Walking Point with John Dailey

Build a Kill Box

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 10:01:25 GMT

In the military, a kill box is a “three-dimensional geographical area on a battlefield set up to coordinate joint air and ground fires without needing constant individual clearance.”

The Kill Box might be a city block, a valley, a beachhead, or any three-dimensional area designated on a map that allows a unit to engage the enemy within the box without requesting clearance. Once the enemy enters the box, they are free game, and you can use any available resource to eliminate them.

We can establish our own kill box to quickly identify and eliminate thoughts, habits, or actions that prevent us from winning our daily fights in the War of Life.

When we establish a kill box in combat, it needs to be far enough forward of our position to let us act before the enemy gets into the wire.

Likewise, in life we begin by recognizing that we need to notice our thoughts and opinions as they enter the kill box, not wait until they crawl into our minds and assert themselves. As Marcus Aurelius said, "External things are not the problem. It's your assessment of them. Which you can erase right now."

Or, Epictetus, "Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of them."

By keeping a thought or event at arm’s length and examining it, we can decide whether to let it pass or to eliminate it before it becomes entrenched.

This is especially useful when others present the thoughts or opinions to us. By making the opinion cross through the kill box and examining it, we can decide if it is friend or foe. We are not required to hold the same opinion as another, even if they are a friend, or family member.

“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”

―Marcus Aurelius

We should interrogate each thought or opinion that enters the kill box, asking if it is accurate, and useful. If it is both, let it in. If it is not, eliminate it.

We can do little to control what enters the kill box, but it is our decision whether to let it pass or destroy it before it takes hold.

Life is War - Fight and Win,

John - Your arms dealer for the war of life

Keep Your Pace Count

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 10:02:09 GMT

If you follow me on social media and see the videos I make from time to time, you may have seen this, but we’ll expand on it here.

On a recon patrol, the navigator is responsible not only for keeping the team on the correct azimuth, but also for knowing where along that azimuth they are at any given time.

Before GPS was common, we did this with a pace count.

The average human will take between 60-70 paces per 100 Meters. This will vary, of course, with stride length, load carried, terrain, and level of exhaustion. The navigator was responsible for knowing his pace count during different conditions, and he would count every time his left foot hit the ground.

The most common method of keeping pace was with a set of Ranger beads.

Every 100 meters, he would pull one of the lower beads down. When all of the lower beads were down at the next 100 meters, he would pull down an upper bead.

This method allowed the nav man to measure 5,000 meters or 5 klicks. Then he started over.

I recently started coaching a high performer who had accomplished a lot, but he told me that whenever he set a massive goal for himself, he all too often failed because the challenge seemed too big and the end result too far away.

This reminded me of the Navigator's job. With a long recon patrol, he could probably determine the entire pace count for a 10-kilometer route, which would be something like 7,000 paces.

But that would be awkward and nearly unmanageable. If he lost focus for a second, he could forget where he was, and that could place the entire patrol in jeopardy.

And by keeping the count in manageable sections, it is easier to remember that “At 300 meters we should see a stream on our right” or “We will cross over a dirt road at 750 Meters.”

The same applies to us. We absolutely need the mission, and we must plan the route and intermediate objectives, but the only way to get there is to be willing to take the steps necessary.

If you want to bench 225, the only way to get there is to add 5 lbs to your max.

If you want to publish a book, the only way is to write some words.

And while trying to take in the whole goal at once can be too daunting, taking one step can seem useless. It’s not. It’s necessary, and it’s the only way.

As Lao Tzu said, “A journey of a thousand li begins beneath one's feet."

So, plan big, step small, and keep stepping.

Life is War - Fight and Win,

John - Your arms dealer for the war of life

If you’ve read my book, Tough Rugged Bastards, thank you for helping make it a bestseller. I would appreciate it if you would leave an honest review on Amazon. Thanks

Rules of Engagement

Thu, 13 Aug 2026 10:02:02 GMT

Last week I hit on the idea of our values as the guardrails that keep us moving forward towards our objective with honor.

This, of course, ties into a concept I have talked about in the past: Lines of effort, especially LOE 3 ‘Spirit’. This is where we figure out our WHY.

When I talk about the spirit, I’m referring to the thing we believe in that is greater than ourselves, the seat of our emotion and character.

This may be faith-based or philosophy-based, but there should come a time in each life when we critically examine the things that we believe and make sure that they are our beliefs, not those that have been handed down and worn like an old suit of clothes.

These beliefs form our spiritual worldview, which helps us search for answers to life’s big questions:

The Question of Origin- Where did I come from?
The Question of Destiny- Why am I here?
The Question of Morality- How should I live?
The Question of Purpose – What is my why?

Answering this final question, according to Nietzsche, will give you the ability to “…bear almost any how.”

When we have a clear why based on a desire for internal achievement and positive aspirations aimed at a greater good, we can begin to move from being reactive to being active.

I have previously discussed Immediate Action Drills. On a recon patrol, we need to be ready to react to contact with the enemy. But the mission of a recon patrol is to avoid contact and gather information. As soon as a patrol begins reacting to enemy contact, they must cease moving toward their objective.

When we are reacting, whether to enemy contact or to external factors in our life, we are countering. We are on the defensive, responding to the forces imposing their will on us. As Sun Tzu said, “…The possibility of victory lies only in the attack.”

Action is necessarily faster than reaction. When we are forced into a cycle of reacting to external forces, we get caught at the losing end of the OODA Loop.

Only when we are acting towards our own purpose can we remain on azimuth and make progress towards our strategic aim.

A solid grasp of our why serves as the foundation of our worldview.

Our Worldview is composed of our beliefs.
Our Beliefs are defined by our values.
Our Values are demonstrated by our actions.
Our Actions lead to the development of our character.

Those who have been in the military are intimately familiar with organizational values like Honor, Courage, Commitment, and for the Raiders, the tenets of Gung Ho: Selflessness, Excellence, and Trust. But it is important to establish our own beliefs and define the values that we choose to live by.

Once we have examined, considered, and selected the values that we want to live by, we can establish our personal Rules of Engagement (ROEs).

In the military, ROEs are directives provided that define the “circumstances, conditions, degree, and manner in which the use of force, or actions which might be construed as provocative, may be applied.”

ROE card issued for relief operations in Somalia

For us, ROEs establish the rules we live by that determine how we will respond in challenging situations.

We can define our rules of engagement by taking the time to develop a list of the beliefs and character traits that are most important to us.

Imagine the words you would like to see in a one-sentence eulogy inscribed on your tombstone.

We build our character daily through our actions, so it is important to ask ourselves each day whether the character we are building is consistent with the things we believe and the values we profess to hold above all others.

We are all familiar with the story of the three little pigs, and their houses of straw, twigs, and bricks.

If I claim to value security and want to be the little pig that lives in a brick house, then every day I had better wake up and start making bricks.

If instead, I spend my days gathering straw, my actions are not consistent with my values.

What I say is important to me is unimportant if my actions don’t match my beliefs.

The problem is that we can trick ourselves into believing that we are living up to our values.

It may not be until the wolf comes flicking his Zippo, and we seek the security of our character, that we realize that we are surrounded by flammable straw.

So, establish your ROE’s, start hauling bricks, and Charlie Mike.

