I once spoke to a Soldier who stated that he wanted a more challenging job.
My response was simple: “the job is easy, the challenge is up to you.”
You see none of the jobs in the Army are necessarily hard. Some are more physically demanding, some are more technical, and others are more stressful. But, at the core, the jobs in the Army—and any other business for that matter, are not really that hard. None of them, you could say, are even challenging. The challenge comes when we push ourselves beyond what the job entails.
In all honesty, any thug can pick up a rifle and shoot something. The challenge comes when the pressure is high and the targets are popping up rapidly and there are explosions nearby. The challenge comes when you have to coordinate fires on a certain position. The challenge comes when it is time to not shoot at all.
In order to keep our jobs challenging, we must come to the point of challenging ourselves. When an Army unit arrives at a new location, the Soldiers and the leaders immediately work to improve the position. These improvements are first directed at security followed by comfort and morale. This process never stops until the unit leaves. We need to do the same in our lives, we should always be improving our position. If we are in a job that is not challenging, we should master it—because we find it easy enough; then begin to expand the boundaries. Push the envelope further—take up new challenges, improve our knowledge of the basics, study to be the best Soldier known to man. Constantly read to improve and talk to superiors to learn their lessons learn so that we don’t have to learn it on our own. In short, take responsibility to make it challenging for yourself.
“If the job is not challenging enough”, I continued, “You have failed yourself and let the opportunities pass you by.”