DEVELOPING PERSONAL TRAINING (A PERSONAL APPROACH)

(The original rendition of this article was intended for a former friend’s web project that never came to fruition. I have edited some details that were only relevant to his failed project, but the overall message remains the same and valid. I hope that the concepts I share can be utilized by readers to develop their own personal readiness training program. –J.M.)

I was blessed as a young soldier, to have spectacularly good leaders. While I witnessed the negative effects of poor leaders, even in the special operations community, my immediate chain-of-command, from team leader, all the way to company-level leadership, both NCO and commissioned officer, was amazing. Among these leaders was my first team leader, SGT “Al.”

Besides teaching me the finer points of being a Ranger, he impressed upon me the importance of goal-setting to achieve anything of value in life. At the time, of course, my primary goal was attending the Basic Ranger Course at Ft. Benning, in order to earn the coveted “black and gold.” By setting me down and guiding me in the development of performance and enabling goals to accomplish that end goal, SGT “Al” helped me to do so, regardless of the difficulties and privations inherent to accomplishing that goal (in January 1995, two classes before mine, four students died during the Florida phase at Eglin AFB, due to cold-weather exposure. The Basic Ranger Course, often referred to as “Suck School,” was not, and is not, an easy course. It is generally considered one of the most demanding courses in the U.S. military. –J.M.).

To this day, I strive to utilize the lessons he taught me in accomplishing anything. In order to demonstrate this methodology, I will share my current “end goal,” “performance goals,” and “enabling goals,” to demonstrate the specific techniques. Further, I will describe some of the key ways I go about fulfilling those goals, in order to maintain my particular skill sets.

End Goals

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