I gotta admit, the mountain top is a beautiful place to be. The view is great, and the beers always seem colder (though they’ve been sitting in a pack for hours getting warm). If we linger too long we lose the will to drive on. We run out of beers, food, light, motivation, and get blown off the backside by the wind. That’s why we have to change our socks and move out towards the next objective.

But what the heck does “change your socks” actually mean? Well, I’m glad I asked 🙂…

Change your socks is a command and an expression in the Army that directs Soldiers to address their physical, mental, and spiritual needs during missions to ensure continued progress and execution. You may be surprised to know that it happens in the midst of long movements inside enemy terrain. Can you imagine a platoon of forty salty freedom fighters stopping to change their socks while hunting the enemy!? True story. Let me put some shape to this.

At various intervals, a patrol of Soldiers will stop, pull security, and take turns changing their socks while their buddies watch their backs. It happens in the field. It happens on the mountaintops. It happens in the desert.

Changing socks is mandatory to take care of our bodies. During long, arduous marches, the feet take significant punishment. Soldiers carry large rucksacks that slump the shoulders and punish the lower back, along with weapons, ammunition, helmets, and kit. All of that weight and pressure compounds on the feet - that point of connection to the unforgiving terrain. And feet turn to ground beef if you don’t take care of them.

(While I like this image and the table, show me an assault pack that only weighs 5.51 lbs. and I’ll fill it with your favorite beer!)

Changing socks is mandatory to take care of our minds. The reprieve of a few minutes to take off your pack, remove your boots, and let your feet air out is priceless. Yes, the open air on the feet creates a physical benefit, but the mental deep breath is even greater. Often, during long marches, Soldiers endure hot spots, rocks in their boots, or cramps in their arches. We use every dissociation tactic you can imagine to keep going–sing songs, rehash bible verses, recite the Ranger Creed, think about food, anything–and every one of them costs you. There is a constant mental strain to sustaining this. Changing your socks gives you a much-needed break from the exhausting track of mental tricks.

Changing socks is mandatory to take care of our souls. All that mental and physical strain takes a toll on the soul. This is when good people tap into bad feelings that manifest as rage, the only acceptably expressable emotion for warfighters. Yet that anger often lies on top of those common human emotions that haunt us all: shame, pain, sadness, regrets, and the like. All of those deep things get touched while sustaining the long march and the anger mask that keeps them below. These are the moments when leaders troop the line, checking on the team. We force Soldiers to change socks, offer encouragement, a handful of Skittles, or a smile and let our mates know we care about them and the mission. They are not alone. We will get through this together.

All of this is functional and critical. It’s especially important when you hit that big objective and accomplish a goal because there’s always more to go afterward. How we get in is often how we go out. Therefore, we know we’ve got a lot longer to go, just like in business. When we hit big goals in business, we know bigger goals await. The reward for good work is often more work.

We go a whole year draining the tank, making tough decisions, and grinding to achieve our goals, and then the calendar resets, and we’re at it again. New targets, new headwinds, new processes, and new tools often with the same people, the same problems, and the same possibilities. Just like in the Army, we know we’re in for the mission. For all the complaining and slow starts, we know we actually want the next mountain top. We want to take a crack at new goals that stretch us. Even if it’s scary and even if we might fail. We are here for the game, and we need to change our socks.

And while it’s easy to know how to change your socks in the Army. It’s a bit trickier in business. Here are some tactics I employ as I change my socks in the business world:

Clean the workspace. Space and place matter very much. We get accustomed to our desks, cars, and any other places we work. Take a look around your space for pockets of clutter, and remove them. Clean it up. Make it fresh…use a little Pledge, maybe! That refresh makes a difference. Pro tip - get a diffuser or a candle and get some good scent going to activate the brain. Coffee-scented candle? Yes please!

Get a new notebook. Every year, I refresh my notebook and start with something clean. It’s like a fresh canvas to paint on—new notes, new relationships, new tasks to accomplish, and a new cover to sticker up!

Declutter your phone. Free up the GB’s (gigabytes). Do you REALLY need those 2,450 pictures in your Photos app? Move the ones you want to keep to a cloud-based service, then delete them off your phone, and keep a selection of ones that are meaningful to you on your phone. The same goes for your apps. Delete the ones you haven’t used in the past 6 months and organize the others in an order that makes sense to you. If you need to use an app you deleted, you can download it again if necessary. Cull through your Contacts and ruthlessly delete. That random “Chris” with no last name listed in my phone, and an area code I had to Google to figure out where he lives? Yep, probably don’t need that one.

Pick a theme for the year. At the end of every year (often a mountaintop moment), I take deliberate time to reflect upon the previous year and consider what lies ahead in the new year. At that time, I consider a theme for the year. Some of my themes have included: “Do. The. Work., Joyful and content completions, and Renewal.” I gotta be honest here: I came into this year with “renewal” as a theme, and I find that I must most actively renew my prescription to Take My Own Medicine!

Pick a theme song. I know, I know…I’m a music nerd, but hey! It’s fun! I find that theme songs help prime the brain and help me focus when I need it most. They’re like a smelling salt for my mind that wakes me up when I’m in the doldrums. Some of my theme songs have included: “Take Back the City” by Snow Patrol, “I Speak Jesus” by Charity Gale, “Congregation” by FooFighters, and “If The House Burns Down Tonight” by Switchfoot.

Start a fresh target list. I’ve been in some manner of sales since leaving the Army and find that prospect lists (whether in a CRM, a notebook, a spreadsheet, or a business card folio) get stale. We look at them so much that they lose meaning, or we become blind to opportunities we don’t want to look at for a host of reasons. It helps to start anew and give ourselves the chance to see what may have been lying in front of us the whole time.

Get a new work bag: I am very particular about bags (and notebooks…and pens…and… anyhow). It’s nice to change things up with a new, quality bag that carries your essentials throughout the day. Again, it changes things up. This year, I’m sporting a TOPO Mountain Cross Bag, thanks to my son, Jaden. It was a Christmas gift.

Change your socks: Literally. Those gold toes aren’t going to make it another year and come on...you’re not 90! Go grab some fly new socks at a bargain price (shameless plug for the Nordstrom Rack - I buy nothing at full price). Find something that makes you giggle when you put them on. As Blayne always says, “There’s no reason this can’t be fun!”

These are just a few tactics that I’ve used over the years to help me “change my socks” as I start moving toward a new goal. They offer refreshment for the mind, body, and soul in many ways and inject some novelty into your daily routine.

I’m sure there are many more ways that others do it too. On that note, we’d love to hear from you. How do you change your socks? Seriously, share the love!

Drop us a comment on our LinkedIn page or send us an email to contact@appliedleadershippartners.com. Heck, if we get enough, we’ll put up a second blog with all the additional suggestions!

Thanks for being part of our community. Now get back on the march!