John - Your arms dealer for the war of life

If you’ve read my book, Tough Rugged Bastards, thank you for helping make it a bestseller. I would appreciate it if you would leave an honest review on Amazon. Thanks

Keep it Between the Lines

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 12:22:11 GMT

Last week I wrote about the idea of a “Vanishing Point” in perspective sketching. The convergence of receding parallel lines on the horizon gives the image coherence.

In life, our purpose is the vanishing point. The point towards which our decisions, effort, and goals should converge.

But we need more than purpose. We need boundaries.

In military operations, units are given defined areas of operations or A.O.s. These boundaries define where one unit’s responsibility begins and another’s ends. They prevent friendly units from making contact and make it clear who is responsible for the terrain.

Boundaries might seem to be unnecessarily restrictive, but when well laid out they provide greater freedom of movement.

Once a team knows their mission and has clear boundaries and rules of engagement, they can operate within them. They have responsibility for operations in their area and are safe in the knowledge that their actions are moving towards the overall strategic aim.

In life, purpose creates the vanishing point and our values create the boundaries.

Together they create freedom of action.

Without purpose, you can have boundaries but never fight. You are principled, but passive.

With purpose and no boundaries, you may reach the objective but may not be proud of how you got there.

You have to decide your own values but make sure they are ones you can live with. Ones that will serve as a guardrail when you are faced with difficult decisions.

I’ve talked before about Aristotle’s ‘Golden Mean’. It is the idea that any value can be taken to extreme in either direction. Too little courage is cowardice while too much is recklessness. Both are destructive.

The boundaries created by the golden mean will necessarily be set to either side of our vanishing point of purpose to allow the freedom of movement we need to execute our mission.

Our personal sketch/route plan must begin with our vanishing point of purpose.

Then add in the boundaries of values.

Next, add the checkpoints of goals.

Then, the standards under which you will operate.

Finally, the SOPs of habit that will keep you moving forward when you’d rather stop and rest.

It may take longer to reach your destination with strict boundaries in place, but they will ensure that you are still proud of who you are when you get there.

Until next week, Charlie Mike!

John - Your arms dealer for the war of life

If you’ve read my book, Tough Rugged Bastards, thank you for helping make it a bestseller. I would appreciate it if you would leave an honest review on Amazon. Thanks

The Vanishing Point

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 10:00:03 GMT

Yes, this image was made with AI.

I’ve never been a great artist. Fortunately, in military field sketching, the purpose isn’t to create art. It’s to create a shared understanding.

When I was first on a Recon team, in the days before we had the capability to rapidly send images and video, I got very good at producing a sketch detailed enough for an assault force to plan from. The sketch had to show the buildings, roads, obstacles, terrain, fighting positions, and likely avenues of approach. More importantly, it had to show how those things related to each other. (Special Operations teams still use field sketching, because it works)

That requires perspective.

In a one-point perspective sketch, receding parallel lines converge at a single location on the horizon: the vanishing point. Roads narrow toward it. Buildings diminish toward it. Fences, walls, and every parallel feature follows the same rules.

The vanishing point makes the picture make sense.

Without a consistent vanishing point, the individual objects may be recognizable, but they won’t fit together. Buildings lean in different directions. Roads widen as they move away. Distance becomes impossible to judge. The sketch looks childish because every part exists in its own reality.

That’s more than just an artistic problem when someone has to use the sketch to plan an assault.

A bad sketch can create confusion, while a good sketch creates shared understanding.

The War of Life works much the same way.

Most of us don’t lack activity. We lack alignment.

We work hard at our jobs, pursue physical goals, start projects, read books, attend meetings, make commitments, and keep the alligators closest to the boat at bay. Each action makes sense when viewed by itself. But step back and look at the full picture, and the lines might be running in completely different directions.

Your career points one way, your calendar points another, and your habits point somewhere else.

You say your family matters most, but they get whatever time remains. You say health is important but sacrifice it to work. You want to write a book, build a business, earn a promotion, or prepare for retirement, yet your daily actions provide little evidence that these are the objectives.

The result is a life filled with recognizable pieces that don’t form a coherent picture.

Your effort doesn’t converge at a strategic end state.

A clear strategic goal acts like a vanishing point. It gives direction to everything in the foreground.

If the objective is to build a business, studying, learning, networking, and improving your understanding of the market should all move toward that point.

If the objective is to complete a difficult endurance event, your training, nutrition, sleep, and recovery should support the same outcome.

This doesn’t mean every action must directly advance one goal. Life contains multiple Lines of Effort, and some work simply maintains the ground you’ve already taken. But your major commitments should fit within a larger perspective. They should reinforce one another rather than compete with each other.

Here is a test:

If someone studied your calendar, habits, and spending without knowing your strategic goal, could they tell where your life is headed?

Once your vanishing point is established, decisions become easier.

An opportunity either moves you toward coherence or away from it. A commitment either supports the objective or pulls an important LOE in another direction. A habit either makes the desired end state more likely or holds the status quo.

The important parts of your life should point toward the same place on the horizon.

Choose your objective. Place it clearly in the distance. Then examine the lines of effort running through your life: your work, health, relationships, time, attention, and resources.

Do they converge?

If not, you might not need to work harder. You may need to redraw the picture.

In the War of Life, when lines converge, you have an azimuth. When they don’t, every effort brings confusion.

Until next week, Charlie Mike!

John - Your arms dealer for the war of life

If you’ve read my book, Tough Rugged Bastards, thank you for helping make it a bestseller. I would appreciate it if you would leave an honest review on Amazon. Thanks

Becoming a Combatant

Thu, 23 Jul 2026 10:02:08 GMT

In war, there are combatants and non-combatants.

Combatants are in the fight, and they carry the burden that comes with it. They accept the risk. They are the man (or woman) in the arena.

Non-combatants are not legitimate targets. They are protected by law and custom because civilization depends on the idea that not everyone is part of the fight. Children, the elderly, the wounded, medical personnel, clergy, and civilians are not supposed to be treated as enemies simply because they exist on the battlefield.

But the war of life is not governed by the law of war.

And at some point, you have to decide whether to remain a spectator or become a combatant.

There comes a point when sitting on the sidelines equates to surrender. There is a point when the desire for neutrality becomes fear. And eventually you have to realize that the life you claim to want won’t be won for you by the combatants.

You have to join the fight.

History is full of people who were not born soldiers but became combatants because the moment required it.

During World War II, the French Resistance included ordinary men and women who carried messages, gathered intelligence, hid fugitives, printed underground newspapers, sabotaged rail lines, and helped Allied forces.

These were civilians who looked around and realized that occupation had made neutrality impossible.

In Denmark, ordinary citizens helped ferry nearly 8,000 Jewish neighbors to safety.

They became combatants because they reached a point where being a non-combatant was no longer morally acceptable.

Most of us will never be asked to join an underground resistance.

But you do have to choose sides in the war of life.

In the fight for your health, your family, your attention, your standards, your faith, your meaning, your integrity, and your discipline, you are either a combatant or a non-combatant.

You can sit on the sidelines and comment. You can complain about your body while refusing to train. You can criticize weak leadership while avoiding responsibility. You can talk about your values while tolerating behavior that violates them.

You can say the world is soft while choosing comfort when hardship arises. You can say you want a better life while living like a civilian in your own war.

The sad truth is that a lot of people want the benefits of victory without the obligations of combat. They want confidence without competence, respect without standards, purpose without sacrifice, and transformation without discomfort. They want the identity of a warrior and the lifestyle of a spectator.

Life does not work that way. At some point, you have to pick up a weapon and decide to fight.

