Posted on May 15, 2019
To my peers: Any advice on how to regain the motivation I used to relish just be merely wearing the uniform?
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I feel slightly bad posting this, as I am now an NCO and should be one to motivate Soldiers and be the standard. Though, I do not have peers in my current organization who are Soldiers (I'm on ADOS orders helping civilians), and I just needed to ask some experienced folks who been through the rough parts of their career already. Basically, I have been extremely motivated and dedicated for the majority of my career. Though eventually after just completely failing on my goal to get a Conditional Release to go Active Duty about 10+ times, and many of my former Reserve SNCOs completely leaving me to hang multiple times, I lost sight of what I once wanted so badly. In fact, sometimes I dont really know if I want it that bad anymore. It sucks seeing how much i fell off. I struggle to motivate myself to PT and educate myself, but I do nothing to change it. I need a spark of inspiration but I can't seem to find it. Any words of wisdom to push myself? I know motivation comes from within, but I just cant see clearly lately.
Thank You,
Thank You,
Reserves
Duty
Motivation
Education
RallyPoint
Posted 5 y ago
Responses: 11
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It seems like you are not in a great position within your organization. You do not have great mentors and the people you work for do not foster an environment of growth and motivation. My suggestion to you is to talk to your local Army Reserve Career Counselor about reclassification options and/or consider doing a TPU to TPU transfer. Sometimes a change of scenery goes a long way.
That aside, also apply for AGR. Just be willing to do whatever is given to you, likely 79R Recruiter, and drive on. Talking to people about the Army is a lot of fun and I think you can make a great impact on our organization and ultimately feel like you're part of something bigger.
That aside, also apply for AGR. Just be willing to do whatever is given to you, likely 79R Recruiter, and drive on. Talking to people about the Army is a lot of fun and I think you can make a great impact on our organization and ultimately feel like you're part of something bigger.
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SGT (Join to see)
MSG, truly appreciate the advice. I got in contact with a recruiter/retention NCO and found out if I reclass, I'll have to stay in the Reserves a bit longer. For me, that isn't an option I want to take. I'll just tough it out until I can enlist to go AD next June. Speaking about the opportunities, regardless, did seem to lift my mood a substantial amount anyhow.
Thank You!
Thank You!
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MSG (Join to see) is correct about a change in job or location sometimes giving you a new perspective on yourself and your work. I suggest you consider a potential major change in your Service. Contact active duty (you said you wanted to go Active) recruiters from the Air Force, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard. As an IT specialist, your knowledge and skills should be in demand in all the Services. Be sure to talk to recruiters who work with prior-service members. There may be some issues with your current enlistment contract, but recruiters can help you work a deal to get out of that contract to go active duty. Personally, I'd try the Air Force first. Everything you ever heard about the Air Force having great locations and facilities is true. Also, Air Force IT folks tend to work in fixed base facilities. The Air Force has a major cyber security mission.
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SGT (Join to see)
SIr,
I appreciate your response. I actually never really considered any other branch (since I've already been so invested in the Army and have interest in Army Spec Ops), though it truly will only do me good to contact the other branches. Thank you for relaying your advice, maybe Air Force might be an option for me!
I appreciate your response. I actually never really considered any other branch (since I've already been so invested in the Army and have interest in Army Spec Ops), though it truly will only do me good to contact the other branches. Thank you for relaying your advice, maybe Air Force might be an option for me!
