…in our field as Drill Sgt’s these soldiers are replicas of us

Drill Sgt. Offringa Blog Day 11:

MRT Training is over. I’ve been saying all of my goodbys, and drove to Fort Benning yesterday. So I’ve had tons of questions so far pertaining to the Resilience course that I just completed. We learned a lot in class, now the big question is how do we implement this in our every day military lives. It’s going to take tons of positive thinking and encouragement to my peers, and NCO’s. I’m hearing lots of negative thinking, and I’m going to do this and I’m going to do that to these privates, but I have yet to hear anyone say how they’re going to effectively train these privates to be the best soldiers they can be. I hear so many soldiers say man, that soldier just doesn’t have it or man, that soldier is a rock, but in our field as Drill Sgt’s these soldiers are replicas of us. So we might be saying these negative things about these privates, but as Drill Sgt’s there showing in their actions every day what they learned from us. So at the end of the day what does that say about who you are as a leader and a soldier. You need to identify the strengths, and faults in yourself before you try to train teach and lead others. So I close with this: Help people to think better- don’t tell them what to do!

sometimes the fastest solution to the problem is just talking about it

Drill Sgt. Offringa Blog Day 10:

Today we went over some more material on post deployment and pre-deployment resiliency training. This raised a lot of questions and we got into a few heated arguments. Let me clear the air for a minute for anyone out there who thinks resilience trainers are counselors. No, we’re not counselors, but merely just here to help you, and ourselves identify inner strengths and weaknesses in ourselves and others so that we’re able to live a more positive and effective life. We can’t give you guidence or tell you what to do in major situations. The way we can help with these situations is by helping you find the right help for your problem before it’s to late. So many times it’s hard for an individual to come out and say when something is bothering them – sometimes the fastest solution to the problem is just talking about it.

SSG Offringa

A coward gets scared and quits, a hero gets scared and still goes on.

We don’t all have to be heroic to understand what it looks like

CSM’s Blog Day 10

Yet another day full of pleasant thoughts and objectives to… tackle (Freudian slip on the previous football analogy). Most of the crew is gone now, they are letting us navigate the course with careful watch of the Captain. Focus is now on how to implement the Comprehensive Soldier Fitness model into pre-mobilization and post-mobilization transitions for Soldiers and their families. The thoughts among group members continue to be how to utilize the skills obtained to create a more resilient force. We know how to use the MRT skills – issue is to implement them through the Army in a manner that provides consistent messages on its value. We are able to share stories of strength. Opportunities to face high stress that allowed Post Traumatic Growth, (PTG).

For those of you who have never heard of PTG, it is what resilient Soldiers do when faced with stressful situations that create feelings of accomplishment and gratitude. Soldiers experiencing PTG perform better as a result of having to deal with stress and resolve to increase their abilities as leaders for Soldiers and families. Real time application of MRT is taking place as the stories of individuals in the course provide examples of when some of these techniques were used before they knew they were using them. These examples give us clearer understanding of how resilience is already at work in the Army.

SSG Offringa Blog Day 9

Third day of Student teaching. Today we covered the four final skills.

• Identify Strengths in Challenges.
• Use Strengths in Challenges
• Assertive Communication
• ACR (Active Constructive Responding)/Praise quick overview of identifying strengths and challenges – this skill helps to build Strengths of Character

 Knowing and using your strengths and the strengths of others will strengthen your unit’s effectiveness.

 Use strengths in Challenges. This skill also helps to build Stengths in character.

How would you defend the claim that Master Resiliency Training, (MRT) makes you mentally strong

CSM’s Blog Day 9

One of the keys to leadership is knowing yourself and your Soldiers’ strengths, it is the “Be” in the Be-Know-Do model. Develop your Soldiers to perform at maximum potential based on their strengths combined with skills aquired through training. When we put it like that it seems like a very simple process, no sweat anyone can do this. Really? How many of you have followed the link from last weeks blog to the VIA strength test for a clearer understanding of where your strengths lie? If you’re serious about the “Be” you may want to take a closer look. It can be surprising at first glance and revealing upon greater reflection. I am not here to be your conscience or guilt you into performing what may seem like a waste of time. It’s a tool for the kitbag, try it you just may learn a few things about yourself and those you lead.

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”

Drill Sgt. Offringa: Blog Day 8

Looking back on today, I can say I’m learning more and retaining  more now that we’re able to finally teach these materials in our small groups and take what we’ve learned and Put it all in Perspective. This week we’re focusing on the teaching part of these skills that we’re being taught, and how we are going to implement these skills in our training, and everyday lives after this course.

