For those who don’t know a lot about the Navy diving community, Navy SCUBA school is not your typical basic SCUBA course. It was actually at this five week school that I learned the term “a steady strain.” My introduction to the school consisted of the Commanding Officer (himself a prior enlisted submariner who now serves as a commander in the Explosive Ordinance Disposal community of the Navy) coming in and talking about how his goal at the school was to always keep a steady strain. And essentially what he meant by that was you should always challenge yourself. In my particular case, as an officer with over 10 years of service in the Navy, I still found plenty to be challenged with. The two hour runs broken up by extended periods of time in the sand and open water swims in 50 degree water provided an element of training I had never been exposed to before. And the experience was truly professionally developing. Here I was, ignorantly showing up in Panama City thinking I’d seen about all there is to see in the Navy, and I got to spend five weeks looking into a community I had barely interacted with before. I found very little about that 5 weeks of training especially easy, or even very fun, but the experience looking back was worth it, and I think that's often the case with some of the projects in life that seem most daunting.
That is just one example of how I’m beginning to appreciate a steady strain. It is important to stay engaged no matter what you are doing, as it helps keep your mind sharp and ensures you're getting better. I’ll share below some ideas that I’ve applied in my life, starting at college, and continuing to where I am now.
1. Keep the schedule full. While it may not be possible to get all the classes in that you need on the timeline that you want based on the school’s schedule, it is worth your time to sit down for a while each semester and figure out exactly how to get as many courses in as you can. Of course you’ll want to be mindful of your overall workload, especially if you have a job concurrently. Generally, I think you’re more likely to underestimate the amount you can accomplish though.
2. Get a good rhythm. For me, that was essential to completing my degree at KU. I would come up with a schedule based on when I had classes, and I built in study times around the gaps in the schedule. It tended to keep me engaged throughout the day, and provided little in the way of breaks between classes. What a good schedule rhythm did do for me was free up my time in the evenings most days, and allowed me to plan my life outside of school. With my school work days ending by five or six, rather than wasting dead time in the middle of the day between classes, I was able to enjoy more time away from school.
3. Find things to do outside of school. This should seem obvious, and some might say it goes without saying, but it is very important. Work hard, play hard is what the Navy calls it usually. And it is something worth working on while you’re at school to get in the habit. For me, I would spend time hunting back at home, or doing long runs on the weekend. Catherine and I also spent a decent amount of time at concerts that came through the KC area our last year at school. Whatever works for you, the point is to get out. I think especially in an academic environment it’s easy to get caught up in what you’re doing, and forget to take a break, and my point is here that you should get out of the subject matter occasionally, and make it meaningful.
4. Get meaningful feedback assessing your performance. Talk honestly with your supervisor about how you can improve and specifically what you need to do, especially when turning in projects. Talk to your peers at work about the same things. Write these ideas down and go back to review them from time to time, ensuring that you're pushing your performance in a positive direction.
5. Challenge yourself outside your job. If you’re a student, take up something outside of school. Do puzzles, play cards, work out, go hiking. It goes along with the last one a little bit, but here I’m talking more about challenging your mind in different ways. Make sure you’re putting a strain on more than just the professional development of yourself. I always try to engage my mind in different ways (even if it is getting back to some of the engineering basics that I could refresh myself on a little bit). Sometimes I’ll drive home a different way to try and engage my mind in a different way. Since I’ve been in Guam I’ve done a considerable amount of diving and hiking, and I’m usually looking for other ways to keep my mind and body engaged.
These are just some ideas that have worked for me. I truly believe that by finding new ways to challenge yourself you become better in ways you may not even appreciate at the time. It was certainly the story of my life at KU and these lessons have only continued in my life after college.
I hope you all have a terrific week and thank you for reading.