Jocko Willink

This is my thing.

And this is one of your rules.

Especially seeing as we're not transparent to ourselves.

People presume in the beginning that passion and purpose and meaning and joy and fulfillment are the things that get people going.

But as I've said, of all of the high performers that I've spoken to, the vast, vast, vast majority of them are driven by insufficiency and resentment and terrible parents or terrible upbringings or a chip on their shoulder about bullies in school.

I think one of the themes of your worldview that I've become familiar with is alchemizing bad times into good ones.

A reminder that things that seem bad can end up being good.

And in retrospect, I think it's obvious and almost romantic to think about that alchemy in that way.

But in the moment, it's basically impossible.

How can people or how do you have more of that perspective during a hard time?

Things are not what they are.

Things are what we think they are.

For instance, doing a hard workout gives you a signature feeling.

You're laid on the floor, panting, heart rate at 180, sweating from everywhere with the taste of metal in your mouth.

This is, oddly, enjoyable.

But if this exact same sensation was to spontaneously occur in your car while you were sat in traffic, you'd call the ambulance for fear that you're having a heart attack.

Framing is everything.

I realized that reliably the quality of my work was better if I suffered.

Therefore, if I suffered, I usually got better outcomes.

So the lead indicator of what would be a lagging measure, the lead indicator was suffering.