Stay on Offense Climb Mountains

Attacking Adversity

Go Hiking But Don’t Try To Be Jack Reacher

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If Jack Reacher were climbing a mountain my guess is he would be sure he never climbed the same one again. That might be a good philosophy for some, but I am against it.

Going up the same mountain over and over has some real advantages. You get to know the trail well which helps me a lot because I hike in the dark. Then I can pick a mountain that is safe in the snow and not prone to avalanches.

On the Other Hand

However, Jack Reacher walks a lot and doesn’t seem to mind it much. He could certainly handle climbing a mountain. When you are big it is a little more difficult because you are carrying so much weight. A former NFL friend of mine told me each one of his legs weight 100 pounds. So that might be tough on Reacher, but I think he would like the scenery.

Most likely he would find something that didn’t look quite right on the trail and soon and himself involved in some kind of crime. It would probably involve all of the mountains in the area so he would have to climb them. Otherwise I don’t think he would.

A Mountain In Every Book

You could say that solving whatever crime or nefarious plot is kind of like climbing a mountain. Of course there are so many things in life that are like climbing a mountain.

Reacher needs to climb these mental mountains his his stories. Just like real mountains, sometimes they are average size and sometimes they are huge. Sometimes they require no technical ability and sometimes they do. You need to be prepared.

Be Yourself

It is probably best not to try to be a Jack Reacher on a mountain. You will enjoy yourself more if you just be yourself. Don’t try to be like your hero, even if he or she are not Jack Reacher. I really don’t think Jack would be much of a mountain climber.

If you are yourself in life and on mountains you learn from your mistakes and not be trying to figure out why something didn’t work out after you copied exactly what someone else did.

Bookish Weapon Number Fifty-Nine

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Normally I comment on non-fiction books, but I am a true fan of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher books and have read every one of them. They are page turners so I thought I would let you know what you are missing. Are they bookish weapons? Sure, maybe you can get lethal like Reacher.

If I already wrote about the Reacher books (I don’t think I did) that’s ok, because they are so good. The genre is Crime Thriller, but I never paid much attention to that. I thought of them as Spy Novels for a long time.

Story

All of these books including, “The Sentinel” have a story formula that hooks you. Jack Reacher is traveling about the country, stops in a town or an area and promptly gets involved in some nefarious circumstance. Then he uses his skills as a former military police officer to figure out what’s going on.

It isn’t quite like the “hero’s journey” because in the hero’s journey the hero gets thrust into an adventure and has to acquire skills to get through it or at least that is how I understand it. Reacher already has all the skins he needs and then some.

Reacher

One of the things that makes Reacher’s character so appealing is his bigger the life persona. He is (unique Tom Cruise) huge. Very tall with big hands that cover someones face easily. He knows al sorts of fighting moves the allow him to subdue any antagonist easily. If the bad guys are untrained he can usually handle up to five at a time. He always gives them the option of not fighting and tells them they can avoid the hospital.

Jack isn’t just a big neanderthal either. He knows what time it is without looking at a clock and picks up clues easily. I have not read one of his books where he hasn’t solved the mystery or crime.

He travels across the country on a military pension. Never washes his clothes. He buys new ones when they get dirty. Usually he meets a woman and eventually finds himself involved until it is time to move on again.

The Sentinel

As I said, I have read all of Reachers books. One comes out every fall. This one was one of the most recent. I suppose I should say something about it, but it is like all the others except this one he wrote with his son, Andrew Child. It ends almost the same as all the others. He is hitchhiking and someone stops for him and in this case tells him he is going to Nashville. So he has this conversation with himself. Let me quote”

“He had just left Nashville, and he had a rule. Never go back. It rarely ends well. But he had been making a few exceptions recently. They had all worked out ok.”

Go Hiking, Take My Course And Skip the Line

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Actually, that heading should read “Go Hiking Early, Take My Course and Skip The Line.” Early on the trail helps you avoid people. They are in front of you and you don’t want that.

