Money And Life Lessons From Afghanistan

In 2002, the very early days of Operation Enduring Freedom, I volunteered to deploy to Afghanistan.  My job at the Department of Defense gives me the privilege of supporting the amazing men and women of the U.S. Military and in this case our NATO Allies, so it was an easy decision.  I also love adventure and I knew it would be a big one.  The war in Afghanistan that came about from 9/11 was barely a year old.

I had already been living very differently than most in America.  I shunned new cars and resisted lifestyle inflation.  But my experience in Afghanistan essentially cemented my suspicion that a simpler life is a better life.

 

Life Boiled Down

During my four-plus months in Afghanistan I worked an average of 95 hours a week.  You read that correctly.  Working 13 hours a day for all seven days of the week equates to 91 hours a week.  I did that plus a bit more.

On the surface it looks a bit insane.  Over 13 hours a day for more than four months with no breaks.  In reality it wasn’t all that hard.  The reason is that besides work, life was stripped to the bone.

 

My commute consisted of an 8 minute walk from my hooch to the operations tent (“hooch” is military-speak for your home, in my case a tent).  On that walk was the chow hall.  Chow is free, so you just walk in, grab food, and eat. 

Then I would get to work, usually around 6:00 local time.  Most days I would work through the whole day, only taking a break to go to lunch.  Some days I would do a mid-day workout then go back to work.  The evening commute was again 8 minutes, interrupted by dinner. 

I generally slept well once I got used to the constant helicopter noises right outside my tent.  I had no choice but to push through it. 

Even with that long workday I still had time to hang out every night and have some fun with “the tribe” as we started calling ourselves.

 

A Tribe

The best thing about my deployment was the guys I lived and worked with.  I’m not being sexist, they were all guys, it’s just the way it was.  We essentially spent all day everyday together.  Thankfully our personalities meshed well, because I heard plenty of stories from colleagues where that wasn’t the case.

We were happy people with relatively nothing.  We cleaned our pistols at night while watching movies on a 12″ portable DVD that one of them had.  By the end of my deployment my buddy Matt “procured” a 19 inch computer monitor that he rigged up to the DVD player, and man it was like a big-screen theater experience!

It reminded me a lot of college life, except we worked a helluva lot more and we got rocketed by the Taliban sometimes.  That never happened in college.  But the camaraderie in our group was amazing, and despite being in a war zone laughter was a constant.

 

Money was an afterthought as there was nothing to spend it on.  The base only had a tiny PX (it stands for “post exchange”, basically a military store) in a shipping container with a few personal care items.

The simplicity allowed me to focus on my job intensely all day.  I wasn’t wondering if traffic was going to make me late to happy hour or to pick up my clothes from the dry cleaners in time. 

Most of the complexities and decision making of life were removed, which left me with more brain capacity to make good decisions in my job.

My job was intense and complex, but I usually felt sharp.  Just as Steve Jobs purposely wore the same clothes everyday to avoid a decision and free up mental energy, the simplicity of my living in Afghanistan gave my brain more firepower to focus on what was important – my job.

So even with 13+ hours of work and maybe an hour total for eating, I had plenty of time every night to hang out and relax or workout, and still get six or seven hours of sleep.

 

The Lesson

When you whittle down time sucking things in life like commutes, maintaining a car, and taking care of other stuff you don’t need, life becomes simple. 

I had the same 24 hours each day that everyone else has and that I have now back home, but the simplicity of my life freed up all the time that gets eroded away from the complexities of modern life.

Sure, my food was being cooked for me and I could just take what I wanted.  I didn’t have kids to deal with.  I get it, I’m not saying everyone can achieve a zen state of simplicity and time efficiency like I had in Afghanistan. 

But most of us can improve and get closer to that state.

 

 

The more clothes you own and wear the more time you spend having them dry cleaned and taking care of them.  The more electronic gadgets and toys you own the more time you spend updating them, charging them, and troubleshooting them.

A friend of mine recently lamented of wasting almost two entire weekends fussing with a newly purchased expensive cctv security camera system for his house.  He spent hours and hours on YouTube and with tech support to finally get it up and running.  When I asked him why he bought it, being that crime is virtually non-existent in his neighborhood, he paused and said “just in case”.

Many of us in the first world own so much stuff, our stuff starts to own us.

 

I’m A Utilitarian

I’m not a minimalist nor do I necessarily espouse the minimalism lifestyle.  I have 6 bikes, 5 tents, and 6 sleeping bags after all!  But overall, even including my outdoor adventure gear, I probably have way less stuff than the average American in my income class. 

And ironically a lot of the stuff I have is to get outside and go camping, which is an experience that reminds me that I really don’t need much stuff! 

That’s why I enjoy going to the mountains with nothing more than my tent, sleeping bag, and food and water.  It strips life down to the essentials and reminds me of my basic humanity, and how little I really need to exist and be content.

My experience in Afghanistan showed me how much time in our lives gets stolen every day by the complexities and luxuries of modern life.  And it also showed me that close-knit personal relationships beat lots of stuff any day of the week. 

The best part is that you don’t have to spend four months in a war zone to live life simpler, you can start at home, right now.