Warrior: The Art of War for Life - A Podcast on Winning

Have you ever wondered why some people just always seem to unphased by challenges, undeterred by difficulties, and have an unconquerable attitude? Have you ever wondered how to develop that within yourself or if it was even possible for you? If so, then this is for you!

In this episode, I discuss Sunzi's (Sun Tzu's) top priority for winning the battles of life, four principles for becoming unconquerable. They are:

1. Top Priority: First become unconquerable 先為不可勝 -- Develop an unconquerable mindset and belief system. 

2. Becoming unconquerable resides within ourselves – not anyone else 不可勝在己.

3. The Opportunity to Conquer Lies Without – Watch, Work, & Wait for the Opportune Moment 可勝在敵, 待敵之可勝.

4. Manifest our Future: Understand how to overcome our (inner) enemies even before we have done so 勝可知, 而不可為. 

With insights from Seneca the Younger, Benjamin Disraeli, Roy D. Chapin Jr., and Abigail G. Manning as guides, it is time to raise the bar on our beliefs, let our past refine us and our potential define us, make the decision to become unconquerable, and live from the place of our profound power and purpose!

In this episode of Warrior, I discuss the famous passage from Sunzi's (Sun Tzu's) Art of War: "If you understand others and understand yourself, you will not be in danger of breaking -- even in a hundred battles. If you don't understand others but understand yourself, for every victory there will be a price to be paid -- a burden to bear. If you don't understand others or yourself, then you will certainly be defeated."

Sunzi doesn't promise that knowing ourselves will guarantee victory. What he does promise is that if we understand ourselves and others, then win, lose, or draw, we will become unbreakable. Defeat will not devastate us. Setback will not stop us. Thus, knowing ourselves is the secret to developing an unbreakable mindset -- win, lose, or draw.

How do we do that? We increase our emotional intelligence. We dig into our beliefs. Because our beliefs shape our thinking, our thinking creates our feelings, our feelings drive our actions, and our actions largely determine our results in life. However, it works both ways. By changing our behaviors, we can change our emotional state, shift our thinking, and upgrade our beliefs. See, we create our belief systems and then we experience them. Thus, we experience the pain of our own limiting beliefs about ourselves, each other, and the world! But we can choose to believe more empowering beliefs at any time!

With invaluable insights from Tony Robbins, Brooke Castillo, Abigail G. Manning, and many others, this episode inspires us to examine our beliefs to determine if they are serving us or suppressing us.

Have you ever wondered if you were going to win?  Have you ever wondered if you were on the right path – the path of victory?  How can we know that we are doing the right things to achieve victory in our lives? Are there any signs or guarantees along the way to encourage us to keep moving toward our ultimate victory?

In this episode, I discuss five principles from Sunzi's (Sun Tzu's) Art of War that are predicters of success, five waypoints on the path of victory!  They are:

1. Understanding When to Fight, When Not to Fight, and Why to Fight for What We Want!

2. Recognizing How to Utilize the Resources Around Us

3. Unifying Our Desires Top to Bottom & Getting Aligned with What we Really Want!

4. The Preparation Mindset -- Be Prepared: Expect the Unexpected & Anticipate the Unanticipated

5. Capable & Uncompromised Leadership Free of Meddling

In this episode of Warrior Mindset Unplugged, I interview former Air Force special operator and Combat Controller (CCT) Christopher Satterwhite.

Born and raised in a shack on a farm western North Carolina where he learned hard work, problem-solving, and the importance of educating himself, Chris worked his way through community college, before receiving his Bachelor's degree.

In the wake of 9/11, he joined the Air Force in 2002, served a total of five combat deployments, including four in Operation Enduring Freedom and one to Central America. He served for a decade before getting out in 2012 and doing a year in the intelligence community until he was sidelined by lingering combat injuries in 2014. He was unemployed for five years while battling to recover physically and fighting the VA for his care.

After being written off and almost having to go into hospice care, he has (almost) completely recovered and started training the next generation of Air Force special operators in his current job as an EOD preliminary course and SERE instructor at USAFA. 

Like so many of our veterans out there, his is an inspiring story of tactical patience, persistence, and the determination to never give up and empower himself while fighting for his life at home and abroad! He uses humor and candor to talk about the importance of learning from those around us, breaking the chain of poor decision making and interrupting the cycle to turn things around. His story is an important reminder of the power we have as individuals to constructively engage with our political system and take ownership over our Constitutional rights. Thank you for your ongoing service!

Have you ever been on the road to accomplishing something you really want only to sabotage it? In this episode of "Warrior: The Art of War for Life" I discuss the "Seven Deadly Sins of Self-Sabotage" and how to overcome them in our own lives. They are:

1. Spinelessness: Lack of Self-Leadership and Personal Accountability

2. Pushing Things Too Far

3. Giving Up Too Soon & Abandonment

4. Mishandling Matters & Indulging in Constant Confusion

5. Bad Boundaries & Debilitating Doubts

6. Mistrust & the Imbalance of Personal Power

7. The Internal Conflict of Competing Priorities

With inspiring quotes from Stephen King, Kenny Rogers, Herman Hesse, Eckhart Tolle, Thomas Edison, Susan Anderson, Brooke Castillo, Brian Tracy, Thomas Paine, and Anthon St. Maarten, this episode is sure to get us thinking and examining the underlying beliefs that hold us back, keep us down, and prevent us from moving forward toward the lives we want!

