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Superhuman Jocko Willink Quotes

Jocko Willink Quotes

Who Is Jocko Willink?

Jocko Willink is an American (retired) United States Navy SEAL, podcaster, and author of #1 New York Times bestseller Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win, and Dichotomy of Leadership.

Born as John Gretton Willink Jr., he enlisted in the United States Navy in 1990 and graduated from the University of San Diego in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in English.

He is currently a host of the top-rated Jocko Podcast, and co-founder of Echelon Front, where he serves as Chief Executive Officer, leadership instructor, speaker, and strategic advisor.

Why Is Jocko Willink A Badass?

Jocko spent 20 years in the SEAL Teams, starting as an enlisted SEAL and rising through the ranks to become a SEAL officer.

Willink served eight years on active duty, as an enlisted Navy SEAL with SEAL Team ONE and SEAL Team TWO. Willink was part of the SEAL team that seized Russian Tanker Volga-Neft-147 in the Gulf of Oman which was carrying Iraqi oil in violation of a U.N. economic embargo.

Jocko is the recipient of the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and numerous other personal and unit awards.

He also has a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu from Dean Lister and owns Victory MMA and Fitness in San Diego, California.

Jocko Willink Quotes on Discipline

“Don’t expect to be motivated every day to get out there and make things happen. You won’t be. Don’t count on motivation. Count on Discipline.”
― Jocko Willink

Jocko Willink Quote
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“Don’t let your mind control you. Control your mind.”
― Jocko Willink

“NO MORE. No more excuses. No more: “I’ll start tomorrow.” No more: “Just this once.” No more accepting the shortfalls of my own will. No more taking the easy road. No more bowing down to whatever unhealthy or unproductive thoughts float through my mind.”
― Jocko Willink

“Discipline equals freedom.”
― Jocko Willink

Jocko Willink Quotes

“The test is not a complex one: when the alarm goes off, do you get up out of bed, or do you lie there in comfort and fall back to sleep? If you have the discipline to get out of bed, you win—you pass the test. If you are mentally weak for that moment and you let that weakness keep you in bed, you fail. Though it seems small, that weakness translates to more significant decisions. But if you exercise discipline, that too translates to more substantial elements of your life.”
― Jocko Willink

“Stop researching every aspect of it and reading all about it and debating the pros and cons of it … Start doing it.”
― Jocko Willink, Discipline Equals Freedom: Field Manual

“A good leader does not get bogged down in the minutia of a tactical problem at the expense of strategic success.”
― Jocko Willink, Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win

“Although discipline demands control and asceticism, it actually results in freedom. When you have the discipline to get up early, you are rewarded with more free time.”
― Jocko Willink

“Don’t fight stress. Embrace it. Turn it on itself. Use it to make yourself sharper and more alert. Use it to make you think and learn and get better and smarter and more effective. Use the stress to make you a better you.”
― Jocko Willink, Discipline Equals Freedom: Field Manual

“Our freedom to operate and maneuver had increased substantially through disciplined procedures. Discipline equals freedom.”
― Jocko Willink

“A leader must care about the troops, but at the same time the leader must complete the mission, and in doing so there will be risk and sometimes unavoidable consequences to the troops.”
― Jocko Willink

Jocko Willink Quotes

“Even if you can’t perform at a high level, showing up and doing something is still a thousand times better than not showing up at all.”
― Jocko Willink

“But there was, and is, a dichotomy in the strict discipline we followed. Instead of making us more rigid and unable to improvise, this discipline actually made us more flexible, more adaptable, and more efficient. It allowed us to be creative.”
― Jocko Willink

Jocko Willink Quotes from his Extreme Ownership Book

“Implementing Extreme Ownership requires checking your ego and operating with a high degree of humility. Admitting mistakes, taking ownership, and developing a plan to overcome challenges are integral to any successful team.”
― Jocko Willink

“Generally, when a leader struggles, the root cause behind the problem is that the leader has leaned too far in one direction and steered off course. Awareness”
― Jocko Willink, Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win

“It’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.”

