How to Deal with the Negative Voices in Your Head

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 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. 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.

What is going on, ladies and gentlemen? Welcome to another edition of 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 go out on a limb here and I'm gonna tell you a little bit about my own thought process when it comes to myself. You know, when when times are going well, a lot of times, I will start doing that same old story in my head.

That story that says, you're not good enough for this. You are going to screw this up somehow. You're gonna trip. You're gonna fall. You're gonna end up worse than where you were at before.

You're seriously gonna screw this up. And I'll do this to myself over and over and over again. And I'd love to tell you that there's a point where it stops. I'd love to say, hey, here's a few simple tricks to get that voice out of your head, that voice that telling you you're not good enough, that voice that's telling you you don't deserve the life you have, that voice that's telling you, you know, you're just a screw up. I'd I'd love to tell you that that voice goes away, and that I know of some simple tricks to help you get rid of it, but I don't.

I don't. That that voice is with me. It's part of me. It's there, and it's not going away. And I think part of winning the battle there is realizing that.

Realizing that that part of your voice is there. It's there for a reason. Right? It's trying to keep you safe. And when I figured that out, that's when I figured out that I could deal with it, and I could live with it, and I could succeed in spite of it.

Right? Because again, that voice is it's it's seriously trying to help you. It's not trying to to keep you down. It's not trying to hold you back. It is trying to keep you safe because at some point in your life, you were in danger, and it was that voice that helped you out.

It kept you from making a stupid decision. It kept you from from from, you know, seriously messing something up. But now that things are better and and you're on the up and up and you're you're trying to improve yourself, that voice isn't serving you like it used to. And what I need you to understand here is that every single one of our thoughts come into play, they come into use at at different times. Right?

And there's certain times when that voice is necessary. But you gotta remember when you're trying to build your life that that that there's a time to listen to that voice and there's a time not to. And in order to get around that, what you have to do is you have to recognize it. You have to say, hey, you know what? Thank you.

Thank yourself for serving you. Thank yourself for keeping yourself safe all those years. Thank you for for for helping me, for for allowing me to build up my defenses. But right now, this is a time where I need to take some risks. This is a time where I really need to believe in myself.

And you literally have to have a conversation with yourself and say, hey, you know what? You're not serving me right now. I need to keep pushing. I need to keep moving forward. I need to to go after this job.

I need to go after this degree. I need to go after this relationship. I need to keep pushing here. And you're just not serving me, and I wanna thank you, but but we're just not not gonna interact right now. And that's literally how it goes.

Now, obviously, it's a lot more difficult than that. You've gotta you've gotta really analyze yourself. You've gotta really dig in. You gotta really understand you. Right?

And that comes through practice. It comes through meditation. It comes through journaling, it comes through a lot of the skills that we've talked about here on this podcast. And it'll take a long time to develop yourself to a point to where you can live with that voice and still perform. But it's a necessary element to your success that you understand that that voice is not you.

Right? It's not you. It's a thought that you had. It's a thought that came in, and it's a thought that served you. But it's not you.

Right? You're something bigger. You are something beyond what that voice is, and you have to understand that. You have to be able to separate the two. And again, meditation, journaling, things like that, that'll help you to understand that a little bit more.

And, you know, I know at times this this stuff can sound super woo woo and and out there, but I promise you, if you you put the practice in and you just begin to make these realizations, it's something that that is gonna help you. It's something that's gonna serve you and something that's gonna move you forward. And that's all I got for today, guys. This is Chris Albert with the Warrior Soul podcast, and I am out.