The Code. The Evaluation. The Protocols: Striving to Become an Eminently Qualified Human

by Jocko Willink

And while we may never be able to live up to this code, we will be better for having tried.

What do you care about? Who do you want to be? What matters most to you? What are the most important things in your life? Who are the most important people in your life and what do they need from you? Answer those questions, then write down what you need to do to achieve them.

This can be the most difficult part of the journey — to break free from the gravitational pull of weakness, habit, and fear. The best way to start, is to start. Don’t hesitate. Don’t wait. Don’t analyze or plan or research. Just start. Now.

Laziness, ego, weakness, and immediate gratification will all try to pull you off The Path every day. You must fight them. You will even have to fight people who don’t want you on The Path.

Every moment you are alive is made of choices you get to make. Little, tiny choices that alone mean nothing, but when combined together, mean everything. You have to make the right choices. The hard choices. You have to deny immediate gratification and pushback against weakness. You must impose Unmitigated Daily Discipline in all things.

We must aim to implement UNMITIGATED DAILY DISCIPLINE IN ALL THINGS. IT IS THE ONLY WAY.

Since our physical bodies are the support mechanism for our brains, physical fitness and health are paramount to our existence. To be able to engage in the critical aspects of life, our bodies need to be able to endure the demands we place on it.

What we put into our bodies and how effectively we rest our bodies play an equally important role in ensuring we can perform at the highest level. You can’t reach your potential if you aren’t healthy.

Having an effective fitness routine when you’re young sets the foundation for being fit later in life. Maintaining your physical fitness becomes more critical as you get older. This is a basic daily necessity.

As scientific studies on the effects of sleep continue to mount, it’s becoming more and more evident that you must consistently get your required amount of sleep in order to cognitively perform on the highest levels. Sleeping too little, or too much, have dramatically negative effects on your body and ability to perform.

There is no part of you that your diet does not affect.

Our brains need activities like reading, writing, building, creative pursuits, and other actions that promote intellectual health. We also need to train ourselves to improve how we deal with the challenges in our personal world.

While carried in the chassis of the body, the mind is supreme. It is us. It needs to be protected, nourished, and trained. You exercise the brain and make it more capable by reading, writing, studying, and learning new things. You need to develop in areas that don’t always fit into normal routine.

Do things you’re not good at and try activities that make you uncomfortable. They promote creativity and intellectual growth.

There is no more valuable resource in life than time and it is limited in quantity. No one knows how much time they have, so you have to maximize all of it. ALL OF IT. And yet people waste their most precious resource every day.

If you are disciplined with your time you will have more free time, and you will be able to do the things you want to do when you want to do them.

You have to know what your objectives are to put meaning around the things you are doing. Set physical goals like running a 5K or deadlifting 8000 pounds. Set intellectual goals like learning a language or pursuing a degree. Set goals for diet, sleep, and time/money management. Evaluate every day if your goals need to change and if you moved closer to them.

Your professional success is key to your personal success.

Get better at your job each day and, seek/take feedback from others when there is an opportunity. Find ways to actively support others and improve your team.

Find meaning in your job. If your job doesn't have meaning, design an exit strategy to move to one that does. A lot of your time will be spent at work. Make it matter.

Who we are as a person is perhaps the most defining quality in our life. Our character impacts those around us and the world we live in and we are in complete control of it. Learning humility, managing our egos, and leading and mentoring people in our world are ways we can choose to develop our character.

Remember, you don’t need to be in charge of anyone or anything to lead. Everyone has the ability...

Ego is the biggest killer in combat, business, and life. Be honest in your self-assessment of your own ego and control it. If your ego gets out of control, you will lose.

Everyone is emotional, but not everyone can control their emotions. You are not effective when you are emotional. You don’t have productive conversations, send good emails, or make smart decisions when you lose control of your emotions.

learn to identify when emotions start to take over. Children struggle controlling their emotions. Eminently Qualified Humans do not.

Relationships are your most powerful tools for long term success. This is true for everyone in life. You can’t accomplish much on your own and you need people in your life if you are to reach your fullest potential. Since time available to spend with people is limited, you need to get the most out of every minute you have with them.

Can we actually get there? No, we can’t. Being eminently qualified isn’t a status we achieve, or a conclusion we reach. Being eminently qualified is being on The Path that does not end. It’s the way of living life where we accept that with every single day there is more to do.

Since there is no stopping point on the quest to becoming an Eminently Qualified Human, what are we really trying to do? The answer is simple: We are trying to get better, every day. This requires growth in every facet of personal and professional development. This requires ACTION.