Preparation And Prior Planning In The United States Marine Corps

Preparation and prior planning
I strongly believe that preparation and prior planning are the basics and foundation of good decisions and success. Without preparation there would be no success. In sports, teams practice 5-6 times a week before there next game making sure they are in the best shape they can possibly be. Running their routes over and over again creating muscle memory, and fluidity. Prior planning is also very important. Without proper prior planning, there would be no success. We have a saying in the United States Marine Corps; Prior proper planning prevents piss poor performance. Also known as the 6’s. To give a few examples of prior planning would be; thinking up a gear list for your junior marines for an up and coming field
Share with them everything you know from stories to past experiences and mistakes made. What went well, what could have been better. These conversations will create file folders in your Marine’s brain housing groups, and hopefully they will have the confidence and the decisiveness to act and make a decision based off of the similar situation you shared with them. Preparing can be anything from story time to formal classes and practical applications. As long as the time isn’t wasted, and the effort is put forth at all times. You would really hate yourself if something happened to one of your marines that you thought you could have trained better. A lack of preparation and prior planning is a lack of leadership and discipline. When your preach something to your junior marines and expect them to do it and then you turn around and break your own rules your loosing everyone’s respect and trust. Were all human and we make mistakes but when it seems like your creating a pattern it becomes a problem. That’s why im writing this right now because my sergeant thinks im creating a pattern of tardiness. Which truth be told does have some truth to it. This sounds bad but the first time it happened I did it on purpose. I had no idea that we were holding formations now at 0700 because someone before me got in trouble. So I got there right on time. The second time was the morning of my surgery and I had taken off my watch to prevent it being stolen when I was unconscious, that day was just a huge brain fart. I had so much on my mind that I wasn’t paying attention, I thought I had left with enough time to get there a little early but I was wrong. I showed up on time again, which like I said earlier, if your not early your late. The third time I have absolutely no excuse for, it was a complete lack of preparation and discipline. I had a little too much to drink the night before and