LIVE TO OUR BEST

-->

Everything can be achieved through hard work and perseverance

Nelson Mandela said, “The greatest fear in life is not that we are inadequate but it is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not darkness that frightens us most. The knowledge we have makes us unsure because there are times where we simply do not know when or how to apply what we know. When we are liberated from our fears, our presence automatically liberates others. Our mentality dictates what we experience in life. It determines how we view and feel things. 10% of life is made up of what happens to us. 90% of life is decided by how we react. When a person is enlisted into the army with the mindset that it is a waste of two years of his life, anything fruitful that happens during this period will not be an enriching experience. This is where the 90/10 principle sets in. I believe two issues; the belief and the mindsets of the servicemen affect this mentality.

The extent of having a positive attitude towards National Service can only stem from one’s patriotism, which is controlled by his perception. His upbringing, friends, family and the environment, which he lives in, contribute to this perception. However, his perception is dependent on what he chooses to believe.

All of us have different perceptions or mindsets. We interpret everything we experience through this mindset, where we neither question the accuracy of what we have been told nor accept facts that exist. We must understand, whatever we see and comprehend is affected by the mindsets that condition our perception.

Most of us get enlisted into the Army with fears. These fears include, not being able to meet the physical and mental challenges, not forgetting the ability to fit into the regimentation and strict disciplinary lifestyle of the Army. In order to overcome these fears, we have to allow ourselves to step out of our comfort zone and change for the better.

Thus, at the end of the day, we relinquish the possibility of us having a positive and enriching learning experience, by looking through a tinted glass that makes every experience a negative one. There is no way we can learn and change in a positive manner as what happens inside the fences of our mind, can only lead to the depreciation of our commitment and loyalty to the Army. Life is about learning new things and if we are reluctant to make changes, nothing is possible.

Human beings are very powerful, as we are equipped with the skills to change and learn. However, we are sometimes tied down by our mindsets and fears. When an opportunity is given, all we need to do is to adopt a model or a guide to unleash our capabilities.

“Live your life each day as you would climb a mountain. An occasional glance towards the summit keeps the goal in mind, but many beautiful scenes are to be observed from each new vantage point. Climb slowly, steadily, enjoying each passing moment, and the view from the summit will prove to be astonishing.” (Earthscope, 2003)

Life is not about meeting targets; we have to enjoy the experience and benefits we take into meeting the objectives. Yes, achieving our set targets does indeed instill in us a sense of fulfillment, but how we get there is more important as that is where we will draw our valuable experiences from.

The L.I.V.E model consists of several basic principles, which brings about a positive mindset and strengthens one’s commitment towards the Army. This model is formed to start a revolution, which will instill the correct principles upon our servicemen and regulars in the Army.

The army is presently evolving into a 3^rd generation fighting force. The purpose of L.I.V.E is to strengthen the Army’s core values into a competent yet simple model. A model is simply an explanation of certain aspects of a paradigm in which we perceive.

The purpose of the model is to ensure that we meet the Army’s objective of creating a first-class Army with the highest standards of military professionalism and soldiers who are committed, confident and competent.

The L.I.V.E model consists of four main components, Leadership and Learning, Image and Identity, Values and Positive Army Experience. Firstly under the letter L we have leadership and learning which starts the ball rolling for things to come. Secondly the letter I represents image and identity a part and parcel of life. Moving on to the letter V we have value, the quality (positive or negative) that renders something desirable or valuable. Lastly, we have E that stands for positive Army experiences, which gives a fruitful and satisfying feeling when a job is appreciated and done well.

The model provides a holistic, integrated and principle-centered approach for creating a common language to strengthen the “heart-ware” of our people. With penetrating insights and experiences, I will show you the opportunities to take advantage of, brought about by the model. Having an effective model is the key to success, but we must be able to implement it.

A person learns from experiences; however how a person performs depends on factors from the society and him. “You cannot change the direction of the wind, but you can adjust your sail.” (Earth scope 2003), is very relevant. It means that we cannot change nature but we have control over our perception and mindset.

Leadership and Learning

There are different styles of leadership. My experience in leadership began during my overseas tour of duty in Thailand. I was appointed as the officer-in-charge for armament workshop at Sai Yok Camp. I had trouble being accepted by the workshop company due to the prejudices and perceptions they had harboured.

The whole company was against me during the first month. As an armament workshop IC, I had neither support nor trust as they thought I lacked experience. I was not able to bond and get respect from anyone there. Building friendship was a tough experience; fellow colleagues had doubts of whether I would be of any good use in the camp. Challenges were inevitable as I was not given any support from various departments, example; logistics. I felt miserable and often had thoughts to leave the camp. I wanted to give up what I was tasked to do, and go back to my comfort zone. However, I did not want to bring my formation and its reputation down, including the reputation of my commanders whom I worked for.

