How to Deal with Uncertainty in Life

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 podcast is where we deliver tools, tactics, strategies, and ideas to The US military veteran community and anybody else willing to listen to help them to live their best lives. I wanna talk to you today about the hardest thing to deal with in life, the the most difficult thing to deal with in life. There's a lot of difficult things out there.

There's pain. There's death. There's disappointment. There is hardships that that we couldn't even contemplate. Alright?

But but there's one thing that's more difficult for each of us to deal with than anything else, and and that's uncertainty. And generally, whenever anything bad or or uncomfortable happens, it's it's really uncertainty that bothers us about it. You know, we have a loved one who dies. You know, it's the uncertainty of how we're gonna go on without that person in our lives that that really gets at us. You know, when we get fired from a job, it's the uncertainty of what we're gonna do that that that really comes at us.

When we're going after a dream or or or trying to work for something, It's the uncertainty that that, you know, you are the uncertainty of whether or not you are ever gonna get there that that really gets at you. And dealing with uncertainty is probably one of the most uncomfortable things, the most uncomfortable feelings you'll ever deal with. Right? It keeps you up at night. It gnaws at you.

Right? Because as human beings, we like to know where we're gonna be the next day. We'd like to know that we are gonna have our basics cared for, our our wants, our needs, our our food, our shelter, and also love, compassion, companionship, all these different things. That's that's what we really want in our lives at base. And when any of those things are uncertain, it puts you in this space.

You know, what am I doing with my life? Where am I going? What path am I walking? What should I do now? Right?

And the truth is that that everything is uncertain. Right? If you think about it, you know, your job is not promised to you. That that food that that comes on your table doesn't magically appear there that that gets there through hard work. It gets there through through through trial, but it's not certain.

Alright? Your life. You know, whether or not you are going to be here tomorrow, that's not certain either. So so how do we deal with it? What what are the things that we need to do to deal with this great problem that we all have in life called uncertainty?

And the biggest thing that that I could take this to, and I'm gonna try not to make this like a 10,000 foot level conversation. I wanna get down to specifics of things that you could do, but but the biggest thing, alright, that that you could do is to begin taking action. Right? Because far too often, when we're uncertain, we sit back. Right?

And and and we're almost paralyzed. Right? We're paralyzed to the point that that we don't know what to do. We don't know what action to take. We sit back.

We kinda let things happen. Right? We sit there and we hope. We hope for things to come to us. We sit there and we we we we wish that this period of uncertainty can go away so that we can have some level of certainty in our lives.

Right? But but wishing and hoping, right, they're not really plans. So what you gotta do is is you've got to fight that urge, that urge to just sit there and worry, that urge to sit there and stress yourself out. And you gotta get out there, and you gotta do something. So so so what should you do?

Right? What should you do in order to combat this? What should you do? What action should you take? Well, the first step is it might sound like a really small step, but it's a huge step toward actually getting something done is to admit to yourself.

Admit to yourself. Look yourself in the mirror and tell yourself, you know what? I might actually not know what to do. Whatever it is that I'm supposed to do, it's it's not actually in my head right now. I'm not gonna manifest it.

It's not gonna come to me from the sky. It's not gonna come to me from a thought. It's not gonna come to me from a prayer. Right? Although I do believe that God's always watching over us.

It's it's not just going to come to you. Right? So so you've got to admit to yourself that you don't know what to do. And what this does is it creates a level of alertness in your brain. Right?

Because far too often when we're in these situations, we're not alert. We're our head's down. It's in the sand. You know, we wanna hide. We wanna cover ourselves up.

We don't want to let people know that we're in a bad place. We don't wanna let our friends know. We don't wanna let our families know. We don't wanna show weakness. But you've got to admit that it's there, that you don't currently have the skills, the knowledge, the assets to overcome this situation.

Right? And when you develop that alertness that that you get from admitting this to yourself, then that puts your brain into a mode that says, hey, you know what? I gotta go out there and I gotta find it. Right? I gotta go out there and I gotta find it.

And so once you develop that alertness, the next step is to get out there and try and seek the knowledge, the information, the skills that you need to figure out your way out of the problem you're in. Alright? And where does that knowledge come from? Well, it could come from loved ones. It could come from people in your lives.

