Extreme Ownership: Embracing Humility & Self-Awareness

Happy New Year savages!

2024 upon us which brings with it a new opportunity to write a new chapter in our personal stories.

As I have mentioned in the past I have been doing a lot of personal development over the last few months. When it comes to personal development a lot of emphasis is placed on the physical.

While physical training is a great tool to build a resilient mindset, it can be a band aid solution and there is often a lot of deep internal work neglected.

The internal work requires extreme ownership, you have to have the humility and self-awareness to look within. Taking the time to identify the habits and character traits that are no longer serving you.

When you are raw and real with yourself, there can be a few hard pills to swallow. A lot of the challenges we face in our lives, we often find an external source of blame.

EXTREME OWNERSHIP EXERCISE:

1. What are the negative character traits and behaviours that you currently display? This can be negative thought patterns, cognitive distortions, ego based thinking, self-centredness, and pessimism as a few examples. Write these down.
   
   
2. Write a list of the times you have displayed these behaviours. This is extreme ownership, you are confronting the devil so to speak. Take your time here, deploy humility and ownership.
   
   
3. What are the triggers or cycles that produce these behaviours? In this step we are working to understand ourself and the cycle of behaviour we have created. What we want to understand is our own red flags. Once we have a good grasp on them, we can interrupt the cycle and prevent it from happening.
   
   
4. How will you stop the cycle? In this step we are looking at stockpiling weapons in our war chest to halt the cycle in its tracks. It can be journalling, working out, listening to a podcast that shifts your energy, or it can be prayer/meditation. Understand what works for you, write it down.
   
   
5. How will you stay accountable? In this step we are looking at how often you will review your behaviour and progress. I personally journal most days and I currently go to counselling once a week. Write your battle plan down.

It's important to remember no one is perfect and you don't need to be either. We all slip up and sometimes we regress. What's important is that we stay true to ourselves and that we own our slip ups.

Extreme ownership is a powerful tool that will set you free, it will prevent the external world infiltrating your internal world, and it will lessen the impact of the trials and tribulations of this life.