My Monday Rant: Trust, routines, discipline... the things I aspire for

Monday, 08th of July, here we go again.

Ever wondered what makes an army, any army, such an efficient organisation? Well... me too, and unfortunately, I do not have an answer to that. But, from the very little I have seen in movies and reading, trust is at the center of it all. I mean, you go into an enemy territory with the guy you have known for like a year, already into your adulthood, and you can confidently say, "They've got my back!". That. Is. A. Different. Level. Of. Trust!

By the way, congratulations to Sir Lewis Hamilton for his win of the British GP yesterday, 07/07/2024, the first since 2021. What a drive!

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And talking of which, Formula 1... there's a lot of similarities with the military. There is a lot of trust needed on the track to make it through the race! Think of the highest speed you've ever driven in a car, then add around 200KM/H to that. Then think of that speed in an overtake, around 100 meters to a corner. The only way you're able to pull that off is trust; trust in your team, trust in your car, trust in your skills and trust in the driver in the car next to you. There's a lot of rules to follow, there's a lot of exercising as well.

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The rules. As with the military, Formula 1 is highly regulated, there are rules on rules on rules about and on everything. Compliance to the rules is the heartbeat of both! From the movie, A Few Good Men... "... we follow orders, son. We follow orders or people die.". Might not be the best reference though, since the General in this case wasn't exactly the model citizen he portrayed himself to be, as determined in the end. In F1, in the midst of all that high speed driving - the stewards are watching and drivers get punished for breach of any rules. Causing a collision. Forcing another driver off track. False start. Leaving the track and gaining an advantage...just to mention a few! I find soldiers as some of the most disciplined individuals ever and to a very large extent, I believe it is due to that quote from A Few Good Men, about orders.?

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Practice. In the army, I believe they call it drills and in F1, simulation. You got to get in tune, whether it's with your weapon in the army or your car and/or track in F1. Your team as well. One of the things I admire the most about the military discipline, well one that I know of with certainty is the morning routine; taking care of one's uniform, time to wake up, making one's bed and generally, being organised and cautious of time and your surroundings. Soldiers do this so often, they get into automatic mode about it. Just like F1 drivers; they spend hours and hours in the simulator that they become one with the car and the track they race at. I've pointed to F1's efficiency before with the technology and the overall teamwork; to achieve anything close to that, it takes serious amounts of practise and some serious levels of dedication.?

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But then again, the military, Formula 1, if you think about it, it is all about discipline. Trust comes easy with discipline. Patience. Belief. And ultimately, success - quite a subjective ideology, this; whatever the definition.??

As I sign off, I'm thinking of the one thing I wanna master, one I will go military/F1 routine on... I'll figure this out during the week.

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Até proxima semana!