Right? It could come from friends. You could go to a friend who might have been through difficulties before, and you could ask them for advice. Right? This is why mentors are so important.

If you can go out there and you could find mentors, you know, it's a a big step. But, you know, maybe you're in a position like like I've been at certain points in my life. Maybe you're so isolated right now. Maybe you've you've been in this bad state for so long that that you don't have anybody in your life that you could just go and talk to. Maybe you you you you you just don't trust anybody enough yet.

Right? And that's still something you gotta overcome, but but maybe maybe you you haven't gotten there yet. So the next thing you need to do is is in this case, is you need to go out there and you need to find written information or recorded information from people who've been through things like this before. Right? We live in in an amazing time.

Right? I I can go on to Amazon right now, and and I can grab a book that'll be here tomorrow, or I can go on Amazon, and I could get an Audible book that will be delivered to my phone or my device, you know, in in thirty seconds. Right? And I could begin listening to that book. I can go out there, and I could find podcasts about a particular subject or a particular problem.

And there's gonna be people there who will deliver advice to you. Right? That that I could listen to it, you could listen to while you're running, while you're you're you're doing something else. Right? You could put your your your your earphones on and just listen.

Right? But understand that that that information is probably out there, and it's information that is readily accessible to you. Now let me just caution you here because, you know, there's there's a whole industry around selling people digital courses. There's a whole industry around people selling selling, you know, these really expensive courses or or seminars and things like that for people in this type of situation. Right?

The Internet is filled with it. It's basically what the Internet is right now. Right? A lot of people trying to get you to buy something. And I'll say this, I'm not against investing in knowledge.

And in fact, I think it it could be a great investment. Alright? It could be a great investment. But if you don't have money to buy a cup of coffee, Right? If if buying a cup of coffee is a life decision for you.

Alright? Or maybe you're you're tens of thousands of dollars in debt. Alright? Maybe you're you're you're in a really bad situation. You're not gonna be able to to invest in a $10,000 course.

Right? And and what a lot of these Internet marketers will do to you is they'll they'll say something to you like, oh, you're $40,000 in debt? Well, you're the one who needs this. Right? So so what's another $10,000 for you to invest in in this knowledge or that knowledge or or whatever?

No. No. You've gotta get yourself to a place where you can even afford that level of help. Right? So what you need to do is you need to find the the knowledge, the the the advice that you you can have access to.

And in this day and age, you are lucky because there is so much of it out there. Right? There's so much free advice. This podcast is completely free. I don't sell anything else here.

Alright? There there there's a lot of other podcasts where you could find so much advice for free. You know, my good friend Ryan Michler, Order of Man, fantastic podcast. Right? I've been listening to Eric Thomas, the the hip hop preacher, every morning.

When I wake up in the morning, first thing I put on is Eric Thomas' speeches because I don't wanna cruise over to Fox News while I'm sitting on my on my toilet and and allow that negativity to be the first thing that I see every day. I want I want some inspiration. I need some motivation in my life. And Eric Thomas puts that information, that motivation out there for free on YouTube. Right?

There's so much out there that you can get. So go out there and and seek it. But the next thing you gotta do once you do that is you can't just sit there and become addicted to knowledge.

Right?

You can't just sit there and become addicted to books, addicted to podcasts, and addicted to to to self help. Right? You gotta go out there and you actually have to make a plan. Because you could listen thousands of hours of self help over over years, over decades, And you could know what it is you're supposed to do. But if you're not actually doing it, then you're still gonna be in the same place over and over and over again.

So once you get the information you need, once you get the knowledge that you need, you need to start taking action. Right? Before you do that, you need a plan to take action, an organized plan. Right? And maybe that plan's not gonna be perfect, but you do need to think it out.

Right? You need to think about a goal that you're gonna get to. Right? What is that goal? What is that end state that you want?

And then you need to think backwards from it. Right? What's the thing that you had to do before that? What's the thing you had to do to get to that thing that you did before that? Right?

