#035 - Spiritual Combat, Sleep & Resilience Hacks - Lt Col Dave Grossman

October 21, 2020 Joel Aylworth

Me: What are some choices you made that made you who you are today?

Lt Col Grossman: To become a sheepdog.

Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman is a retired US Army Ranger and paratrooper, and a former West Point Psychology Professor. He is also the director of the Killology Research Group and actually developed the term “killology,” considered the study of the psychological and physiological effects of killing and combat on the human psyche.

Anyone in law enforcement and/or the military know Lt Col Grossman for his work on studying combat and killing specifically. Lt Col Grossman I was so pumped to interview Lt Col Dave Grossman as I’ve been following his work for years. As a new officer and after a major incident, it was suggested to me to read his work On Combat. It was the first book I had ever read that talked about phenomenons such as PTSD, stress, combat breathing, auditory exclusion, and much more. The book really helped me grapple with things that I was dealing with at the time, and made me more resilient.

One of the things that really struck out to me with Lt Col Grossman’s work was his study on videogames and children’s brain scans. He was able to show the difference in children’s brain scans before and after playing videogames. To say the least, videogames are not good for children and have a deleterious effect on brain development. They also prime children for killing and desensitize them to it, which is a reason the Lt Col believes more and more mass school shootings are occurring. Ten years ago, the Lt Col was advocating for more police in schools to help prevent these massacres from occurring. It’s ironic today that with the uptick of violence we are now going through a fad known as defund the police, in which they are doing the opposite, removing police from schools.

The greatest love is not to sacrifice your life, but to live a life of sacrifice.

This interview taught me Lt Col Grossman is a huge science geeks and loves the ideas of life hacks. He drops tons of valuable life hacks, so make sure to listen to the very end of the interview. Lt Col Grossman talks about some sleep hacks especially those that work shift work which I found enlightening. He also tells two amazing stories in combat that exemplify leadership and what every first responder should strive for (better yet every human being, it’s not just for first responders).

Right now, during a time of despair and hopeless with unemployment rising, tension amongst the election, and C19 spreading fear to the world, Lt Col Grossman has some words of encouragement, and an ultimate life hack to increase resiliency. Although I found this to be a gamechanger, it was the Lt Col’s answer to my question: What’s a ritual that you practice daily? that floored me. Stay tuned to the end and enjoy!

See this SoundCloud audio in the original post

Timeline

08:00 - Don’t pathologize violence, instead bring it to the open

10:30 - The world is in fact more dangerous than ever before

14:20 - Why videogames and violent imagery affect our children so much

20:15 - Why sleep deprivation is such a problem

31:21 - Should we defund the police?

37:00 - The “last half-hour effect” - the best gift you could give your children

42:15 - Lt Col’s best sleep hacks & hacking shift work

56:00 - Why the military banned energy drinks & the only times you should have energy drinks

59:00 - How to hack shift work & Lt Col Grossmans’ personal sleep hacks

1:09:23 - A story of that exemplifies what every cop should be