How to Overcome Negative Self Talk

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. You know, I've been thinking about things a lot lately. I've had a lot of time to think.

My woman is is out visiting family across the country, and I'm here in Florida. And whenever this happens, it because she she's gone away before to visit family or to do other things and and leaves me alone with my own thoughts and and not much else. And the funny thing is, you know, when she's there, a lot of times I I always wish, hey. I, you know, I wish I had some time to think or some time to be with myself. And then when it comes time to be by myself and when it comes time to to think, I always have problems with it.

And what I've been thinking about is a lot of the stuff that's happened over the last few years. You know, life hasn't been easy for me as it hasn't been for most of you. You know, I've dealt with sickness. I dealt with a lot of financial problems. I had this move across the country away from California.

I got a new job, new stresses, new things coming into my life that that, you know, quite frankly, a lot of them are good things. But with good things, with with advancement, there comes new responsibility, and there comes this sense that, you know, for a lot of us, we don't deserve the good things that happen to us, or maybe we're not qualified to be part of this new thing, alright, or or to be a leader or to to advance. Maybe we're not qualified somehow. And I've always had that overarching sense. Alright?

And and the thing is, it's it's not true. I've worked very hard to get where I am. I've I've put a lot of work into myself. I've put a lot of work into my knowledge. But at the same time, you know, it's a voice in my head that's there.

And that's one of the things I think we all got to realize that that it is just a voice. We're constantly throwing negative shit at ourselves in our own heads. But the thing that this that this causes, right, when you are in a place that, you know, could be considered to be advanced from from where you were is it starts to cause a form of self sabotage. Right? You have that doubt in your mind.

You know, you wake up in the morning, and it starts when you wake up in the morning, and and you're lying there and you're thinking, well, what the hell is gonna happen today? You know, are they gonna find out? Are they gonna find out who I am? Are they gonna find out, you know, how shitty of a person I am? How how shitty of a leader I am?

How how awful I am at doing this job. And then it translates into, you know, small actions that you take throughout the day. You know, the way you carry yourself around people. Are you looking them in the eye? Do you have your shoulders back?

Are you speaking with authority? Are you walking around, you know, sharing your presence with people? Or are you hunched over, you know, kind of scuffling around, scurrying around like a rodent trying to hide from people? Right? And I've caught myself doing that.

And as I speak with veterans from around the country and I speak with, you know, men in general from around the country, I've seen that that this is more and more of a problem. You know, we get so down on ourselves in our own heads. It translates to our body language. It translates to the way we carry ourselves. It translates to the way we present ourselves to the world.

And I think that we have to understand a few things about it. The first thing is this, there is nobody who's gonna come along and tell you you're good enough. Right? There is nobody who's gonna come along and say, hey, all those voices in your head, they're wrong. Right?

They're lying to you. Right? You gotta figure that shit out for yourself. And just like every problem, there is nobody coming to rescue you ever. Right?

You have to live with this. You have to live with yourself. You have to live with your voice. You have to live with the position you're in in life right now in this moment. And if you don't like that position, you gotta do something about it.

If you don't like those voices in your head, you gotta do something about it. You can't just sit there and let them walk over you. So what am I doing about it now? Well, first thing is this, and it's something that I've been talking about for years. I meditate every single day.

Right? I meditate every single day. And the thing about meditation is I don't believe that it actually helps to quiet those voices, but what it does do is it helps to identify them. Right? It helps to identify them.

Because when you start to understand yourself and you start to understand the way your brain thinks, you start to identify your patterns. And if you haven't done that yet, you you start to think that that voice in your head is actually you. Right? It's not you. It's it's a thought you have, and there's a difference there.

You're not your thoughts. And only I only if you start meditating are you actually a lot of you are probably sitting at home being like, well, not my thoughts. What? What the hell does he mean? Only if you start meditating will you start to figure that out.

Right? You're not those thoughts. You're not those voices in your head. That's something else. That's something that was that was brought upon you by the world somehow.

Right? And you've gotta start to untangle that shit. Right? And then if you don't, you start going around thinking, oh, that's me. That's me.

That's part of me. That's something I can't get rid of. That's something I can't overcome. And you're wrong about that. The next thing you gotta do is you got to start looking for solutions outside of yourself.

Right? Now, like I said, nobody's gonna come along and tell you you're you're good enough. Right? But what you gotta do is you gotta go out there and you gotta learn. You got to go out there and you have to seek information.

And, you know, that information should be things that are gonna help you to be more confident in what you're trying to do in life. Right? Confident and competent. Alright? You want to search for those skills, and you want to search for the knowledge of those who've come before you on the path you're trying to walk, and you wanna try and grab that knowledge.

Now a lot of people talk about mentors. I've never been somebody who had access to mentors. Right? I do now. But, you know, when I was younger, I didn't have access to any of that shit.

I didn't have a dad growing up. I didn't have, you know, a man in my life telling me what to do, how to act, how to carry myself. So what do I do? I go out there and I read as much as possible. Right now, I'm reading about Winston Churchill, read about Teddy Roosevelt, read about John D.

Rockefeller. I read about every single person I can think of or or or or figure out in history that, you know, has walked a difficult path. If it's a book about somebody who's had a hard life but accomplished a lot of things, I'm trying to get on it. And there's so many resources out there right now for you to do that. You know, you've got physical books.

You've also got Audible. You've got podcasts. You've got so many different resources, more than anybody's ever had in history. All that's at your fingertips. Right?

And then, you know, the other part of it is this. You've got to put the work into yourself. Right? You've got to prepare all the things that I do. I go to jiu-jitsu, you know, four days a week now.

Trying to push myself into, you know, being comfortable with different forms of violence. Right? And, yeah, of course, my job, I'm not a violent person, but but it helps me to understand pressure, Helps me under this to understand how my body's gonna react against pressure. I push myself physically. Right?

Running, lifting weights, doing calisthenics. Right? That all helps me to understand myself and understand what I can do. Alright? Making sure that you're taking care of your body.

Making sure that you're taking care of of of your body in a way that you're putting good fuel into your body. Right? If you put nothing but crap in your body, if you're drinking a lot of alcohol, well, what you're gonna get is crap. That's it. Alright?

Real simple stuff, guys. I'm not telling you guys anything that anybody else isn't telling you. I I think you could probably listen to any other podcast about self improvement, and they're gonna tell you all of this stuff. What I'm trying to do is I'm trying to get you to understand that I'm not a guru. I'm not somebody who has it all figured out.

I'm somebody who's on the same path you are. I'm somebody who wakes up every day and struggles my ass off with those voices, struggles my ass off with that negativity, struggles my ass off with my failures of my past, and who is out there actively trying to work alongside you. I don't I don't turn this podcast into a business for a reason, and it's because I'm nobody freaking special. And what I believe is that in this community, this community of warriors, this community of veterans, this community of people who put our lives on the line for this country, what we need to do is we need to start coming together. We need to stop all this fucking bullshit about, you know, being our own islands and fucking, you know, working apart from each other.

We need to stop all this bullshit of freaking trying to find the next guru or the next the next, you know, special person. And what we need to do is we need to come together. I'm I'm telling you right now, most of you are better than I am, better men than I am, better people than I am. I'm just somebody who's never given up. And, you know, I guess that makes me who I am.

So that's all I got for today, guys. I love you all. No matter who you are or what you're doing, I hope you get out there and you live your best lives while you can. This is Chris Albert with the Warrior Soul podcast, and I am out.