And plan backward all the way to the beginning of where you are right now to figure out the first steps that you gotta do. And then once you have that mapped out, you start walking that path. And guess what you do once you have that mapped out. Right? You have some level of certainty about what you're supposed to do.

Right?

You have some level of certainty about what you're supposed to do. You have the map laid out for you. And then what you gotta do then is you gotta take it a step further. Right? You need to look at those first few actions, and maybe it'll take you a little bit to to get through them.

But you gotta figure out the little things that you're gonna do every single day until you've got each thing checked off on that path to your goal. What are the little things that you're gonna do each day? So you need to get yourself a planner, you need to write those things down, and you need to have the discipline to do them every morning. Right? Now here's a funny thing about life.

One of the things that inevitably happens is is you're gonna make this plan, and you're going to get up the next morning, and you're gonna be all set to to make that plan, and something's gonna happen. Right? Maybe your wife is coming down on you about something. Maybe, you know, you you you you get a call, and, you know, somebody's gonna try and invade into your life and create an emergency for you that's gonna take your attention away from this path. And you gotta know that that's gonna happen.

Right? That's the way life works. Right? You got to expect these things. You got to expect that now that you have a plan, not everything is just gonna magically line up and and you're gonna get there step by step.

Right? So you gotta be prepared for when things come up. Right? When when difficulties come up and you gotta figure out a way that you're gonna do everything that you're supposed to do in spite of anything that comes up in your life. Right?

And there's some things you could do each day that allow you to do that rather than waking up at the last possible moment. Right? Rather than waking up at 07:30, you gotta be at work at eight, you know, rolling out of bed, brushing yourself off, and then and then going to work. Wake up an hour earlier. Wake up two hours earlier.

Wake up three hours earlier. Right? Wake up before anybody else in your house is awake so you can have some time to yourself to try to get the work in. Right? Because a lot of you, you know, you're not paying yourselves first.

Right? You're not paying yourselves first. And what do I mean by paying yourselves? You're not allowing yourself the time to actually be you. You're not allowing yourself the the the most precious thing on this planet, which is time.

You're giving it all away. Right? You're giving it all away. You're giving it all away so that you can can get some extra rest. Right?

So that you can can barely show up. Right? And that's not the way you're gonna accomplish anything in this life. Right? You're not gonna accomplish anything in this life by barely showing up.

The only way you can accomplish anything is by being fully prepared for for what's gonna happen throughout each day. And the only way you could do that is if you're putting yourself together properly in the morning. Right? You need to set up a good morning routine. You need to be on the battlefield before the enemy.

So that means waking up three hours earlier, then you gotta do that. Right? I wake up at 04:34 thirty AM every single day. Every single day. I don't have to be to work till eight.

Right? But I wake up at 4AM every single day. Why? Because I have important things that I wanna do in this life. I have things that if I leave this planet without doing, my spirit is not gonna be happy with me.

Right? My God is not gonna be happy with me. And that means that I need to have time for myself. That means that I need to have time to put in. And so I'm not up each night staying up late.

I need I get to bed because I know that I have a mission the next morning. That's what you gotta do. It's worth it. It's worth it. It's worth the work.

It's worth the pain, but you gotta make it worth it. You have to make it worth it. And what's worse? Living your life in uncertainty, being dragged around by by fate or or by luck, being dragged around by the world, being tossed around like a leaf, or waking up each morning knowing that you're on a path, knowing that you're on a mission. Because trust me, if you have that mission, it doesn't matter how much money is in your bank account.

It doesn't matter what state you're in. It doesn't matter what kind of pain you're going through. If you're on a mission, that mission will make the pain worth it. It'll make the trials worth it. It'll make the worry worth it.

And getting rid of that uncertainty in your life, knowing that that every moment you live, that you breathe, that you're pushing towards something, that is the thing that could save all of us. And that's all I got for today, ladies and gentlemen. I hope that this makes sense, and I hope that it helps you. And if you ever have any questions, concerns, debates, anything like that, you can always hit me up on social media. I'm at Warrior Soul Agoge on Instagram.

And with that, I'll be back at you next week with some more content. This is Chris Albert with the Warrior Soul podcast. Get out there and live your best life while you can, and I am out.