There were many lessons learned while I was deployed to Fallujah, Iraq from March 2007-October 2007 when I was serving in the Marines.
I was a 19 year old kid, then 20 (celebrated my birthday there), during that time so I had to grow up very fast. The lessons learned is a laundry list but the biggest lesson was this, "Complacency Kills".
We were consistently reminded about this. It was spray painted all over the camp we lived in and they had signs created as well. Our leaders would brief us on a daily basis that our greatest enemy is complacency, not a specific group of people. It's amazing that even in the middle of war, complacency exist. How does this happen? How can complacency exist in a place where you would think everyone would be consistently on their toes and ready?
Because even though we had military uniforms on and weapons, we are human as well and we are no exception.
The first couple of weeks I was there, I was extra jumpy and cautious, and yes terrified. But it's crazy how the things I was jumpy for and cautious became the norm to me and everyone else. That is when complacency started to settle in because without realizing it, we started not to pay close attention to every single detail like we did in the beginning. The moment we would get hot, we would remove our kevlar helmet and we would take extra long smoke breaks. But when our superiors would see that, we would get chewed out pretty good and we would square ourselves away.
But here is my point about this, if complacency exist in the middle of war, you better believe it exist here. You may not realize it but you may be in the middle of complacency right now. If it was not for our leaders consistently being on top us, we would have been more complacent. So what helped? That constant reminder and being held accountable.
This is why I am so huge about accountability at CrossFit Be Someone because I know we all need it even when we think we don't. Nobody is the exception. Complacency can occur very quickly and we are here as coaches to remind you about what it is you want to accomplish. Not what I or any of the other coaches want you to accomplish, but what you said you want to accomplish.
If you truly want it, then you will welcome accountability because it will help you and it will keep you from being complacent.
I'm glad I was consistently held accountable when I was in Iraq, it allowed me to come back home.
If you know of anyone who would thrive from our accountability, reply back to this email.
Respectfully,
Josh Melendez