If you’ve read my book, Tough Rugged Bastards, thank you for helping make it a bestseller. I would appreciate it if you would leave an honest review on Amazon. Thanks

Your weapon might be your calendar, your notebook, a barbell, a rucksack, a decision you have waited too long to make, a standard you have never enforced, or the truth you have been hiding from.

The combatant is defined by commitment. He stops waiting to be rescued. He stops outsourcing responsibility. He stops pretending that he is unaware of what’s happening around him. He joins the fight.

The non-combatant watches the battle and explains what should have happened. The combatant makes something happen.

The non-combatant provides commentary. The combatant carries responsibility.

The non-combatant waits for the perfect plan. The combatant moves with the best plan available and adjusts as he goes.

The non-combatant asks, “Why doesn’t somebody do something?” The combatant asks, “What is mine to do?”

Answering that question turns you into a combatant. “What is mine to do?”

Not “What is everyone else failing to do?” Or “What should the government do?” Or “What should my boss do?” Or “What should my spouse, my parents, my kids, my friends, my coworkers, or my enemies do?”

What is mine to do?

When you ask that question, answer, and execute, you become a combatant. You become dangerous. Dangerous to the soft, passive, domesticated version of yourself that wants comfort more than meaning.

There is a time to wait. But that time has passed.

Now is the time for war.

You just need to be willing to fight. Willing to train, to sacrifice, to lead, to be uncomfortable, to take a step into the unknown, the fog of war.

Become a combatant for what is good, true, necessary, and yours to defend. Your health. Your family. Your standards. Your purpose. Your people. Your soul.

Life is war because everything worth having and keeping has to be won and defended.

Until next week, Charlie Mike!

John - Your arms dealer for the war of life

Life is War

Thu, 16 Jul 2026 10:00:24 GMT

Life Is War

I have said this before, and I will keep saying it because I believe it is one of the most useful ways to understand the human condition:

“Life is warfare and a journey far from home,” Marcus Aurelius

Not because it must necessarily be violent. And not because every disagreement should be viewed as combat.

But because life is full of friction, uncertainty, chaos, competing wills, limited resources, bad information, changing conditions, and consequences.

That is war.

Clausewitz famously wrote that, “Everything in war is very simple, but the simplest thing is difficult.” That might be the best description of life there is.

The things that most of us want: Lose weight, get jacked, make money, save money, write the book, fix the marriage, become a better parent, lead the team, start the business, and achieve personal and professional goals.

They are all simple, but these simple things are difficult. The problem is not that you don’t know what to do. Most of the time, you know exactly what to do. The problem is that everything gets hard when friction shows up.

That’s where the war begins.

“Life is a battleground. It always has been, and always will be; and if it were not so, existence would come to an end.” C.G. Jung.

Most people misunderstand this. They think the war is out there. Against an easily identifiable enemy: Your boss, spouse, the economy, a political party, the stock market or job market, maybe even the supermarket, the algorithm. The idiots on the road.

Those things are real. (Especially the idiots. They’re everywhere.) But they are not the main enemy.

The real war is internal.

It is the war between the person you are and the person you are trying to become. Between what you want right now and what you claim to want most. Between your comfort and your calling. Between excuse and execution.

Marcus Aurelius wrote, “You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”

"To be a man is to be a fighter." — Ralph Waldo Emerson

That is the foundation of Walking Point.

You don’t control the terrain, the weather, or the enemy. You do not control when and where the enemy will attack.

But you control your next tactical action. You control your response. You control the standard you hold yourself to.

You control whether you quit, whine, negotiate with the terrorists that hold you hostage, or get back on azimuth and Charlie Mike.

"Life is not a bed of roses, it is a battlefield." — Charles de Gaulle

That is why I keep returning to the language of war, campaigning, and leadership. Not because I think you should militarize your life, but because the military has spent thousands of years solving the same problem every serious person faces:

How do you move toward an objective through uncertainty, fear, resistance, limited resources, and imperfect information?

"Life is a great and wondrous battle, and the first duty of every man is to fight it." — Nikos Kazantzakis

The answer begins with strategic clarity.

What hill are you taking?
What does victory look like?
Who are you becoming?
What are you willing to fight for?

If you cannot answer those questions, someone else will answer them for you. And if someone else answers for you, they are in charge, and you are not Walking Point.

Strategy is choosing, prioritizing, and accepting that if you fight everywhere, you win nowhere.

Sun Tzu wrote, “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”

“We are at war. It’s a war for our minds, our hearts, and our souls.” — Napoleon Bonaparte

That is the constant state of conflict most people live in.

Some people are all strategy. They dream, journal, plan, and talk a great game. They have maps on the wall but no patrols in the field.

Others are all tactics. They grind every day, but without direction. They are busy and tired, but they are not taking the ground that matters.

You need both.

Think like a general. Fight like a sergeant.

“Life is war. That’s not all it is. But it is always that” -John Piper

The general asks: “What is the strategic aim? ” The sergeant asks: “What do we do right now?”

This is why I talk about the three levels of warfare: strategic, operational, and tactical.

The operational bridges the two. It is the art of Campaigning.

The Strategic is the long view that answers the question, “What does victory look like?”

The Operational turns the mission into forward movement. It asks, “What must be true 90 or 180 days from now?”

The Tactical is today. The fight in front of you. It asks, “What do I do right now when it is hard, boring, or inconvenient?”

Most failure is not a failure of desire. It is a failure of translation.

People fail to translate their strategic aim into operational objectives, and they fail to translate those objectives into daily tactical actions.

“I want to get in shape,” “I want to write a book,” or “I want to be a better leader” isn’t a plan. Those are wishes.

An order is different. It is clear. It has a mission, intent, execution, amin & logistics, command & signal.

Who is responsible? (You) What is the standard? What happens when friction shows up? How will you know if you are winning? It must be executable because wars are won in the execution.

Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery wrote, “It is essential to relate what is strategically desirable to what is tactically possible with the forces at your disposal.”

That is a sad truth. A lot of people fail because they pick objectives they cannot currently seize. Others fail because they pick objectives too small to matter.

The art is choosing hard but smart. Hard enough to force growth. Smart enough to support the strategic aim. Achievable enough to execute with the force you can generate on a bad Monday morning.

It has to exist in the thin zone between comfort and panic. That’s where real growth occurs.

This is campaigning. A series of related operations aimed at an objective over time, across terrain, under constraints.

That is how you build a life worth living. By taking ground, consolidating, learning, adjusting, and continuing the advance.

You win by making your standards sacrosanct and your systems stronger than your moods.

If you’ve read my book, Tough Rugged Bastards, thank you for helping make it a bestseller. I would appreciate it if you would leave an honest review on Amazon. Thanks

You win by preparing for the enemy’s most probable course of action. And in the war of life, the enemy is almost always you:

Your impatience. Your ego. Your appetite. Your laziness. Your need for approval. Your fear of looking foolish. Your addiction to comfort. Your habit of starting over rather than sticking to the plan.

The Stoics understood this. Epictetus taught that some things are up to us and some things are not.

The amateur spends his life angry at what he cannot control. The professional identifies what he can control, issues the order, and executes.

You don’t get to choose the war. But you do have to fight.

So, stop waiting for perfect clarity. Stop waiting for motivation. Stop waiting for the conditions to improve. Stop waiting for someone else to give you permission.

Plan, Execute, AAR, Repeat.

Life is war. There will always be friction, uncertainty, and chaos. Execute anyway.

