How do you motivate yourself in difficult situations?
I learned a technique from my brother, Jim Earle, a former US Army Ranger to help pull it out of our gut when things get tough. It’s a single phrase that has
become our business mantra: Ranger Up.
It’s not just the phrase; it’s the backstory that makes it motivating.
My brother went into the Army right out of high school before college. He decided he wanted to go to Ranger school during the enlistment process. But as he says, “It’s not that simple.” You have to prove yourself to even be recommended. My brother’s unit required a Pre-Ranger school he describes as, “a demanding three-week test of physical and leadership abilities. Pass it and you might get recommended for Ranger school. Then the fun begins.
Ranger school is a grueling 62-day training program that includes a physical fitness test consisting of 49 push-ups, 59 sit-ups, a 5-mile run in 40 minutes, and six chin-ups; a swim test; a land navigation test; a 12-mile foot march in three hours; several obstacle courses, four days of military mountaineering; three parachute jumps; four air assaults on helicopters; multiple rubber boat movements; and 27 days of mock combat patrols. With two months of endless physical obstacles, including sleep and food deprivation, it’s one of the U.S. military’s premier courses to develop elite fighters and leaders.
My brother says, “In Ranger School they take rank off of everyone. Here I am a Private First Class, but when I’m the patrol leader, there’s a West Point Major taking orders from me. When I say, “You have to carry the machine gun today,” it’s the worst job, it weighs 80 or 90 pounds. Do you want someone to say ‘Sure I got it?’Or do you want someone who whines and says, ‘Oh, I did it yesterday.’ In the real army you outrank me by eight pay grades, but when I’m asking you to carry the machine gun today, you don’t care what rank he is, you want the guy who says, ‘I got it.’ It makes you a better leader and a better follower. You learn to be a real team player.”
My brother describes a typical situation, ‘You’ve hiked twelve miles. You’re totally smoked, it’s night. You think you’ve given everything you got. You get to the extraction point. The leader tells you, ‘The bird aren’t here.’ The helicopters are grounded, we have to hike another 10 miles to get out.”
That’s when you “Ranger Up.” My brother says, “Sometimes the leader will say it. Over time, it becomes more of an internal motivation. It means dig deep, find
the intestinal fortitude. Do what you need to get done.”
He says, “It’s an acknowledgment that things are tough. We can complain about it, or we can get our mind around it and do it.”
Last month, the Army announced that two female lieutenants, Kristen Griest and Shaye Haver, will make history as the first two women to graduate from US
Army Ranger School. In their honor we decided to make Ranger Up our new business mantra.
Think getting stuck in an airport is hard? Ranger up, girlfriend.
Afraid to speak in front of 10,000 people? Ranger up, start preparing now.
If Lieutenants Greist and Haver can make it though Ranger school to achieve their goals, how can we justify whining about anything?
When you think about true toughness, it makes your own challenges look easy.
