Have you ever wanted to achieve a military mindset but didn’t know how?
To ensure success in modern competitive environments, the military mindset is a great tool.
The good news is that you don’t need to be a veteran to develop a military mindset.
Fortunately, Richard Rierson, an experienced coach based in Wichita, Kansas, can help you unlock your potential!
What is a Military Mindset?
The education you receive in the military differs from traditional institutions like college or trade school. To develop a military mindset, you have to always be prepared for the unknown. Leadership skills, teamwork skills, and critical thinking are as important as physical fitness.
After years of rigorous training and structure, the mind of soldiers is pushed to their limits. They remove all distractions that can cause procrastination. Soldiers have a mission; to defend a pre-existing belief, or to defend something they believe against any evidence that could threaten it.
Researchers found that CEOs with military experience performed better during industry crises.
So, how can you apply this mindset to business?
Introducing a Dose of Leadership
After serving ten years of active duty as an Officer in the United States Marine Corps and ten years part-time with the Kansas Air National Guard & Air Force Reserve, Richard Rierson applied this mindset to the corporate world.
Working his way up through the ranks of the corporate world, Richard Rierson pounced on the opportunity to teach leadership skills to the 250 employees and 50 hotels under his management. Richard received praise from his peers, sparking a desire to broaden his audience and bring his ideas to more and more people all over the world.
Podcasting was still in its infancy when Richard started inviting business leaders to share their ideas with him. Leveraging his contacts from public speaking engagements, he started emailing a small list of potential guests. He received 3 responses… Just enough to get started.
Today, the “Dose of Leadership Podcast with Richard Rierson’ has been downloaded 3.5 million times in countries all over the world. He was able to secure interviews with some of the most influential minds in the business world such as Barbara Corcoran of Shark Tank, Actor Matthew McConaughey, and Steve Forbes.
Richard believes that when a military mindset is applied to business, leadership skills can bring entrepreneurs great success.
Follow his five steps to gain the confidence and discipline needed for success.
Establish purpose with self-awareness.
Understanding what motivates you is the first step to achieving a military mindset. This can be learning new things or mentoring others, establishing your purpose can help you keep your eyes on your goals.
Spend time reflecting on where you are in life now and where you want to be. Think about what inspires you and gives meaning to your life. This can be thought of as establishing a purpose – it’s why we do the things we do.
Self-awareness is key in order for us to recognize our personal mission, vision, and values.
Uncover opportunities through goal setting.
Create achievable goals once you have established a purpose and have identified your personal mission, vision, and values. Use these as a framework for setting realistic goals that motivate you to reach your objectives.
Goal setting can provide valuable insight into the opportunities available to you that would help you reach your desired outcomes. Visualization is a key component of developing a military mindset. All military personnel is taught to work towards a common goal. As part of military training, a “trigger” is created. It can be anything. You can have it different for each person. This trigger serves one purpose: to remind you that there is a goal worth fighting for, living for, and even dying for.
Writing down your goals will not only make them seem more tangible, but it also provides a great source of motivation for continued growth and progress.
Take action to create a disciplined lifestyle.
Once you have a clear vision, use discipline and commitment to achieve your goals.
The first thing you should strive for is punctuality. Your brain can be trained by being punctual. Like in the military, discipline breeds punctuality, which in turn breeds mental power.
Establish routines to develop healthy habits of organization, meditation, and physical fitness. Just like your biceps, the mind is a muscle, the more you develop it, the stronger it will get.
Set reasonable deadlines for tasks that are challenging, and ambitious, yet achievable in the given timeframe.
Find ways to make sure that you consistently stay on track with your goals by giving yourself periodic milestones or check-ins.
Finally, don’t forget to reward positive behaviors with small acts of recognition or affirmation.
Challenge the status quo through leadership development and resilience training.
Push yourself to develop the necessary leadership skills and increase your resilience in order to succeed.
Leadership development involves setting expectations, providing guidance and instruction, promoting positive interactions with others, problem-solving, and addressing challenges.
Resilience training helps you learn strategies to acknowledge and manage difficult emotions by enhancing your ability to bounce back from adversity. Building these skills can help you face obstacles with perseverance and confidence.
Maintain progress by monitoring performance relentlessly.
Monitor your progress and results to ensure you are on track.
Consistent effort and improvement come from tracking performance. Keep yourself accountable when taking on new tasks and objectives. Evaluate your successes and mistakes, learn from them, adjust your strategy to proceed in the most effective manner, then set milestones for the future.
Focus on how each task contributes to the achievement of long-term objectives so that you can maintain motivation.
Follow your leaders
You can gain insight and practical knowledge from an experienced person who has attained the level of expertise they desire. Mentors can expand their professional knowledge and skills by facilitating the instruction of others.
Whether you want to develop a military mindset or become a better leader, you can find a mentor to teach you. Start listening to podcasts, reading books, and increasing your professional network to gather as much information from successful people as possible.
Richard Rierson started his ‘Dose of Leadership’ podcast while staring at his bookshelf. He wanted to bring the influential authors that taught him every day, to life. Getting advice from business leaders is a great way to apply your mindset to grow your professional career.
You can follow these 5 steps to achieve a military mindset provided by Richard Rierson.