Becoming Unbreakable

     Not long into our 3 week indoctrination people started to quit. My guess is not because of the physical difficulty, but the fact that it sucked and was mentally taxing. Especially when most everyone there had been accepted to many other civilian colleges where you don’t need to  put up with getting yelled at. Brandon was right in front of me whenever we marched around campus so I was continuously forced to stare at the back of his head.  He was a mountain of a man, prior to leaving my small town I couldn’t even fathom someone my age being that size, that strength, with that level of muscle definition. He was a fucking freak, big, fast, strong, lean. He quit after 2.5 weeks of indoc.

     I didn’t know it at the time but I was being shown one of the most important life lessons I would learn at that school. Brandon was from a small town also, he was a high school football star who had also just graduated. We had to show up to Kings Point several months before students going to normal school had to. He knew his friends were home partying, getting ready to go to civilian college for more partying, four of the best years of their lives. Even though Brandon wanted to be in the military, he started to question his decision, he let that seed of doubt be planted in the garden of his mind. That seed took root, took Brandon’s mental energy and sucked up sunlight, and water, it started to grow. Over a two week time period that seed of doubt had grown into a towering tree, larger than his previous dreams to serve his country. Maybe it was the right decision for him to quit but at that point the tree of doubt was so large he no longer had the choice - quitting was all he could think about, which is what he did.

     I didn’t know the power of this at the time, but here was what was going on in my mind: “There is no fucking way I am going home to tell my father I quit, they would have to kill me first.” I remember this thought.

I think about the difference between those two mindsets.

Does it really matter how strong you are?

How tough you are?

How smart you are?

Or is all that really matters the thoughts that are flowing through your mind.

Keep the garden of your mind clear of weeds and bad seeds, anxiety, worry, fear, self doubt…suffocate them without water or light until they shrivel up and die.

Let positivity and dreams of your future flourish.

How can you stop somebody who refuses to quit?

This is how you become unbreakable.