MRE’s, Guerrilla Warfare, and Worry
Meals Ready to Eat (MRE’s) are a staple of military field training and deployments. If you haven’t had the pleasure of trying them, MRE’s are pre-packaged combinations of freeze-dried & preservative-packed nutritional calories.
Don’t think of an MRE as food; that would be disrespectful to food. Think of an MRE as an editable means of caloric intake.
There is a novelty to eating MRE’s at the beginning. Some people like to play around with ways to make them taste better, like crushing up crackers, mixing them with spiced apples, and heating it all up to make the classic MRE Apple Pie. But the novelty wears off pretty quickly. At some point, your method for choosing MRE’s moves from taste to nutrition for survival.
It’s not food; it’s just calories.
Our MRE’s came with an entrée (at this point these terms are being used very loosely), a slice of bread or cracker, a package of spreadable peanut butter, jelly, or cheese-like substance, desert, hot sauce, napkin aka emergency toilet paper (a different story for a different day), salt and pepper, a piece of gum (not for freshening your breath… its a long story) and a chemical heater.
Pro Tip #1: If you’re given an MRE nicknamed “5 Fingers of Death”… skip that meal.
The experienced Marines would take their MRE’s and immediately field strip them. Field stripping is dumping everything you won’t use or eat.
Every ounce of weight you carry has to serve a purpose so field stripping is all about getting rid of things that drain energy and add no value.
Remember it’s not food; its jut calories.
When I went out on mission, I field stripped my MRE’s to crackers, bread, and peanut butter.
Why?
Easy to pack
Little weight
Not much trash
Easy to eat
It is easy to get weighed down by all the little things, to think we have to find a way to carry everything with us.
I didn’t need every item in my MRE or every piece of gear I was issued because not every item in my MRE was helpful and not every piece of gear was useful. Field Stripping is all about recognizing limitations.
Being honest about limitations increases creativity and clarity.
This is where insightful people are able to differentiate themselves. The ability to accept limitations creates capability to maximize resources. The ones that “get it” learn to use limits to become more discerning and decisive.
This always makes me think of the guerrilla warfare scene from the movie Enemy of the State.
Pro Tip #2: How we prepare for the journey reveals if we’re ready for the mission.
You know, I never carried all of my standard-issue gear when I went out on a mission. If there were things I wouldn’t need I left them behind. And I always took some gear with me that wasn’t a standard issue.
Everyone eventually will find themselves short on supplies and long on problems; it’s a given.
So what if I ended up needed something I didn’t have? Truthfully, I almost always needed something I didn’t have at some point, BUT it was rarely something I left behind.
Think of limits like a sharpening stone for a knife. When used correctly, the friction makes the knife blade sharp and precise. Misused, it dulls the edge and destroys the blade.
Limits are real, and we all have to face them. We can either grind against them and become sharp or fight against them and lose our edge.
The leading, building, making, and creating you do every day is hard work.
Every entrepreneur, small business owner, content creator, and middle manager knows this firsthand. It’s much more than giving people directions, coming up with great ideas, or generating likes.
Hard work is one thing. But an inability to recognize limits makes the challenge you’re facing nearly impossible and likely improbable.
Is the energy you’re expending useful? Is the effort you’re exerting every day being wasted?
Are you worrying, stressing, agonizing?
If so take a minute and ask yourself this. Is it helping?
When was the last time you field stripped your calendar? Task list? Goals? Priorities?
When was the last time you looked to see if the energy you’re expending was even moving you toward your goals?
Limitations as a catalyst for clarity and decisiveness…
When we’re clear on what we can and can’t do.
When we’re clear on the problems we can and can’t solve.
Our communication is precise, our efforts are efficient, and the support we get is targeted, wasting less time, talent, and money.
How to ‘Field Strip’
Get clear on your goal(s)
Get honest about your limitations:
Energy - How much can you do?
Effort - How long can you go?
Expertise - What can you accomplish with the ability and knowledge you have?
Equipment - What can you accomplish with the resources you have?
Use the gap between your goal(s) and your limitations drive clarity and decisiveness.
Solve the problems you can and work around problems you can’t solve.
