How to Avoid Creating Your Own Hell On Earth

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 college 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 world. 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. And 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.

What is going on, ladies and gentlemen? Welcome to the Warrior Soul podcast. My name is Chris Albert, and this is where we deliver tools, tactics, strategies, and ideas to help The US military veteran community and anybody else willing to listen to live their absolute best lives. I'm gonna talk to you about something. There's probably gonna be a lot of people out there who disagree with me on this.

It might sound a little bit harsh. But one of the things that I think holds people back so much is their notion of fair and unfair. Right? So somebody's out there. They're they're trying.

They're they're working hard every day, and they haven't yet seen the fruits of their labor. And then they look over there, and they see somebody else who hasn't really tried very hard. They see this person, and that person's doing well for some reason. Right? They're they're making money.

Maybe they got an awesome woman or maybe they got a lot of women. Maybe they've got a nice car. Maybe they've got, you know, nice clothes, nice possessions, a nice house. Maybe they've come far in life, and and you haven't done much, but yet you've worked so hard. And what a lot of us have what a lot of us have a tendency to do is to look at that situation and say, oh my god.

That's so unfair. Right? It's so unfair. I'm I'm over here. I'm working my ass off.

I'm trying to get ahead, and I can't just can't get ahead. You know? Nothing I do allows me to to get ahead. I just can't catch a break. Right?

That's so unfair. And when you start to really look at this, this concept of fair and unfair, it doesn't really exist. Right? Like most things, it is a human construct, and I'm not a social constructivist. I'm not somebody who who prescribes to seeing a lot of facets of human social life as called social constructs.

And if they are social constructs, I think they're there for a reason. But this particular one, I do not believe to be useful. And the reason I do not believe it to be useful is because it immediately traps you. When you are sitting there and you're looking at your life and you're comparing it to somebody else's and you're saying, oh my god. This is so unfair.

I've got this and he's got that. What you're doing is you're resigning yourself to an external explanation for your own failures Because there's there's a few things you don't know. One, you don't know everything about that other person's life. Right? They might have tons of possessions, but their life might suck.

Right? They they might have problems that you don't even know about. But beyond that, you haven't seen the work that might have gone into what they've got. Right? In your mind, they might not be working hard, but but maybe they are behind the scenes.

Right? And regardless, no matter what they have, it has nothing to do with you and your plan and your life and what you're trying to do in your world. Right? And so when you're sitting there and you're you're giving so much energy and so much attention to this notion of fair and unfair, worrying about what you don't have, worrying about why you don't have what you have yet, then what you're not doing is you're not putting your head down and you're not pushing forward with your life plan. You're taking your attention and your focus off of your path, and you're putting yourself into a situation where you could potentially fall off a cliff.

You know, at worst, fall off a cliff. At best, you're not going anywhere, and that's not good. So what do you need to do? You need to stop putting your focus and your energy on everybody else, and you need to put everything into creating a vision for yourself and working toward that vision regardless of what anybody else is doing. You need to lay it out for yourself step by step. You need to be brutally honest with yourself about your own shortcomings. Right? You might think you're working hard, but are you? Have you really, really taken a close look at how hard you're working and and what other successful people have done to get to where they've gotten. Have you read biographies?

Right? Have you read about great men and women who've who've gone places? Right? You don't know if you don't learn. Right?

You don't know if you don't learn. And all you're gonna do if you keep going down this path is you're gonna be sitting in your own negative echo chamber worrying about why you haven't gotten what you gotten, and worrying about why your dreams haven't come true. And all you're gonna do is you're gonna sit there, and you're gonna be bitter for the rest of your life. Now, I'm a human being just like you. I probably can't comprehend what hell is like.

Right? It's probably this horrible place. But guess what? It sounds a lot like hell, and it sounds like you're creating your own hell on earth. Don't do that.

Heaven on earth is possible, but it's only possible through hard work and focus on you and your goals. You're creating your own hell. You're creating your own terror. You're creating your worst nightmare when you do these things. So that's all I got for today, guys.

I hope that makes sense. I hope you push forward. I hope you start focusing on your path. I hope you're working hard. You're putting your head down, and you're working toward your dreams because that is the only way your dreams are gonna come true.

Nobody is gonna come down from heaven. Nobody's gonna come out and swoop down and rescue you. It's only you right now, and and you're the one who's got to do the work. I'm here for support. Our community's here for support, but at the end of the day, it's you that's gotta do it.

I'll talk to you guys later. Get out there and live your best lives while you can. This is Chris Albert with the Warrior Soul Podcast, and I am out.