― Jocko Willink

Jocko Willink Quotes

“The most fundamental and important truths at the heart of Extreme Ownership: there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.”
― Jocko Willink

“When setting expectations, no matter what has been said or written, if substandard performance is accepted and no one is held accountable—if there are no consequences—that poor performance becomes the new standard.”
― Jocko Willink

“Relax. Look around. Make a call.”
― Jocko Willink

“Prioritize your problems and take care of them one at a time, the highest priority first. Don’t try to do everything at once or you won’t be successful.”
― Jocko Willink

“Leaders must always operate with the understanding that they are part of something greater than themselves and their own personal interests. They”
― Jocko Willink

“So what does it take to win? Yes, you have to be determined. Yes, you have to be driven. Yes, you must have the unconquerable will to win. But to really win, to truly win at all cost, requires more flexibility, more creativity, more adaptability, more compromise, and more humility than most people ever realize. That is what it takes to win.”
― Jocko Willink

“There are no bad units, only bad officers.”
― Jocko Willink

“The U.S. Navy SEAL Teams were at the forefront of this leadership transformation, emerging from the triumphs and tragedies of war with a crystallized understanding of what it takes to succeed in the most challenging environments that combat presents.”
― Jocko Willink

“A good leader has nothing to prove, but everything to prove.”

― Jocko Willink

Jocko Willink Quotes

“Staying ahead of the curve prevents a leader from being overwhelmed when pressure is applied and enables greater decisiveness.”
― Jocko Willink

“I had to take ownership of everything that went wrong. Despite the tremendous blow to my reputation and to my ego, it was the right thing to do—the only thing to do.”
― Jocko Willink

“People do not follow robots.”
― Jocko Willink, Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win

“Leadership is simple, but not easy.”
― Jocko Willink

“A leader must be attentive to details but not obsessed by them.”
― Jocko Willink

Jocko Willink Quotes

“Plans and orders must be communicated in a manner that is simple, clear, and concise. Everyone”
― Jocko Willink

“Waiting for the 100 percent right and certain solution leads to delay, indecision, and an inability to execute.”
― Jocko Willink

“Identifying weaknesses, good leaders seek to strengthen them and come up with a plan to overcome challenges.”
― Jocko Willink

“Don’t ask your leader what you should do, tell them what you are going to do.”
― Jocko Willink

“The goal of all leaders should be to work themselves out of a job. This means leaders must be heavily engaged in training and mentoring their junior leaders to prepare them to step up and assume greater responsibilities.”
― Jocko Willink

“calm but not robotic, logical but not devoid of emotions;”
― Jocko Willink

“Repetitive exceptional performance became a habit.”
― Jocko Willink

“In the SEAL Teams, the bond of our brotherhood is our strongest weapon. If you take that away from us, we lose our most important quality as a team.”
― Jocko Willink

“The leader must pull the different elements within the team together to support one another, with all focused exclusively on how to best accomplish the mission.”
― Jocko Willink

“They must believe in the cause for which they are fighting. They must believe in the plan they are asked to execute, and most important, they must believe in and trust the leader they are asked to follow.”
― Jocko Willink

“Good leaders don’t make excuses. Instead, they figure out a way to get it done and win.”
― Jocko Willink, Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win

Jocko’s Miscellaneous Quotes

“Take care of your gear and your gear will take care of you.”
― Jocko Willink

“Another mission. Another task. Another goal. And the enemy is always watching. Waiting. Looking for that moment of weakness. Looking for you to exhale, set your weapon down, and close your eyes, even just for a moment. And that’s when they attack. So don’t be finished.”
― Jocko Willink

“There is no growth in the comfort zone.”

― Jocko Willink

Jocko Willink Quotes

“Instead of letting the situation dictate our decisions, we must dictate the situation.”
― Jocko Willink

“Those donuts aren’t food. THEY ARE POISON. Same with the chocolate chip cookies, the double Dutch chocolate cake, the can of soda, the bag of potato chips, and the pretzel-wrapped hot dogs. All that junk isn’t food. It doesn’t fuel you. It kills you. It literally kills you. It isn’t going to make you stronger, faster, healthier, smarter, or better. It’s going to do the opposite.”
― Jocko Willink

“DISCIPLINE. POWER. POSITIVITY. WILL.”
― Jocko Willink

“Besides death, all failure is psychological.”
― Jocko Willink

Jocko Willink on Blinkist

Want to read Jocko Willink books but don’t have time? Head over to Blinkist.

Blinkist app (and website) summarizes nonfiction books for all of us to read or listen to. These summaries or blinks, how they call them, are under 15 minutes long, and often under 10 or even 5 minutes.

There are over 3000 titles and counting. From leadership, religion, psychology to sex and marriage, parenting, personal development and so on.

Two of Jocko Willink’s books are on Blinkist:

  • Extreme Ownership, and
  • The Dichotomy of Leadership

Read my review of Blinkist here.

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