I felt despondent that my authority was undermined. I decided to earn the respect that I did not receive. I stood firm, grit my teeth and strive on. With sheer commitment and hard work, I earned the respect of my superior and subordinate. I always believed that we only lead through serving other people. Servant leadership begins with wanting to serve first then the conscious choice to lead. This differed from the leadership style where people who leads, demands first priority. I remembered that great leaders do not just follow through motions, but take on the initiatives themselves; I told myself that that would be exactly what I would do.

I tried to ensure that all the people in armament section were first to complete their IPPT before the deadline. This is to ensure that they perform well and achieve results of high standards. I always gave suggestions for changes ahead of time and assured comments are of high standards. As an armament workshop IC, I stressed that the workshop must be of excellent condition at all times. With service comes learning, when you reflect on what you have done, you would consciously adjust yourself to excel.

When I was down and felt lonely, I asked myself why I was doing all this when I had no reason to persevere. I pondered for a moment and told myself, “I want to lead a happy life, and ultimate happiness is achieved when you see a smile on another person’s face when you have helped him in one way or another, be it giving advice or guiding him with his work.” Most of us do not reflect on what we have done to others and ourselves. Why do we lead a life with no aim and purpose? To me helping someone is the greatest joy in life. The happiness are doubled when I learn from helping others, it makes life more meaningful. When was the last time you did something for others? If you tell me you had never done so or you cannot remember when was the last time you helped others, it is time for you to be happy again by helping others in the army.

Image and Identity

“Do not accept the roles that society foists on you. Re-create yourself by forging a new identity, one that commands attention and never bores the audience.” (Robert Greene, 2003). We must understand the right to choose who we want to be and how we are present ourselves to others. We have to be masters of our identity, rather than allowing others to define it for us. When we are confident that our identity is in our hands, there are no limits as to how far we can excel ourselves.

In order to maintain this good image and identity, we must ensure that our hands are always clean. This means that we must be the epitome of respect and success to others. Our hands nor minds must never be soiled by unethical deeds. We have to work to maintain a spotless appearance and to eradicate the possibility of tarnishing the image of SAF.

Image and Identity is important because it builds the confidence in people. As a workshop IC, I had to ensure that my armament section which overseas the equipment are serviceable at all times, thus giving people the confidence in their equipment. To maintain zero injuries and fault-free firing, we have to be confident that we are the best without compensating safety. We must not be labeled incapable and inexperience by society. We had to create an identity that would earn the respect and trust of people.

There was a very interesting incident that happened at Sai Yok camp that I will never forget. The 257^th battalion came down to Sai Yok camp for live firing training. This particular battalion had a phobia of live firing because in 1997 during a live firing exercise two people including a section commander were killed when a chamber explosion occurred. It took them seven years to gain enough confidence to fire and to have courage to move on from the tragic event.

We displayed excellent image and identity when we gave support to the live firing exercise. To heal the wounds of their past, we had to ensure our guns were in excellent serviceable conditions. The guns cannot fail during the mission. During the fourteen days, which included ten days of live firing exercise, we had to leave as early as four o’clock in the morning and be the first to arrive to make preparations. We also had to know the places at the back of our heads as changes in locations were sudden and we had to be prepared.

We ensured that the guns were of excellent serviceability achieving operational standard. In total there were 12 guns with 2 in reserve. Halfway, during the firing, we were requested to reattach a breech cable in a technical break exercise. As we opened up the breech mechanism to repair the faulty cable, it started to rain and all the gunners headed for shelter. However, three armament staff and I stayed out in the rain to repair the defect for more than two hours. Keeping in mind that the troops had a limited time to train, we did not want a technical defect to affect the training of the gunners. The guns were our responsibility and we did not want the gunners to loose faith in their equipment and us.

Those who witnessed us working in the rain were astonished with our persistence despite the downpour. Upon completion of the repair, we were overwhelmed by the applause of men and officers from the 257^th battalion. Letters of commendation were received from the Battalion CO and the ARTC Commander in recognition of our effort. This incident earned us the name of “The Gun Doctors” from the men of 257^th battalion. Even to date I am recognized and acknowledged by the men of 257^th battalion when they bump into me. These warm gestures are unexpected yet heart warming. This was an enriching experience. These experiences make me feel proud of being a professional Army technician.