Today’s tactic: Write one sentence that defines victory for the next 90 days. Then write the order. Situation, Mission, Execution, Admin & Logistics, Command & Signal.

Keep it simple enough to follow on a bad day. Because bad days are coming.

And that’s where the war will be won.

Until next week, Charlie Mike!

John - Your arms dealer for the war of life

Making Meaning by Giving Yourself a Mission

Thu, 09 Jul 2026 10:02:09 GMT

Last week, we finished talking about BAMCIS, and today, I want to take a slight detour in fighting the war of life.

Actually, it isn’t a detour, just a quick side-mission that may not affect everyone who reads this, but I think it’s important.

A few weeks ago, I went to a veteran’s rucking event. As it turned out, it wasn’t a rucking event; it was a walking event, and those who chose to could carry a ruck or wear a vest.

I had a good time, and I enjoyed myself. I got to meet some people I otherwise wouldn’t have met. Of each veteran I spoke with, I asked the same question, “Why are you here?” Some were there for the camaraderie, some for the exercise, but as I expected, some were there because their time in the military was the last time they felt a sense of meaning.

Meaning is one of the Lines of Effort (LOEs) I’ve mentioned before. I had previously named this LOE, Purpose, but after reading an article by Frank Martela and Michael Steger in the Journal of Positive Psychology (Yes, I do read things other than field manuals) titled: The three meanings of meaning in life: Distinguishing coherence, purpose, and significance, I realized that I like their distinctions.

As the title implies, they posit that meaning has three components:

Coherence: The idea that events in life happen for a reason. (Without this, life seems random and we are powerless.)

Purpose: The belief that you are alive to do something. (Strategic Aim)

Significance: That your life has value to yourself and others. (That the fight is important, and you are the only one who can fight it.)

While in the military, you could be forgiven for questioning Coherence. But there was never a doubt about Purpose and Significance.

That disappears the moment you take off the uniform.

There are three ways to deal with this loss of meaning.

- Give up. Take the way out that 22 veterans opt for each day. This is cowardly.

- Build an identity around the fact that you once had a life of meaning. Become what I call a professional veteran.

- Make meaning. Assign yourself a mission that builds on the intangible traits you developed in uniform, makes you a better person, and helps improve your home, neighborhood, community, country, or the world.

My problem with the professional veteran is not the Grunt Style t-shirts, the stickers on their pickup, or the stories they tell; it is that they are trying to drive a car by looking in the rear-view mirror.

You can’t move forward while looking to and living in the past, and the harder you try, the more off course you'll get. This reminds me of why I get sad listening to Bruce Springsteen’s Glory Days.

If you’ve read my book, Tough Rugged Bastards, thank you for helping make it a bestseller. I would appreciate it if you would leave an honest review on Amazon. Thanks

Unlike in the military, meaning isn’t often given. It can be searched for and found. Or it can be made.

This, of course, is easy to say but not as easy to accomplish. Because life in the military provides more than meaning, it provides a mission, a tribe, a battle rhythm, three hots and a cot, and a belief system.

Retirement or the end of service strips these things away and forces us to confront, maybe for the first time, the real-life questions of “Who am I?”, “What do I believe?”, “What do I stand for and against?”, and “What will my life be about?”

These aren’t easy questions to answer. Plato called man “a being in search of meaning.”

One interesting finding in the journal article is that Martela and Steger found no difference between having meaning and seeking it.

The good news is that this means we don’t have to have it all figured out.

We just have to keep looking.

“One can look deeply for meaning, or one can invent it.” — Anne Michaels

Until next week, Charlie Mike!

John

- Your arms dealer for the war of life

Supervise the Activity

Thu, 02 Jul 2026 10:00:41 GMT

This is the last in a series of posts on using the Six Troop Leading Steps (BAMCIS) in the War of Life.

Get caught up here:

Arrange for Reconnaissance

Make the Reconnaissance

Complete the Planning

Issue the Order

The final step in BAMCIS is: Supervise the Activity

It’s also the step most people skip.

To begin is exciting. Planning is productive. Making the reconnaissance gathers information. Issuing the order feels decisive.

But supervision is boring and hard work.

Supervision is critical to leadership, and it’s impossible to practice self-leadership without it.

In the Marine Corps, we have a saying, you don’t get what you expect, you get what you inspect.

Leaders can’t issue an order and then walk away, hoping it gets accomplished.

A good leader confirms understanding, oversees rehearsals, inspects gear, and enforces standards.

That is what most personal/professional development efforts are missing.

People make a plan, then abandon their responsibility to lead the effort.

The plan won’t supervise itself.

This is true whether you have a nutrition plan, a workout plan, a writing schedule, a plan to grow your business, or a plan to save your marriage.

Anything important requires the commander's attention.

And as we should know by now, that’s you.

This isn’t because you’re weak, but because the war of life is characterized by friction, chaos, and uncertainty.

You will get tired. The week brings unexpected requirements. People will need things from you. The enemy will adapt, and your old habits will start probing the wire looking for a gap.

Supervision is how you keep the perimeter strong.

In Walking Point terms, it’s your daily azimuth check.

Review the mission. Observe the terrain. Evaluate your actions. Review enemy contact.

Then adjust as necessary to support the main effort.

Don’t confuse intensity for discipline.

Intensity is sending out a handful of patrols into enemy territory today.

Discipline is the consistent deployment of a patrol every day. Even when the weather sucks, or you don’t feel like it.

Consistency will always beat out intensity in the long war of life

Supervision means asking hard questions:

Did I do what I said I would do?
Did I meet the standard?
Where did the fog of war appear?
What do I need to adjust?
What am I missing?
Where is the enemy finding a gap in my defense?
What is tomorrow’s priority?

If you’ve read my book, Tough Rugged Bastards, thank you for helping make it a bestseller. I would appreciate it if you would leave an honest review on Amazon. Thanks

Supervision also means inspecting your systems, not just your effort.

If you keep failing at night, inspect your evening routine.

If you keep missing workouts, inspect your bedtime.

If you keep eating garbage, inspect your grocery list.

If you keep losing focus, inspect your phone.

If you keep avoiding the hard task, inspect the first hour of your day.

Amateurs attack symptoms. Leaders inspect systems.

The point of supervision isn’t perfection, it’s correction.

A patrol will get off azimuth from time to time. That doesn’t equal failure. It just means the leader needs to check his compass and correct.

That’s the war of life.

You will get temporarily disoriented. You will make enemy contact. You will miss a workout. You will be lazy, distracted, and tired.

It isn’t whether you occasionally get off course

It’s whether you have a supervision process that gets you back on azimuth.

This is why the AAR matters.

What was supposed to happen?
What actually happened?
Why was there a difference?
What will I sustain?
What will I improve?

Supervision closes the loop. And then, like every good process, it sends you back to the beginning.

You supervise the activity, learn from the activity, and begin planning again.

That is getting better at getting better.

A repeated cycle of mission, movement, feedback, and adjustment.

BAMCIS is not just a troop leading procedure.

It is a way to lead yourself through uncertainty.

Begin planning.
Arrange for reconnaissance.
Make the reconnaissance.
Complete the planning.
Issue the order.
Supervise.

Then do it again.

That is how you start Walking Point.

Today’s Tactic:
Your plan doesn’t fail when friction appears. It fails when you stop supervising. Check your azimuth daily. Correct. Continue the mission (or as we say, Charlie Mike).

