How to Stop Being Your Own Enemy

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 with 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. 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. And I'm gonna tell you something right now that you probably already know.

You are not the same person that you were ten years ago. You will not be the same person ten years from now that you are right now. And some of you are probably sitting there, well, I don't change. I I stay the same. I've seen that meme before on Instagram.

Right? I'm gonna be the same asshole next year that I am this year. Right? But it's the truth. Right?

You you are a very different person. You probably carry around maybe similar beliefs, but but also a bit different, a bit more matured. Right? You're probably not doing some of the same things you did ten years ago. I I know I'm not.

Alright? If I could go back, I'll say this, if I could go back ten years and slap that pissy little kid in the face that was me, I would do so, and I'd probably choke him and and get him and do all kinds of stuff that would put me in a better position today. And I know a lot of us feel that way. But the truth is, you're literally not the same person. Your cells regenerate in your brain constantly.

They're constantly dying off and constantly being regenerated. Same thing with your body. Right? They're constantly dying off, constantly regenerating. And with your brain, you know, that's we we have this thing called neuroplasticity.

Right? That's where your brain actually interacts with the environment and changes according to the environment you're in. We're gonna get into that in a second, but I think it's important that you understand that. You were not the same person that you once were, and you're not going to be the same person a decade from now that you are right now. The problem with all this is that we still carry around things from from the the people we were.

Right? Whether it's memories that you're carrying around with you inside of you or whether it's the consequences of the actions that that person took. Right? So for example, I might not I might not be my 20 year old self, but up until recently, I was still carrying around the debts that my 20 year old version of myself got myself into. Right?

You might not be the 25 year old version of yourself, but you might still carry the memories of what you did when you were 25, and those might be impacting you today. And what I'm trying to get to here is this idea of guilt, This idea that we somehow need to feel guilty for who we were. Guilty for this being that we once were at a time and a place where we weren't the people we are now, and we didn't have the decision making ability that we do right now. And, you know, when you think about that, it's a huge freaking handicap. Right?

Because what you're doing in your mind is you're constantly viewing yourself as that person, that that that person who had weaknesses, who had imperfections, who had all these things that that he hadn't worked on yet. And you're not giving yourself a chance to improve. Right? You're not giving yourself any runway. Right?

And and in so many ways, we are all our hardest critics. Right? We have these negative belief systems in our mind. And and, you know, if think about it like this. If you were a friend of yours, right, and you said some of the same things that you say to yourself to a friend, would that person still be a friend?

Right? Would it would he or she? Right? You think about that. Like, you said some of the some of the bullshit that you tell yourself about how weak you are, about how incapable you are, If you said that to a friend, would you still would you think that friend would still wanna be friends with you?

Probably not. Right? And so a lot of us as we go through life, we we're constantly telling ourselves this bullshit. We're constantly throwing all this crap into our into our psyches. And what we're not realizing is the impact that that's having on our brains.

Right? If you don't believe something's possible, right, it's not gonna be possible. You guys understand that. But what you might not understand is that the the the way you talk to yourself is constantly changing your brain. It's constantly wiring things in your brain that are gonna program whether or not you're gonna be capable or not.

Right? So for example, if you you constantly if you're overweight and you constantly tell yourself you're a fat shit who's never gonna be able to lose weight ever, then what you're gonna do is you're constantly gonna be reaching for that bag of chips or or for that candy. Right? You you your brain constantly changes, and it changes due to the environment you're in, and it changes due to what you tell yourself. So what I wanna get to here is is two big things.

Right? So you probably heard the most overused, statement in self help, which is you're the average of the five people you hang out with the most. Right? And that's cliche, but it's cliche for a reason because it's true. Right?

If you're surrounding yourself with people who are not going anywhere, who are constantly negative, who are constantly, you know, claiming victimhood, then then you're gonna be a victim too. Right? It's plain and simple as that. But there's also something deeper here. You always have to analyze yourself, and you have to ask yourself, are you playing the victim?

Are you the negative person? Are you the person who's who's bringing everybody else down, including yourself? And if you are, then you have to start to change that. Right? You have to start to develop a new perspective.

You have to get reacquainted with yourself. You have to get reacquainted with your capabilities, and you have to build some self confidence. And the way you do that is through a couple of ways. Right? So one, you have to admit that you're doing it to yourself.

You have to admit that in a lot of ways, you're the person who's bringing you down. You're the person who has been keeping you from greatness. It's not the world. It's not your neighborhood. It's not the opposing political party.

It's not the the the deep state. It's not any of that. It's you. Right? Second you you admit to that, you you you take control back in your life, and there's something you could do about it now.

Then what you gotta do is you've got to build your self confidence, and the only way of doing that is by going out there and stretching your ability. Right? Doing hard, difficult things that you've never done before, and not giving up on the first time, but constantly practicing on them. Right? You know, we see jiu-jitsu has become extraordinarily popular right now.

Everybody's doing jiu-jitsu. I I started a few years ago, and one of the things I I noticed right off the bat was that I was constantly getting choked out. Alright? I was constantly getting my ass kicked. I still get my ass kicked today.

And one of the best things about jiu-jitsu is it gives you this thing to work toward. It gives you this thing to say, you know what? You get choked out. That's your fault for not knowing. Right?

It's your fault for for for not being prepared. But here's this chance you have, this chance you have to get better at it, this chance you have to learn this new skill, this chance you have to get your body to do different things. And the more you do it, the more confidence you build up, the less you get choked out, and in turn, the more confidence you have walking around, right, doing things. Right? I'm constantly reading.

I'm constantly reading because I don't have a lot of time to go out there and find mentors. I don't have a lot of time to go out there and interact with with other successful people. And we have this amazing thing in the in human history called the written word, where successful people wrote advice down for other people. And so I'm constantly reading, I'm constantly trying to learn, trying to learn new things. And those activities, really simple activities, you know, choosing to do new things and constantly learning, that's how you change your brain.

That's how you make yourself more confident. That's how you learn more. That's how you get through this world. And I hope, you know, it's still the beginning of the year. We're almost a month in.

I hope that you guys are taking advantage of every opportunity to make yourselves better. Hope you guys are listening to the show, not for your entertainment, not for any other reason aside from the fact that that you feel you need to step up, you need to improve yourself, and you find this to be a good outlet to do so. So get out there, try hard things, read, learn, learn something new every day, and be humble. But also, start to talk to yourself as if you're a friend. Stop talking to yourself as if as if you're your worst enemy.

And I promise you, if you do those things, things will get better every day. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Warrior Soul podcast. My name is Chris Albert, and I'll be back at you next week with some more awesome content. Have a great weekend, guys. Get out there and live your best lives while you can.