Veterans: Are You Making the Days Count, or Are You Just Counting the Days?

While we were in uniform, we counted a lot of things. Vehicles in the motor pool. Our troops coming into the patrol base. Enemy on the objective. But one of the most important things we counted were the days. Days left in basic. Days left in the training exercise. Days until this deployment was over. Days until the next one. Days, it was always the days. And frankly, we were often focused more on counting the days than we were in making the days count.

For many veterans, the battlefield doesn’t end with discharge papers. The silence after the storm can be deafening. The shift from the intensity of military life to the seemingly mundane rhythm of civilian existence is jarring. And in that shift, many begin to wonder: Am I making the days count, or am I just counting the days?

But I think we all know the answer.

This isn’t a call to romanticize the past or to ignore the wounds—seen and unseen—that service brings. Rather, it’s a challenge. A challenge to confront the creeping inertia that can follow service, the dull ache of purpose lost, and to rise once more—not for war, but for life.

Military service teaches structure, discipline, leadership, and sacrifice. But it also imprints a profound sense of purpose. When that mission ends, veterans often struggle to find a new one. Days stretch out, each one echoing the last, and time becomes something to endure, not embrace.

But here’s the hard truth: You’ve faced worse. You’ve overcome greater obstacles. You have already proven your ability to lead, adapt, and endure. What’s needed now is a new objective—one rooted in who you are beyond the uniform.

Making the days count means choosing impact over inertia. It means volunteering in your community, mentoring the next generation, pursuing education, building a business, strengthening your family, or seeking the help you need to heal. It’s not about replicating the past—it’s about applying the lessons of service to forge a new legacy.

Counting the days is easy. It requires nothing but a clock. Making the days count takes courage—the same kind you’ve already demonstrated time and time again.

So ask yourself: What are you doing with today? And if the answer isn’t what you want it to be, know this—you have the power, and the responsibility, to change it.

That’s because the best warriors don’t just fade away, like the days on last year’s calendar. They evolve. Even after service, they make the days count, they don’t just count the days.

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Charles served over 27 years in the US Army, which included seven combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan with various Special Operations Forces units and two stints as an instructor at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He also completed operational tours in Egypt, the Philippines, and the Republic of Korea and earned a Doctor of Business Administration from Temple University as well as a Master of Arts in International Relations from Yale University. He is the owner of The Havok Journal, and the views expressed herein are his own and do not reflect those of the US Government or any other person or entity.