What It Really Means and How I’m Learning to Stay Put I’ve noticed something about myself in my post military life: I constantly want to move. It’s not that I dislike Charleston. I love the Lowcountry—the history, the salt air, the winding marshes. It’s home, but there is always something tugging at the edges. There […]
Always Wanting to Move Read More »
When people think about spies, they probably imagine secret meetings, dead drops, disguises, and surveillance. But behind the mystique lies something more useful that we can use in our day-to-day lives. In counterintelligence, one of the most powerful tools for evaluating risks from spy’s is the Access, Motivation, and Control (AMC) framework. It helps us
Live Like a Spy: Access, Motivation & Control Read More »
One of the things military and law enforcement veterans learned during training on the firing line was that our accuracy with a firearm could be increased by controlling our breathing. Steady breathing resulted in a more stable shooting posture and smooth trigger control which leads to more accurate shots and tighter groupings. This same idea
The Parasympathetic Sigh Read More »
A lot of time and money is spent on frivolous things in the vain hope that they will help us feel “good.” Here’s a shocker. This will not work… and feeling “good” might not be what you actually need. Pushed & Pulled to the Un-Necessary The basic idea used in marketing is to establish a
Few of us will ever face the harsh realities of being imprisoned or enslaved, but we are at risk of being captured by the undue influence of others through emotional targeting of our needs and desires. Let’s talk about how to protect ourselves from this type of maligned influence. Needs and Desires Everyone has basic
You are Free to Choose Freedom Read More »
In our house we avoided assigning chores and instead focused on teaching our kids to be responsible for their fair share of the work as a “duty.” We can also try to frame our responsibility to develop self control as a duty we owe to ourselves and to those around us. Self-control can be defined
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Some emotions are secondary effects of our perceptions and thoughts. These manufactured emotions can cause us a lot of problems. Let’s try on a hypothetical example. Perhaps you see a task in front of you that scares you and you freeze up. Once you recognize you aren’t getting the job done you get angry with
Taking on Manufactured Emotions Read More »
I remember feeling pulled to the military at a young age. I’m not sure to what extent this is common, but my intuition tells me that it might be fairly rare based on the tiny fraction of the population that serves in the military. There are likely some significant factors at play when I think
Emerging from Shadow Part 2: Before the Call to Arms Read More »
In Stoicism there is the idea that seeking fame, power, and wealth can lead you into a type of self generated captivity. It’s not that being famous, powerful, or wealthy is inherently bad, but the consequences of obtaining those prizes can be subtle and binding. Think of the restrictions placed on the famous by society.
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Operational Security (OPSEC) as a concept in a military setting is meant to reduce vulnerabilities by controlling the flow of information in an effort to prevent adversaries from exploiting weaknesses. We can also use the concept of OPSEC to protect our minds from nefarious attempts by others to gain influence over our thoughts, emotions, and