Until next week, Charlie Mike!

John

- Your arms dealer for the war of life

Issue the Order

Thu, 25 Jun 2026 10:02:04 GMT

This is the sixth in a series of posts on using the Six Troop Leading Steps (BAMCIS) in the War of Life.

Get caught up here:

Arrange for Reconnaissance

Make the Reconnaissance

Complete the Planning

The penultimate step in BAMCIS is: Issue the Order.

In the Marine Corps, this means the leader communicates the plan to the unit, often standing around a map or a terrain model.

In professional and personal development, it means you communicate the plan clearly enough to execute it.

That sounds simple, but as our buddy Carl von Clausewitz said, “Everything in war is very simple, but the simplest thing is difficult.”[1].

Quite often, people’s plans are just vague intentions floating around in their heads.

“I need to get serious.”

“I should start training again.”

“I’m going to eat better.”

“I need to write more.”

“I want to be more disciplined.”

That's not an order. It’s a wish.

An order is clear. It provides the mission, the situation, the plan for execution, the required administrative and logistical support, and the command and signal. (Who is in charge-You, and how you will track progress towards mission accomplishment)

It removes ambiguity, and ambiguity is where friction and chaos live.

If your order is vague, you can negotiate with yourself.

If “work out more” was your order, skipping today isn’t failure because, more than what?

If “eat better” is your order, almost anything can be justified.

If “write more” is the order, you can think about writing and call it progress.

This is why you need to issue the order to yourself.

Preferably on paper in plain language.

Here is the mission. Here is why it matters. Here is what I will do. Here is when I will do it. Here is the standard. Here is what I will do when the enemy shows up. Here is how I will measure and report progress.

For example:

Mission: I will lose 20 pounds in 6 months to improve my health, energy, and physical readiness.

Execution: I will train six days per week, eat the same simple meals Monday through Friday, walk after dinner, and weigh in every morning.

Standard: No missed training without rescheduling. No chow after dinner. Weekly AAR every Sunday. The minimum acceptable standard is 5 sets of bodyweight exercises, even if they are done on the side of the road or in the airport.

Enemy Most Probable Course of Action: Fatigue, evening hunger, travel, social pressure, and rationalization.

Immediate Action Drill: If I miss a session, I train the next morning. If I overeat, I return to the plan at the next meal.

Or:

Mission: I will become a more consistent writer by publishing one essay every week for twelve weeks.

Execution: I will write from 0600 to 0630 Monday through Friday. I will outline on Monday, draft Tuesday and Wednesday, edit Thursday, and publish Friday.

Standard: One published essay per week. Quality matters, but completion is the standard.

Enemy Most Probable Course of Action: Overediting, self-doubt, distraction, and waiting for inspiration.

Immediate Action Drill: If I am stuck, I write a bad paragraph and keep moving.

The point is not to turn life into military school; it is to make your commitments executable.

Your future self isn’t helped by your ambition.

Your future self needs clear instructions and accountability.

If you can’t explain your plan, you don’t have a plan.

If you can’t state your standard, you don’t have a standard.

If you haven’t identified the enemy’s most probable course of action, you will run into the same ambush again and again.

Issue the order. Then execute.

Today’s tactic:
Turn one goal into a written order. Mission, Plan for Execution, Enemy MPCOA, and Immediate Action Drills. If it’s not simple enough to follow on a bad day, it’s not simple enough.

John - Your arms dealer for the war of life

If you’ve read my book, Tough Rugged Bastards, thank you for helping make it a bestseller. I would appreciate it if you would leave an honest review on Amazon. Thanks

Complete the Planning

John Dailey — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 10:02:02 GMT

This is the fifth in a series of posts on using the Six Troop Leading Steps (BAMCIS) in the War of Life.

Get caught up here:

Arrange for Reconnaissance

Make the Reconnaissance

The next step in BAMCIS is: Complete the Planning.

This is where you take the mission, the assumptions you needed to make to continue planning, the ground truth discovered during your reconnaissance, the available resources, the constraints (things you must do), restraints (things you must not do), your commander’s intent, and then turn all of it into a course of action that can actually be executed.

This is where many personal & professional development efforts flounder.

Not necessarily because you lack desire or discipline, but because your plan sucks.

It assumes that your reservoir of time, energy, attention, discipline, and support will be unlimited.

Spoiler Alert: It will not.

During planning, we need to build our Course of Action (COA) for the person that we are in order to become the person we want to be.

We can’t build a plan that depends on the person we want to become to execute.

He doesn’t exist yet.

Build a plan for who you are, aimed at who you are becoming.

That is the art of Campaigning.

A good COA should absolutely stretch you, but it has to meet five criteria:

Feasible: Accomplishes the mission within available time, space, and resources.
Acceptable: The potential mission benefits are worth the cost in casualties, time, and resources.
Suitable: Accomplishes the task and directly aligns with the commander’s (your) intent and purpose.
Distinguishable: The COAs you develop need to differ enough to provide you with options.
Complete: Fully addresses all tasks, from initial maneuver and fires to logistical support and casualty evacuation. Reference

If your recon shows that you currently train twice a week, do not build a plan that requires seven intense sessions right away.

If your schedule is packed, do not pretend you have two free hours every morning.

If you always make poor food choices when you are tired, do not rely on your willpower at 8:30 p.m.

If you are trying to write, do not make a plan that depends on the muses visiting you.

In Walking Point terms, this is where you align your strategic aim, operational objectives, and tactical actions.

The strategic aim is the big direction.

“I want to become hard to kill.”
“I want to become a more present father.”
“I want to grow my business.”
“I want to become the kind of person who keeps promises to himself.”

The operational objectives are the intermediate wins.

Lose ten pounds.
Publish every week for three months.
Have one phone-free family dinner every night.
Book three new clients.
Run a sub-25-minute 5K.
Pay off a credit card.
Read twelve serious books this year.

The tactical actions are what happen today.

Train at 0630.
Prepare tomorrow’s food tonight.
Write for thirty minutes before checking email.
Call 10 clients.
Put the phone in another room.
Walk after dinner.
Go to bed at 2130.

A completed campaign plan connects all three.

If your daily actions don’t support your operational objectives, you’re lost.

If your operational objectives do not support your strategic aim, you are performing random acts of self-improvement.

If your strategic aim is vague, your tactics will amount to your wasting ammo on alligators nearest the boat.

Complete your COA by making it specific.

What will you do?
When will you do it?
Where will you do it?
What standard must be met?
What is the minimum acceptable action?
What will you do when friction appears?
How will you know if the plan is working?

That last question matters.

A plan without a task, conditions, and a standard relies on hope. And we have a saying in the Marines, “Hope is not a Course of Action.”

Build checkpoints along your route.

Execute a daily azimuth check.
Execute a weekly AAR.
Execute a monthly campaign plan review by asking:

What happened?
What was supposed to happen?
What explains the gap?
What will I sustain, improve, add, or stop?

This is self-leadership.

A Marine leader completes the plan so the unit can execute with confidence. You complete your plan, so your future self isn’t forced to improvise every decision under stress.

The plan won’t eliminate the hardship, but it will reduce unnecessary confusion in the fog of war.

And confusion wastes energy, ammo, and kills momentum.

Complete the plan because once the fight starts, you will not rise to the occasion; you will default to your level of planning, training, and preparation.

Today’s Tactic:
Develop your COAs and select the one that most effectively moves you towards your next operational objective.

