Purpose is a funny thing.  People say it a lot; we hear it a lot; we reference it a lot… But I’d argue we don’t understand the effects of “purpose” a lot.

If we are lucky, our goals will align with our stated purpose.  When that is true, good things happen… actually, GREAT things happen.  We don’t often state our purpose, and I bet many of you reading this couldn’t give me your purpose this very instant.
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Still thinking about it?  YOUR purpose.  Not your company mission statement; not your professional goals; not your health goals.  What’s your purpose?

It’s hard to say it, even after identifying it.  Why?  Because you become very vulnerable when you admit to your purpose.  There is a natural defensiveness in us all – to not allow ourselves to be “vulnerable”. It’s a survival instinct.  Stephen Covey is world known for conflict resolution – what’s at the base of, The 3rd Alternative?  Purpose.  Get past the superficial and get to what really matters for all parties, and there is almost always a 3rd, and better, alternative.

What have you done lately to identify your purpose?  Reflect lately?  I mean truly reflect.  Not brag at yourself for accomplishments, or complain about those “other things” that keep getting in the way of what’s “yours” – but reflect.

For me, I think it’s a huge question that I don’t know if I can answer.  But, I’ve figured out how to identify short-term purpose.  They’re called, “goals”.  You can endure anything if you have a purpose to do so.  Nobody I’ve ever spoke to would go to Boot Camp or Officer Candidate School if it didn’t result in becoming a military service member.  I didn’t go to Boot Camp for fun – I went to become a Marine. I didn’t go to OCS and trade my “rockers” for “butterbars” because I wanted to be a “Boot” again and enjoyed PT and getting yelled at; I wanted to be an Infantry Officer and lead Marines at the ultimate test of leadership – the world has ever known.

Take a look at what you do each day, and answer yourself:  Does this fulfill my purpose?

– Damien

Four Block Alumni Organizes Veteran Suicide Awareness Event in NYC

New York City, NY – On Sunday, October 11th, hundreds of people walked through the streets of New York City wearing heavy packs, “silkies” shorts, and flags. They were participating in the 2nd Annual VETHack Ruck March to End Veteran Suicide and were joined by many veterans organizations, including Four Block, Team Rubicon, Team Red White And Blue, The Mission Continues, GoRuck, and the Bob Woodruff Foundation…

– See more at: http://fourblock.org/alumni-organizes-nyc-event/#sthash.mddu7r2D.dpuf

Happy to share my latest – as written for the organization I am a part of – Four Block!  Give it a look – and if it raises questions, give our page a visit!  FourBlock.org.

That’s the difference with Four Block–they don’t merely give out tools for veterans to stare at; they teach veterans how to use those tools.

Source: Craftsmen of Their Careers

I may share opinion pieces on LifebyDamien.com – but I do refrain from taking a political position.  If I may have disappointed you by breaking that rule, just continue reading and find out why this is about Marketing.  I am not nearly involved in Politics enough to make any political analysis of any given candidate.  But I can tell you why Donald Trump is the Anchor of the Republican Party – and his effect is already established.

The “Anchoring Effect” in marketing describes the effect of manipulating consumers/buyers decision making by presenting them with a new “anchor” or baseline to make their decisions when deciding to purchase or act.  This can be better explained in the Inc.com article published in January 2014.  Let me set an example, first read the following two statements:

• Statement One: I paid $800 for my roundtrip plane tickets to L.A. (from NYC) last month.
• Statement Two: I am looking for tickets to make my next trip – they are looking expensive.

How much do you think tickets are selling for?  Odds are, if you didn’t go to a booking site before answering, you assumed the tickets are more than $800.  If I’m an airline marketer, I’m also hoping you’ll find that a price that you’ll accept to paying.  When looking up info on the anchoring effect, I find most writers also referencing this great TED Talk by Dan Ariely – he is able to speak through the examples well.

Donald Trump, be it through choice, intent, or not – is making statement one.  Donald Trump has already made a case, that is followed enough to effect the decision making of voters – particularly those who will not vote for him.  Let’s set some assumptions for the sake of making this easier to explain:

• the extreme Democratic position as the “Far Left” and the extreme Republican party as the “Far Right”
• the point at where both parties meet is the “Moderate Middle”
• Democratic Presidential candidates are somewhere on the “Left” and Republican candidates are somewhere on the “Right”.

Speaking from a Marketing perspective, Donald Trump has established a newly visible point of reference… effectively making the “Far Right” even further to the right, than before his campaign.  If the Republican Party stays its position in the “Right”, then the moderate middle is then pulled to the right to some extent… closer to the (hat is now considered) “moderate” republicans.  Think of it similar to the average or “mean” of a data sample being skewed due to an extreme value.

Without an Extreme Right, or polarizing candidate like Donald Trump – the “extreme” boundaries are held by the Republican Party.  I am not advocating any candidate, but I thought seeing this, somewhat hidden, example of the Anchoring Effect was too interesting to not mention.

Be it Passover, Easter, or just the change of season – the Vernal Equinox and arrival of spring mark the vivacious new chapter in the New Year.  After the tumultuous shift into the New Year has occurred (If you are in the Northeast, you are particularly familiar with this year’s tumultuous “transition”) and now all look to the fruits to come – if they haven’t already arrived.  What better time to mark my own turn into a new chapter?