Soundtrack by Sentius

In Episode 23 of "Warrior: The Art of War for Life ~ A Podcast on Winning," I go unscripted to reflect on the "Five Essential Leadership Attributes" first introduced in Episode 3 and discussed in great detail in Episode 4. They are: wisdom, trust, empathy, courage, and disciplined determination, or grit. In the months, since I first introduced them, I have developed some quick and accessible tools and exercises to help us "level" them up in our lives in about two minutes!

First, knowledge is the arrow, and applied knowledge is wisdom or the ability to hit the bullseye in our lives. In this episode, you'll learn a pair of two-minute wisdom skills for articulating clearly what we know and making it accessible to others to use while learning how to engage others with curiosity and apply what they know to our own circumstances and situations.

Second, the foundation of all trust -- whether it is trustworthiness or entrusting others is self-trust. In the two-minute trust reflection, I give us time to really dig into how to increase our own trust and when and where it breaks down in our lives. With that understanding, and some grace and space, we can overcome our inner obstacles to trust, mend our broken bonds within, and learn to invest in ourselves and others again.

Third, empathy is the key to Emotional Intelligence, interpersonal skills, and thus effective leadership. Here I introduce a two-minute set of "SHARE" skills for engaging those around us with empathy. SHARE stands for: Share, Hear, Ask, Relate, and Express. As we do this, we create powerful bonds of connection with others and will find joy celebrating their successes and supporting each other in our difficulties.

Fourth, courage is the clarion call to face our fears and doubts. It resonates and reverberates like a bell. In exercising greater courage, I introduce a two-minute "Face your FEAR" drill to help us: Face it, Express it, Acknowledge it, and Reframe it so that we can recognize the MESS (Mental, Emotional, Spiritual, and Social) impact of that fear and the beliefs, feelings, thoughts, and behaviors that emerge from it and get in touch with what is more important to us than that fear and our why -- because our why is our way forward.

Fifth, disciplined determination or grit is the commitment to ourselves to keep climbing the cliffs of challenge -- to scrape and claw our way up the overhangs of life -- in spite of the internal and external naysayers screaming we aren't going to make it. To get in touch with our inner grit, I introduce a two-minute GRIT reflection: Get clear on Growth and Goals, Resolve to Resiliently act, Initiate & Ignore the urge to quit, and Tenaciously try and try again.

Soundtrack by Sentius

Do you ever feel like your life is not yours? That you are not in charge? That things are just spinning out of control? In Episode 22 of "Warrior: The Art of War for Life ~ A Podcast on Winning" we look at Sunzi's Six Tactics for taking the offensive and picking our battles in life. They are:

1. Surround & Encircle

2. Take the Offensive: Strike!

3. Divide & Conquer

4. Pick Your Battles: Play to Your Strengths & Fight Where Able

5. Hold On! Maintain What You Can

6. Avoid Losses & Find Another Way

With inspiring stories and anecdotes, this episode reminds us that there is ALWAYS another option, another way, we don't just have to accept defeat, and "victory is just on the other side of one more try!"

Soundtrack by Sentius

Have you ever come on too strong?  Ever swarmed someone with attention only to send them running in the opposite direction?  Ever taken massive action, poured your heart and soul into an endeavor, only to not get the results you were expecting? Ever been so obsessed with wanting something so badly, wanting it now, that you’ve even become angry or impatient, frustrated or resentful that you didn’t have it?

This kind of anger often points to one of three things:

o  A wounded heart – a cut up heart that needs to be healed

o  A divided heart – competing priorities where we feel pulled in multiple directions

o  A conflicted heart – mismatched vision and beliefs, where we want something but don’t have the beliefs to support getting it.

With personal stories from the host and inspiring quotes from J.K. Rowling, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Stephen R. Covey, and many more this episode examines the underlying sources of this self-sabotaging form of anger and provides tools for reducing the internal conflict.

Soundtrack by Sentius.

In this month's Warrior Mindset Unplugged, I interview Cadet Third Class Jessica "Fish" Fisher, a Filipino-American whose inspiring story shows us that we are never too young to take charge of our lives and never too small to make a difference in the lives of others! Jess shares lessons learned from overcoming a learning disability, becoming a blackbelt in Tae Kwon Do, embracing her uniqueness and talents, which include the art of origami, and adopting a life of selfless service to others. With wisdom beyond her years, she speaks to youth and young adults trying to find their passions and purpose and make the world a better place!

In this episode of "Warrior: The Art of War for Life ~ A Podcast on Winning," I go off script for a new segment to just have a conversation and share some thoughts on how the warrior mindset from Episode 1, the six traps of self-deception and self-sabotage from Episode 6, and the four steps to attack your day in Episode 18 came together in a recent real-life example.