What Does
Veterans. In. Progress Actually Mean?
A reflection on why I started this conversation.
I sprained my ankle badly.
One stupid moment. One misjudged step. One dog ball left in the wrong spot.
The irony was that I had literally thought moments beforehand: “Someone is going to step on that.”
That someone ended up being me.
The pain was intense, and I nearly blacked out. From that one-foot drop, I realised there was a pebble lodged in the skin of my ankle. Looks like I had somehow managed to roll it almost 90 degrees. Later that day, after the shock wore off, I remember sitting there thinking:“Talk about lucky.”
(a conversation about Luck and counting your blessings another time).
After some healing, some more reflection, and probably more forced slowing down than I wanted, I realised something else.
For a long time, I had been stuck in my own head about starting this conversation.
Not because I did not care about it.The opposite, actually.
I cared about it enough that I kept feeling like I needed more experience, more clarity, more certainty, or the “perfect” way to do it before saying anything publicly.
Diagnoses: Analysis paralysis
I think many veterans know exactly what that feels like.
You spend enough years being trained to assess risk, think ahead, stay switched on, and carry responsibility that eventually you can become hyper-aware of getting things wrong.
Sometimes that becomes useful.
Sometimes it quietly turns into hesitation.
You overthink.
You stay silent.
You tell yourself: “Not yet.” “I’m not ready.” “I need more time.”
Meanwhile, years pass.
I am starting this new chapter of my personal and professional life.
Veterans. In. Progress (VXP)
Not because I have life figured out.
And not because I want to build another platform based around trauma, anger, or turning struggle into identity.
If anything, this started because I got tired of how disconnected and surface-level a lot of conversations can feel.
A lot of veterans are carrying pressure quietly.
Pressure to adapt.
Pressure to stay composed.
Pressure to move forward.
Pressure to keep functioning
Even, well after structure, identity, and purpose have shifted.
All while carrying the weight of being reliable, dependable and constant.
The real part, I think, that is often missed...
Many veterans are not falling apart publicly.
We are going to work, Raise kids, Show up for other people, maintaining relationships and trying to build a life outside of service.
But underneath that, there can still be confusion, disconnection, frustration, restlessness, or the feeling that something is difficult to explain properly.
Not because something is “wrong” with them.
But because transition is genuinely unclear for many people.
Especially when your identity was once tied to structure, responsibility, performance, routine, or service.
Veterans. In. Progress is really built around a simple idea:
Real thoughts.
Real daily feelings.
Real conversations.
Not overly polished versions of struggle.
Not motivational performances.
Not pretending everything is either terrible or perfectly fine.
Just honest conversations around fears, doubt, misunderstanding, clarity, wellbeing, purpose, relationships, and life after service - even during active service.
The goal is not to victimise veterans or to blame military service for every difficulty in life and not to justify unhealthy behaviour.
It is to create more room for understanding through:
Naming things.
Normalising things.
Giving language to experiences that many people quietly carry but rarely say out loud.
Another thing I have noticed is that many veterans know they are not the only ones feeling the way they feel.
It is just that no one is starting the conversation; Struggling to slow down, Finding it hard to reconnect, Difficulty trying to rebuild purpose outside of service, Feeling caught between who they were and who they are becoming.
I think a lot of people are simply trying to figure life out. While carrying experiences, they learned to keep to themselves.
And honestly, I think that is part of being human.
Downplaying yourself. Not wanting to take up resources or “be a burden”.
Someone else is probably going through worse.
What did I actually do?
I do deserve the attention
I didn’t do anything special
What I experienced wasn’t real or serious
Veterans. In. Progress is not about pretending otherwise.
It is not about presenting veterans as damaged. It is not about turning struggle into identity. And it is not about creating division between veterans and civilians.
It is about eliminating stigma and reducing isolation.
It is about building more honest conversations around the pressures many veterans quietly carry while trying to continue being dependable people in everyday life.
The “silence service”, the Submarine Service (SS), is a proud branch like all the others. The phrase “Submarines Once, Submarine Twice!” is a motto and testament that is loudly cheered.
From the roots of my service and the centre of VXP is:
“ Support-led, Service-driven ”
I think that matters.
Especially in a culture where many people feel pressure to constantly appear resilient, productive, composed, or successful.
Sometimes the most meaningful thing someone can hear is: “You’re not the only one.”
What Veterans. In. Progress means.
Not having life perfectly figured out.
Not returning to who you used to be.
But continuing forward, honestly.
Just the reassurance that being in progress is still movement.
Learning how to carry experience without becoming trapped by it.
Trying to build a life with greater awareness, better connection, and more room for real conversation along the way.