Stop Waiting: No One Can Give You Permission to Be Great

Chris Albert 00:00:01 (link to this point)

The Warrior Soul podcast is written, edited, and produced by me, Albert. Our mission is to provide tools, tactics, strategies, and ideas that help The US military veteran community to show up as the wisest, strongest, most capable versions of themselves in the civilian world. If you're not a veteran, stick around because anything we talk about will most certainly apply to you as well. This podcast is made possible with the help of F Bomb Nutrition. They make delicious packets of fats that you can carry around anywhere with you in little portable packets.

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They don't have any sugar. They also make a lot of cheese snacks. They make meat sticks, and it's just a great company. These guys send packages of this stuff to the troops who are on the front lines overseas to supplement their MREs, and we didn't ask them to do that. They just did that on their own initiative.

Really great company. If you wanna get 20% off your first order of f bombs, head over to www.dropanfbomb.com and use the code Warrior Soul at checkout. This podcast is also brought to you with the help of Save the Brave. Savethebrave.org is a five zero one c three charity for veterans. They run camaraderie events that include fishing, golfing.

They also do a lot of work with gold star families. And unlike a lot of other organizations, their board doesn't take a salary. Really great organization that is doing amazing work. So go and check them out at savethebrave.org. With that, thank you guys so much.

Let's get into today's programming.

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 is going on everybody? This is Chris Albert with the Warrior Soul Podcast. And if you haven't been with the Warrior Soul Podcast before, if this is your first episode, this is where we deliver tools, tactics, strategies and ideas to help The US military veteran community to show up as the wisest, strongest, most capable versions of themselves in the civilian world. If you're not a veteran stick around because obviously anything I talk about here is going to apply to you as well. Usually I am publishing three times a week and a lot of times the first episode is an interview with somebody who's a lot smarter, more capable, more accomplished than I am.

People like Robert Greene, people like Ben Greenfield, people like Grant Cardone, Les Stroud, you name it, I've had some amazing guests on this show. And the other episodes like the one you're listening to today are where I discuss a topic, a topic that's going to move you forward in some way, a topic that is going to provide a solution to a problem you're facing or a strategy that you can follow that will help you to move forward in your life. Today what I want to talk to you about is something that I think plagues more and more people as time goes on and that is paralysis by analysis. There's a lot of you out there who've had dreams in your head for quite a while, who have you know, thought about doing something and you've been planning it out or you've been wondering, you're waiting for the proper time, you're waiting for the proper place, you're waiting for the proper moment, but yet you haven't executed on it yet. That might be you thinking about going back to school, it might be you thinking about opening up a business, it might be you trying to get a new job.

Now, I understand I'm seeing this in the midst of the COVID-nineteen crisis where a good 90% of the country is pretty much shut down right now. And there's been a lot of companies that have been furloughing, there's been a lot of companies out there that have been laying off staff, you might have been the victim of that. And in a time like this it's easy to see yourself as being trapped. It's easy to say, you know what, all I need to do right now is tread water. If I can just tread water, keep my head above water, then that's what's going to happen, right?

Then I'll survive and everything will be okay. One of the problems with that is that after this crisis, we don't know what the world is going to look like. We don't know if a lot of those businesses that are currently shut down, if they're going to be permanently shuttered after this crisis ends. We don't know what the economy is going to look like, we don't know what the demand is going to look like, we don't know what kind of products people are going to crave. And so there's a lot of variables out there that are still really open.

One of the things I want to bring to your mind is that well there are still opportunities out there. There's opportunities to learn, there's opportunities to grow, but there's also opportunities to do. And a few of those opportunities like the fact that you know number one those businesses that are currently shut down those that might not open up, well if you're a young person with a lot of energy and you've always wanted to run a business, well one of the things you could be doing is reaching out to those businesses that are currently shuttered and seeing if they're interested in selling. Now you might be saying, well Chris what the hell are you talking about? There's a lot of loans out there that are available for people, there's a lot of money out there that's available for people.

And if you are a young person who's got tons and tons of energy, well there's plenty of ways for you to finance something like this. In a similar vein, if you're in an industry that might not recover from this, this might be an excellent time for you to go out and sharpen your skills in some way. Head out there, talk to one of the companies that is still running, see if there's anything that they can have you do that you can learn, particularly if you are still collecting a severance package or something like that or if collecting anything from a lot of the government programs that are out there to aid veterans, this might be an excellent time for you to learn new skills. But the bottom line is this, none of that's going to happen unless you decide to execute. You see, one of the things one of the problems that we all have is that we sit there and we wait.

And we say, oh, I can't wait for what life is going to be like when X happens. Or I can't wait until I get to become this so that I can go do this. And if you remember the episode that we did with Gary John Bishop, if you haven't listened to it, I highly suggest you go back and do so. Gary John Bishop wrote a couple of books. First book is Unfuck Yourself and the second book is Stop Doing That Shit.

One of the things that he talks about there is that there is no transformation that occurs. The person who is going to do great things in their lives, if you're ever going to do anything great, is you. You are that person. You are the person who is going to go out and do what you have to do to make what you want to happen in your life. And you have to stop thinking, well, hey, I have to transform into this first or hey, I have to transform into that first.

It doesn't work like that. You have to start doing now. Because every second, every minute, every hour, every day that passes by, that's time going out the window. And I'll tell you this, as somebody who's probably a little bit more advanced in years than most people in this audience, most of you from the statistics are somewhere in your 20s or 30s. I'm a bit older than all of you.