If today’s actions don’t serve the mission, change the action tomorrow, or admit defeat.

John - Your arms dealer for the war of life

If you’ve read my book, Tough Rugged Bastards, thank you for helping make it a bestseller. I would appreciate it if you would leave an honest review on Amazon. Thanks

Make the Reconnaissance

John Dailey — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 10:01:03 GMT

This is the fourth in a series of posts on using the Six Troop Leading Steps (BAMCIS) in the War of Life.

Get caught up here:

Arrange for Reconnaissance

The next step in BAMCIS is: Make the Reconnaissance.

This is where you leave friendly lines, stop staring at the map, and see what the terrain actually looks like.

The map matters. But the map is not the terrain.

Your plan matters. But your plan is not reality.

Your opinion of yourself matters less than the evidence of your behavior.

This is where professional and personal development become uncomfortable.

Conducting reconnaissance means collecting the ground truth.

Not the truth you want. The truth that is.

Most people don’t need a better plan at first. They need a better grasp of reality.

They think they are “pretty active,” but their step count says otherwise.

They think they “eat pretty clean,” but a food log would tell a different story.

They think they “work hard,” but a calendar recon would show hours lost to distraction.

They think they are “present” with their family, but their phone use suggests they are physically home yet mentally absent.

They think they are “just too busy,” but the truth is, they haven’t been willing to make hard choices.

Your reconnaissance will discover the truth, that’s why most people avoid it.

On recon patrols, I have discovered that the route I have been sent to survey is impassable, that a bridge is out, or that the objective is more heavily defended that intell suggested it would be.

That can feel like bad news, but bad news discovered early is a gift.

Bad news discovered too late equals mission failure.

In the war of life, making the reconnaissance might look like stepping on the scale every morning for two weeks.

Or tracking every dollar you spend.

Or asking your spouse, “What am I like to live with?”

It may look like recording yourself speaking and watching the video.

Or timing your run and tracking your heart rate, rather than guessing at your fitness.

It may look like asking your team for anonymous feedback.

It may look like tracking how many hours you actually spend on the thing you claim matters most.

That is making the reconnaissance.

Most often, it will tell you something you don’t want to know. That's probably why you haven’t asked the question lately.

The 4th rule in Maj Robert Rodgers 28 Rules of Ranging tells us:

4. Tell the truth about what you see and do. There is an army depending on us for correct information. You can lie all you please when you tell other folks about the Rangers, but don't never lie to a Ranger or officer.

In our case, it is our lives, sucess, or happiness that depends on accurate reporting, no matter how uncomfortable the truth may be.

Don’t deny the information you gather.
Don’t try to explain it away.
Don’t make excuses.

Just observe and report.

Finding out that “You are here” on the map is not a condemnation. It is a point of information to use during planning.

Until you know where you are and what the terrain looks like, every point of the compass is equally useless.

Once you know where you are, you can plan. When you plan, you can move.

This is where Walking Point requires the third C of Courage.

Achieving the first C, Clarity, is not always pleasant. Sometimes, finding your location on the map reveals how far off course you are.

But it beats being lost.

Now you know. And as G.I. Joe says, “Knowing is half the battle.”

This week’s tactic:
Pick one area and ‘Make the Reconnaissance’. Gather hard evidence for seven days. The truth is not your enemy. The truth is your position.

John - Your arms dealer for the war of life

Get better at getting better

If you’ve read my book, Tough Rugged Bastards, thank you for helping make it a bestseller. I would appreciate it if you would leave an honest review on Amazon. Thanks

Arrange for Reconnaissance

John Dailey — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 10:01:16 GMT

This is the third in a series of posts on using the Six Troop Leading Steps (BAMCIS) in the War of Life.

Get caught up here:

The next step in BAMCIS is: Arrange for Reconnaissance.

This is where the leader decides what questions must be answered and what information he needs before launching the mission.

As a recon team leader, when I was tasked with gathering intel and collecting information requirements for a commander, I started arranging for reconnaissance by ensuring I was clear on exactly what information was needed.

This might include the viability of a beach landing site, the trafficability of roads and bridges, the enemy's location, strength, and disposition, or guard routines and breach points on a building housing a hostage or high-value target.

It can be easy to get cocky and assume that you know it all. Chances are very good that you don’t.

I would start with a thorough study of a map or satellite image to become as familiar with the problem as possible. If available, I would talk to other teams who had been in the area to gather any information they might have.

Some people skip reconnaissance because they are arrogant. They assume they already understand the problem and mistake confidence for competence.

Others skip reconnaissance out of fear. They do not want to see the truth. They would rather preserve the image in their head than confront the facts on the ground.

Both errors are dangerous.

In the War of Life, arranging for reconnaissance means identifying what information you need before you build the final plan.

If your mission is fitness, you may need to know:

What is my true body weight?
What is my waist measurement?
How many calories am I really eating?
What is my current training capacity?
What workout schedule can I keep?

If your mission is pro dev, you may need to know:

What skills does the next level require?
Who is already doing what I want to do?
Where am I weak?
What am I avoiding because I am not good at it?

If your mission is spiritual or relational, you may need to know:

Where am I out of alignment?
What patterns keep repeating?
Who do I need to ask for honest feedback?
What conversations have I been postponing?
What am I pretending not to know?

Arranging for reconnaissance is not an excuse for stalling.

Eternal preparation is a form of avoidance.

You can read a hundred books on nutrition and still not track what you eat.
You can watch leadership videos all day and not implement anything you learned.
You can study writing and still not write.
You can listen to podcasts about discipline and refuse to get out of bed in the morning.

You will never have answers to all of your questions before you step off. You just need to identify the things that matter most to mission success.

Your reconnaissance plan should help answer:

What do I need to know?
Where can I find that information?
Who will tell me the truth?
How long before I step off? What is my NLT (No Later Than) time to complete my reconnaissance?

That last question keeps your reconnaissance from turning into planning paralysis.

Arrange the reconnaissance, then go conduct it.

Confirm or deny your planning assumptions, gather the critical information to move forward, and always remember that a good plan, well-rehearsed and violently executed today, is better than a perfect plan next week.

If you want to get better at getting better, you need get eyes on the objective.

Today’s Tactic:
Identify three information requirements about the terrain beyond friendly lines and set a deadline for gathering that information.

Get better at getting better

John - Your arms dealer for the war of life

What is something you have been avoiding gathering information about because you are afraid of the answer?

If you’ve read my book, Tough Rugged Bastards, thank you for helping make it a bestseller. I would appreciate it if you would leave an honest review on Amazon. Thanks

Begin the Planning

John Dailey — Thu, 28 May 2026 10:01:19 GMT

This is the second in a series of posts on using the Six Troop Leading Steps (BAMCIS) in the War of Life.

Get caught up here: Lead Yourself First

The first step in BAMCIS is: Begin the Planning.

It seems simple, but a lot of people never get to this step because they want to wait until they have all the information they need and until the conditions are perfect.

Spoiler alert: You will never have all of the information, nor will the conditions ever be perfect.

In my 7-C Framework, Clarity does come before Commitment, but I am not arguing for perfect clarity, rather clarity of mission.

Where on the map do you want to move to?

There will still be many unknowns (both known and unknown).

Solving for those unknowns and preparing for the future unknowns that will undoubtedly arise from the fog of war is a task, but not one for right now.

If you wait for complete clarity, you will never move.

