Put the Oxygen Mask On Yourself First | Warrior Notes

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.

You know, if you're like me, and you probably are because you listen to this show, you have a tendency to really want to help other people, to wanna be a presence in other people's lives, to want to set people on the proper path. And that leads to a tendency to try to fix people in our lives, to try to fix those that we're in relationships with, to try to help others at the expense sometimes of our own well-being. And one of the things that can happen when you do that and when you do it often is that you can send your own life off course because you're investing so much in trying to fix this other person or these other people in your lives. And that can be a pattern that you live out over and over and over again. I'm gonna talk to you about that today, and I'm gonna talk to you about why it's such a detriment to becoming who you wanna be, and actually a detriment to helping other people.

When we help others at the expense of ourselves, at the expense of our own well-being, when we put the oxygen mask on others before we put it on ourselves, we put ourselves into a worse position, a weak position, a position that prevents us from actually helping people. And that puts ourselves in distress. Before I get into that, I just want to say this. This is the Warrior Soul podcast. And my name is Chris Albert.

My mission is to empower The US military veteran community and anybody else willing to listen to live their absolute best lives. And I do that by delivering tools, tactics, strategies, and ideas to help you to show up as a wiser, stronger, more capable version of yourself in your life. Whether that be in your current military life, or whether that be in your transition into the civilian world, or whether it be that you are a civilian who hasn't served in the military. Anything we talk about here is going to help you to advance your life and to move it forward. And, you know, this show has been growing like crazy.

We have we doubled our monthly download record of our all time record, literally doubled it this past month. That means that you guys are talking about the show, you're putting good information out there, and, you know, I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. So continue sharing. That's all I really ask of you. And if you want to write us a written reading and review on iTunes, that helps so much to get this information into the ears of more veterans.

And that's all I got for announcements for today, guys. Let's get into this really important subject. You know, I've fallen into this trap over and over again in my life. I found broken people, and I have put everything into trying to fix them. I have gone through a lot of issues because of it.

I went through some really toxic relationships. I've welcomed some toxic people into my life. And when you do this, a couple of things happen. Number one, it affects your circle of people, the people that are surrounding you. And you probably heard this before.

You're the average of the five people you hang out with the most. And if you're bringing people into your life who are not dedicated to moving themselves forward, who are in a position where they are really negative and bitter, that can affect your psyche. It can affect your brain in so many ways. And that's because our brain literally changes whenever we meet a new person or whenever we interact with another person. It's called neuroplasticity.

And the thing about us in being fixers is that there's something inside of us that thinks we can get that person to change. And so what we do is we try our best to try to get them to change their thoughts, to change their feelings and things like that. Now, there's nothing wrong with helping other people. I think everybody needs to help other people. But one of the things that happens is that you're trying to help those other people before you put yourself into position to really be able to do so.

And I had somebody come at me the other day and they said, well, why are you talking to people about finding personal success when we've got all these problems in the world? Problems with the environment, problems with politics, problems with all these things. Well, shouldn't we worry about the world first? And here's the deal. In life, you've got to focus on what you can control.

You've got to focus on what you can control. There are a lot of things we can't control. We can't control in large part the direction of society. Alright? We can't control the the way the world is right now.

Those are huge problems that people in positions of power are working on right now. And the fact is that most of us listening to this podcast and including myself, we're not in a position of power. We're not in a in a position to affect change on a worldwide basis. That doesn't mean we can't have impact, but it means that if we want to have impact, we need to be able to put ourselves into position to be able to do so first. And that's one of the messages of this show.

You know, there has been a lot of raising awareness about veterans issues over the past decade and a half. Right? A lot of people talking about problems that veterans face. The high suicide rates, the high homeless rates, all of these different things. And the veteran community stepped up.

There are so many people working on this. But here's the deal. If you wanna really affect change in the veteran community or in this world or in this country, you know what the best solution is? The best solution is for you to get your life together, for you to start earning money, for you to put yourself into a position where you're gonna have power. And in order to do that, you gotta take care of yourself first.

If you wanna step up as a leader in your community, if you wanna step up as somebody who's gonna affect change around you, take care of your business first. Get money. Start a business. Start an organization. Become a leader in your community.

Do the necessary work to do so. But first, take care of your family. Teach your children properly. Make sure your house is in order, make sure your financial house is in order, make sure your health is in order. I can't get over the idea that there's so many of us out there who aren't taking care of our own bodies.

You know, the only thing, the only asset you really truly have is your body and your mind. It's the only real asset you've got that's more valuable than your house. It's more valuable than than any money you've got. Because if you don't have that, then then you're not gonna be able to do anything. So, again, take care of that.