The earlier you get to the trail head, the better. I say at least an hour and a half before sunrise. Then if you add to that the knowledge you gain from taking my hiking course you will be skipping the line, but time.

Take the course by going here: https://bmontgome.mastermind.com/masterminds/25439

Get Ahead and Stay Ahead

In the book Altucher talks about Micro skills. You need Micro skills in hiking too. Like knowing how to tie your shoelaces so they don’t come loose and you end up fast on your face. You can learn about those kinds of things in my course.

James discusses doing lots of experiments which is great when you are considering a business idea, but you don’t want to be experimenting with your body on the trail. You can avoid that by learning what to do from someone who has been doing it for thirty years and is still at at seventy-six.

Hiking Multiplication and Division

In the book, “Skip the Line,” Altucher talks about idea multiplication and division. Here let’s consider hiking multiplication and division. What is hiking multiplication? It is when you have taken my course and are hiking multiple times a month or a week. Division is when you don’t take my course and you are only liking half of what you wanted to.

He does talk about one other thing when it comes to ideas and that is idea sex. I am not going to get into that when discussing hiking, ok?

Bookish Weapon Number Fifty-Seven

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Garrett White is the author of “WarriorBook.” I was introduced to it by enrolling in his challenge, which was very useful for me. Check out Wake Up Warrior online. He focuses on those men who have a business and family. He helps them have it all in Body, Being and Balance. It sure is a bookish weapon!

So what is the WarriorBook all about? First of all it is 512 pages long so I am only going to touch the surface of this monster. It spends a lot of time discussing “The Pit.” The pit is where you are when things are not going so well. He also talks a lot about the Drift and Shift model. Then he discusses “The Core,” “The Keys,” and “The Game.”

The Pit

Garrett says that “At some point you will find yourself in the Pit of Despair playing the Sedation game. Your Liberation will come through your ability to hear and act on the Voice inside of you.” This is a whole chapter discussing boredom and burnout, and Garrett’s own experience in the Pit. He gets pretty real including fights with his wife, divorces and financial problems.

I liked his explanation of “Sedation,” which is using alcohol, drugs or whatever to numb yourself. I thought “sedation” was an excellent term for this.

Men

This is a book for men and about men. Here is a quote from the book that will gibe you an idea about where he is coming from. He is talking about the depolarization of couples and one of his points is “We don’t even know what being a man is anymore because everywhere we turn men are being disappointed, disjointed, and disconnected. They’re being told, “Shut up, go get the money, don’t talk about your feelings, and just so you know, we don’t need you because we are the same.”

So Garrett got things rolling with the Warrior programs. He figured he was the one that needed to do it. To give men a chance to have it all.

Questions

Here are some questions Garrett has you answer that might just help you sort things out a a man:

Is your life working?
What does living mean?
What does it mean for me to ultimately have it all?
What do I want my life to look like?
What do I want as a man?
Are you ready to pay the necessary price?

Body, Being, Balance, Business

One of the things Garrett hits hard is the importance of hitting your four “Core.” These are the above. Body – Fitness plus fuel (diet and exercise), Being – Meditation and Focus, Balance – Partner/Posterity, Business – Discover and Declare.

Then he says ask more questions:
Am I winning? Am I winning the game of life? Is it worth it to play? (Huge question) What are the targets I am searching to hit today, this week, this month, this quarter? How do I know I am winning? How do I simplify my life down to a game of metrics?

This book is available on audio I think. However, a search on Amazon does not turn it up. You might have to take one of his challenges to get it.

Go Hiking And Develop Your Attributes

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Yes, by now if you have been reading these tributes to hiking you know what I m going to say. Hiking will help you develop your attributes.

It doesn’t take much skill to hike. You just need to know how to put one foot in front of another. It is different from climbing or mountaineering in that way. However, it does take some strong attributes. Plus, if you don’t know the BEARS you need to buy my hiking course which will be linked to as soon as it is available.

