Independence Day – 2019

Chris Albert 00:00:00 (link to this point)

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's going on, everybody? Welcome to Warrior Soul podcast. This is Chris Albert. Today is 07/03/2019. We're on the eve of our Independence Day.

I always wanted to say that in a movie in front of a fighter jet, while I was president of The United States, and we were all about to go off and fight aliens. I don't know. Inside joke, if you've ever seen the movie, but listen guys and gals, July 4. I love the fourth of July. It's one of my favorite holidays, and I love it because it's a celebration of the country that I love, that I chose to serve, and that so many of my brothers and sisters chose to serve, and and so many people who've sacrificed so much more than I ever will or ever have, you know, I remember my first memorable fourth of July.

I was at a a family party, and the adults were... I think I must have been about three or four. Right? The the adults were off. They were having fun, doing their thing.

There was fireworks going on outside, but the TV was on. And I remember seeing fireworks around the Statue Of Liberty. And I remember seeing President Reagan on TV. And it was at that moment that I realized something for the first time in my life. I realized that I was an American, and that that was something to celebrate.

And my next memorable fourth of July occurred in 1999. I was a marine corps recruit on Parris Island, South Carolina. And the drill instructors marched us off to go and watch the fireworks. They marched us over to the parade deck there on MCRD Parris Island, and we all had to sit down Indian style, and we're still in platoon formation. And every time a firework shot up into the air, we had to put our heads down, stare at the ground, and when we heard the firework go off, we had to say loud and in unison, oh, and then follow it up with an ah.

It's probably one of my funniest memories from the fourth of July. And if you've ever been through Marine Corps boot camp, then you probably get that and why it's so funny. I love this country. I love it with all of my heart. And here's the thing, when we get into conversations like this about America and about what America means, Lately, it's become so divisive.

It's become so divisive because, well, I think there's this tendency amongst us right now to look at things as as black or white. Right? And I'm not talking about racially. I'm talking about, you know, seeing it either as one thing or the other. And I'll tell you what, I've never been under the illusion that this country was perfect.

Alright? We've gone through some really dark periods in our history. Right? We started as a slave owning nation. We had Jim Crow.

There was an immense amount of racism that occurred. There were populations of this country who were oppressed. But here's the other side of it. As a nation, we've taken immense and great pains to fix those mistakes. The American Civil War killed so many young men.

Young men who, regardless of what revisionist history says, fought and died so that we could get that scourge of slavery out of this country. We went through our civil rights period. And yes, racism still exists today, but it's my sincere belief that racism exists amongst a very ignorant few. There are so many young men and young women who would lay down their life so that all Americans are able, regardless of race, are able to enjoy the freedoms that we're all supposed to be given here by virtue of us being born in The United States. Now, that doesn't make me, you know, like one political party over another.

It doesn't turn me into anything. I mean, some of you will say it well, but it makes me an American. An American who loves this country. An American who wants freedom and opportunity for every other American out there, regardless of what you look like, regardless of who you have sex with, regardless of where you were born. I didn't grow up with much money.

My mother was a single mother. She worked three jobs for me and my sister. And though she was often not with us when we were children because she was working so much, you know, she did everything she could for us, and I love her so much for that. And I wasn't afforded a lot of the opportunities that a lot of other people were. I didn't have my choice of schools because couldn't afford them.

I grew up on, you know, goodwill clothing and and, you know, hand me downs and things like that. Right? I wasn't always able to wear the the latest styles. Right? I didn't get a car, when I was a kid.

I didn't get it one handed to me. Right? But I still had so many amazing advantages just by virtue of being here in this amazing country. And the thing I wanna do here is because this isn't just me getting up on my high horse and talking about how proud proud I am to be an American. What I wanna do here is I wanna talk to you about a few things that I think a lot of people miss out on.

Right? One of the problems, I think, that happens in this country is that when we grow up, we look at our schooling and our childhoods as the the... Just basically centered around us. Right? Everything is about us, our education, how much money we're gonna earn when we graduate from school, what, you know, what opportunities are afforded us and things things like that.

Right? And one of the things I think that everybody has to realize is that the key to success in this country is to understand one thing. That is the... That the world is bigger than you. Right?

The world is bigger than you. Your problems, your your obstacles, they don't make you special. Right? They don't make you special at all. And the sooner you realize that, the sooner you're going to be in position to do something about those problems and to do something about those obstacles.

