It is better to make a decision and act than to remain indecisive. Being indecisive gets people killed Ranger. This phrase was crafted into the very fiber of our minds over the long days and nights of Ranger School. Ranger School is billed as the Army’s elite leadership school. A crucible, of sorts, were young men and women are stressed to the points of exhaustion. Along the way they learn how to lead others through the same stress and also how to operate for long periods of time behind enemy lines. In a nutshell, Ranger School is kind of like doing a Tough Mudder for 60 days straight. It sucks. There is no other way to phrase it. Ranger School is meant to replicate actual combat and is based upon the experiences of graduates who have endured combat from Korea to Afghanistan. Combat is stressful and therefore Ranger School must be just as stressful.
Now there are limitations that are within the confines of common sense such as no live bullets, small explosions only, no total starvation or depriving of water, and other safety mechanism. For example, during the swamp phase of Ranger School at Eglin Air Force Base, instructors conduct dives to ensure that areas of training are free of alligators or other large reptiles but pushing through a snowstorm with other two hours of sleep in three days is ok. Like I said, a sliding scale of what is deemed “ok”. Regardless, Ranger School wanted to push people to their extremes. I went to school in the winter of 2008 and had never really pushed my body and mind to its extreme. I grew up an only child in eastern Tennessee who never went hungry and didn’t know or was never exposed to the reality of his situation, that his family was lower middle class. Now that isn’t a bad thing at all but it did provide some difficulties. None of these difficulties resulted in me experiencing the first tier of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. I was fed, I was clothed, and I had a place to sleep.
The difficulties arose when attempting to find my place in society after high school, A white male from a lower middle class family still didn’t qualify for any free rides. I wasn’t overly smart, I didn’t do amazing on my standardized testing, and I wasn’t a member of some money-making sport such as football. Instead I was a guy who swam, played water polo, and liked art class. None of these resulted in a scholarship so at the ripe age of 18 I was facing my first true test; what to do with myself. Following the advice from my parents and, after visiting a few schools, it became apparent that I could go to a nice school but I would pay for it later through student loans. My interest at this point was zero.
Luckily another option arose in the form of the United States Military Academy at West Point. Most of you are going to stop there and question did I have a relative that attended or whose campaign did my parents contribute to or what strings were pulled. Seriously, nothing was done to get me looking and then finally attending West Point. All I did was send an email to the swim coach expressing my interest, did a visit, interned with the local Congressman, and then I was offered admission to West Point. In reality it was kind of a world wind.One moment I was coaching kids during the summer for swimming and the next moment I was dig trenches around my tent to keeping the late summer Hudson Valley downpour from washing me away.
West Point proved to be a reality I wasn’t quite in store for at the time. I struggled in the beginning. Between the culture shock of being someone who embraced art, poems, and writing to being quizzed about plebe knowledge. See, the upperclassmen required that freshmen or plebes memorize random knowledge that had to be repeated at a moments notice. Things like how many lights are in Cullem Hall or how is the Cow. Schofields definition of discipline was always a favorite due to the words that proved difficult to pronounce, especially those from the South, and also due to its length. Besides these random stressors, the first year academics were, at times, seemingly beyond my grasp. Discreet Dynamic Equations was a class that didn’t interest me beyond the fact that, if I failed it, I would spend that summer on the Hudson.
The most difficult thing, though, was balancing the schedule. Between classes and satisfying the requests of upperclassmen, I had my obligations to the swim team that beckoned twice a day. Once at 5 AM and the other right after school at 330 PM. The schedule was the hardest part to adapt to at the time. Any misstep or miscalculation on how long a task might take proved to be disastrous. Disaster usually took the form of staying up after light out by either the illumination of a small handheld light or putting our wool blankets over the windows to block out light. Along the way and after the hours became days then weeks and then months I realize that I had adapted to where this was just the way it was to me. It was almost like I couldn’t remember what it was like without the constant, demanding schedule. Had I come to this realization through long thought? No, it was just an epiphany one day walking through the blowing Hudson wind. In reality I had committed to act, constantly, for days on end until my reality changed. In essence, I had willed my reality to change through deliberate action.
I found myself in a similar situation during Ranger School. Ranger School demanded constant action. If you remained in one spot too long, the “enemy” would spot you and “artillery fire” would descend upon you until you acted. It didn’t matter if you were tired, hungry, exhausted, or exchange any synonym here for ready to fall asleep on your feet. The reason for this action goes back to combat. The combat veterans who advised on the creation of Ranger School had seen, during World War II and then the Korean War, that those who acted usually had a more positive outcome than those that froze due to their inaction. As we were always told, any decision, even if its a wrong one in hindsight, is better than no decision. The entire ethos of being a Ranger rested upon action. Rarely were you ever just sitting somewhere and not doing something. Each moment had a purpose and an objective. If we were staying in one place, it was to accomplish some task like pulling security, creating a new plan, conducting maintenance, or refitting for the next mission. Basically our whole lives were based on deliberate, conscious action.
Besides allowing us to constantly move towards our objective, what did this bias for action do for us in Ranger School; did it change our view or perspective on reality? Due to the constant stress placed upon us, it was common for periods of depression to occur. We were given a low calorie diet of less than 2,000 calories a day, pushed to our physical limits through repeated patrols sometimes covering more than five miles a way with almost 100 lbs of additional gear on your back, allowed, at times, less than four hours of sleep a night, and, for no gain at all, except to maybe hear you did “Ok” from your instructor. Praise didn’t happen often and stressful situation were plenty. Many would get lost in their thoughts or get lost in the emotions of a bad report, a girl friend breaking up with them, or question if they made the right decision in trying to earn the Ranger Tab. I came to realize that action solved all of these problems. If I was hungry, I would just do something. If I was exhausted, I found something to do. If I was sleepy, I would do some push ups. If I was depressed, I would make sure my gear was ready for the next mission.
The constant action allowed my mind to not focus and dwell on the depressing situation I may have been in at the time. Trust me, I didn’t get there overnight. It took the pain of long, boring ruck marches to get me there. To be honest, I was horrible at ruck marching. My body just didn’t seem to be built to carry heavy loads for long periods of time at a quick pace. I could do it and I could do it better than average but it didn’t mean that I actually enjoyed it. How often are you acting or are you dwelling on your thoughts too much? Make a decision to act today and think less. Don’t give yourself time to pause and feel the pain of the situation. There is a time for that, trust me. Rather, keep moving forward and acting. You might be surprised where you end up.
In reality, this idea to act is a three step process. The first step is to set your mindset to act. Too often we evaluate all options before we move. This can be healthy but, in other times, this can cause paralysis by analysis. You do not want to become paralyzed in life because others will continue to act around you. Step two is to realize that no answer is perfect, no answer is 100% correct, and mistakes are ok. Once you accept this as fact then you are free to make the decisions that are needed to act. The last step is to act. it is really that simple. Put your mindset to one of action, accept that no decision is perfect, and then act. Operating within these three steps is freeing and opens up all kinds of possibilities. Did you feel that tug at the meeting to speak up but decided not to and remained quiet? Use these three steps and see where it gets you.