1 00:00:02,230 --> 00:00:03,619 - Good afternoon Team XL. 2 00:00:03,619 --> 00:00:05,700 I want to take a few minutes here today 3 00:00:05,700 --> 00:00:08,570 and talk to you about resilience. 4 00:00:08,570 --> 00:00:10,230 I know we've been talking the last few days 5 00:00:10,230 --> 00:00:14,500 in the Commanders calls and this year I've asked you to do 6 00:00:14,500 --> 00:00:17,537 three primary things for me, strengthening relationships, 7 00:00:17,537 --> 00:00:20,301 focus on the mission and combat readiness 8 00:00:20,301 --> 00:00:22,170 and be problem solvers. 9 00:00:22,170 --> 00:00:24,490 I want to take just a few minutes 10 00:00:24,490 --> 00:00:27,913 and talk about strengthening those relationships. 11 00:00:28,820 --> 00:00:31,880 As you start to think through how you do that, 12 00:00:31,880 --> 00:00:33,334 remember that message I talked about 13 00:00:33,334 --> 00:00:38,334 it's consistent and persistent interaction with one another. 14 00:00:39,060 --> 00:00:44,060 That's how we build the bonds that really last a lifetime. 15 00:00:44,686 --> 00:00:47,543 It doesn't take a lot. 16 00:00:48,680 --> 00:00:52,863 A lunch once a month, PT sessions once a week, 17 00:00:53,720 --> 00:00:55,320 15 minutes at the end of the day 18 00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:58,020 just to get together and talk about what's going on, 19 00:00:58,020 --> 00:01:00,980 what happened today, what's happening tomorrow. 20 00:01:00,980 --> 00:01:03,620 It's small chunks of time. 21 00:01:03,620 --> 00:01:06,571 And as I've been thinking about this more and more, 22 00:01:06,571 --> 00:01:10,060 I go back to my childhood. 23 00:01:10,060 --> 00:01:13,920 My dad and my granddad, my dad owns the company now 24 00:01:13,920 --> 00:01:15,637 but they had a construction company 25 00:01:15,637 --> 00:01:17,697 and when I was in high school, 26 00:01:17,697 --> 00:01:20,300 I worked with them every summer. 27 00:01:20,300 --> 00:01:21,660 We had to be at the job site, 28 00:01:21,660 --> 00:01:25,553 we fired up the machines at 7:30, 29 00:01:26,645 --> 00:01:28,650 I ran the wood and boon backhoe, 30 00:01:28,650 --> 00:01:30,570 commonly referred to as a shovel 31 00:01:30,570 --> 00:01:32,310 and we got at it for the day. 32 00:01:32,310 --> 00:01:34,250 And then every morning about 9:00 or 9:30, 33 00:01:34,250 --> 00:01:38,270 my dad would show up with coffee and doughnuts 34 00:01:38,270 --> 00:01:42,371 and in New England, we have what's called regular coffee, 35 00:01:42,371 --> 00:01:44,690 which has cream and sugar in it. 36 00:01:44,690 --> 00:01:47,860 He'd bring cream and sugar, regular coffee for everybody 37 00:01:47,860 --> 00:01:50,690 except for one guy that liked his light with no sugar 38 00:01:50,690 --> 00:01:52,360 and so we'd get together, we have a coffee, 39 00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:54,750 we make fun of the guy who had the light, no sugar, 40 00:01:54,750 --> 00:01:58,370 we'd eat our doughnuts, we'd spend 15 minutes just talking, 41 00:01:58,370 --> 00:02:01,723 just talking and then we'd get back to work. 42 00:02:03,010 --> 00:02:05,820 What I didn't think about until recently, 43 00:02:05,820 --> 00:02:09,430 was the relationships that that created. 44 00:02:09,430 --> 00:02:14,430 To this day, my dad's, the guys that work for my dad 45 00:02:14,661 --> 00:02:18,685 they still get together from time to time 46 00:02:18,685 --> 00:02:20,830 and it's been years since they worked for him, 47 00:02:20,830 --> 00:02:22,880 yet every year at Christmas 48 00:02:22,880 --> 00:02:25,250 they come to my dad's Christmas party. 49 00:02:25,250 --> 00:02:28,440 I didn't realize it until I really started to think about it 50 00:02:28,440 --> 00:02:33,226 is that 15 minutes every single day 51 00:02:33,226 --> 00:02:38,110 was vital to building friendships and relationships 52 00:02:38,110 --> 00:02:42,070 that helped folks get through tough times. 53 00:02:42,070 --> 00:02:44,320 And I look back over the years and every one of those folks 54 00:02:44,320 --> 00:02:46,460 went through something difficult 55 00:02:46,460 --> 00:02:51,460 and when I look back at it now, where did it start? 56 00:02:51,568 --> 00:02:54,440 It started with a cup of coffee 57 00:02:54,440 --> 00:02:57,170 and 15 minutes every single day. 58 00:02:57,170 --> 00:02:59,697 So as we go forward here this year, 59 00:02:59,697 --> 00:03:02,584 what I'm asking each of you to do 60 00:03:02,584 --> 00:03:07,584 is find ways in which you can get together in small groups, 61 00:03:08,227 --> 00:03:12,980 whether that's in your section, with your roommates, 62 00:03:12,980 --> 00:03:16,740 the folks to the left and right of you in your work sections 63 00:03:16,740 --> 00:03:20,300 or your dormitories or your neighborhoods 64 00:03:20,300 --> 00:03:24,520 and do the little things that over time 65 00:03:24,520 --> 00:03:28,603 build friendships and relationships that last a lifetime. 66 00:03:29,480 --> 00:03:31,443 Appreciate it, thanks for listening. 67 00:03:31,443 --> 00:03:34,663 Love being your Commander, take care.