Stop Talking To Yourself Like That

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 column 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, Warrior Soul nation? This is Chris Albert with the Warrior Soul podcast, and I am here to 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. I just drank a bunch of water, and the water went down the wrong tube. So my throat is bothering me right now. So bear with me as I fight through this episode.

I wanna talk to you about something that has come up in a group that I run. I've been running the Warrior's Obituary Society. It's a really small group of veterans. We get together each week. And I'm not advertising or anything like that.

I'm actually really trying to keep it small. But the the point of it is that we've been talking about negative self talk. And I think this is a real problem in our community. You know, having been in the military, if you were in the military, you you come from a background of high standards. Right?

We evaluate each other on how we do our jobs. It's true meritocracy. And when somebody's not doing their job, you know, we we tend to let them know about it. Right? And I think that's a good thing.

Right? You know, you don't wanna be going through life without anybody calling you out. If you don't have anybody calling you out, you have you know, you're living in a fantasy world where you're perfect and and you're never gonna improve. Right? And through that, a lot of us are really good about calling ourselves out.

Right? You know, if if we're screwing up or we don't meet a standard, we call ourselves out. Right? And I think that's a good thing too. Your ability to do that keeps you from drinking your own Kool Aid.

At the same time, a lot of us have this tendency to go toward negative self talk. You know, talking about talking to ourselves in language like I suck or I'm the worst or, you know, I I can't catch a break. I'm I'm disgusting. I I'm awful. I'm evil.

I'm I'm all these different horrible things. And that is a problem because there's a difference there between calling yourself out for something that you need to improve upon. Right? If if you believe you need to improve upon it, at least you're giving yourself a chance to to try to get better. But if you're telling yourself that you're evil at the root or you're disgusting at the root or you're bad at the root or that you suck or anything else like that, what you're essentially doing is you're programming your own brain to go into loser mode.

Right? You are basically talking yourself into being a loser, and that's not a good thing. Right? They say you're the average of the five people you hang around with the most, but you also, in, you know, in addition to the the people you're surrounding yourself with, you have to live with yourself. You have to live with your own thoughts.

And you need to get to a position to where you can cut yourself some slack. Right? Definitely definitely always seek self improvement. Always try to seek self learning. But understand that that is also an act of self love.

When you go out and you try to make yourself better, that is an act of self love. And you have to believe that you have some self some sense of self worth in order to improve. Right? You have to. You have to believe that you have some value, that you bring some value to this world in order to improve.

And if you don't, you're never gonna give yourself a chance. So my advice to you is rather than going out and saying I suck or I'm I'm awful, change that to, well, maybe I'm not where I wanna be right now, but what do I have to do to improve? Who do I have to go out there and get to know so I can learn from them? What lessons do I have to learn? What books do I have to read?

What videos do I have to watch? How many meditation sessions do I need to do? How many training sessions do I need to do? How many classes do I need to take? Right?

Think about that. Right? Rather than than telling yourself how bad you are, how awful you are, how, you know, you're never gonna make it in this world. Change it to that. Change it to I'm gonna push myself to make it by doing this and taking action and being the man that I wanna be or the woman that I wanna be.

Right? Doing things in this world rather than sitting there and ripping yourself apart. It's a concept that's going to allow you to actually improve rather than sitting there and thinking about how awful you are. It's kind of a metaphor for what's going on in this country right now. Right?

A lot of us are fighting. A lot of us are are talking about things. A lot of us are are screaming about things, but very few people are actually getting out there and helping other people. So that's my take for this week. I hope that it helps you.

I hope that you go out there and take action in your own life and end that negative self talk. And I hope that you go out there and you live your best life while you can. This is Chris Albert with the Warrior Soul podcast, and I am out.