Take care of your body. Make sure you're putting good fuel into your body. When it comes to your finances, make sure you're taking down debt, not spending your money on trash. When it comes to your family, make sure you're teaching your children properly. Make sure you're investing your time with them and being present for them.

Make sure you're being present for your spouse, or your girlfriend, or your boyfriend, or whoever you've got in your life. Make sure you're being present for the most important people in your life. And if you've got toxic people in your life, understand this, they're not going to change easily. They're not just going to give up that pattern of toxicity that they've always had in their lives. And there's got to come a point to where you start to understand that that toxic person isn't going to change.

And if they're having a negative impact on you, and a negative impact on your psyche, well what's that going to do for you in the other roles you've got to fulfill in your life? And then if you're sitting there and you're worried about the country, and you're worried about society, and your own house isn't in order, well, you need to do that first. You need to put your house in order before you start worrying about the problems in the world. It's something that Professor Jordan Peterson talks about a lot. There are so many people out there who want to fix this world, but their lives are a mess.

Their houses are a mess, their personal lives are a mess, they haven't put themselves in a position where they can take care of their finances, and they want to go out there and they want to save the world. Well, can't save the world until you save yourself. You can't help to fix other people or big problems until you fixed your own problems. And so my message to you today is that if you're concerned about the direction this country is heading, if you're concerned about anything that doesn't have to do with your own life, right, if you want to step up and dedicate yourself to something bigger than yourself, well then, the first step you've got to take is being able to fix yourself. Put your house in order so you can have the impact that you want.

Put your house in order so that you can affect change in the way that you want. Put your house in order so that you can step up and help this community, help this country, and help this world. Alright? It's a simple concept, guys, but a lot of us don't get it. A lot of us like to think that while we can sit here on social media, we can post, we can have impact on that way.

And sure, people might read it, but guess what? They're words. And at every step of the way, actions trump words. Actions trump words. And you're not gonna be able to take action unless you've got your stuff in order. So that's a quick one, guys. A little short and sweet.

I I know people have different opinions on this. I'd love to hear yours. I'd love to hear what you have to say about it. So if you've got an opinion, go ahead and put it up on our Facebook page or you can join our private Facebook group, the Warrior Soul Agoge Empowerment and Resilience Group. And you're always welcome to message me on Instagram.

My handle is Warrior Soul Agoge or you can message me on Twitter. My handle there is Warrior Soul Gear. And, you know, I wanna thank you guys again for just spreading the message about this show. Like I said, I don't care if you ever buy anything from me as long as you're spreading word, as long as you are putting the message out there that the Warrior Soul podcast exists and that it's here to help. And then beyond that, if you wanna help more, you can always go to the Warrior Soul shop.

That's about warriorsoul.shop. We've got some great t shirts up there, some great gear. And you could support yourself by heading over to the Warrior's Obituary Society. That's our private mastermind where we get a group together and we're empowering each other to live epic lives worthy of epic obituaries. And we do a lot of this stuff, putting our own houses in order, casting a vision, setting a vision for what you want your life to look like, customizing your own fitness and nutrition plan, customizing your own personal finance plan so you can knock down your debt, start investing, and start building your dreams.

And then focusing on that impact you want to have, whether it's through your business, through your career, or through something you want to do for your community. If you want to check that out, that's up at www.warriorobituarysociety.com. That's www.warriorobituarysociety.com. Also, I just put together another shop and basically it's a collection of my books and writings over the years on fitness, on business. I've got some ebooks up there.

I've got some courses up there. If you want to check those out, there's a bunch of them. I've got a course on how to start your own t shirt company. I've got a bunch of fitness courses up there, Warrior Soul Fitness. It's a all in one lifestyle building course that's going to help you to create your own fitness routine, create your own nutrition routine.

You can check that stuff out at warriorsoul.academy. That's warriorsoul.academy. And then finally, just a quick shout out to our sponsors. F Bomb Nutrition, they make absolutely delicious packets of fats. Macadamia nut butters, they mix them up with chocolate, with sea salt, with pecan butter.

They've got cheese snacks. They've got meat snacks. You can find those and you can take them out with you wherever you want. They're a great supplement for MREs. They're up at www.dropanfbomb.com, and you can use the warrior the code Warrior Soul at checkout and get yourself 20% off your first order.

And also our friends at Save the Brave, savethebrave.org, they are a five zero one c three charity for veterans that runs camaraderie events. So they do fishing trips, they do golfing trips for veterans, they also help out a lot of Gold Star families, and they're doing outstanding work. You can check them out at savethebrave.org. With that, guys, I wanna thank you so much. Get out there and live your best lives while you can, and we'll be back at you next week with some more awesome content.