Discipline

It takes strong discipline to hike a mountain every week. Remember, discipline is different that self- discipline. Discipline means understanding what it takes to achieve your goal (the top of the mountain or doing it every week) and being “steadfast” in executing.

Week after week, month after month you climb a mountain. Not the same mountain but a mountain. You always reach the top. That’s discipline!

Perseverance

As Rich Diviney says in “The Attributes,“ “If courage is the ability to effectively move through fear, challenge, and discomfort, then perseverance is the ability to keep doing it over and over.” Hiking week after week fits that description.

Many times you might not even feel like getting out of bed to go hiking. It is nice and warm in your bed and you would like just a little more sleep. But no, you get up and go. Again and again and again!

Narcissism

This attribute drives us to take risks and get noticed. So it helps us achieve our potential. A good thing, right? Well, it is sort of like Goldilocks and The Three Bears. It has to be just right.
Too much narcissism and you become easily offended. You can’t take criticism and your self-esteem is usually low. People will catch on pretty fast and it will be over for you.

Use it when you go hiking to help you set that big goal. A mountain you haven’t climbed or a climbing record for a certain mountain. In any case go hiking!

Bookish Weapon Number Fifty-Six

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“The Attributes,” by Rich Diviney will teach you a lot about things you thought you already knew. Things that you can use in the fight. There were two examples in the book that took me by surprise. Accountability and Narcissism.

I focus first on these because I found them most interesting. After those I will look at some others.

Accountability

There are twenty-five Attributes in the book, so why start with this one? It is because discovered I was very low in it. I thought I understood what it meant, but then Diviney explained that one of the things that someone who is accountable doesn’t do is be a mediator.

He explains by saying that someone who is a mediator will get an order from the boss and then go tell his subordinates that this is the new order and he doesn’t necessarily agree with it but it is whet the boss wants. That is being a mediator and is bad. You should rather own that order like it was your own.

Narcissism

My first reaction was that you would not want a Narcissist on your team, but I was wrong.

The author points out that everybody has a degree of narcissism in them and a certain amount of it is a good thing. It is only when it gets out of hand that it becomes a negative. You need a decent dose of it to get yourself to take on a challenge. Otherwise you wouldn’t try.

Resilience

The best story in the book is the one about Hank. He lost both his legs in war. When he wakes up in the hospital and realizes he has no legs he says to himself, ”I’m going to be fine. Grab the paper towels.” Apparently his mother had taught him not to cry over spilt milk. He had dropped a bottle of milk and it splattered all over the floor. His mother told him to “Get the paper towels.” That stuck with him.

If you are high in resilience then maybe you would react like Hank. Hank also says, “Getting over the little tragedies in daily life is how you get over the big tragedies.” He says he became resilient before he lost his legs.

Discipline

You probably think you know all about discipline. You read Jocko Willink’s book “Discipline Equals Freedom.” You didn’t, well read it then. Anyway, I thought there was just one kind of discipline, self-discipline. It turns out I was wrong again. Diviney explains that self-discipline is not eating the cookie, overcoming emotions and weaknesses, but discipline is about “accomplishing external goals.”

The other thing is that self-discipline is a skill and discipline is an attribute! As he says, “Discipline is the determined ability to remain focused until goals are accomplished.” That is huge. I never realized the difference for some reason.

Conscientiousness

Ok, this is the last one. I don’t need to re-write the book. However, Diviney tells another story about a man named Chris that displayed this characteristic. It is “an amalgam of traits and behaviors. Persistence, thoroughness, and predictability are key parts of a conscientious personality, as are resourcefulness, energy, and planning.”

Chris was a Navy SEAL going through BUDs. Divine says he volunteered for everything. He was always looking to do more. In his childhood he learned that you should always be looking to help. This carried into adulthood. His philosophy served him in civilian life as well when he became a SWAT team commander. His men figured, “If the boss is always looking for something to do, the theory goes, maybe I should too.”

Remember, there are 25 attributes in the book. Don’t miss ay of them. Read it!