The Choice That Fear Gives You

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 college 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. 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 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. You know, it's Monday, and the last week has been pretty difficult for me. As most of you know, if you've been listening to this show for a while, I suffer from autoimmune disease.

And twenty nineteen was not a good year for me. It was a really, really bad year for me. I I became very sick. I lost 50 pounds. I was down to, like, a 150 pounds.

I was emaciated. I was weak. The disease pretty much ravaged my body. And around twenty twenty twenty twenty was actually a fairly good year for me. And it was a good year because I started a new medication that was a biologic.

And I I came in, and I would go, and I would get infusions for that every eight weeks with the VA. Right? And one of the issues with that medication is that it can stop working. Your body can start to build antibodies, and it can start to reject the medication. And I was informed over the last week from a blood test that my body has started to reject that medication.

And so now I'm in the process of switching to another one, and I am I'm not symptomatic yet. Things have started to head in that direction, but I'm not where I was. And I'm thankful for that. But one of the things that I've I've been thinking about excuse me. My voice is a little bit crackly because it's first thing in the morning here.

Sorry. I had to clear my throat. One of the things I've been thinking about is how people give up. Right? Because, you know, when you hear something like this and, my doctors aren't gonna give up on me.

They're gonna try and get me on new medication and things like that. But personally, my first impulse in my mind was to say, what the hell? Why? Why did this happen? What?

Why does all this bad stuff happen to me? Why does this disease not leave me alone? Alright? And it's it's a really tempting thought process to go down. It's the thought process we all go down whenever we hear anything disappointing, whenever anything doesn't go our way.

Alright? We say in our minds, nothing ever goes my way. Nothing nothing good ever happens to me. Ever everything bad happens to me. And the reality is that is what holds us back so much as human beings, that thought process, that very thought process.

And here I am, you know, with my hypocrite self coming at you guys each week with advice when when my first thought when something like that happens was, what the hell? Right? Why why does all this stuff happen to me? And what I want you guys to understand here and what I'm trying to tell you is that we're all very human. Right?

There isn't one of us out there that's perfect. There isn't one of us out there that isn't gonna go down that thought thought process from time to time. Alright? What you need to do to be able to do is to forgive yourself for having those thoughts and to catch yourself. Alright?

You need to be able to say in the middle of that thought, well, wait. Right? It's not just me. Right? The the the world is a difficult place to live.

The world is a hard place to live. Alright? And and there's people who have succeeded in this world. And because there are people who have succeeded in this world, people who have achieved their dreams, people who have lived great lives, well, they're human beings. And since they're human beings, I I can do that too.

Right? And, you know, my secondary thought process was this. Alright. This is happening. I need to course correct.

The VA is gonna help me to do that. I also probably need to course correct a bit in my life. Maybe I need to get more sleep. Maybe I need to be eating better. Maybe I I need to tighten up my diet and make sure that I'm dealing with stress in a better way.

Right? Maybe that'll help me to keep from getting to where I was. Because that's what's really driving that initial thought process. That was fear. