A 3-Part Exercise to Reconnect With Your Values
Your inner voice is your North Star — if you can hear it
Over three decades of service in the Army, including commanding four companies and a training battalion, Major General Dee McWilliams was faced with a terrible choice in 2003.
To earn her third star, McWilliams was asked to leave her posting in Germany to return to the Pentagon, as it geared up for a war in Iraq based on what it was later determined were false reports of Saddam Hussain’s cache of weapons of mass destruction.
“I knew I’d be going back to Rumsfeld’s Pentagon, which was gearing up for a war that I felt would be a quagmire,” she recalls. “Colleagues in intelligence confided that there was no connection to WMDs. My conscience couldn’t handle the deceit operating at the highest levels. I determined that it would destroy my moral core to participate in the process. Additionally, I had always promised myself that when the small voice inside whispered that it was time to go that I would listen and comply. I did.”
McWilliams knew then that it was time to retire. To this day, she feels confident in her decision.
