| AVALANCHE Climbing a mountain is not a casual undertaking; it’s expensive, dangerous, and the mountain never comes to you, you always have to go to it. You want Everest? You’re looking at $45K assuming you’re already trained and equipped. Would-be “Sir Edmund Hillary’s” invest years lining up the right team, the right time of year, the right passport visas…but even then, one word can bring it all to a halt; that word is AVALANCHE. There’s no shortage of videos online showing the devastation of an avalanche. A filmmaker captured one on Everest in 2015 that killed 22 people and injured over 300. Knowing there was nothing he could do, he let the camera roll as he muttered, “This is how I die!” Surprisingly, he survived, but his face was completely smashed in, he suffered a massive concussion, had several broken bones, and had to hike seven miles to where helicopters could evacuate the survivors off the mountain. Under these circumstances, everyone went into survival mode. This is why it is fitting we had a tactical call while conducting SEAL operations called AVALANCHE. When you heard this on the radio, or from the guy screaming it as he runs by you, this meant one thing – STOP and CATCH-UP to that dude! We invest a lot of time planning our missions and typically have very specific objectives, but none of it’s important if the building you’re in is about to BLOW-UP! Sometimes the landscape changes and regardless of what your goals may be, you need to cut your losses to live to fight another day. Survival mode is all about fight or flight, but instead of relying on ducking down and hoping for the best, here’s some proactive thoughts to keep you from total disaster when the universe has other plans. GO/NO-GO CRITERIA – It’s not enough to have a plan for when things are going right. We need to be prepared for when the train goes off the rails; For when our needs exceed our resources. Go/No-Go is something we use in military operations to help guide our decisions. It’s a pass/fail test to CRITICALLY DETERMINE whether to proceed or to return to base. It’s bouncing our INTENTIONS off our LIMITATIONS, like if we need 4 helicopters to complete the mission but we only have 3, it makes the decision to scrap the mission unquestionable. HAVE AN OUT, AND HAVE ANOTHER – This is about CONTINGENCY PLANNING. When things go wrong what are you going to do? As SEALs, we plan and rehearse primary, secondary and tertiary actions so if something weird happens, we instantly adjust. What’s your plan “B”, “C” and so on? What’s your AVALANCHE? Do you plan an ALL-STOP and RETURN TO BASE, or do you duck down and let HOPE sort it out? THE STANDARD – Yep, this again! We can’t push this enough. Without an anchor of guiding principles, your decisions are crapshoots. Take back control and guide others by having something SPECIFIC and STURDY to rest on. What keeps you HUNGRY, HUMBLE, and CENTERED. What keeps you ACCOUNTABLE? We are all emotional beings and those emotions play on our actions and decisions – Especially during stressful times. Our best defense for this is a solid offense. Use the ideas above and plan an AVALANCHE call into your life so when stress comes-a-knocking, you’re ready for it. In this changing world of uncertainty don’t be trapped by a fixated mindset. Adjust and live to fight another day! Remember, the world needs HITTERS! |
| Quote of the Day “If you see me running, try to keep up! ..” – Bomb Squad |
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