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I'm just curious, for whatever it might be worth...what is your main object? What are you seeking, ultimately? A full active duty (AD) 20 yr.+ career? Senior NCO? Warrant? Commissioned? I only ask that as i have an interest in such career/educ stuff as you'd asked, and was just wondering if you might perhaps be able to elaborate at all, so far as possible...associates? Bachelors? Masters or higher? Grades? GPAs? STEM coursework done? I'd seen you were apparently IT, so I'm assuming you've been through a many of the usual Microsoft and/or CISCO certifications, or those similar to such; that being said, knowing more as to your basic motivations would help a good deal in trying to suggest things for you, honest...trust me, I've gone through many such questions on here many times with many others at this point, which is why if you could possibly go into such stuff, it'd obv be a major help to let us all try to help you, for real, OK? That'd include hobbies, reading interests, sports (esp. any martial arts), what type of civilian work you now do (at least just generally, not necessarily any specifics, just enough so we'd all just get an even basic idea, I'm guessing you also do civilian IT, I'd expect, though, of course, you hadn't gone into any of that in what you'd said). Quite often on here, I gather I've generally fairly decent at suggesting stuff for circumstances like yours (though sometimes I'm told I can have rather a tendency to overwhelm, bombarding others on the site with similar problems with my ideas, in which care you'd obv need to tell me to ratchet it down a notch, I gather), so, if you'd wanna go into more, so far as you might be able, I'd be glad, obviously, to try throwing a few suggestions out there, so far as I can, OK? No rush, just if you want to, whenever you might possibly have some time...the only thing I'd ask is, the more specific you can be, typically, I've found, the more I and/or others on here are generally able to suggest things...clearly, some things you might be willing and/or able to go into by way of detail, others you might obviously prefer to not, I of course entirely get that, as well, honest...I hope that helps, for real, as I'd said, I find such problems of interest, which is why I try to answer such questions as yours in the fashion I have here. So, no rush, whenever you want, as I'd said, OK?
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SGT (Join to see)
Sir,
I appreciate you responding to my post. I always imagined being in the Army 20+, reaching a SNCO rank (hopefully 1SG), or maybe going gold after being a well-seasoned NCO for a bit and deploying a few times. I haven't really considered switching branches too much but who knows, maybe that would be an option too. As far as education goes, I've never been exactly passionate, though I am currently pursuing an English Education major.I'm not exactly passionate about the English subject(or really any subject as far as I know), though I enjoy teaching and working with students, I just need to discover my passion and hone in on that. I'm honestly not too passionate on IT stuff though sometimes I have my days where I really enjoy it. I do not believe I could work on computers for the rest of my life, though. I want to work intimately with a team and deploy often, hence why I believe Spec Ops would be more of my line of work. I like to play video games, watch the news, watch Youtube videos, and go for runs.
Thank You,
I appreciate you responding to my post. I always imagined being in the Army 20+, reaching a SNCO rank (hopefully 1SG), or maybe going gold after being a well-seasoned NCO for a bit and deploying a few times. I haven't really considered switching branches too much but who knows, maybe that would be an option too. As far as education goes, I've never been exactly passionate, though I am currently pursuing an English Education major.I'm not exactly passionate about the English subject(or really any subject as far as I know), though I enjoy teaching and working with students, I just need to discover my passion and hone in on that. I'm honestly not too passionate on IT stuff though sometimes I have my days where I really enjoy it. I do not believe I could work on computers for the rest of my life, though. I want to work intimately with a team and deploy often, hence why I believe Spec Ops would be more of my line of work. I like to play video games, watch the news, watch Youtube videos, and go for runs.
Thank You,
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Capt Daniel Goodman
I saw what you'd said...for me to explain all that happened to me, all that ultimately went wrong, would take about a solid year, and would serve little purpose. I saw about the English major, the not esp wanting to function with conouters, the preference for spec ops...how much of your assocs and/or bach have you done? Grades? GPAs,.as I'd asked? I need to know exactly how much coursework you've taken, clearly, at your level, I'm assuming you're mid to late 20s, maybe early 30s...when I was your age, and in, I was stuck in an office, totally sidetracked from having been in the clinical side, I'd wanted to be a flight surgeon, it never happened, I was completely derailed in my zeal to do engineering, winding up under the wrong people, doing the wrong work, for the wrong reasons, and unable to extricate myself...I eventually learned to function halfway decently in the role, though way, way too late, and the whole thing just totally fell apart, for God only knows how many reasons, mainly own asinine ineptitude...so, having said all that, what's manifestly apparent to me is that you're clearly.losing your way, as I initially lost mine, destroying virtually everything is worked to accomplish, leading to my total perm disability, which I have zero desire to have happen to you, OK?
