Difficulty Means Growth

Chris Albert 00:00:00 (link to this point)

You know, one of the things I'm always saying is that if this country is gonna get better, if this country is gonna go on the right path, we have to step up as a community. Veterans are the sleeping giant in this country, and it is time for us to step up. That's why I wanna talk to you about The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina. Now you might have thought about The Citadel in the past as this corps of cadets, this military institution, But they have programs for veterans that don't involve you joining the corps of cadets, don't involve you wearing a uniform every day, and don't involve you living a military lifestyle. If you wanna do that, great.

But if that's not what you're up for right now after your military career, then you don't have to do that, and you can access some of the best programs in the world. The Citadel has some hot degrees in intelligence, tactical strength and conditioning, engineering, and project management. And there's five student type options for veterans. There's graduate college, there's evening undergraduate, there's active duty students, non cadet day program, returning cadet veterans, and online programs. The academic offerings include undergraduate, graduate, college transfer, graduate certificates, and online degrees.

Veterans have access to every single academic degree the college offers, and they have the most flexibility when it comes to their schedule. They can major in anything offered to the cadets and would take those classes during the day with the cadets. But then there's other programs offered in the evening or online and graduate programs to choose from too to make things so flexible for you. The US World and News Report has named the Citadel the number one column for veterans in the South. And for veterans who choose to take classes on campus, they get to be a civilian student in a military environment.

They don't have to wear uniforms like I said before. They don't have to join the military culture of the Corps of Cadets. The atmosphere is a really good transition environment from military to civilian life. There's an organic mentorship that comes from taking classes with the cadets. The cadets wanna talk to you guys.

They wanna hear your stories. They wanna know what it was actually like to be in the military. A lot of the a lot of these men and women are gonna go on to serve as officers in the military, and they're gonna exact change. And they need to hear from you guys. They you also get access to The Citadel's alumni network.

Like I said, this is one of the most illustrious institutions in the And when you join the Citadel and you graduate, you're part of their alumni network. That includes so many leaders. It includes so many business leaders, so many leaders from the military, and so many leaders from the government. The college's core values of honor, duty, and respect align with veteran culture. They align with who you are, and it's something that you're not gonna get anywhere else in this country.

There is tons of special assistance for veterans at The Citadel, and whether you're a veteran or active duty military personnel, you can take advantage of these programs. You also get access to the veteran student success center, the career center, the academic success center, the student veteran association, and all campus clubs. If you wanna play rugby, you could do that. If you wanna you wanna lift weights, you could do that. You get access to everything that the students get.

There's fellowship opportunities. There's tons and tons of financial assistance. So if you're interested in getting a degree from The Citadel and building your life, head over to citadel.edu/veterans.

This is Chris Albert, and I'm here to remind you of one thing. Someday, you're going to die. Now that's not some morbid statement or scary idea. It's solid fact. Your time here on this earth is limited.

And we need to be reminded of this as much as possible for one simple reason, to live your best life while you can. This is the Warrior Soul podcast.

You know, one of the funny things about life is that when you are faced with a difficult situation, you are often faced with exactly what you were asking for. Let me say that again. When you were faced with a difficult situation, you are often being faced with exactly what you asked for. Now, here's the deal. Not all difficult situations are the same.

Not all people are the same. Right? Not not all of us live the same lives. But when you are going about life, you know, at each stage of life, you're gonna face new challenges. Right? You you discovered that when you went to boot camp. Right? If you wanted to become a marine, if you wanted to become a soldier, if you wanted to become an airman, if you wanted to become anything, you had to go through difficulty.

It was required of you. And the same is true of life. You know, a lot of us sit back and we dream, and we dream about running businesses. We dream about leading teams. We dream about, you know, doing work that we always dreamt about doing when we were kids.

And through each of those processes of transformation, there's going to be difficulty that you are going to think that you're not gonna be able to overcome. And when faced with it, you're gonna completely forget about your desire to be that thing. You're gonna completely forget for a second that that you ever wanted to be that thing. And you're gonna start to feel sorry for yourself. You're gonna start to say, why the heck me?

Why did I choose this? And then you're gonna start rationalizing. And when you start rationalizing, that's that's the danger. And I know you've all been through that before because you start rationalizing yourself. And I did this in boot camp, except you couldn't get out of boot camp.

But when when I first got to boot camp, I would start rationalizing in my mind. You know? Maybe if I started acting crazy, they'd they'd let me out of here, and I'd be out of here by Thanksgiving time. Right? And then start rationalizing my head.

Maybe if I I did this, maybe if I you know, and and I got through boot camp. I I was a real good marine, but but I went through that thought process. Right? And I could see how people try to quit things. I could see how people try to justify quitting to themselves.

And what I wanna tell all of you right now, no matter where you are, no matter what you're doing, if you're going through difficulty, it means it's happening because you're transforming into something else. Right? It's happening because you're transforming into something else. And if you make the harder choice, the more difficult choice, rather than choosing the comfortable choice, it's gonna reward you in the end. Right?

You're gonna become that thing you wanted to become. You're going to push toward that goal you wanted to accomplish. You're going to just get one more step in your life that's going to bring you closer to being who you want to be and and to to doing what you wanna do here. Right? I'm going through one of those situations now.

You know, a year ago, I was I was in a really bad position a year ago. I was you know, my business was failing. This podcast wasn't bringing any money in. I and never has, honestly. I I don't do this podcast for the money.

I was very sick, and and I was really lonely. I was living you know, working from home in Redlands. I I I didn't have much of anything going on. And then I got a part time sales and marketing gig, and that that part time sales and marketing gig changed into a full time sales and marketing gig, and then I just got promoted. And and in that promotion, I'm feeling feeling facing a lot of difficulty, a lot of difficulty.

Alright? And and there's times when I sit here and I'm like, well, why me? Why and then I realize because I have experience here. I have experience in in going through that mindset. I realized that that, well, it's because this is what I wanted.

This is my time to step up. This is what I need to do to push forward. And you've got to snap yourself out of it if you're you're going through one of those negative cycles. You gotta snap yourself out of it, you gotta realize the opportunity in front of you, and you gotta push through it. So hope that makes sense, guys.

You know, we've been doing this for about five years now, and I'm publishing for three times a week for about two years now. And I may have to cut back on that. We'll see. I might pull it back to one or two times a week. We'll see if we can do that.

But for now, I'm really enjoying doing this show, And I'll never stop doing it because of you, the veteran community, the sleeping giant in this country. And, you know, there's so much potential in our community. There's so much so much potential for us to change this country for the better, and I hope that you're doing it. Because to do it means you gotta live it. So get out there and live your best lives while you can.

My name is Chris Albert. This is the Warrior Soul podcast, and I am out.