Mornings are a great time to maximize your time and begin every day with purpose, vigor and a great mindset. Follow these five military traditions to start every day right.
• Focus on preparing to win under the worst conditions. The U.S. Army Special Forces has a constant focus on difficult, practical and challenging training that enables success in future battles and deployments. Critical to good training and successful operations is understanding that no matter the physical conditions, the mission must be accomplished, and the entire team needs to be standing with you at the end of the mission. When your team understands that, it leads to great leadership, training, teamwork, standards and teaching because everyone wants the other person and the team to be successful. The daily focus on preparation, training and teaching to be successful is a central, guiding ethic of world-class organizations.
• Wake up early with a plan from the night before. Every person in the military carries a small notebook and pen to keep a “to-do” list of the most important activities. When I was in Iraq and Bosnia, I kept my notebook right next to my cot, so I could write down the most important things to do the next day. Having a plan from the night before means you start the day immediately working on your most important priorities.
• Do some form of invigorating physical exercise. Starting your day with physical fitness ensures your first focus of the day is on your own well-being. This is vital for leaders who often neglect their own personal care and then end up reducing their own level of performance. Whether it is running, weights, swimming, or the step mill, completing a challenging exercise regimen first thing in the day signals a strong sense of accomplishment before your workday starts.
• Read the daily “intelligence” report. A tradition of the deployed military is reading the morning intelligence report that describes the enemy, weather, politics, local economy and enemy-planned activities. This tradition is a great focus to ensure you understand all the important aspects of the world and operating environment around you that influence your decision-making. More importantly, the focus on the operating environment and competition represents seeking information of those elements that can both hinder and help your strategy. For most industries, reading the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Washington Post, personalized Google alerts and daily industry alerts are great ways to construct your own daily intelligence report.
• Visit in person – don’t email/text. A tradition I love from the Army is how the noncommissioned officers, the sergeants that make everything happen, go around, greet and talk with every soldier at the start of the day. For leaders, this is a vital daily lesson that the most important assets of your team are not machinery, algorithms, data, money in the bank, or even your own customers but your employees, the people standing before you. This is a task that cannot be accomplished with email or texting. No matter where we were in the world, my team sergeant would make sure to walk around, check on important matters and speak to everyone. It requires making a physical effort to create physical contact, conversation and eye contact to let people know every day you value, appreciate and understand their contributions.
Start your day off like the Special Forces for a successful start to a significant day. Wake early with a plan, exercise, stay updated on the latest competitive information, visit your team in person and focus on the hardest aspects of execution and training to ensure success.
Chad Storlie is an adjunct professor of marketing at Creighton University, a retired U.S. Army Special Forces officer and an Iraq combat veteran.