Because it's at that moment that you realize that it's your job to overcome those obstacles, and it's your job to solve those problems. And you have to think about that. There's so much power in that. There is no caste system here in The United States. Right?

There is no caste system here. We have the opportunity to move upward. Every single one of us. Yes. Some people have parents with larger bank accounts than others.

Yes. Some people have access to certain advantages. But at the same time, we all have unprecedented access to many things that most people throughout history never had. We have access to technology. Technology is almost universally been democratized.

That means that almost everybody's got one of these phones. Right? Or access to a computer. And through that computer, you can learn about almost anything. Alright?

So what you can do at that point is you can start to use that technology to start to try to figure out solutions to the problems you have. The the problem is I see it is that most people don't use that technology for any of that. They use it to complain. They use it to to express how the world is unfair to them. But the fact of the matter is, you know what?

You can find videos, you can find articles, you can find reading on almost anything. If you wanna learn about investing, if you wanna learn about starting a business, if you want to learn about advancing your career, there's so many things you could do right then and there. Right? If you want to build your own brand, right? Think about that.

Well, social media is absolutely free. There's Teespring. Right? Teespring.com. You can test out a couple of t shirts.

I mean, when in... A lot of people laugh at that, but when in history would you have ever been able to do that without investing money? And I'm not talking about just a few dollars. I'm talking about thousands and thousands of dollars. Right?

Just about ten years ago. Right? That wouldn't have been possible. Today it is. Right?

And again, this is the thing. It's because people aren't opening their eyes up to the opportunity. Now, I get it. I get why so many people out there feel like the world is unfair. It's because the world is a hard and difficult place.

But, again, this world's been around for millions of years. And in its history, every single living thing has been tested. Every single living thing has been tested. And through our history as humans, ever since civilization has existed, most people were not able to move up in the world. The United States was the first place in history that you could do that.

And today, because of The United States, that's also possible in so many other countries, across Europe, across Asia now, across Latin America, across Africa. Right? That concept has been brought worldwide. And, yes, there are certain places in this world still where people remain severely oppressed. But all that has changed in in such a rapid time in so many places.

Right? And it's because The United States existed. If The United States didn't exist during World War two, what would things be like? If The United States didn't exist, where would fascism be? Where would Nazism be?

Where would Bolshevism be? Right? Think about that. And so many people like to look at Bolshevism with such a a romantic ideal, communism with such a romantic ideal. How many people did that system kill?

Millions. Look it up, guys. Look it up. And so, you know, one of the things that that we've tried to do here with this podcast is to bring ideas to you that are going to inspire you to greatness. When I look at a lot of the other veteran podcasts, and don't get me wrong, I love so many of them.

But a lot of people in this community, the veteran community, have looked at their own situations, and a lot of us have also become complainers. Right? This isn't fair, or that isn't fair. And I'm absolutely of the opinion that that we should be supporting each other, that we should be trying to to help our brothers and sisters in need. At the same time, we also need to be educating ourselves, and putting ourselves into position so that we're never the victim.

We're never the victim. You choose when you're the victim and when you're not. And when you put yourself into a position where you're only complaining, you're choosing to be the victim. When you put yourself into a position where you're bringing solutions to the table, you rise above that. And you put yourself into a position where you can really make change.

So I wanna wish you all a very happy Independence Day, regardless of what you believe, regardless of where you come from. My prayer for you is that you realize what you do have in your hands. Because when you do, you're gonna be unstoppable. With that, I wanna thank you guys so much for listening to this edition of the Warrior Soul podcast. This podcast is brought to you by F Bomb Nutrition.

They make absolutely delicious packets of macadamia nut butters. Mix them up with chocolate, with sea salt, with pecan butter. So delicious. And they've been sending boxes of this stuff out to the troops on the front lines. Great company.

You can get 20% off of your first order of f bombs by hitting www.dropanfbomb.com, using the code Warrior Soul at checkout. And, if you wanna support this show, there's a few ways of doing so. Number one, just let somebody know that the show exists. Share an episode out with somebody who needs to hear this information. Number two, you can write us a review up on iTunes.

That really, really helps to let people know that we're here. And then number three, if you wanna support the show directly monetarily, head over to warriorsoul.shop and get yourself an awesome piece of gear. Thank you guys so much for listening, and we'll be back at you soon.