Jocko Underground: A Tendency to Do Nothing or Remain Unchanged

This is the Jocko Underground podcast number 101, sitting here with Echo Charles. I got a word for you. The word is inertia. In this word, the definition is a tendency to do nothing or remain unchanged. Unchanged in physics. I had to get. The physics. Definition is a property of matter by which it continues in its existing state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, unless that state is changed by external forces.

So this is us.

This is our lives.

If we don't make an effort, if we don't apply force.

We don't change. Our lives will just continue as they are. That's what we're up against. And it's not easy. It takes effort. Because.

Nature doesn't want to change. It just wants to keep going in that same path that it's been going on. Your nature, your nature, Echo Charles. My nature doesn't want to change.

It would rather just kind of conserve energy and just continue doing what it's doing. What we would rather continue doing what we're doing. Just that easy path, let things stay the same. Just keep doing what we're doing. That's what we have to fight against.

Because if we don't take action, if you don't take action, then nothing's gonna change.

And by the way, this is why I use the term default aggressive, because that's what you're up against. So in a combat situation, you've got someone that. There's a. There's a hazard, there's a danger, there's a problem that needs to be dealt with. And get these young SEAL leaders, their attitude is like, they look at the problem, but they just kind of want to keep doing what they're doing. You can see it's interesting to watch. You can see things start to go sideways. Like, you can see things start to go off the rails, off the track, and you got to get over there and get them back on the track. Yeah, but you have to go and make that happen. You can't just. It doesn't happen by itself. So you. You got to be default aggressive. That's got to be your mode. It's like, oh, there's a problem. I'm going to go fix it. I don't like the direction that things are going in. I'm going to go point them in the right direction. Otherwise they're just going to go and they're just going to fall apart. Everything's going to turn into mayhem.

But that's what we have. That's what we're up against. We're up against Our habits. We're up against our routines. We're up against our comfort. Comfort is strong. People don't think. Comfort strong. Comfort's strong. It's got power. It's got force. And think about. You've told stories like this before. I've told stories like this before. Remember, I told the story about, like, I have an rv, and I had the mint chocolate chip ice cream in my rv. Not in my house, but in my rv, and it was too much. I wanted to have some mint chocolate chip ice cream, but the inertia was holding me in the house. It's, like, too much of a pain to go all the way up to the RV, which, by the way, is like 30 yards away. I mean, this is not a far distance. Yeah, but I was gonna have to put my, you know, put my flip flops on. They were over on the other side of the room. Now I'm gonna go up there, open the door, pull down the stairs, like, walk in, like, just that right there.

To get. To get an immediate gratification reward of ice cream. And I was. I didn't do it, dude. I want to talk about the power of inertia and the power of laziness.

Y.

So you're up against that. You're up against your comfort. Your comfort is strong. You're up against the fear of the unknown. Because you think, what if I get off this? You know, this. This comfort that I'm in right now? There's a risk. Any change risked. My comfort that I'm in right now. Any change that I make risks the comfort that I'm in right now. You. Plus, you have a little emotional attachment to what's going on. You're used to it. If you ever known those people, that they go out with some girl or some girl goes out with some guy, they don't even like each other anymore, but they're still going out.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Why is that? Well, they just have an emotional attachment. Not to the person, but just to the situation.

That's what you're up against. Just think about that. A young man or a young woman is staying with some other person that they're sick of. Out of habit, out of comfort, out of emotional attachment to the situation. They're taking themselves off the table for all the other opportunities that are out there because they got that comfort.

So you see some risk in leaving, and you say, no, I'm not gonna leave. I'm gonna keep doing what I've been doing.

You're up against your. Your lack of awareness because Sometimes you don't even see that the path you're on is going in the wrong direction. We can always see it from the outside. You know somebody, you know somebody that's on that path. You're like, what are they doing? They don't see it. So they don't have self awareness to know what's going on. So you're up against that. You're up against the understanding of the situation that you're in. If you don't understand what's going on around you.

You don't get to elevate. You know, this is the classic. When you're a kid and. And someone to tell you, like, you don't want to get mixed up with the wrong crowd. Yeah, right. You don't want to get mixed up with the wrong crowd. Why is that? It's because once you're. And by the way, it's not just, oh, this is the crowd that's over there doing vandalism, or this is the crowd that's over there doing drugs. You could just be in a crowd that just isn't doing anything. Yeah, but your friends, your kids just not doing anything. They don't have any goals. You get caught up in a crowd that's, like, excited about doing stuff and making things happen. You remember that group in school? They were gone. They were. They had a plan.

So you don't even understand that. You don't even have a plan. And you don't see it because everyone around you is in that same zone.

And then you have past experience and you have negative lesson learned because you remember that one time, Echo Charles, where you decided to step out of your comfort zone and you got smacked down. You got rejected from a new job, you got rejected by some girl. You competed, but you lost. You hurt your bicep. Like, all those things happen. She got some negative experience. Every time you stepped outside the comfort zone, you got smashed. People like, oh, go to get outside your comfort zone. People like, oh, the last time I went outside my comfort zone, I got my head ripped off.

I'm not going outside of that thinking. So you have to fight against that. That's all part of inertia.

And all those things are all ganging up on you. They're all trying to stop you.

They're all trying to stop you. And what's weird about inertia? Like, you're walking around today. Echo Charles, you're walking around today.

How many times a day did you think about gravity?

Gravity. Actual gravity?

Yeah.

Zero.

Okay, so you're walking around, you've been awake for 10 hours, 12 hours, whatever. You haven't thought about gravity all day and yet it is the primary force impacting your whole existence right now. You didn't think about it one time.

That's the same thing with inertia. It's just there. It's just there and it's just holding on to you and it's keeping you in the same spot.

And just like it takes force to break gravity. You gotta like jump off the ground. It takes force to break inertia.

And if you don't recognize that, you're not going to make any progress, you're not going to make any change and you're not going to be who you could be.

And who you should be.

So that's what I got.

Yeah, that's like a massive, like wake up call, you know, because, you know, and that's so true about the comfort zone where it's like. Well, even I think it's Jordan Peterson. Yeah, I think it was when he's like the devil, you know, is. Is. I don't know, something. He just is the devil, you know. You know, it's like, it's more, it's less scary than the.

Well, the devil you know is better than the devil you don't know is the common saying.

Oh, okay, okay.

Yeah. And it's kind of true. It feels.

That feels correct. You know, at least I know how to deal with this mentally, emotionally, whatever. I know how to deal with freaking being a slacker. I know how to deal with that. I don't know how to deal with what's the case maybe. But, you know, I don't know what lies on the other side of that other stuff. I don't care how excellent you. You say it might be or whatever. Like, bro, I don't know. That's unfamiliar. It's the unknown. It's a dark room as far as I'm concerned. I'd way rather be in this light room where I can see them coming. You see what I'm saying all the things or whatever. So, yeah, Brad, makes sense.

You know this also.

You've got to know who your enemy is. That's why I'm talking about this. You've got to know if it's like they literally say when they're teaching you about. So that is a little excerpt of what we are doing on the Jocko Underground podcast. So if you want to continue to listen.

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