Military Transition - Where You are Now and Where You Want to be.

           Now that you have brainstormed your life as it currently is, you are ready to create your first narrative.  But, wait a minute, I just listed out all of my life conditions on the worksheet, what is left for me to do? Well, now is the time for you to put these variables in narrative form and connect the dots. Trust me on this one. If you simply list out your life conditions and go on to the next steps, you will have a series of independent variables, all impacting each other, with no concise way to see the interconnections. This narrative is where you will put in the mental work to systematically define your transition problem!

As a former boss once told me, “I don’t know exactly what I am looking for, but it won’t be the first thing you bring me.” Understand that the process of writing this statement is iterative! Your statement will change numerous times during its initial drafting and will change again as you further refine your Personal Transition Campaign Plan. For this example, we will assume that today is January 1, 2022 and you have 18 months until your separation date. 

“The Known Knowns vs. The Unknown Unknowns”

As your military career winds down you will feel a number of emotions, one of which is loss of control. After all, Servicemembers thrive on routine. Think about it. When one deploys, the services go out of their way to ensure your family is cared for, allowing you to focus on your mission. This institutional support even continues during garrison time, with various programs to support your family. As you transition, all of these concerns are now solely your responsibility. This can be overwhelming, so let us handle what we already know. This will give peace-of-mind as we move forward. 

We will use the Brainstorming example from the last article and it is included here for reference.   

Your Current Situation Narrative.

Begin by reviewing your brainstorming list. You may want to give it another read over, just to see if any of your thoughts changed. You will then start writing sentences that describe your life variables. These can be positive or negative statements. When you include a variable in your statement , check off the block. While writing this, you will likely discover some additional conditions, as you make linkages among the various aspects of your life. Include them in your Variable Checklist and add them to the narrative. 

WARNING. This first run may be nebulous and may cause some confusion! Not to worry, that is just your brain making connections among your life variables. Keep it up! 

Walk-Through

Ok, let’s go through this process together. 

I see under my Financial Variables that I am a Lieutenant Colonel with 21 years of service. The fact I know my years of service tells me roughly my last date on duty. My spouse and I talked, and we both agreed that I should retire in June 2023. I also spoke to my boss, and she fully supports my retirement, though she wants me to attend training exercises until at least 6-months from my retirement date. Retiring at 20 years means a pension coming in for the family. That will sure be nice to help offset some costs and does add some security. I wish I knew if I was going to qualify for Veterans Affairs Disability, but that determination is a ways off. From my Military Variables, I see that I have no deployments coming up, no military schools, but a 30-day training exercise in August. I would like to participate in a corporate internship. Under Medical Variables, that pesky back injury likely requires a surgery soon so I can get out of pain. Under Disability Variables, I also continue to wake up numerous times during the night, as my spouse elbows me to either stop snoring or to start breathing. Maybe I want to have that sleep study done? Moving on to Financial Variables, my spouse and I bought a wonderful house around post when we moved here three years ago and the other property we own is partially funding our son’s college. For Family Variables, my spouse’s mother is living at home for now in Cleveland, but her health is likely to get worse. As far as Education Variables, on my last deployment, I had some extra time and finally completed my MBA. Good thing too because it allowed me to transfer my post-9/11 GI bill to my daughter. Finally, for Network Variables, I looked at my LinkedIn last night, and 90% of my connections have, “Motivated Combat Leader,” as their headline. Guess I need to boost my network a bit.   

Framing Your Situation.

The above train of thought thinking is great and really helped us see ourselves. Now we will narrow this down into a statement from which to build.

I am a transitioning Lieutenant Colonel with 21 years of service with a retirement date of June 01, 2023 (18 months from now). With this level of service, I will have a pre-tax pension of $4500 a month. I have one major field training exercise of 30 days in August, but all other time is garrison. My corporate internship is scheduled to begin in January 2023. I have several medical conditions I need to have addressed over the next 18 months, including back surgery and a sleep study. Our current house has about $40K in equity built in and should sell easily in the current market. My daughter’s college is fully funded, but I would like to provide additional support as needed. My son’s college is only partially funded and I want to continue to support at the current level. I currently have financial flexibility to take care of my mother-in-law if the need arises. I have my MBA, but do not have experience in the corporate environment. My network outside the military is limited and I must grow it rapidly. 

 Your Future Outside the Military.

At this point, your future goals are likely extremely vague. Still, we can answer a few questions a generally frame where we want to go. We will build on this, so do not be discouraged if you initial statement reads something like,

“I am fully transitioned from military service by June 2023. Pension and disability payments are supporting my family within 45-60 days after retirement. Disability is maximized and all documentation is complete. Career aspirations are identified, and I have employment in a company that provides job satisfaction and good compensation to provide the lifestyle I want for my family in a location I choose. Job skills are translated into civilian market and my personal is brand established. My civilian network is 500+ on LinkedIn. Self-Improvement allows expansion into other areas and increases value to employer.” 

This will get much more detailed as we build out your plan. At this point, you can place each of these on your Efforts Slide and you will have a detailed description of where you are now and a basic sense of where you want to be at the end of your transition.

Moving Forward.

I know this step may have seemed a bit redundant, but you now have a concise statement of your current situation and desired future. This mental exercise just embedded your transition concerns into your brain and provided a quick reference to look at as you move along your transition journey. First steps are always the most difficult, but you will reference this statement numerous times.

Well, that was the easy part. Transition is all about planning for the future. Get ready as we take the next steps together!