The Choice During Hard Times

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.

They make macadamia nut butters. They mix them up with chocolate. They mix them up with sea salt. They mix them up with coconut butter. They're absolutely delicious, and they're really good for you.

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, ladies and gentlemen? Welcome to another edition of the Warrior Soul podcast. My name is Chris Albert, and this is where we help US Military Veterans and anybody else willing to listen to live their absolute best lives by delivering tools, tactics, and strategies to help them to show up in the civilian world as wiser, stronger, more capable human beings. And here's the deal guys, today is 03/27/2020. We are still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and the reason why I'm saying that is because by the time I release this, it's going to either be the first or second week of April.

And by the time you hear it, the crisis might still be going on. My feeling is that both the pandemic will probably be going on and that we may still be in the midst of an economic shutdown. And we may possibly, by the time you hear this, be in the midst of a recession. Now, here's the deal. I've always said on this show that hard times breed hard people.

This situation is awful. It is going to hurt a lot of people. It's gonna hurt a lot of people economically, and it is going to hurt a lot of people emotionally. The reason I say that is because as a business owner I know what it feels like to have to fold up your business. I know what it feels like when you're wondering how you're going to pay for the bills, when you're wondering how you're going to pay for the rent.

Feels like you are in an enclosed room and that nobody, nobody can help you. What I want you guys to understand is that through this you're not alone. You're not alone. Last week I put up a bunch of resources. Resources for employment, resources for emergency assistance.

And even though a lot of the funding for those programs is dwindling right now, there are people out there who can help you. Either through advice or by getting you into another position where you can still provide for your families. And if you haven't checked those resources out yet, I'm going have a link up on the show notes for this episode so you can go back there and check them out. What I want to talk to you about today is the choice we all have right now. And whether times have improved by this point or whether they are still difficult, we still have this choice every time we run into resistance because you are going to run into resistance.

Every human being at some point in their lives is going to face tragedy, is going to face hardship, and is going to be put in a challenging position. And the first thing you have to recognize is this. We're not special. None of us are. There have been people who have faced harder challenges than this.

And yes, these are unprecedented times. The country has literally never economically shut down before. But we did face a great depression, and we did face two world wars, and we faced a civil war. And when you read history and you understand history, you understand that there were men and women back then who faced these difficult challenges and got through them okay. And you will too.

But all that hangs upon a choice. You see, as I look out at the news today and as I look out at social media, I see a lot of people talking like the sky is falling. I see a lot of people talking as if the world is coming to an end. And what I want all of you to understand is that the choice we have in front of us is to either allow this situation to break us as individuals or to allow it to let us grow. And I say as individuals because as a society, I know we're going to get through this.

I know that America is going to get through this. I know that our country will get back to the strength that it used to be or that it was just before this. But as individuals, we have to ensure that we don't break. We have to be there for our families. And not just our families, but also our communities and our neighbors.

As Veterans, we have to be there for each other. Now, The US military veteran community over the past decade and a half has been through hard times. We have seen extraordinarily high suicide rates, extremely high rates of veteran homelessness, and even in public health, we've seen one in four veterans admitted to the VA system coming out with full blown diabetes. And we all know that that was unsat. But what we've seen over the past decade and a half is this community coming together to help our brothers and sisters in arms so that they can get back on their feet.

And so that we, as the veteran community, could have a greater impact on this country. And we can't let that momentum slip right now. You see, as I've said before, and I'll say it again now, I believe that the veteran community is the sleeping giant in this country. And I believe amongst the listeners of this podcast that there are future members of Congress, future senators, and even potentially a few future presidents of The United States. And in order for that to happen, we need to be strong.

We are the warriors of this society and unlike Sparta, we're not a warrior class inside of a warrior society. We are a warrior class inside of a civilian society. And in these types of situations, it is us that needs to be the backbone of that society. Those of us who have done what less than 1% of the population here in this country has done, we need to be the people who step up to lead. Now, if you want to do that, you have to allow this situation to let you grow.

You have to allow this situation to let you grow. Now, how do you do that? Well, rather than complaining, rather than pointing out every single reason why this situation sucks, we figure out ways to make it suck a little bit less. And that can start by spending a little bit more time with our families. Starting to plan to figure out what we're going to do to get through this situation and what we're going to do to come back stronger after this situation is over.

Starting to figure out if your career is over now, if you've just lost your job, what's your next great adventure going to be? What are you going to do? The very process of switching your mind from constantly saying how much this situation sucks to beginning to figure out how you're going to survive and how you're going to thrive afterwards, well that's going to start to completely change your brain. Because think about it, if we're just sitting here talking about how much the situation is awful, how bad it is, well we're not really working on making anything better. And even if the ideas you come up with aren't necessarily going to work, at least your brain is starting to work toward a solution.

It's okay if you make a few mistakes. It's okay if you come up with a few hair brained ideas. At the end of the day, you still try to be productive and your brain is on a path toward the proper solution. We can't allow this situation to put us into a position of paralysis. We can't allow this situation to turn us into victims.

Because if we do, then all we're really trying to do is to claim victimhood. You're not going get anything done that way. But if you start trying to think about things that you can do, things you can control right now, and planning for things that you'll be able to do in the future, then you're going to come out of this as a much better person and you'll be able to put yourself, your family and your community into a much better position. And once again, I'm going to continue to relay resources to you. I'm going to continue to try to talk to people more in the know than I am when it comes to finding jobs, to finding solutions to our economic situation, to figuring out ways that you can remain strong through whatever's happening at the time you're listening to this.

But I also want you to know one thing. I'm not speaking to you about this as if it's not going to affect me. I am probably going to have to shut down my fitness business. I am probably going to have to figure out new ways of earning income. And because of that, well, it's been a little bit stressful for me as well.

And I can't say that I haven't been here and being like, Oh, this sucks. And Oh, this is an awful situation. How am I ever going to get out of this? Woe is me. Right?

That's been me too. But as always, when I'm putting stuff out on this show, I'm putting stuff out that I think I need here as well. Because we are truly all in this together. There's not one person who's listening to this show who's not going to get affected by this. And if you have suggestions, if you have what you think are answers, please put them out there. Go over to our Facebook page. Help your brothers and sisters in arms. If the one thing that comes out of this situation is that we all become closer together as a community, then that's an amazing thing. And I think that we all have an opportunity right now to allow this situation to make us and to turn us into stronger, more capable and wiser individuals.

So with that, I'm going leave you now and I will be back at you later on this week with some more awesome content. This is Chris Albert with the Warrior Soul Podcast and I am out.