My Galaxy Experience

Authored by Capt Casey Moninghoff, Galaxy V

10 Mar 2022

You need to know what you want. If you don’t know, that’s fine, but you need to work at knowing what you want. Part of this is self-reflection, and part is exploring as widely as possible and meeting as many interesting people as you can. Once you’ve decided where you want to go, you can plan the steps to get there. There will be many paths, and often the one you end up on is one you didn’t expect. However, there are principles that apply to each path. No matter what you want to do, you have to be interested, you have to care, you have to be genuine, you have to be an optimist, and you have to pursue your goals and not someone else’s. Read that sentence again. That is a lot of “haves”, but it’s a requirement to be a leader. Many people are intimidated by the word leader. Don’t be. Leadership doesn’t know rank. A leader is just someone who is a dealer in hope and leads with their vision. You can lead right now if you wanted to.

This is where professional development enters our story. This is where Galaxy enters our story.

Our perspectives are always limited, but we can widen our aperture. We do this by encountering new people and ideas and maintaining a learner’s mindset. Specifically, this means reading, writing, speaking, traveling, and most importantly, becoming aware of the things we never knew how to see. In other words, finding the “unknown unknown’s.”

Here is what you can expect from Galaxy.

You will read. You will be responsible for participating in a book club and leading book discussions with your peers. Reading is great, especially if you’re reading with the intention of applying the lessons in your life. But reading isn’t a transcendent experience in itself. A transcendent experience is when you read with others, hear their stories, and hear what they’ve experienced in life.

You will write. If reading is action, writing is self-reflection. It forces you to externalize your thoughts. It makes you think more deeply about things. You will write a leadership philosophy, briefings to leaders, book reports, and activity reports. It’s not too much writing. It’s just enough.

You will speak. You will meet a lot of senior leaders, a lot of mentors, a lot of people who have done a significant amount of inner work and made large contributions to society. Further, you get to choose who you want to meet. 4-star General? CEO of your favorite company? Founder of the newest startup? Vice President? Well, why not? You’re only limited by your willingness to try. This is your time to learn. You can come unprepared. Or you can do some research and have a few thoughtful questions ready.

You will travel. East coast, West coast, Europe. You decide. If it’s relevant, if we have mission partners there, if you can learn, then make the case to travel there. You will speak for hours. You will be engaged in each moment and learn how to think on the spot. You will learn from industry, private companies, VC’s, government, and whomever else you decide to engage with.

You will uncover unknown unknowns. When you are thrust into a new job, you are in a position to learn fast and contribute. The lines of effort are only 6 months long, maybe less. You might need to learn software coding, or how joint special operators are so effective, or how NASA keeps inspiring us. The purpose of your line of effort is to learn so that you deliver a product. It doesn’t need to be the next stealth bomber. It can be an iteration upon something that exists. Or it can be something totally new and ready for use in the field. You’re going to apply your “learning how to learn” skillset here. It’s more important to know how to learn that it is to know what you already know.

The quality of our thoughts largely determines the quality of our life. If you want a better life, have better thoughts. When you can write well, articulate your speech, read with understanding, your thoughts get better. A whole lot better. You will become more competent. Competence breeds confidence. Galaxy is seeking those who want to get better, who want to learn, who want to contribute. Galaxy is seeking leaders.