We covered three more teaching skills. Three effective ways of building a stronger and more positive Army. This course is truly a gift, a blessing if you will. If you just take one thing out of this course you have done a positive thing.  I know people are skeptical about this course. I hear it on a daily basis here in Philadelphia. Not so much now that we’re in the second week, but there are still a few people that are very pestimistic about this course, but we all know how positive thinking is contagious, and as more positive things are discussed, more optimistic thinking is triggered. How can you not be excited about something that can change your career and your home life, two huge parts of your life.

Resiliency is the answer – Dr. Karen Reivich is our Captain Kirk.

CSM’s Blog day 8,

 Instructor training day 2. Finding it hard to think…too much stuff in brain…must focus now… I imagine the original Star Trek series with CPT James T Kirk pushing the crew through some out-of-body experience in order to save the Starship Enterprise and the federation of planets from sure destruction. 

The task at hand is as large and of no less importance than the scenes played out on the 70’s Sci-fi series only it’s not TV.  The reality in fact is much more significant than we could ever dramatize in a fictional television show. It can’t be fixed in a sixty minute time slot. Resiliency is the answer – Dr. Karen Reivich is our Captain Kirk.

 Setting the scene:

Our Soldiers spend time in preparation for a very real war, they go to a place that puts them at risk to witness loss of life and real danger.  We bring them home and try to patch them up mentally and physically then pat them on the fourth point of contact, (non-airborne personnel see parachute landing fall,) and get them back to their families. Very quickly each Soldier is expected to rebound and refit for the next operation. What tools are we using to ensure that they are able to bounce back?  Why do we have to wait until they need patching up to start giving them the read-ahead necessary to ensure they do bounce back? Big questions senior leaders are asking and this course is the answer to those questions.  The wheel is not being reinvented here, it’s being shaped in order to roll through the terrain it’s expected to perform on.

 “We’re giving her all we got Captain.”

It’s not just me carrying on like a lovesick alley cat

CSM’s blog day 7

You may be looking for day 6 but it was a day of R&R  (rest and relaxation), so I took the opportunity to give you a rest from tireless rantings about the benefits of attending the Master Resilience Training. Philly, in spite of what I may have previously lead you to believe, is not a terrible place with mean-spirited people wearing green.  It is a place rich with the history of our nation.  Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and lot of pictures of Benjamin Franklin. It is becoming increasingly difficult to hold a grudge against everyone in the state of Pennsylvania, Eagles and Steelers fans excluded, it’s really not a bad place to hang out for a couple of weeks. (Is this a brainwashing technique in Dr Reivich’s plan to bring everyone under the spell of the Eagles faithful?)  Now I am getting nervous. (I must resist.)

 

No matter how much you want to give up, there’s always a little bit more left in you

Drill Sergeant Offringa, Blog day 5:

 Today was an awesome day, and a very special day. Today we had a guest speaker. His name is Dick Hoyt. He told his story about him and his son.

His son’s name is Rick. Rick was born with a handicap that would leave him in a wheel chair for the rest of his life with a zero chance of ever being able to use his legs, his arms, or ever speak.  The doctors recommended his parents put him in a permanent home with other handicap kids like him, because he would never get better.

 Dick the father thought to himself, and said no way – this is my son, and I will take him home, and give him the life every other kid would want. So his father included him in everything. Swimming and playing hockey outside with his brothers, all while still in a wheel chair. his parents wanted to put him in a public school but the administrators said no because he can’t talk and he’s handicap so there’s no way he could possibly learn anything. His parents felt otherwise. So the school said if you can come up with 5,000.00 to build a machine that would help Rick to communicate and prove that he in fact knew what was going on around him then he could go to school.

They raised five thousand dollars and they got the wheel chair with the device on it, and Rick in fact could comprehend and think on his own. Rick then started school in a public school.

“Hunt for the Good”

CSM’s Blog day 5:

 The day started with a sharing of personal blessings, “Hunt for the Good”, ensures we keep things in perspective and we can be thankful in all things this life has to offer.  Even through trials we can receive a great many blessings.  LTC(R) Dick Hoyt of Team Hoyt, (Google search Team Hoyt for full story,) was our guest speaker today. A remarkable story of triumph over tragedy, if ever there was one. I can’t begin to tell the story here as it is one of those that I feel like I could not tell completely here in this short space with any amount of due justice. Know this, there are people all around us that continue to show us resiliency in spite of what may seem like horrific or tragic life circumstances.  They serve to inspire us to achieve more, to love more and to give more of ourselves; this is truly one of those stories.

 We continued through the course with module 4, means we are through the “meat” of the project and the main course is close to an end.  Communication was the focus.  It seems a little crazy that this many Sr NCOs, Officers and Leaders would need a course on communication, that’s what I thought anyway. Come to find out, we needed it.