In Brief: Essential Insights for Post-Military Transition
20 Mar 2023 · 6 min
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In this solo episode of the In Brief podcast, Jordana Megonigal, CEO of the Recon Network, shares a personal story about a pivotal life decision and how a mentor’s simple exercise revealed the power of gut reactions. She explains how the military trains intuition for rapid, high‑stakes decisions, yet many veterans lose confidence in that skill after transitioning to civilian life, often mistaking it for a lost ability. Jordana contrasts the military’s trust in intuition with the civilian world’s data‑centric skepticism, arguing that effective decision‑making requires a “trifecta” of intuition, purpose, and data. She illustrates this with a job‑search scenario, showing how intuition can tip the balance when data alone is ambiguous. The episode concludes with a practical challenge: listeners should actively hone their intuition through quiet reflection, self‑trust, and paying attention to subtle emotional cues, reinforcing that the right choice is often already known at a gut level.
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This is In Brief. Let's get to it. Hey there, and welcome back again. I'm Jordana, the CEO of the Recon Network. This is the In Brief podcast, where we talk just for a few minutes each week to give you a different perspective on something you may not have thought of before. Hopefully it makes your transition or your week just a little bit easier. This week we're going to be talking about intuition. So a few years ago, I was in a situation where I was wrestling with a big life decision, 2 totally different directions, and I had to choose. And the closer I got to having to make that choice, the more stressed out I became. Finally, a mentor pulled me aside and asked what was going on. And when I told him, he just kind of nodded. He said, close your eyes. And say out loud what the reality would be if you went with option 1. So I did. And then he said, now say out loud what the reality would be if you went with option 2. I did and immediately felt my face pull into a small cringe. I wasn't the only one who noticed because then he said, looks like you already know what the right choice is for you. It was the first time that anyone had showed me how to focus on a gut reaction as part of my decision-making process. And from that point forward, it has driven how I approach big decisions forever. In the military, there's often a big focus on honing your intuition. Because it involves the ability to quickly and accurately assess a situation and make decisions based on limited information, it's a critical skill for servicemen and women to develop, as it can often be the only differentiator in a life-or-death situation when in high stress or a combat situation. So it's interesting to me that when they transition out of the military, so many veterans abandon recognition of that gut feeling. I see it a lot in the job search where someone doesn't know what job to take or how to assess their most recent interview. They struggle and struggle with a back and forth until they have a chance to really talk it out. In fact, it's one of the major reasons that the Recon Network started doing transition check-in calls. Simply to allow them an opportunity to talk it out and start honing in on a direction forward. But often it just feels like their super honed intuition just got packed up with the rest of the gear in storage. Did they really lose it? No, because I promise you, if you were in a grocery store and some major accident or incident happened, they'd be the first ones to react and move. But because it looks so different outside of service, they've lost the ability to recognize the lesser civilian form of intuition. See, in the civilian world where combat is thankfully rare, intuition is associated more with personal decision-making. It's not typically critical or life-threatening, and it's usually more associated with how something makes you feel emotionally or being able to sense what is right and what is wrong. And instead of the high level of trust that we place on intuition in the military— I mean, after all, if someone says something doesn't feel right, I'm definitely going to take a minute to reassess my situation. But in the civilian world, it carries a lot more skepticism. We feel like we should be making big decisions based on data all the time. And for that reason, many of us, veteran and civilian alike, ignore our gut feelings and how they may be feeding us important information that the data doesn't. Those big decisions don't seem as big when we are approaching them with both what we think about the choices or what data has told us and how we feel about those choices. What our gut has told us. The ideal situation for complex decisions is to bring the trifecta together: intuition, purpose, and data. Let me explain. Imagine you're in the job search and you have 2 choices in front of you. They both have pros and cons. One pays a little bit more, but the other offers more flexibility. One would be hard hours, but in a culture that you love, and the other would allow you to work wherever you want, but the management structure is multi-tiered and rigid. So what do you do? Well, based on data alone, what you know, it would be a hard decision. But now imagine if you had that same data, but you also had a strong intuition backed by a strong sense of purpose and direction. Do you think that decision would be easier, less stressful? I bet you money that it would. Guys, it's time to hone your intuition, not for combat, not for life and death situations, but to get more in touch with a part of you that can help tip the scales the right way when the data isn't there to guide the decision, to help you read others better, and to help you trust yourself more. So here's your challenge this week: start honing your intuition. That may mean you need to take quiet time and get more in touch with who you are outside of all the goings-on in your life. Or it may mean that you need to learn how to listen to and trust yourself more. Understand that your intuition is still valuable. And that you are the least likely person to give yourself untrustworthy feedback. Know what it's like to feel when something is off, even when it's not critical. Pay attention to how you react to possible situations as they arise, and then dig into why. And remember, developing your intuition is a process that will take time and practice. But I promise you, more often than not, You already know what the right choice is for you.
