Most of us will leave the military at some point of our career. When that happens, we need to adapt to a civilian environment. Here's a headsup, they won't have much respect for your background or training, instead they will tend to show more appreciation for the people that they can relate to. Why? Because there's only 1.3 million active duty veterans, that's about 1% of the population in the United States. Keep that in-mind when you're doing an “egg-drop” exercise to build teamwork and in your new civilian job.

You won't have anybody to look at, talk to, or laugh about it with — you will be alone and forcing yourself to adjust to your new environment. It's different, but you push through the awkwardness of it all and appreciate that others haven't had the experience or training you have received. For civilians, an egg drop (as basic as it sounds) is the equivalent of you running into a gas chamber and going through a mask-purge drill. Treat it as an exercise, then treat your next civilian experience as another exercise…then another…keep doing it until you get more comfy with it.

This is the definition of "transition". No discharge seminar will help you do it, only you and your conscious effort. Get used to things like making casual conversation at the start of meetings, or complementing what somebody is wearing before asking them a work question. There are a lot of changes — just be open & prepared to adapt.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

If you’re thinking about hanging-up your uniform, checkout my online course: ‘Discharge with Confidence’, it’s for anybody that is active duty or recently discharged veterans. Drop your email below and get a copy of the course brochure.