Guard duty

Back in the day, I spent a little time working for my rich Uncle Sam. Even then he had hundreds of companies and hundreds of thousands of employees, and they were all over the world.

The group I worked for was (and still is) known as the United States Army. I got a letter from the President, basically telling me how much the whole country needed me to come along and help out and giving me about 30 days to report for duty.

Unlike Cooper Flagg, who was recently drafted by the NBA’s Dalla Mavericks and offered millions of dollars, I had been drafted by the the Army and offered a full time job for two years.

I found out, though, that if I volunteered for an extra year of service, I might have a choice of jobs. And that is what I did. So my path was set for the next three years. After basic training (I don’t think the military calls it onboarding — waterboarding maybe), I would go to school for a year and learn cool electronics things.

Those in charge of basic training did not know or care where I was going next. They assumed I would end up in combat — which is what they assumed about everyone — so they trained me for that. All of them had been in combat, most of them had been wounded, and not a few of them had lost buddies in the war.

They were, to a person, very serious about our training. Good training saves lives, we learned.

I tell you all that so you will know that when we learned guard duty, it wasn’t quite like what you see on old TV shows. The concept was the same, but the consequences of failure were drummed carefully and deeply into our thick little heads. And they were scary.

Halt! Who goes there?

That’s the phrase you see in movies. It can still be used, I suppose, and it has a lot to commend it. But that phrase only actually works on someone who is friendly. No enemy combatant either halts or answers the question. They take cover and try to make you think no one is really there, or else they shoot at the voice.

Guard duty takes it out of you, because you have to be vigilant all the time.

And that is exactly what I want to share with you in this article, because there are “unfriendlies” out there, and they want to get in.

Here, at least, I’m not talking about people. While there are unfriendly people who intend to do other people harm, most of us are not subject to their actions most of the time. What we are subject to is the temptations from outside sources that keep us from doing good. In the worst cases, they cause us to hurt others.

The first place these ideas and temptations show up is in our minds as thoughts.

Often when I talk to audiences or clients about doing good, I talk about thoughts. Thoughts, I say, often lead to words. Those words can lead to actions, and actions almost always have consequences.

Want to avoid a bad action, or a terrible consequence? Stop it at the thought stage. If an enemy in war gets past the guard, he is much more likely to cause harm to more people. An unhealthy thought that gets a foothold in your mind can do the same thing.

What was I thinking?

Some “not good” thoughts look innocuous, some of them seem a little bit familiar. A few of them might — if you are using the really old style of guard duty — know the password.

Allow me to put your mind at ease a little by telling you that bad thoughts will get in. Pride, for instance, seems to have a secret passageway into many minds. So does its grubby little cousin, selfishness. Like pretty much everyone else in the world, I’ve entertained both of those from time to time.

For the sake of clarity, pride is the feeling of deep pleasure at your own achievements. Let’s say you win an Oscar, or start and build a huge company, or win three national championships in a row. Reporters compete for your attention. People want to write books about you. Fan clubs are started, and plans are made for parade in your honor. You love it all.

Most of all, you think you deserve it, because, after all, “Look what I did.”

Pride, it has been said, is the mother of all sins. The thought you need to replace pride with, as soon as you even see a hint of it, is humility.

In any event, thoughts often jump out of the bushes and knock on the door of our minds and try to persuade us to let them in.

“Look at that car! You should have that!” Not cars for you? How about house or clothes or boat or any other possession? When you give in to that and the possession possesses you, you are in trouble.

“Look at that girl (or guy). I should have that!” Ditto.

And when we realize the trouble we are in, we might say, “What was I thinking?”

Don’t let the old man in…

Toby Keith wrote a song called Don’t Let The Old Man In for the Clint Eastwood movie The Mule. The inspiration for the song was a conversation he had with Eastwood. When Keith asked him how he kept going so strong at the age of 88. Eastwood said, “I just get up every morning and go out. And I don’t let the old man in.”

That is how you guard your thoughts. Whether it is pride or the old man or lust or self pity or hate or fear or unworthiness or just plain old selfishness, recognize it and don’t let it in.

Guard duty is exhausting some days, I know. But it is a great way to do good for you and others.

Do good. It’s in you.