"Matt Edmundson, Warrior Week 61graduate, and his sixteen-year-old son, Kade, join Coach Sam Falsafi in this special episode of Warrior Week: Parables From the Pit."

Parable #1: The Gates Of Warrior

•  In 2018, Matt found himself in a dark place, blaming everyone for everything that was going ‘wrong’ in his life. It was at that time he bought WarriorBook, read it cover to cover, and tried living the Warrior’s Way by himself. He was also listening to the Warrior On Fire podcast with his family, but when it was brought in-house only, Matt lost his fire and was back to square one.
• Whereas Matt was first turned off by Garrett’s message, he began identifying with Garrett’s life experience of trying to find a path, improve himself, constantly learning, and then bumping into walls. Matt found he was always trying to do things by himself, his pride and ego getting in the way of asking for help. 

What was your first intro to Warrior? How did you respond?

Parable #2: What Is Required?

• The Warrior Week experience came across to Matt as an intense boot camp experience.  He wasn’t in a good place physically at that time and was not interested in intentionally “beating myself up.” 
• Matt realized he was avoiding what was necessary to move forward. “I want what’s on the other side, but I’m not willing to do what’s required  to get there.”

Where in your world do you avoid that which you know will help move you forward?

Parable #3: Conditions to Conclusions 

• Coach Sam reminds us that we all have different current conditions, aka, one might be overweight, another might be lost or have an addiction, etc. Many people fall into a belief their current condition is the way things will ALWAYS be, not realizing that their current conditions do not define their entire life experience.
• “So many men just ‘conclude.’ This shit went wrong, so I must be an idiot, I must not be worth it, I must be evil. We are so quick to place labels on ourselves.“ The reality is, the stories we run in our minds create our circumstances, whether it be freedom or self-made prisons.

What are the beliefs you hold onto around your current conditions?

Parable #4: Before & After Warrior Week

• Balance was the reason Matt initially came to Warrior Week but he quickly discovered the real reason was that he was lacking a connection to God. “During my life, I had been leading with my brain and had been rewarded for that. It was during Warrior Week that I surrendered my brain, and connected to my heart.”
• After Warrior Week, Matt thought he would have all his shit figured out and have all the answers. But the first day back into his regular environment, he felt like he had never left. “Everything around me collapsed right back to who I was.”

What was your experience after Warrior Week?

Parable #5: The Sixteen-Year-Old World

• Kade shared what he views as the current 16 year-old-prison. “There’s a lot of pressure with social media and how everyone portrays their life as amazing, which causes us to question our own life.”
• Kade knows he must answer the questions: Who am I? What is my purpose in the world? What am I put here to do? What do I want to be? And inside of the current COVID restrictions, he must put himself in the right position to succeed and find his own way, rather than sedate all day. 

What can you do to assist your teens inside of the current world conditions?

“Parables From The Pit”

“Our current condition doesn’t define the conclusion.”

–Sam Falsafi

“Without judgment, there is a level of acceptance that we all have our shit, and we’re all a bit crazy. But within Warrior, we can all envision a future self that is bigger and better, and are committed to trying to find the way forward to achieve what that is…and continue leveling up.”

— Matt Edmundson

“…as like a seed of doubt, right now, some kids will just go home and play video games all day, and not deal with the world. Or, a lot of other people just don’t talk about it and internalize it.”

–Kade Edmundson, 16