How do you manifest your Goal?
(five steps I took to get my dream job)
I had a twenty year career in the U.S. Army and was fortunate to have some choice assignments, elite training, and travel opportunities that you could only imagine. One of my choice assignments was to serve on a Special Forces A detachment. This assignment involved qualifying through Airborne and Green Beret training followed by Ranger School, Military Free Fall School (HALO), Special Forces Combat Diver’s Course and multiple training and operations opportunities. Following that assignment, I had another choice assignment – to serve as an instructor in the Special Forces Combat Diver’s Course in Key West, Florida. I received this assignment as a result of my previous training and experience.
To understand the context of my experience you have to know that in a single year there are hundreds of service members do not graduate from Airborne school; the attrition rate for Special Forces training is higher than it is for Airborne school; and only a select group of Special Forces troops get an opportunity to go to Ranger and HALO school. Each of these schools also has its own attrition rate. The Special Forces Combat Diver’s Course is one of the most physically and mentally demanding of all the military schools. The average student is in their mid twenties and the instructors are trained and experienced Army Combat Divers. In order to be selected as a Combat Diver instructor I had to have had participated in Submarine Operations with the Navy Seals.
I asked for the Combat Diver School assignment and by the time I was accepted, I had four and a half years in the Army and had achieved the rank of Staff Sergeant. In that era of service, the mid1970’s, I was a significantly experienced and quickly promoted young service member. For two years I had a very rewarding assignment in Key West as a Combat Diver instructor and had the advantage of sleeping at home and not in the jungle or desert of a foreign country. But it was still not enough for me. I was anxious for more responsibility and to cover unfamiliar ground. I decided I wanted to be a Commissioned Officer in the U.S. Army. But my goal was much broader. I wanted to have a three year overseas assignment in Europe; I wanted to be selected for the Infantry Branch; and I wanted an assignment in a conventional Airborne unit. There was only one assignment that met all of those criteria – the Airborne Battalion Combat Team known as the “Geronimos” in Vicenza, Italy. This was an elite and highly desired assignment in the Airborne community because of its location, training and deployment opportunities, and the high caliber of soldiers who were assigned there. The Geronimos also had a distinguished military history from World War II. Paratroopers from the Ranger Battalion, the 82 Airborne Division, the 101st Airborne and other Army Airborne units wanted an assignment there. It was and still is the only conventional Airborne Battalion unit in Europe.
When I dream, I dream big dreams and with big dreams come those so called rights of passage. Here are the milestones which I had to successfully cross in order to realize my assignment with the Geronimos:
Receive recommendations from three senior officers
Pass Physical Training test with a high score
Pass a hearing test at certain frequencies (I failed the first one four years earlier).
Pass an oral reading exam
Get accepted by the Officer Candidate School review board
Graduate from OCS
Graduate from IOBC
Be selected to Infantry Branch
Be selected to an overseas tour
Pass a written test
Pass a personal review by the selection board
Get assigned to Europe
Get assigned to the Southern European Task Force
Get assigned to the Geronimos
At any given point on these milestones, I could have been diverted to an alternative that wasn’t in my plan. As with any goal, there is always risk, there are always challenges, and there are always modifications. Here are the five steps that I took to realize my goal:
- I had a major definite purpose and not several different goals. One objective will keep you focused and too many will cause you to lose concentration.
- I researched every milestone, every step along the way and became informed. No, I was actually in information overload.
- I took action and I was constantly keeping abreast of the situation.
- I never gave in, never gave up, and I never allowed myself to be put off by someone who didn’t believe in me.
- I believed that it was going to happen without forcing it to happen. I just knew without dwelling on it, that it would all work out. When you try to force something, force negates your positive energy.