What if what we say result in one of the most famous lines in history?

Hi, everyone-

Remember this line from Roosevelt’s speech after Pearl Harbor attack?

“A date which will live in world history infamy”

As you can see, this sentence was no accident. It was edited from “world history” to the resounding and now famous word, “infamy.” Which sounds trite and easy. Except we know making things sound easy is … not quite so easy. First off:

* How did he arrive at this word with surgical precision?

* How did he do it after just finishing a routine lunch in the office?

* How did he even first heard the call, when his mind was on a simple stamp album project?

The goal of these questions is beyond historical.

It’s personal.

Will we have the same composure, when it’s time for us to bear news of a beloved’s death? Will we create something as timeless, when life—recession, mockery, warfare, misfortune, epidemic, demotion, ridicule, embarrassment, or whatever else—takes all that we own? And will we have the same efficient resolve when it’s our turn?

I sure hope so.

But hope isn’t good enough. That’s why I want to peel the layers of Roosevelt’s timeless speech in this week’s episode on efficient edits.

So that you’ll never be caught unawares, should the time come for you to write something … that the world should never forget.

Given the speed of social media, this could very well be tomorrow.

Let’s take a look at:

* The 3-page black-and white manuscript copy of the President’s pencil-annotated draft,

* What topics he chose to include (and more importantly, which he left out),

* The Earned Ownership principle the President used, to deliver a precise speech.

* The 7-step crescendo of urgency that anyone can use to form an ideal text body.

Scroll up to download and listen to this episode. Or,

Scroll down to read the transcript.

-Thalia

PS: Other episodes or articles on facing the unexpected from the archives, in case you missed it:

SEASON 2, EPISODE 5

Behind the writing (and torpedoing) edits of a famous White House speech

(Music: Silhouettes by Tobias Voigt. License Code: 8IDBGGC5WXLDYLAU)

What if everything was set against you from the beginning?

Hi, everyone-

Ever wonder if certain things are just dead-set against you from the start?

It certainly looks like it when we’re dealing with an impossible colleague, boss, coworker, partner, spouse, flawed system, medical system, and even government.

And when that happens, I’m always thinking:

* I guess I’ll just have to put on ‘a good attitude.’

* What was that manifestation system that that book said again?

* This system sucks. They should fix their problems. Not me.

* “Mind over matter,” “Mind over matter,” “Mind over matter,”

* Never mind. It’s over. It doesn’t matter. Now:

How do I get out of this hell?

This week, I’ve dug up an archival message from a Navy Seal and Admiral who deconstructs how one Navy cohort deals with the notoriously bone-breaking and soul-crushing Hell Week—the baseline physical test the US Navy uses to select the nation’s toughest.

According to some:

“Hell Week is considered to be the hardest military training in the world. It is a week of continuous military training during which most classes sleep for a total of two to five hours over the course of the entire week.” -Eric Greitens

“The instructors used our suffering to pick and peel away our layers, not to find the fittest athletes … That’s something the quitters didn’t understand until it was too late.” -David Goggins

“Hell Week involves waking soldiers up to gunfire on a Sunday and forcing them to exercise, jump in cold water, and go without sleep until Friday.” -David Goggins

“Lined up on the beach during suset, Hell Week students get to say goodnight to the sun and hello to the drop in temperature each night.” -Chris Sajnog

“A Navy Seal told me that most guys trying to be a Navy SEAL don’t make it through Hell week because they’re dreaming for it to be over.” -Jon Gordon

Sounds like a miserable time. But I don’t think you need to just be going through physical adversity to be going through Hell Week.

Hell Week is the on-and-on-ness of any thankless state. Hell Week is the visible invisibility of growing old. Hell Week is the unrecognized lump in your throat when your kids, grandkids, parents move away to places you’d be lucky to visit once every year or two. Hell Week is losing the job you don’t even love. Hell Week is wanting the freedom to call the shots so badly that even freedom refuses the call. Hell Week is being ridiculed for what you believe in by people you trusted.

Hell Week, if anything, is … human week.

This is why, in between wiping the kids’ milk off the floor and wondering when I’m going to hear back from my doctor this week, I put on the headphones and thumb through hours of research. And that’s when I learned that there is a different approach to going through ‘Hell Week,’ according to Admiral William McRaven’s message.

In this episode:

* “It is six days of no sleep … a muddy bog that tests …”

* “My training class [was] looking to weed out the weak of mind …”

* “The mud consumed each man until … “

* “The instructors told us that we could all leave the mud—if just five men quit.”

* “There were still eight hours to go before the sun rose … And then, …”

What I found from his account is that, to my surprise, toughing it out and a bunch of mindset stuff just isn’t going to do it.

There’s something else. Something else that makes the sunrise come sooner.

Scroll up to download and listen to this episode. Or,

Scroll down to read the transcript.

Thanks for being here,

-Thalia

PS: If you want to catch up on similar themes from the archives, here are a couple as a refresh.

SEASON 2, EPISODE 4

Toughing it out isn’t the answer, says Hell Week

(Music: Silhouettes by Tobias Voigt. License Code: 8IDBGGC5WXLDYLAU)

Hi, everyone-

Sometimes the problem with life, is the question of how to get out of a situation.

* A job. An impossible coworker.

* A divorce. A silent treatment. A fight.

* A passive-agressive relationship.

* A situation that never improves.

* Or simply the general feeling of being behind in just about everything.

Though most people have smiles plastered on their faces around Christmas—I mean, how could you not, when thoughts of heart-warming chocolate drinks and cleansing snow abound—inside, sometimes there’s just something that is still … OFF. Something that each of us are still prisoners of.

This week, I’ve dug up a special archival speech-to-text letter from someone who actually was a Prisoner of War.

I wanted to know:

What does one have to really say to oneself, to turn a situation from: prisoner for life … to Life, Unimprisoned.

Let’s find out. You can either:

* Scroll up to download and listen to this episode. Or,

* Scroll down to read the transcript.

Thanks for being here,

-Thalia

PS: If you want to catch up on similar themes from last season, here are a couple as a refresh.

SEASON 2, EPISODE 3

The freeing Christmas words of a prisoner

(Music: Silhouettes by Tobias Voigt. License Code: 8IDBGGC5WXLDYLAU)