So, given all that, lemme try to help you get some focus back, OK? you say you run, fine, dandy, I did also, about 8 mi a day, give or take, when I was in...that wasn't enought...I'd needed more, knew what it was, and was too dumb to go and grab it, though I very nearly did, as you should...humor me, and look up the the U.S. Aikido Federation (USAF, which I always found rather amusing, given where is been), or the Birenkai aikido group, find a dojo, and go...if you can find one that does Kairi also, so it, as both arts complement one another quite well...both would I think clearly suit your turn of mind, as well as he extremely intellectually as well as heroically demanding...I know also Armny has the combative orogram, often done with USMC MCMAP, though both are separate, however, I've read they frequently cooperate...you clearly need the stimulus, you clearly need the motivation those would afford you...trust me, I've done aikido off and on about two decades now, and regret not going into a dojo near where I'd been assigned, virtually every day, back then, I very nearly did, I'd first read of it in a novel, actually, Cyborg, that was the basis for the movie and TV program The six Million Dollar Man...and yean, that's actually a true stiry, thatd.also kindled my I reread in bioengineering, ehich, if ciurse, I never got to do, as I'd walked into the wrong recruiter, who's tried to send me to the right recruiter, however, I was too dumb then to have listened...all that is true, as I'd said, by the way....
Next, you are where you are, you can't change that...you're IT, you need to make.lemonade out of your lemons...so, you say you're not terribly motivated for Engljsh, as well as computers, however, you're doing computers now, and, whether you like it or not, you're likely always going to be involved with them, that's just a basic fact of human existence in the present era, I'm afraid...however, you need more challenge, that much is evident, which you're NOT going to get in video games...marriage, kids, all that would be one way, however, that's not the principal thing I can help.you with, if you're looking at marriage and kids, all to the good, however, you clearly need to re-energize yourself, finding a new path for yourself....
I'd suggest a few possiblities, to help motivate your mind...see if where you are has an aero club, where I was did, and go for sport then private pilot training...I didnt, though I went up a few times...you didn't say if you were glasses, or your color vision, if it was normal, any astigmatism, however, another possibility for you could be to drop a packet for Army DID A for rotary or fixed wing flight as warrant...I realize that's not spec ops, I get that, however, you need a technical.challenge, to help foster a spiritual one, Army flight could possibly give you that, it only needs high school, your yrs in, plus your IT training could make you quite well suited, I've read it's a REALalY rough program, I'd expect at least as hard if not more than Ranger, possibly, we have a family friend who did it, he was Army enljsted, got Army WOCS, went rotary wing, did his bach in aviation at Embry Riddle, then Army released him, USCG picked him up, he finished out his 20 yrs as USCG rotary wing in Alaska, with some pretty amazing stories, such a flight life might well suit you, honest...there's also the chance to them go for your masters and PhD at A FIT or Naval Postgrad School (NPS), as well.as doing flight test, as pilot, navigator/weapon has ofcr (WSO), or maybe flight test engrg (FTE), which is wanted to do, though never had the chasnce, for the simple reason as I'd said, I lost my way, my focus, my direction, and got it back only way too late...
My unit CO was an O-6 who'd just made O-7, a Vietnam War hero who'd been given the DFC, and flew I'd read later, 400+ combat missions as a fwd air controller (FAC) in O-2s...he set me straight after an hour of tongue lashing after giving me a certificate for helping with an IF I soection, after my having TOTALLY screwed up major big time the last week, in ways you wouldn't even want to remotely imagine...when I left the room after sitting with him for a solid hour, there were pieces of me lying all over that floor, however, he's gotten to me too.late ultimately to help....
