Rangers are experts in advanced rifle marksmanship. Proficiency with your weapon system is part of the job. One of the principles we learn when spending so much time sending lead downrange is that you can only move as fast as your shot group dictates. Sometimes, I wish people could see their shot groups out in the world because it would force most of us to slow down. Many of us need to slow down.
A shot group is the pattern of bulletholes on paper targets. Tight shot groups occur when the small, pen-sized circles touch each other on target. This is good. This is what you want and typically only occurs when firing from a stable position, such as lying on the ground with a sandbag to brace upon. You don’t get that luxury in combat. A tight shot group unsupported (standing, often on the move) might not have those holes touching, but has them tightly grouped in proximity of inches. You're in good shape if all the bullet holes are within the circle made by your thumb and index finger. You’re in bad shape if the holes make a large circle wider than your outstretched hand. You’re in really bad shape if the target looks like a constellation in the night sky. Honestly, can anyone really see lions, bears, and warriors by tracing imaginary lines between a scatter-shot blanket of stars?
I digress. When you’re on the range, trying to draw Orion out of your shot group on paper, you’re shooting faster than your capabilities allow. And you need to slow down.
Think about what you’re sending out into the world right now and what target you’re aiming for, and ask yourself: What does my shot group look like right now?
What is it telling you about the shots you’re taking?
What is your shot group telling you about how fast you’re moving?
Many of us are firing wildly and would do well to slow down.
I don't shoot anymore, but I know I’m moving too fast when I see the negative impact of my approach on others around me—when relationships are strained, arguments come quickly, and misunderstandings are frequent. I know I’m moving too fast when business objectives aren’t clicking–when get-to-do’s feel like have-to-do’s, proposals don't align, and the message isn’t connecting to the client’s needs. These are always accompanied by the internal signs of moving faster than my capabilities allow: concentration is elusive, agitation abounds, and withdrawal baits me.
I am reminded in these times of those countless hours on the range firing hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition. And I know exactly what to do: 1) slow down, 2) breathe, and 3) get back to the fundamentals.
Slow Down
Say it out loud. Don’t worry about looking silly. If Special Operators can use self-talk to get back on track, you can too. We have a saying in the warfighter community: “Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.” We restate this over and over to remind us that if we focus on fast, we’ll likely get fast and loose. If we focus on smooth, we’ll be fast and accurate.
Breathe
Breath is life. Breath connects us to our bodies, slows down our heart rates, and activates the parasympathetic nervous system–the system that tells our bodies that everything is ok. When everything is “ok,” we can engage our higher functions and assess our aim, our approach, and our impact.
Get Back to the Fundamentals
When I was a young Soldier, I learned the fundamentals of rifle marksmanship (steady position, aim, breath control, and trigger squeeze). That’s great for the range. What are your fundamentals in real life—in leadership, business, and relationships? Do you know them? If you do, great! Get back to them and apply them. If you don’t, and your “shot group” is all over the place, now’s the time to develop them.
I’ve thought about this a lot as it relates to our business. We have some basic fundamentals that are grounded in our values. One of our values is generosity. The fundamentals of how we action generosity are by sharing broadly with others: 2 podcasts a month, 2-4 blog articles, meetings with network connections and exiting service members. These are a few fundamental examples of how we bring that to life. When feeling disconnected from others, I can often look at those fundamentals and identify that I am off.
Daily prayer, time in God’s word, and contemplation are other fundamental practices for me. When I feel like my relationships with those closest to me are rife with friction, I can almost always look at my time with God and see that I am missing the mark. I can also see this when I am not making the time to get out into the woods.
What about leading others? Some basic fundamentals of leading others might include regular 1:1 meetings, routine in-progress reviews (IPRs), weekly business development meetings, and other project meetings. When I observe that our sales or project delivery objectives are off target, I can almost always look at the cadence of these fundamental intentions and see that we’ve missed doing the regular work that leads to success, like maintaining accountability on our sales outreach or missing a preparation meeting in advance of a presentation.
And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the impact on relationships. When Kelly and I don’t date weekly, make time to workout together, plan adventures together, deconflict calendars, do our monthly budget, or choose to play a game at night instead of watching another TV show, we nearly always get loose in our relational shot group. And though we cannot see the distance between our shots on paper, we can feel the distance in our hearts. We can see that we’ve missed the mark by missing our intentions of loving one another with our actions, and we need to get back to the fundamentals that hit the mark.
Are you hitting the mark in your relationships, your business, and your leadership? Assess your “shot group” and ask yourself if you need to slow down. If you do, congratulations, you’re normal! Now slow down, breathe, and get back to basics to tighten up your shot group.
