subjects. It\u2019s also me joking around. The longest episode I have is five hours and 25 minutes. When\u2019s the last time you sat down with your wife for that long, with zero interruptions? The podcast allows me that level of connection with my listeners.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

After accomplishing more by age 49 than most will in several lifetimes, the natural next question is, what\u2019s next?<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot of work to do,\u201d<\/em> he said. \u201cI have businesses now, and a lot of people counting on me to do a good job. Just like when I led a platoon\u2014it wasn\u2019t my platoon, it was ours. I led so I could take care of the guys and they would be successful. When people, including my podcast listeners, ask me to keep going, I keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n

By Jocko\u2019s own definition of success\u2014“being a productive member of society and happy with what you’re doing\u201d<\/em>\u2014he is successful on every level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jocko Willink, a highly decorated Navy SEAL and combat veteran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[333,332,334,328,327,330,335,331,58,329],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n