What can we learn from the Indian Army?

This is a short account on when I got an opportunity to spend half a day with a few soldiers from the Indian Army. I was keen to ask them a few questions, just to get to know more about how Army life is like and what kind of discipline these soldiers have in their daily lives. Personally, I always look for new things to incorporate in life that can help one to improve as a person. As I got this opportunity, I thought there is nothing better than asking this from those who protect us day and night at the border without any failure. 

The very first thing we touched upon was how does army officials maintain the high order of discipline and alertness that they have on every second basis. There is no room for casualness, laziness, and wanting to go for the comfort option. One of the Army officials shared that they wake up at 4:30 am every morning without fail. There are times when they get to sleep early and get 6-7 hours of sleep, but there are days if given an order for late night duty, then they would end up staying up very late. Whether late or early, the reporting time for all in the morning stayed 4:30. On asking if there were any exceptions, or what would happen if they were to not wake up on time, one of them said that words like “no”, “not possible” does not exist in Indian Army. If there are instructions, then things must be followed. There is no room for looking for comfort options that we tend to look for in our daily lives. 

Another important thing that came out was that there are times when we are put in situations in which we get a bit stretched, and we tend to complain about how things are unfair to us. Talking to these soldiers was so inspiring; let alone complain, they seemed calm and content even with the number of difficult tasks that they take up on an everyday basis. Mental toughness therefore is a big learning here. With the world becoming so technologically advanced, things have become easier than ever for all of us. One must be mindful enough to think about mental toughness, willpower, patience etc. as everything that we wish for is within our arm’s length distance within seconds. In a scenario, when it is not, we end up getting edgy and unhappy. 

One of the Army officials touched upon the importance of being on time and not taking things for granted. This might sound like something that we often hear, but this coming from Army had a whole different meaning and weight to it. From the Army’s standpoint, if they are off even by a second then something can go wrong in an extreme direction. The learning here is even if the responsibility may not be as big as protecting the borders, one should respect every second and understand the importance of it. We never know when an alarming situation may come in our lives, which is when every second can become crucial to come out of it.  

Finally, the importance of trust and teamwork was touched upon. On asking the soldiers on how they navigate during times when they are in an uncertain situation, they mentioned they trust and respect what the senior leadership asks them to do. The soldiers put their lives on stake as they take up the challenge to defend the country’s borders and protect us. Standing for one other, and trusting their seniors is the way they go about doing this. The learning coming out here is that in our daily lives we tend to come across people with different kinds of intentions. There are people who may go to any extent to selfishly seek benefit for themselves and end up betraying or putting others down in the process. As we strive to become happy and move towards our goals, it is important to maintain integrity, honesty, and discipline, a few things that we can learn through examples of a soldier’s life (role models) of our country!

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