Justin Pickering

Justin Pickering joins Rush on Unfinished Business, the show for veterans pursuing new missions after the uniform and for the families and communities who stand beside them. After nearly two decades in U.S. Army Special Forces, the retired Green Beret Sergeant Major describes a world where combat reduced life to one clear problem set, and what happened when that clarity disappeared. In his words, combat felt peaceful. Coming home was harder.

They talk about combat logic at home, the cost to his family, losing an institutional identity, veteran suicide, and emotional intelligence, along with the realization that the same mind powerful enough to build extraordinary capability can also turn destructively inward. Justin explains the thinking behind his book, The Deliberate Mindset, why action creates information, why readiness can become camouflage for fear, how faith changed the way he understands impact, and why his answer to what strength requires now came down to grace.

In this conversation

• Why combat felt peaceful and coming home did not
• Losing an institutional identity, and what it cost his family
• The Deliberate Mindset: action creates information
• Faith, impact, and why strength came down to grace

Justin Pickering

Army Special Forces, 7th SFG(A) (Ret.) · Author, The Deliberate Mindset

About the show

Unfinished Business is a podcast for veterans pursuing new missions after the uniform, and for the families and communities who stand beside them. Hosted by Eric "Rush" Christopher Rush, a Bronze Star combat veteran and the number one podcaster in North Texas.