I've met two Apollo astronauts who actually landed...met God only knows how many other colonels and generals, only to blow opportunity after opportunity...I'd wanted to go back in through USPHS after my clinical allied health doctorate, though that never happened either...I kept missing the brass ring, always getting close, over and over and over again...I DON'T want that happening to you, OK?
Another way could be for you to drop packets for Airborne, Ranger, or any of the other tab origrams, I think Sapper...you need to get your mil transcript from DANTES, or Amer Council on Educ (ACE)...look up DANTES and CLEP for the exam programs for credits, and DO them...look up USAF CCAF, their commun college, and see if it was opened to other svc s yet, I don't know if it was at all...
Most of all, STOP WATCHING VIDEO GAMES, OK? Theatre not real, and are almost narcotic, I think, in the way they divert the mind from serious intellectual accomplishment...that's my own view, though I think there's a good deal.if truth to it...if there's a Big Scout troop, Civil Air Patrol (CAP) cadet unit, Navy Sea Cadet, or JROTC unit where you are, go and volunteer with them...if there's a program for you to go for EMT with your installation clinical unit, go, for God's sake...if there's a community college near your installation, or your educ Ctr has on installation programs, also go, for God's sake, OK? ANYTHING to rekindle your fire intellectually...if your installation has an NCO council, join it, go, he your unit rep to it...am I making my point yet?
I lost every chance I had precisely because I DIDN'T do what I'm suggesting for you till too late...do you want to lose your chance also? Or try my way, and salvage what you've got...there isn't a day goes by I don't kick myself royally for all the clumsy, comedian mistakes I've recounted to you here...not a day I don't miss it...I'd volunteered for the Gulf in 90, I very nearly went, I was afraid to try agajn...if you can volunteer to deploy with an allied country, or another svc, TAKE IT...if you can volunteer for an exercise for jungle, desert, or arctic training, GO, OK?
YOU have to show THEM you're serious...YOU have to kick yourself in your hind end, and DO as I'm suggesting...you can wallow in your little IT universe, and NOT take your IT any further, as you say it bores you, or you could submit for the new Navy WO1 warrant program, and go intersvc that way, as well, though I think IT would.captivate your cupidity more, quite frankly...if you want Navy as IT warrant, you could ask to deploy onboard a carrier, or other vessel...as Army IT, I'm sure you could deploy for cyber assignments overseas, I'm positive of it....
Those are some ideas...there are ithers...if your installation has scuba training at your pool, GO, as I actually did...if there's skiing, GO...if there are martial arts classes in your installation, GO....AM I MAKING MY POINT YET, HOPEFULLY?
I lost my chance because I was an IDIOT...DON'T you be one also, OK? I'll help you gladly suggesting things any way I can, but only YOU can do them, NOT ME, OK? Ask for transfers to more exciting units, ask to be sent on IT assignments with them to overseas zones, ckmbat, if you wish...I'm quite certain your motivations would be appreciated...if there are IT certifications you can do, DO them, OK? I'm here if you wanna give more soecifics...give me more, and I'll give you more...the more you give me, as I'd said, the more I can give you...SPECIFICS, actual course titkes, grades, GPAs, DETAILS, a DETAILED biosketch, done in pseudo-resume fashion...take the time, and type it up right, and I'll suggest assignments for you that yoiu.might just actually do d exciting...I've been around a LOT of blocks, guy, I can suggest such things, I know how, but YOU have to want it, YOU have to actually DO them, not me, OK? I'm here if you wanna yak more, anytime...you could go AGR, Guard Tech, Reserve Tech, any number of things I haven't gone into yet...GIVE ME DETAILS, and I'll try to help you more, OK! I'm here anytime...and by the way, everything I told you about Me and how I screwed up is 100% true, swear to God...at the same time, the sun shines,the world revolves...I help myself now by helping those like you find YOUR way, as I once lost mine, OK? I try volunteering to help with serious clinical research, helping Navy League to tutor Navy Sea Cadets in STEM material, Boy Scout merit badge counseling and STEM training...I can only help you if YOU help.yourself, all I can do is feed you ideas, only YOU can do them, as I'd said, OK?
