Life goes Rolling Along
2D Cavalry Regimental Change of Command-10 June 2022
Change is not always easy for us to deal with in life, but it is a constant along with death and taxes. This week I attended a change of command ceremony which acts as a celebration of the out-going leader’s accomplishments and a welcome to the incoming leader. While I was sitting at the ceremony, I started reminiscing on how much I looked up to the out-going leader and at the same time, worrying about what things would be like with the new leader. As a resilience trainer, working with the Army, if the leadership is on board with resilience and the importance of mental skills, then life is easy; but if they are not, then work is hard to come by. While I was sitting there getting stuck in my own head, one of the keynote speakers began to give his address to the crowd. One of the things he spoke about was the quote the out-going leader placed under his picture on the command board within the headquarters building. For the quote to make sense, I think I need to explain a little bit about the leader. This leader has spent 30-plus years in the military and has reached one of the highest ranks an officer can reach. After this long of a career, you would expect to see a stern-faced leader staring you in the face when you looked at his picture on the command board. But you’d be wrong. Instead what you would see is the face of a young E-1 (Private or bottom of the food-chain in the Army) looking at you and the quote under the picture asked, “what will you aspire to?”
The quote hit me in the face like a ton of bricks. Here I was worrying about what the new leader would be like and how things would function based on someone else’s beliefs and behaviors when I needed to be focused on my own. The quote awoke something inside of me or lit a fire so to speak. During times of change, we often try to cling to the past because that’s what is comfortable. I would challenge all of us to remember the past, but to embrace the future and the uncomfortableness of change and ask ourselves this question: what will we aspire to in the future? How can we benefit and grow from this change?
The Army goes rolling along, and life goes rolling on. It can easily pass us by and leave us wondering where the time went. We already know that we can’t stop time and we can’t control most things that are going to happen in our life. Change is a constant whether we like it or not, but we have a choice to make. We can either cling to the past and try to live with our head in the sand ignoring the change (probably grumbling about something back in your day) or we can rise to the occasion and embrace the change. What will you aspire to?
-Daren