In the Marine Corps, when you receive a mission, you begin planning immediately. You do not know everything.

You likely begin with a mission statement that answers at least some of the 5 W’s

Who, What, Where, When, Why, and whether your mission is the main or a supporting effort

2nd Squad establishes an ambush in the vicinity of grid 11ST 554967 no later than 2000 28 May 26, in order to disrupt reinforcements from the west. 1st Squad is the main effort; you are in support.

This is one of the most important lessons in the War of Life

You do not need perfect clarity to begin; you need enough to move.

Don't confuse uncertainty with inability.

Begin the planning.

If your mission is to lose weight, begin the planning.

If your mission is to rebuild your fitness, begin the planning.

If your mission is to start or grow your business, begin the planning.

If your mission is to become a better spouse, parent, writer, leader, speaker, or friend, begin the planning.

If your mission is to stop wasting your life and start Walking Point, begin the planning.

To Begin the planning is to stop treating what you want as a wish, and start treating it as an operational problem.

What is my mission? What do I know, and what do I need to know?

What does success look like?

What is my timeline?

What resources do I have? What do I need?

What constraints are already obvious?

What are my likely obstacles?

What is the enemy’s most probable course of action? EMPCOA

(You are the enemy. How will you try to sabotage yourself?)

If you are beginning a campaign of self-improvement, you need to be honest about the enemy. And when you set out to gather intelligence, the best predictor of future actions is past actions.

If you always quit after two weeks, that’s intelligence.

If you eat well until 8 p.m. and then clear out the pantry, or if you spend Sunday prepping, then quit by Wednesday, that’s intelligence.

Begin planning with what you already know. Build your situational awareness as you go.

When you know your mission and the obvious friction points, build a rough initial plan.

For example:

“I will lose twenty pounds in six months by eating the same simple meals most days, training six days per week, walking after dinner, and weighing myself every morning.”

That is not 100%. But it is enough to begin.

“I will become a better writer by publishing one post every week, writing every morning for thirty minutes, and keeping a notebook with a list of ideas.”

There will still be uncertainty. But at least you are oriented.

Winning the War of Life does not begin when you feel ready. It begins when you identify your mission and start fighting.

Today’s tactic:
Write your mission statement in one sentence: Who, What, When, Where, Why. Then identify three known obstacles. That is enough to begin the planning.

Get better at getting better

John

- Your arms dealer for the war of life

If you’ve read my book, Tough Rugged Bastards, thank you for helping make it a bestseller. I would appreciate it if you would leave an honest review on Amazon. Thanks

Lead Yourself First

John Dailey — Thu, 21 May 2026 10:01:34 GMT

The folks at Black Rifle Coffee recently made a little mini-documentary about me. If you get the chance, check it out:

As a young Marine, one of the first acronyms we were required to learn was the Six Troop Leading Steps, BAMCIS.

Begin planning.
Arrange for reconnaissance.
Make reconnaissance.
Complete the plan.
Issue the order.
Supervise.

It’s simple and not terribly exciting. I remember being underwhelmed the first time our drill instructor wrote them on the chalkboard.

But it works whether leading Marines into combat or leading yourself in the War of Life.

Most people don’t fail because they lack desire. They fail because they lack a process.

They want to get in shape, or write a book, or start a business, or they want to become the person they keep promising themselves they will be.

But wanting doesn’t work and hope isn’t a course of action.

That is where BAMCIS comes in.

In the Marine Corps, BAMCIS helps leaders move from receiving a mission to executing it. It helps the leader (you) create order from chaos, and provides a way to think, decide, execute, and adjust.

That is exactly what you need to do to win the next battle in the War of Life.

Life, like war, is made up of and impacted by terrain and weather. There’s friction, fatigue, and competing priorities. There is the enemy, both external and internal.

You have limited resources, distractions, and your plan, no matter how solid you think it is, will start to fail as soon as it meets the reality of the battlefield.

And when that happens, positive thinking won’t save you. You need a process.

Over the next six weeks, we will walk through BAMCIS as a personal leadership framework.

Begin Planning Giving yourself a mission and beginning to execute before you have everything figured out.

Arrange for Reconnaissance Identifying what you need to learn before you commit fully.

Make Reconnaissance is where you get eyes on the terrain and answer the questions you need to move forward, knowing that you will never have perfect information.

Complete the Plan is turning what you’ve learned into a workable course of action.

Issue the Order is where you make the plan complete enough to execute.

Supervise is where you execute, adjust, and reattack as needed until the mission is accomplished.

This isn’t a rigid framework that allows you to control everything, it is a process that helps you lead yourself through what you can’t control.

Walking Point begins when you accept responsibility for leading yourself.

Someone has to step forward, read the map, find the route, and keep the patrol from wandering into an ambush.

In your own life, that someone is you.

You’re the general, the sergeant, the point man, the leader, and the led.

That sucks, but it is also good news.

Because if you accept leadership, you can win.

BAMCIS gives you a way to start.

Not perfectly, but with violent precision

And violent precision wins every time.

Get better at getting better

John

- Your arms dealer for the war of life

If you’ve read my book, Tough Rugged Bastards, thank you for helping make it a bestseller. I would appreciate it if you would leave an honest review on Amazon. Thanks

The Commander's Update Brief

John Dailey — Thu, 14 May 2026 10:01:54 GMT

Over the past few weeks, we have been talking about Lines of Effort, or LOEs, as a way of organizing action toward an objective when the path is not as simple as seizing one piece of terrain.

Sometimes the mission isn’t just “take that hill.”

Sometimes it is more complex.

Build trust with the local population
Disrupt the enemy network
Train the partner force
Protect critical infrastructure
Gather intelligence
Maintain freedom of movement

Each effort matters, and each supports the overall mission. But they don’t all require the same amount of attention every day.

In the War of Life, our LOEs are the things that matter most.

Body
Mind
Spirit
Meaning
Relationships
Responsibilities

These things are the terrain and targets of our lives.

If one collapses, the whole campaign gets harder.

You can be physically strong and mentally undisciplined. You can be intellectually sharp and spiritually empty. You can be successful at work and failing at home. You can be responsible to everyone else but neglect the mission you were actually built to accomplish.

This is why we need a daily azimuth check.

It doesn’t have to be complicated. It is simply stopping long enough to ask, “Am I still moving in the right direction?”

Every morning, you need to conduct a Commander’s Update Brief or CUB (you’re the commander)

Start by reviewing your mission

What are you fighting to become?
What objective are you moving toward?
What kind of man or woman are you committed to being when things get hard?

Then determine your LOE priority.

Some days, the Body is the main effort. You need to train, sleep, and eat intentionally.

Some days, the Mind is the main effort. You need to read, think, study, plan, or solve the problem you’ve been avoiding.

Some days, the Spirit needs attention by reconnecting with your beliefs and sources of courage, humility, gratitude, and endurance.

Some days, Meaning is the fight. You need to remember why you are doing all this in the first place.

Some days, Relationships are your decisive point. Your spouse, children, friends, or teammates need you to be at your best.

Some days, Responsibilities are the main effort. Pay the bills, finish the job, keep your word.

You can’t fight every fight equally every day.

The point is to know what matters, know what is most important today, and execute deliberately and aggressively.