So, given all that, lemme try to help you get some focus back, OK? you say you run, fine, dandy, I did also, about 8 mi a day, give or take, when I was in...that wasn't enought...I'd needed more, knew what it was, and was too dumb to go and grab it, though I very nearly did, as you should...humor me, and look up the the U.S. Aikido Federation (USAF, which I always found rather amusing, given where is been), or the Birenkai aikido group, find a dojo, and go...if you can find one that does Kairi also, so it, as both arts complement one another quite well...both would I think clearly suit your turn of mind, as well as he extremely intellectually as well as heroically demanding...I know also Armny has the combative orogram, often done with USMC MCMAP, though both are separate, however, I've read they frequently cooperate...you clearly need the stimulus, you clearly need the motivation those would afford you...trust me, I've done aikido off and on about two decades now, and regret not going into a dojo near where I'd been assigned, virtually every day, back then, I very nearly did, I'd first read of it in a novel, actually, Cyborg, that was the basis for the movie and TV program The six Million Dollar Man...and yean, that's actually a true stiry, thatd.also kindled my I reread in bioengineering, ehich, if ciurse, I never got to do, as I'd walked into the wrong recruiter, who's tried to send me to the right recruiter, however, I was too dumb then to have listened...all that is true, as I'd said, by the way....
Next, you are where you are, you can't change that...you're IT, you need to make.lemonade out of your lemons...so, you say you're not terribly motivated for Engljsh, as well as computers, however, you're doing computers now, and, whether you like it or not, you're likely always going to be involved with them, that's just a basic fact of human existence in the present era, I'm afraid...however, you need more challenge, that much is evident, which you're NOT going to get in video games...marriage, kids, all that would be one way, however, that's not the principal thing I can help.you with, if you're looking at marriage and kids, all to the good, however, you clearly need to re-energize yourself, finding a new path for yourself....
I'd suggest a few possiblities, to help motivate your mind...see if where you are has an aero club, where I was did, and go for sport then private pilot training...I didnt, though I went up a few times...you didn't say if you were glasses, or your color vision, if it was normal, any astigmatism, however, another possibility for you could be to drop a packet for Army DID A for rotary or fixed wing flight as warrant...I realize that's not spec ops, I get that, however, you need a technical.challenge, to help foster a spiritual one, Army flight could possibly give you that, it only needs high school, your yrs in, plus your IT training could make you quite well suited, I've read it's a REALalY rough program, I'd expect at least as hard if not more than Ranger, possibly, we have a family friend who did it, he was Army enljsted, got Army WOCS, went rotary wing, did his bach in aviation at Embry Riddle, then Army released him, USCG picked him up, he finished out his 20 yrs as USCG rotary wing in Alaska, with some pretty amazing stories, such a flight life might well suit you, honest...there's also the chance to them go for your masters and PhD at A FIT or Naval Postgrad School (NPS), as well.as doing flight test, as pilot, navigator/weapon has ofcr (WSO), or maybe flight test engrg (FTE), which is wanted to do, though never had the chasnce, for the simple reason as I'd said, I lost my way, my focus, my direction, and got it back only way too late...
My unit CO was an O-6 who'd just made O-7, a Vietnam War hero who'd been given the DFC, and flew I'd read later, 400+ combat missions as a fwd air controller (FAC) in O-2s...he set me straight after an hour of tongue lashing after giving me a certificate for helping with an IF I soection, after my having TOTALLY screwed up major big time the last week, in ways you wouldn't even want to remotely imagine...when I left the room after sitting with him for a solid hour, there were pieces of me lying all over that floor, however, he's gotten to me too.late ultimately to help....
I've met two Apollo astronauts who actually landed...met God only knows how many other colonels and generals, only to blow opportunity after opportunity...I'd wanted to go back in through USPHS after my clinical allied health doctorate, though that never happened either...I kept missing the brass ring, always getting close, over and over and over again...I DON'T want that happening to you, OK?