One of the things that you've got to realize is that time is way more valuable than money. You can earn back money. You find money anywhere. But time, time on the other hand, I can't get that last ten years of my life back. I can't get the last twenty years of my life back.

I can't get the last five seconds that I spent recording this episode back. And if you're going to move forward, you got to start understanding that. Those of you who are out there who are in your 20s who maybe just got out of the military or even those of you who are in your teens and 20s who are still in or even those of you who are in your 30s and 40s who are sitting there waiting for something to happen, waiting for the proper time. You're never gonna get this time back right now. So if you're gonna do something, you need to start acting.

You need to, Of course you need to plan, you need to make sure that you're not jumping into anything crazy. But at the same time, if you're waiting for a sign from God or if you're waiting for a sign from the government or somebody to give you permission to be great, then you're going to be waiting forever. You've got to understand that. Nobody is going to give you permission to do what you want to do. There is no angel that's going to come down from heaven who's going to say, Hey, Johnny, it's time for you to go on this journey right now.

If you want a journey, if you have a journey in your head that you have not taken yet, if you have something in your head that you have not put out there into the world yet, then you got to do it. You got to get it out there. And there's a few reasons why you got to do that. The first of which is because if you're just carrying it around in your head, well then it's never going to happen. But more importantly, as you know, as most people who've been in the military, if you served in the infantry, if you served in the combat arms, you know that a good plan usually falls apart after the first shot, right?

Even the best of plans. And so if you're planning something out for the long haul and you're not putting out there into the world, you're not allowing it to be tested. You're not learning what you need to learn to ensure that the plan is successful. Right? You're not learning what you need to learn to ensure that you're going to get across the finish line.

You've got to put plans into action or they are worth nothing. And I know it's a lot easier for me to say that on a podcast than it is to implement in life, right? It really is. But you've got to understand that I'm coming to you from a place where I've experienced a lot of shit. I lived out of my car.

I've had my businesses fall apart. I've had my entire life fall apart. I had one point in time not very long ago, all the possessions I had were in a single garbage bag and I was just traveling around Southern California with nothing but me, my dog and my car. And the only point where I started to realize what I'm telling you today was when I was down to absolutely nothing. And I realized that if I didn't do something I would have been living like that forever.

I would have been you know sleeping out in the outdoors which actually might not be that bad. I'll tell you this right, when you actually go through something like that your fear starts to dissipate because one of the things I realized was that you know short of being killed everything was up to me. Survival was up to me. Short of being killed, there wasn't anything else bad that can happen. And even at the point where I was living in my car, I call it one of the most liberating moments of my life because I realized I really had nothing to lose.

I realized that all the hesitation, all the fear, all the sleepless nights, up to that point, well, that was needless worry. That was needless stress I was putting on myself. And so, I'm telling you guys this because I know there's so many of you out there right now who might be in a bad place, who might be affected by this economy, affected by this pandemic, be affected by all the crazy externalities that are happening because of this situation. And I want you to understand, you're not trapped. You're not trapped.

The only way you're going to be trapped is if your brain puts up those walls that trap you. There's a way out. And the way out is by putting things to action. If you screw up, if you fuck up, well guess what? You fucked up.

You learned from it. And you keep going. The only way you're actually going to learn is if you do screw up. So look for that. Try to fail.

Say to yourself, I'm going to try this and if I fall on my face, that's a learning experience. I didn't learn much from school and I'm a very educated man. I have a PhD and didn't learn much from that. But I'll tell you what, the ten years I spent grinding away, learning business in the trenches, they taught me far more than any degree I ever had. The years I spent in the Marine Corps taught me far more about life than any school or any other experience ever did.

Taught me far more about human beings than any psychology class ever did. You guys have that. You guys have the skills, the determination, the wherewithal, the know how to do this. But you've got to implement it. Because if you don't, skills wear off.

They're all perishable. Every skill is perishable. And if you don't implement it, then you're gonna find yourself waking up one day, when you're my age, I'm 41, and you're gonna be like, where the hell did the last ten years go? Why did I wait so long? Don't do that guys.

Don't wait. Don't sit there and overanalyze everything. Put plans to action. When you screw up, you'll learn. And when you learn, you'll improve.

And when you improve, you'll eventually get to where you want to go. That's what I got to say for today, guys. I hope this was helpful. Once again, please share these episodes out. Let people know that we exist.

Let people know that this podcast exists and if you really liked it, head over to iTunes and write us a written rating and review. You can find more awesome content up at www.warriorsoulagoge.com. You can head over to to can head our shop over at warriorsoul.shop if you want a t shirt. Again, I don't care if you buy one but they are awesome t shirts if you want one. And if you want to check out our private mastermind, that's where a group of us who get together every week, we empower each other with skills, with knowledge, we blast ideas off of each other and sometimes we just BS just like we used to do over a campfire or sitting on our packs, not a campfire, I don't think I ever said a campfire in the Marine Corps but sitting on our packs BS ing, that's what it's like in the group and every person who comes in goes through an eight week development program, we talk about finance, we talk about fitness, we put all these things together and we set that up for you.

And if you have any questions about anything just let me know and you can find that up at www.warriorobituarysociety.com. Man, I'm like, all over the place today. My brain just like completely went off the reservation for a second there. But I hope you guys got a lot out of this. I'll be talking to you soon.

This is Chris Albert, the Warrior Soul Podcast and I am out.