There is a difference in how Marines motivate each other and how civilians treat motivation in the workplace. I learned this first-hand as a young Marine who worked part-time off-base at a store in Irvine, CA.

Marines are challenged by any new Marine who is attached to the unit. If that Marine starts to out-shine the others, the Marines see that as a challenge. They look into their own motivation and find it lacking and raise their level to meet that of the new Marine. Marines won’t let another Marine out-perform them and carry all the weight. If the new Marine raises the operational pace, the rest of the Marines will match it. We rise to the challenge. It’s drilled into us and we are trained to perform this way. That’s why the all-in attitude is something I can take on with relative ease.

Civilians treat challenge from new colleagues in an entirely different way. If the new employee starts by working hard and out-performing the rest in the department, someone (or sometimes even a few of them) will take the new employee aside and tell them to slow down and not make everyone else look bad. You see, it’s easier to slow down the new guy than for everyone else to step it up and match the new person’s operational pace. (I want to add that not all civilians do this. There are many fine people out there who work hard and accept a challenge by stepping up to meet it. However, these people seem to be rarer than they are in the Marine Corps. Again, just my personal observation.)

On this blog, I talk a lot about discipline, determination, motivation, and perseverance. These are concepts I didn’t learn in the Marines, but were taken to a new level of understanding through boot camp and NCO school. Anyone can learn these concepts, but it’s up to you to truly embrace them and use them. These are my secret weapons. These are the tools I used to be successful in regaining my health and fitness. You can harness these same tools. You just have to want to do it badly enough.