If you're not cheating you're not trying.

Boy did I get a ration for saying that.
My wife couldn't believe I said it in-front of the kids.
She couldn't believe I said it at all... and then I really got a second dose when I told here I liked the saying because I believe it. But she wasn't going to sit around and listen to my defense/explanation... and so I can only hope she reads it here.
:)
Woof.

I defended the saying that I had heard echoing from my UDT/SEAL instructor.
It didn't mean to blatantly 'cheat' and be a deceitful schemer and a liar... it was more.
It means that life can sometimes throw you a curve ball and you may have to break a few rules to stay in the game.
That didn't sound any better...
It means that sometimes you will have to think outside the box to accomplish your goals - especially when the odds are stacked against you.
That sounded better...
There is the quick story of when I heard this saying - for the first time...

SEAL training isn't all eating sand and carrying logs... we actually had formal classroom training too. Go figure. You don't learn about weapons,bombs and tactics by trial and error.
Anyway. One day we all found ourselves on the floor between desks pressing out 50+ pushups and barking out the count for each. [Someone must have asked a stupid question]. Anyway, the instructor stepped outside the room and down the hall but kept a ear tuned to our progress. It wasn't very long before one at a time we all started laying on the deck, still barking the count, but NOT doing the pushups. The camaraderie was incredible. You could feel the whoosh of TEAM flow thru you as we ALL joined in 'getting one over on the instructor'. We reached 50 and yelled 'HOOYAH' at the top of our lungs. [That was the way you asked to 'recover' back to your seats.] By now we were all 'up' and looking like we had done 50. The instructor stepped into the room with a huge smile on his face. "Don't even think for a second I don't know what you did". Instant internal panic. "Good job... If you're not cheating you're not trying... now HIT THE SURF." We all scrambled to our feet and climbed over desks and men out the door and into the nearby waves. We returned to our seats soaking wet and continued the class - pools of sea water widening under our desks.

Glean what you can from that... I learned something about being on a TEAM.

There are many stories like this that I will pass on to my sons as we go.
And God willing - they will be the kind of men that kill dragons for their wives. You'll see.

Sorry honey, It's a guy thing.