Another way could be for you to drop packets for Airborne, Ranger, or any of the other tab origrams, I think Sapper...you need to get your mil transcript from DANTES, or Amer Council on Educ (ACE)...look up DANTES and CLEP for the exam programs for credits, and DO them...look up USAF CCAF, their commun college, and see if it was opened to other svc s yet, I don't know if it was at all...
Most of all, STOP WATCHING VIDEO GAMES, OK? Theatre not real, and are almost narcotic, I think, in the way they divert the mind from serious intellectual accomplishment...that's my own view, though I think there's a good deal.if truth to it...if there's a Big Scout troop, Civil Air Patrol (CAP) cadet unit, Navy Sea Cadet, or JROTC unit where you are, go and volunteer with them...if there's a program for you to go for EMT with your installation clinical unit, go, for God's sake...if there's a community college near your installation, or your educ Ctr has on installation programs, also go, for God's sake, OK? ANYTHING to rekindle your fire intellectually...if your installation has an NCO council, join it, go, he your unit rep to it...am I making my point yet?
I lost every chance I had precisely because I DIDN'T do what I'm suggesting for you till too late...do you want to lose your chance also? Or try my way, and salvage what you've got...there isn't a day goes by I don't kick myself royally for all the clumsy, comedian mistakes I've recounted to you here...not a day I don't miss it...I'd volunteered for the Gulf in 90, I very nearly went, I was afraid to try agajn...if you can volunteer to deploy with an allied country, or another svc, TAKE IT...if you can volunteer for an exercise for jungle, desert, or arctic training, GO, OK?
YOU have to show THEM you're serious...YOU have to kick yourself in your hind end, and DO as I'm suggesting...you can wallow in your little IT universe, and NOT take your IT any further, as you say it bores you, or you could submit for the new Navy WO1 warrant program, and go intersvc that way, as well, though I think IT would.captivate your cupidity more, quite frankly...if you want Navy as IT warrant, you could ask to deploy onboard a carrier, or other vessel...as Army IT, I'm sure you could deploy for cyber assignments overseas, I'm positive of it....
Those are some ideas...there are ithers...if your installation has scuba training at your pool, GO, as I actually did...if there's skiing, GO...if there are martial arts classes in your installation, GO....AM I MAKING MY POINT YET, HOPEFULLY?
I lost my chance because I was an IDIOT...DON'T you be one also, OK? I'll help you gladly suggesting things any way I can, but only YOU can do them, NOT ME, OK? Ask for transfers to more exciting units, ask to be sent on IT assignments with them to overseas zones, ckmbat, if you wish...I'm quite certain your motivations would be appreciated...if there are IT certifications you can do, DO them, OK? I'm here if you wanna give more soecifics...give me more, and I'll give you more...the more you give me, as I'd said, the more I can give you...SPECIFICS, actual course titkes, grades, GPAs, DETAILS, a DETAILED biosketch, done in pseudo-resume fashion...take the time, and type it up right, and I'll suggest assignments for you that yoiu.might just actually do d exciting...I've been around a LOT of blocks, guy, I can suggest such things, I know how, but YOU have to want it, YOU have to actually DO them, not me, OK? I'm here if you wanna yak more, anytime...you could go AGR, Guard Tech, Reserve Tech, any number of things I haven't gone into yet...GIVE ME DETAILS, and I'll try to help you more, OK! I'm here anytime...and by the way, everything I told you about Me and how I screwed up is 100% true, swear to God...at the same time, the sun shines,the world revolves...I help myself now by helping those like you find YOUR way, as I once lost mine, OK? I try volunteering to help with serious clinical research, helping Navy League to tutor Navy Sea Cadets in STEM material, Boy Scout merit badge counseling and STEM training...I can only help you if YOU help.yourself, all I can do is feed you ideas, only YOU can do them, as I'd said, OK?
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Capt Daniel Goodman
Sorry, typo, pilot /nav WOCS would captivate you more, clumsy tablet keyboard....
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