Hey All!

Welcome back to The Journal Prompt ✍️

A newsletter where I share how I’m handling the chaos in my life in hope that it can help you improve things in yours.

Let’s dive in! (8 min read)

Framing Your Reflection 🖼️

Today, I’m sharing a war planning strategy that’s guaranteed to get you unstuck with whatever you are facing.

But first….

Today is Monday February 17th (Eastern time).

Quick question.

Where are you at with your New Year’s Resolution(s)? 👀

Here’s what the stats say (source: perplexity.ai)…

23%

of adults quit their New Year's resolutions by the end of the first week of January.

43%

of adults quit their resolutions by the end of January.

88%

of people who set New Year's resolutions fail them within the first two weeks.

By the end of four months, about 65% of people have given up on their resolutions.

Talk about having the odds stacked against us.

As for myself…..I am on the same boat.

I set a goal to grow an audience on X this year, and I’ll let you take a guess at how consistent I’ve been……..

As you can tell…..I’m crushing it 😬

And the “I don’t have the time” argument falls flat here.

I have 4 kids (19F, 18F, 11M, and 2M) and 3 businesses, but there are other people who have MORE to do, and have far LESS resources than me.

And they make it happen.

So then…..why do we fail so predictably? 🤔

We clearly have the motivation (certainly at the start, and with enough YouTube, we can feed ourselves more lol).

We have the resources.

And we logically “understand what needs to be done”.

So then why is this time the same…..when we were so convinced that this time would be different?

It’s because we think we’ve made a “decision” when in reality, we just stated an intention that had no teeth, no plan, and no ability adjust to changes in our circumstances.

Let me peel back the layers.

I first learned this concept in the Marine Corps.

In combat planning, you are given a mission in a very specific format.

Your Mission

=

Tactical Task

+

In Order To (IOT) Statement

+

Purpose

For example…

1st Platoon will Destroy Enemy at Objective 1

In Order To (IOT)

Enable 2nd Platoon Freedom of Movement to their Support by Fire Position for Objective 2

🤯

When I share this stuff, most people are shocked at how technical things can get when it comes to combat planning.

The Rambo-like attacks with machine guns at the hip you see in the movies are….you guessed it….wrong lol

But there’s actually a pseudo-genius method to the structure of the mission statement.

What the french toast is a “Tactical Task”? 🤷‍♂️

First, the “tactical task” is given.

It’s essentially a word that means a very specific thing.

In the above example, the tactical task is “destroy” which means…

“Physically rendering an enemy force combat-ineffective unless reconstituted.”

In movies, words like “destroy”, “defeat”, and “neutralize” are used with dramatic effect to mean the same thing.

Just take a look at how crazy different the combat definitions of these common words are.

Defeat-  To disrupt or nullify the enemy commander's plan and overcome his will to fight, thus making him unwilling or unable to pursue his adopted courses of action and yield to friendly commander’s will.

Neutralize- To render the enemy or his resources ineffective or unusable.

In essence…..words mean things.

But…..

Here’s the counter-intuitive mindset shift that good ole’ Colonel Clark (my first battalion commander) impressed upon all us young lieutenants.

And it goes completely against what most people believe about the mindset of people in the military.

The tactical task itself does NOT matter. Only the purpose that comes after the “IN ORDER TO” statement does.

Our mind must be as fluid and creative as possible precisely because combat brings chaos. 🌪️ 💥

The military needs creators, NOT robots.

Leaders on the ground need to learn how to change the tactic required, based on the circumstances they are encountering, in order to achieve their desired purpose.

I know what you’re thinking…..

“Nice war nerd stuff, Ivan. But what does this mean for ‘everyday’ people?”

Here’s the thing…..life is a battlefield.

If you disagree, life just hasn’t punched you hard enough yet. It’ll come.

We all have our tough seasons where the only thing getting us through the day and moving forward is our Will alone (and coffee ☕).

And the same reason why I have been bad at writing this newsletter and growing on X is probably the same reason you’ve dropped your New Year’s Resolution(s).

I demanded to myself “I’m going to write my newsletter and grow on X”.

But that’s just purpose, not a task.

And therefore, it’s an incomplete mission statement.

What I should have done was set it up like this:

“I am going to block out 3 hours of writing time on Wednesday mornings IN ORDER TO write my newsletter and make X content”.

Notice the difference here.

In this structure, now I HAVE to asses what’s going on in my life to make sure the task can still support the purpose, but it FORCES me to always have a task that serves a purpose.

Now, when life happens and I stay up all of Tuesday night with Liam (2 yo) because he won’t go to sleep….. 🫠

I can adjust to “I’m going to spend 10 min outlining my newsletter and schedule a new writing block later this week IN ORDER TO write my newsletter and make X content”.

The change may seem subtle, but it makes all the difference in the world.

Because now our brains are looking for ways to be creative in fulfilling our IN ORDER TO purpose, instead of focusing on “failing” because our present circumstances poo-pooed💩 on our original plan.

If you’ve fallen off the horse as I have, remember that the horse is still there for you to get back on.

I have studied and implemented this concept for nearly a decade.

And here I am……writing this entry to remind myself to do it, and share with you my failures so that hopefully you can use the lessons to improve your own life.

In the next issues, I’ll be adding some more frameworks and brain science I have found useful in making effective decisions that stick (for the times that I have actually managed to do it lol 👍)

But for now, keep it simple.

Task + Purpose = Progress

✍️ Journal Prompts to Help You Think

What’s the purpose I am trying to achieve? 🤔 

Don’t take your answer at face value.

Ask yourself “why” 3-5 times.

There is nothing worse than getting efficient at doing something that shouldn’t be pursued at all.

Draft a Mission Statement(s) for Your Goal 📝 

Explore using the Task + IOT + Purpose structure to draft a mission statement around whatever goals you have right now.

Think through how you can adjust your “tactical task”, given the circumstances you are facing right now, so you still support your purpose?

🤩 Life Changing Thing I Got

I have terrible back problems (carrying heavy things for a living took its toll lol).

During a recent acupuncture appointment, the doctor (himself a veteran) told me a story of how a woman he was treating was told by her primary doctor that she needed a $37,000 back surgery because her spine was that bad.

He asked her “when is the last time you changed your mattress?”.

Her answer……

“When my late husband passed about 15 years ago”.

He immediately knew the problem. Doc told her to go buy one of those new, memory foam like mattresses and see if that helps.

She was back to normal health in 1 month.

I too made the same leap, and because I run hot, I opted for the Purple mattress. I cannot emphasize enough how life changing it has been.

We spend a third of our life unconscious, laying on our backs. We should probably not cut corners.

You can check out the Purple mattress goodness here. ❤️

🎵 What I’m Listening To

Sometimes I go through entire days and think to myself “What did I get done?”.

Task switching and constant notifications drown my brain in a swamp of noise and failed expectations.

That does-not-happen when I listen to tracks like this one on the YouTube channel called Jason Lewis - Mind Amend.

Dude is a genius.

He makes dope music layered on top of isochronic tones - frequencies that make your brain feel like it just had 3 espresso shots at your favorite Italian coffee shop near the Duomo in Florence. 🧠 ⚡

Put it on while you journal and be amazed by how deeply and clearly you can write.

As we dive deeper into understanding ourselves, let’s remember that we are not alone.

If you want to talk through whatever you’re going through, hit reply to this email - I’m here 🤝

Sending Good Vibes,

Ivan

👉 P.S. You can also connect and message me on X 👈

Useful issue?

Share the link on socials👇

https://www.thejournalprompt.com/p/tactical-task