Get better at getting better

John

- Your arms dealer for the war of life

If you’ve read my book, Tough Rugged Bastards, thank you for helping make it a bestseller. I would appreciate it if you would leave an honest review on Amazon. Thanks

Hitting Two Targets With One Round

John Dailey — Thu, 07 May 2026 10:03:03 GMT

Last week, I continued the analogy of the carnival horse race and discussed how, in the War of Life, we are responsible for moving all our horses (Lines of Effort) forward according to their priority.

It is easy to waste time and energy bouncing from target to target if we don’t have a solid plan.

The plan starts by identifying your LOEs and the tasks that make up each one.

I go with Body, Mind, Spirit, Meaning, Relationships, Responsibilities.

Then bounce this off the time reconnaissance we completed a few weeks ago.

You are looking for places you are devoting time to that aren’t moving an LOE forward.

If you are shooting at targets that don’t need to be shot, stop.

And although there has been a lot of ink spilled about multitasking, the people who study this will tell you that we most often task-switch. Bouncing from one task to another wastes ammo (Time, Energy, and Focus)

There is an exception to the multi-tasking dilemma. We can multitask when one task does not require our full energy or focus. We can complete this task while performing one that requires a low-moderate level of energy or focus.

To understand this, we must cover the four stages of learning, and the best way to do this is through a quick story.

As a young kid, I really wanted to drive our Ford Maverick. I watched my dad intently and felt sure that I had the requisite skills to drive.

I was in the first stage of learning- Unconscious Incompetence. I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

One day, my dad came home from work to quickly drop something off before heading out again. He left the car running and the door open. I was five, and this was my chance.

I jumped into the front seat, pulled the stick shift into Neutral, and instantly graduated to the second stage of learning - Conscious Incompetence. I now knew that I didn’t know how to make the car stop, and it was rolling backward towards the main road.

Luckily, Dad caught up with the car, jumped in, and hit the brakes, then me.

Years later, through driver’s ed classes, I learned to drive, but I needed to remain focused on every action. Hands at 10 & 2, constantly checking mirrors, thinking about moving my foot from the gas to the brake when approaching a stop sign. This is the third stage of learning, Conscious Competence. You are competent as long as you are focused.

Now, I drive to work under normal conditions without thinking. This doesn’t mean I am unsafe, but that I have completed so many reps that I have moved the task to the fourth stage, Unconscious Competence.

The loophole is that we can gain ground by allowing a Stage Four task to run on autopilot while we execute a low-stakes Stage Three task.

I find this is most useful in addressing the Relationship and Mind LOEs. When driving or running/rucking, I can make a phone call, train with a friend and get caught up, or listen to a Podcast or a book on tape.

The caveat is that, while driving is a Stage Four task, it can quickly turn into a Stage Three task if I am driving in an unfamiliar area or the weather is bad.

Likewise, I can go for a Long Slow Distance run or ruck and carry on a conversation, but can’t do the same if I’m trying to do sprint intervals.

The goal of identifying our LOEs is to ensure we are not wasting ammo by shooting wildly at nothing and that our Blood & Treasure is spent advancing our Campaign Plan.

LOEs are the foundation of developing your strategic aim.

Identify what’s most important to you

Identify where you want to be along each LOE

Select one or two that are the priority for the next 90-180 days

Establish an operational objective for each

Plan the tactical actions that will get you there

Ruthlessly attack

Get better at getting better

John

- Your arms dealer for the war of life

If you’ve read my book, Tough Rugged Bastards, thank you for helping make it a bestseller. I would appreciate it if you would leave an honest review on Amazon. Thanks

Don't Split Your Forces

John Dailey — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 10:01:48 GMT

Last week, I introduced the idea of Lines of Effort, which we use to “link multiple tasks and missions using the logic of purpose, cause, and effect—to focus efforts toward establishing operational and strategic conditions.” These are the ‘buckets’ that contain your critical tasks. Mine are: Body, Mind, Spirit, Meaning, Relationships, & Responsibilities. Everything I do should be aimed at advancing one of these LOEs.

The image I used to describe this was the carnival water cannon horse race game. In this game, you are responsible for moving all of your horses (LOEs) by directing your weapon and ammo (time & attention) at each target to advance the LOE based on its current priority.

This image works on several levels. First, we have a finite supply of ammo (time) to direct towards our chosen target.

Second, a common error in the game is to give in to the urge to take one's eyes off the target and look up at the horses to see how we are doing. Regardless of how steady you try to hold the cannon, you can not focus on two things at a time. When we shift the focus to the lag measure (where our horse is), we lose sight of the lead measure (putting water on the target).

Only hitting the bullseye will move the horse forward.

Finally, it teaches us a lesson about multitasking. Most experts will tell you that there is no such thing as multitasking. Instead, we task-switch. We move the water cannon’s stream from one target to another. It is easy to see that we are wasting ammo during each transition and as we settle in on the bullseye.

None of this means that we should engage one LOE to its culminating point before moving on to another, but it does mean that we need to be deliberate in our target selection, focused on putting rounds on target, and conscious of moving all of our LOEs along in a way that keeps our campaign plan on track.

There is an exception to the above that enables us to shoot on two targets at once, but we’ll save that for next week.

Until then, get better at getting better

John

- Your arms dealer for the war of life

If you’ve read my book, Tough Rugged Bastards, thank you for helping make it a bestseller. I would appreciate it if you would leave an honest review on Amazon. Thanks

Lines of Effort

John Dailey — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 10:03:17 GMT

Last week, we talked about doing a time reconnaissance to gather information on how you spend your time, and determine which items require the precision of a sniper rifle, which need the Effective Casualty Radius of a mortar round, and the ones that just need a pistol round to keep the alligators away from the boat.

Armed with this information, we talked about establishing a ‘Battle rhythm’, the deliberate, recurring schedule that helps a unit make the best use of its time, attention, and combat power.

The battle rhythm helps you to “keep the main thing the main thing.”

Next, it’s time to establish your Lines of Effort (LOEs).

In the military, LOEs “link multiple tasks and missions using the logic of purpose—cause and effect—to focus efforts toward establishing operational and strategic conditions.”

LOEs are ‘buckets’ into which we place tasks related to a particular operation.

An example of this might be a village that is under enemy control. One LOE would be eliminating the bad guys, another would be to establish a police force to maintain order, and third might be ensuring ample power and clean water are available. These LOEs would need to be synchronized and reach a certain threshold before work on other LOEs, like reopening schools or hospitals, could begin.

While I try to stick with military analogies, I can’t think of a better way to explain LOEs than the carnival horse race game in the picture below.

To play, you use a water cannon to squirt a stream of water at a small target, which makes your horse move forward toward the finish line.

Each horse represents an LOE, and instead of competing against other players, you are responsible for moving each of them forward incrementally.

How you move the horses is up to you. The goal is not to get them all to the finish line at the same time, but to keep each moving by applying the proper amount of attention to each horse based on its current priority.

At different times in the race, you will need to prioritize one horse as the main effort, while the others play supporting roles.

What you designate as your LOEs is up to you, but mine are:

Body-Sleeping, eating, working out, and general health
Mind-Study, Reading, Mental Health
Spirit- Belief system
Meaning- Coherence, Purpose, and Significance
Relationships-Managing and building
Responsibilities- Everything that I must do to meet them.

The point is to recognize that in this horse race, you’re the jockey, you call the shots.

You establish your priorities. The water in your cannon is time and energy.

More next week

John - Your arms dealer for the war of life

If you’ve read my book, Tough Rugged Bastards, thank you for helping make it a bestseller. I would appreciate it if you would leave an honest review on Amazon. Thanks