Values

“Values often bring comfort to individuals and build bonds among people, but it can also drive a wedge between friends.” (David & John, 2003, p. 271) Each of us has a core of underlying values that contribute to our system of beliefs, ideas and opinions. Singapore being a multi-cultural society, we need values for building healthy relationships. A multi-cultural society, which means we come from different religious and cultural backgrounds, and not being able to understand and respect a person’s culture, we subconsciously raise comments that cause disagreements. Everyone has their individual perceptions, we can work efficiently with them only when we are to understand, respect and work with his values, thus creating stronger bonds.

In this current rat race society, how many of us are aware of whom we are and how do we communicate with others? The ability of having self-awareness enables us to improve and build stronger relationships with our subordinates.

We often overlook of being self-aware and thus become oblivious to our faults that lead us into blaming others. By understanding ourselves, we can make ourselves more competent by celebrating our weaknesses and consolidating our strengths. To resolve any issue, we have to first understand the person’s thoughts, fears, values and needs. When we lose the ability to understand the person’s thoughts, we become handicapped in the problem solving process.

With this thought in mind, I have concentrated to a great extent in ensuring that the workshop was in an excellent condition. During my birthday, I was given birthday off, but I decided to support the live firing exercise and forgo my off. My intentions were to stay through the exercise, and to clear my office work, which led me back to office at ten in the evening. My men had planned a surprise party for me among themselves, these actions made me feel touched, as I had only celebrated my birthday twice. One was with my wife and the other the surprise these guys threw at me. I least expected a birthday surprise, as I was strict and disciplined to my men, but I still respected every individual as a brother, showing care and concern to them. This has led them in looking at me with honour and respect.

The ability in making others work within your direction comes from an image of respect and honour. Leading people into trusting you with dignity and pride for their country comes with identity. To achieve this we had to master ourselves and work on individual’s strengths, weaknesses, and psychologies. Outrun their resistance by working with their emotions. Understand and appreciate their minds and work or they will grow to hate you.

In a marathon to an individual it is always about winning and completing the race. However when I was competing in a bilateral event which was organized by the Royal Thai Army, the thought of winning was not my first priority during the last one kilometer of the race. I valued bilateral friendship and fostering a stronger bonding with our fellow neighbours in the South East Asia region. As such during the last one kilometer my Thai Counterpart and I held hands to complete the race together. We could have outrun one another to win the race but we wanted to complete the race together to strengthen our bonding to a greater extent. Everyone including the commanders who witnessed this event were overwhelmed and in a dilemma why we did not outrun one another. This incident can be cited for valuing thoughts of friendship, care and concern for one another in times of crisis regardless of race, religion and language.

Having self-awareness and the ability of understanding others are equally important. Equipped with these skills, our perception to life would be a clear and not tinted. Relationships would no longer be clouded with doubts and uncertainty. Having awareness improves and builds better relationships. However, despite knowing that having awareness is effective, we must understand that how much a person discloses himself depends on factors in the society and his background. By equipping ourselves with this skills will only lead to have a greater value to serve and protect our nation, when the time calls for.

Experience

Experience is something that cannot be described in words; it has to be felt. What we experience in life determines how we treat people and portrays an image of a particular place. I believe that to demand high standard in discipline and turnout, we have to be able to motivate them. We have to be courteous, friendly, tactful and professional in our job scope so as to create a healthy working environment for others. One has to care and be filled with passion to preserve in every obstacle he meets. Positive experience can be achieved in a working environment when we work with effective people who share a common goal thus reaping greater benefits and getting the work done in half the time.

An incident that I believed etched into the hearts of my men happened during the festive season of Deepavali when we were attached to Sai Yok camp. All of us, applied for home leave but only my request was approved. Upon knowing this, I decided to give a surprise to my men. I borrowed a video camera and video taped the festive lights decoration along Little India, I did this to give my men a chance to view the celebration since they were not allowed to return home. I took a step further and paid a visit to all my men’s family members capturing moments of what their family wanted to convey to them.

When I got back to base, I played the video of their loved ones. Seeing them cry, laugh and celebrating as one unit was a heart whelming experience. Even though I went through lots of trouble to videotape, I felt that at the end of day my effort was appreciated as everyone in camp was touched. The commander commended me. This is the experience I want my men to feel in the army. My aim was to change the concept of army being a place where cold-blooded people exist. An old saying goes, you are only as strong as your Achilles heel. The respect earned by a commander depends on how much positive experience his men have received.

I hope what I have done for their welfare would give them a positive perspective of our army. With a positive outlook, they should be able to feel proud of themselves and be a responsible, efficient part of the SAF.

In conclusion, it is important to incorporate all these values in the model to encourage people in the army to strive for their best. It is only when you have a meaningful and memorable experience than you would have a sense of pride to serve the nation. Duty and honour must be complimented with L.I.V.E to achieve the 3^rd Generation Army. Keep in mind the power is in your hands how you L.I.V.E your life.

The End