I received a free copy of this book from the Publisher and NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

I love reading books about our military, and I am kind of a sucker for self improvement books, so this one hit the nail on the head for me! This is not a step-by-step manual for self improvement, but more of a suggestion on how you can use some of the Ranger principles to move yourself forward. I enjoyed reading it, and got some useful perspective out of it – I have recently been evaluating where I want to go with my career, looking forward to the weekends, and dreading Monday mornings FAR too much lately.

What I took away from this book:

If you are like me, you probably think that Army Rangers are better, stronger, and more resilient than the rest of us because they are Army Rangers. I am sure they are all those things, but not because they are Rangers, but because of the qualities that they have that enabled them to get through the training, and thrive in the circumstances they do. Things are tough, mistakes are made…but he does not let any of that stop him.

The author lays his cards out on the table and talks about how he decided to give up on being an Army Ranger. Then he decides maybe he wants something else more, and goes after that instead. Then, he decides he really wants to get back into the Army and be a Ranger. He makes it (again) through a lot of hard work and a little luck.

I came away inspired to make some changes in my outlook. Sometimes things really suck. You just need to push through those things to get them out of the way; in the meantime, develop some strategies for pushing through it. Find your “happy place” to escape to. Don’t look for excuses not to succeed, put your effort into getting there.

Why only 4 stars?

Mostly because I felt like some of the things in the chapters were a little redundant. Sometimes I felt like “the Team” in Benghazi was introduced in almost every chapter (I got it the first time that you were the only Ranger). The other thing that bothered me slightly is that throughout the book, the author describes himself and the others he was with in Benghazi as a Ranger, or SEALs, etc., as if they were serving in that capacity when it all went down. However, they were security contractors at the time, and a FORMER Ranger, FORMER SEALs, etc. That is not to minimize what he went through or the job, but I do feel like it is an important distinction that bothered me.

I honestly am struggling to even finish this book. It seems preachy and filled with broad statements. For example he brings up that our constitutional rights are slowly being taken away like the the second amendment, the freedom of speech and the freedom of religion. However, how can he bring those up with examples. With the way he rights about not worrying about being "politically" correct it worries me that he believes in the persecution of Christians. For this fact, I can't finish the book.