#53: Make Peace Your Baseline

Peace as the Baseline

The John Ballenger Story

The Meeting

Years ago, John Ballenger and I connected on LinkedIn. Both Lieutenant Colonels, a Marine pilot and Air Force Special Agent.

I tell people all the time, social media is not real life, just a window to it. If you want meaningful relationships, step through the window into the real world. That is what we did.

I could tell, because of shared military background, but more importantly, how we were talking about life, we were going to be friends. So I went out of my way to spend time with him. And he went out of his way to invite me and my son down to Marine Corps Base Quantico to see his presidential helicopters.

That visit was special. It helped me close my own emotional military chapter. I hadn't set foot on a base since retiring in 2019. It was too painful. When I saluted the gate guard and they said, “Welcome, Lt Colonel”. I broke down. My 9-year old son hugged me in the car not understanding. I healed in that moment.

What mattered more were conversations that followed. Even though we had military and real estate in common, he asked questions about lifestyle, why I choose to not climb ladders, to live overseas, my propensity to go against herd mentality. Told him because I'd always followed my inner voice. Because personal peace, not money, had always been my aim. Because you can live in peace by intentionally choosing or designing environments where your nervous system is calm.

And when John heard that, it validated what his instincts were already telling him. He needed to chart a different path. That he needed to Try Life On his way by chasing life, not money.

The Crossroads

John spent 20 years as an officer and CH-53E helicopter pilot in the United States Marine Corps, where he had the privilege of seeing the world from a unique perspective. In his final five years of service, he took on one of the highest-stakes roles in aviation as a pilot of Marine One, serving Presidents Trump and Biden.

When he retired in October 2022, the obvious path lay in front of him: stay in Washington, D.C., use his clearance and rank, and triple his income in government contracting or airlines.

But that didn't quite feel right. He didn't want Status Quo living.

“Most people chase the clearance and triple their pay the minute they leave the service. I knew if we stayed in D.C., we would make money but we would not be happy.” - Lt. Col Ballenger

The pay was compelling. The pressure was real. But John was ready to choose peace over pressure.

Seven Pins on the Map

So he and his wife did something right out of my own playbook. They put seven pins on the map: Bend, San Diego, Nashville, Tulsa, Colorado Springs, Redding, Boise.

Then they visited each one. Lived like locals for a week. Walked the neighborhoods, shopped in the grocery stores, breathed the air, asked: could this be home?

“We could envision living in all those places… but when we came to Colorado Springs, it felt like community. And that was the light switch.”

(note: this is demonstration of TLO principle Life is not a destination, it is something you practice. I've used this tactic of "practicing" life in different places to then 'feel' if something works. It can be a one time thing or, for me in the middle east for example, something you do over and over until you create new patterns for yourself and that become the default).

Colorado was not chosen for a paycheck, but for peace, for tribe, for nervous-system-level stability craved since their days in Hawaii, where John’s wife struggled from lack of community.

“Ten years ago in Hawaii, I cried out for community. And we have it now.”

The Valley Before the Peak

But choosing peace first does not mean the road is smooth.

When John and his family left D.C., he had a job lined up in commercial real estate. Two days into the road trip to Colorado, his phone rang.

“I had a job offer in hand when we left D.C. Two days into our road trip, the guy called me and said, ‘I cannot hire you anymore.’”

Imagine that. Retired, moving cross-country with family in tow, no way back, and suddenly no income. His wife did not flinch.

“I will go back to teaching. You figure it out.”

That is what freedom (and partnership) looks like. Not the absence of risk, but the presence of faith. They kept driving and trusted peace and people over the obvious default.

Planting Roots

In Colorado Springs, the community embraced them. College friends were still there. Neighbors opened their arms. The very thing they had once longed for became their reality.

“Jobs will come and go. Friends will come and go. But if you go with the intent of building your community and sending your roots deep, that is going to make all the difference.”

John tried real estate, pitching projects and raising capital. He experimented with speaking. He coached. Not all of it stuck. But all of it prepared him for what came next: Guardian Jet, a role that wove together every skill he had been practicing without realizing it.

Today, John is thriving. Not because he chased the paycheck. But because he put peace first, and the money followed. He told me our conversations played a defining role for his designed life. That made me smile. That's my purpose, to help people see what I've instinctively felt since my early 20s:

“Peace should not be a reward. Peace should be the baseline.” - Maurice

The Lesson

Most people get this backwards. They think peace is what you earn after the grind, after the paycheck, after the military clearance job or the corporate title. But by then, your nervous system has been running in fight-or-flight for decades.

John’s story proves otherwise.

He could have taken the high-paying D.C. route. Instead, he walked away from certainty, chased community, and built a life he does not need a vacation from. The relationships bucket. The environment bucket. The freedom that comes when you design your life around where you thrive, not just where you earn.

“When you choose environment over paycheck, you do not lose. You build a life you do not need a vacation from.”

Closing

“Let me chase money now, and I will live later.” 

Yes, we all have that phase of life. But it cannot and should not persist forever. If so, you wake up at 30, 40, 50, or 60 and realize you have given chunks of your life away to someone else’s mission and never addressed your own.

Try this TLO Principle: Make your extraordinary, ordinary. Build peace into everyday. That's what John did. And you can too.

“Ten years ago in Hawaii, I cried out for community. And we have it now.” – Lt. Col. John Ballenger

And that's lifestyle you don't need vacation from. People, meaningful relationships, community. Peace. Not chasing someone else's version of success. John and his family are winning the game of life. You can too.

John’s full story will be released on the Try Life On Podcast next Friday, September 26. Look out for it. His journey is proof that when you make peace your baseline, everything else follows.

Have a great weekend.

Maurice

P.S. Yes, he's very tall :)