This week, I begin my new mission – or should I say new role in a continued mission – at The Four Block Foundation.  I will be closing a chapter where I served as a Campus Recruiter and leading voice in the company’s Veteran Initiative Committee at the world’s largest Insurance Company – AIG.  I accomplished quite a bit while at AIG, and I hope to still help them accomplish some of their goals that coincide with our goals at Four Block.

To AIG I say:  Thank you for the time and ability for me to continue developing myself while having a mission and contributing to value for something other than myself.

To Four Block: Thank you for inviting me in. I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of the team!

As I write this – I can’t help but think that in my move to Four Block, I’ve managed to directly address two of my 2015 Goals in one!  I will have a great involvement in Four Block (which if you have read, is not a new organization to me) AND I will be taking on an advanced role with more responsibility.  The ability for me to take on a role that is quite accurately a ‘passion project’ is incredibly humbling.

The role will be incredibly exciting, challenging, demanding and – rewarding!  As the Director of Programs in New York City, I will have the opportunity to work with some of the most: well-trained, ambitious and determined Student Veterans that the region has.  On top of that, I will have the privilege of being a part of their development.  At an operational level, I will have the opportunity to be a part of Four Block growing, and developing more relationships, more offerings, and more opportunities for Four Block students and the organizations that support them.

At a tactical level – I will have a new routine and a new balance of priorities.  It may sound simple or even silly, but I look forward to my new schedule allowing me to get to the gym in the AM, or go running, or complete an Insanity/T25/#Spartan30/WOD workout without having to get up before 5 am!  I might be a Vet, but I’ve never enjoyed getting up early – if it wasn’t for the excitement of getting to jump out of a perfectly fine aircraft over the gorgeously green fields of Alabama, I would have REALLY struggled at jump school.

I am very excited to share this time and new chapter with you.  Here’s to jumping into a new chapter, and to earning the fruits to come!

When I heard the statistic that 22 Veterans were committing suicide a day I was shocked at the number.  It is clearly too many.  But then… the more I’ve experienced life after the uniform, life as a Vet, I wonder how it is so few.

I try to keep things positive, and be a common voice for many.  But this time, this is just raw honesty – for better or worse.  Every day I ask myself if I will ever be worth something the way I was when I was  a Marine.  The one place I felt like I fit in, and I had a purpose worth sacrificing for, I will never be able to go back to.  But I also lose hope every day that I will ever find a place to fit in like that ever again.  So now what?  Does that make me spoiled?  Maybe.

Now – maybe I’m tainted, maybe I have too high of expectations of people, or maybe I’m just broken.  I have lost my ability to cope with persons in positions of leadership who fail to lead; People in the world who will sacrifice others for their own gain.  I can’t stand to see people in positions of leadership being falsely led to believe they are leaders – but just aren’t.  But worse, that they have been placed in that position and NOBODY has given them an honest education, expectations, or development on/with leadership skills.  So – is it really that person’s fault?

I was drafting my next post to be about the leadership failures within the NYPD, highlighted some of the tragedies that happened at the hands of the NYPD officers.  The cliff-note:  There is leadership at the top, and cadets get leadership training during the academy – but nobody is qualifying the leadership between the very beginning, and the very top.  And that lost leadership is costing NYPD their own lives, the lives of NYPD Families, and the lives of those whom they are sworn to protect.

I can type until my fingers bleed, I can speak at college campuses until my face is blue and my voice is shot.  But the situation is not going to resolve.  It is not going to resolve for me, and I am still lost.  I’m still left wondering where, if I’ll find my place of value – and that hope diminishes daily.

Every day I look at my accomplishments since I’ve been a “Veteran”, and every day I am not happy with them.  To some others, they may see some as actual accomplishments.  But, I’ve lived beyond that – and to me, I question if I am meeting the minimum requirements.

It’s true, and I’ve poured countless hours of my own time, my work time, and the time of others I’ve asked to help me – to figure out why the population doesn’t understand Veterans.  They don’t, and won’t.  But – maybe the bigger fix is correcting how Veterans don’t understand the rest of the world.  Before the 9/11 attacks 13 years ago, only 3% of the U.S. population was made up of Military Veterans.  Currently that population has increased to 10-12%.  It is expected to move back closer to the 3-4% mark after we move beyond a post-conflict era.  So – why should we work on educating the 90% + population for the sake of the less than 10%?  Maybe because the 10% have been enlightened in a way the 90% haven’t, and that enlightenment came at a cost that the 10% bare on behalf of the 100%.  I can only think back to the book, “The Giver”, and the strife that was brought to the one chosen to be the “Giver”.  Maybe not all of us can handle being enlightened, and still live among those who are not.  Maybe that is why the “Giver” lives a life of an outcast, and away from those who will never have the capacity to know.

The problem is – even though their cost, the cost of the 10%, was at the benefit of the 90% – those who stand to lose the most in all of this confusion, are the “Givers”… the 10%.

#22adayistoomany – but I can only wonder how it isn’t so many more.