What about Pride?

When's the last time you had a jolt of reality? "Welcome to the NFL."

For a long time I had a problem with pride. I still do.

Being able to admit our faults is what sets us apart from the rest. But I can't tell you how unbelievably hard it is. Sometimes life comes crashing in and you don't know what hit you.

I spent the past year or so fascinated, obsessed even, with organizational corruption, with the idea of leveraging hard-won safety science for the greater good.

I was so focused on the things I'd seen that were wrong; networks almost artistic in their deviance. I didn't notice how depressed I was. How depressed I had been for decades.

It's amazing what a painful dose of reality and good psychiatric care can do for the soul.

14/10 would recommend.

Pride held me back. "How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life," goes the verse that Steve Reich turned into a thing of beauty.

My internal algorithm was stuck on a low-speed bicycle gear of greyness and negativity. Monotone. The book of my life, in the tradition of Westworld, was less than a page.

I may have two speeds now, but man, I hope I get more down the road!

What about pride in our Air Force, in our military? That's what safety science boils down to: recognizing errors, humbly receiving criticism, making self-aware changes. This is also what is beautiful about the Marine Corps leadership traits and principles: their simplicity.

Honesty.

Pilots lead our offices, units, installations, combatant commands. We are trained in flight safety from the beginning, and reminded of its lessons annually.

But we haven't internalized it. We haven't applied it to our surroundings, to our lives.

As an organization, we often reward the wrong behaviors. Deviance is normalized.

People can change. But sometimes it takes a giant gut punch to start it. As with Bill and Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous, sometimes it takes sheer humility, honesty, and helping others to sustain this positive change.

We can branch out and find new treatment methods, as I did. You would be amazed what this 21st century has to offer.

With Fortify the Force, we have a fighting chance to course-correct. We've been hit hard and that's why we started a change. But to sustain it, we need to help each other.

Maybe we can help others find a spot of sunshine in this cold, dark world.

My old friend and guru, Wayne, sends: "Another nice little dharma tip. In the ancient yoga texts, what is really us, the tiny spiritual spark, the imperishable soul, is described as satcitananda, which is one word made up of three smaller words; Sat=eternal, Cit or Chit =knowledge, Ananda=bliss. Another way of saying this is that the nature of the soul as a spark of individual consciousness is that we are "being", "knowing" & "loving"!

And from the previous definition of dharma as the nature of living beings to render service, it fits that as part of our loving nature we are eager to render service! Does that make sense?" So says my old teacher, someone I pridefully and harmfully cast aside as a child.

Forced by life circumstances, we found our friendship again. "Don't be Evil."

Do you have a chip on your shoulder like me? Does dishonesty really grind your gears?

Do you want to really examine the guts of what ails us, in all their ugliness?

Join us. Join this grassroots effort to make a lasting change. I'll bet you we can make something that branches out beyond just our little Air Force.

We can foster a psychologically safe environment that actively weeds out toxicity, prideful self-dealing, and intellectual dishonesty. We can take those hard-won safety lessons and actually put them to work. We've already paid for them! We can treat our own sickness.

The hard part is this human element. How does a machine fix itself? An intelligent being, to effect change, must add new ingredients from the outside. Change must be sought after!

Help me prove we can make a change.

Real talk here: You don't have to be in the military to help.

Join us as a subject matter expert or a coach. Lend your voice or your expertise.

Add the May 2-3 symposium to your calendars. Maybe even take part in it!

See what we're about! https://www.dhirubhai.net/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6912847388940333058/

The first podcast episode: https://www.facebook.com/FortifyTheForce/videos/521428776046814

Outreach Page:?https://lnkd.in/dtGfxmnN

Outreach Group:?https://lnkd.in/dM7fKiY2

Volunteer: https://bit.ly/35EBYXp

Subject Matter Experts: https://bit.ly/35L0PbZ

#Crimedog out ??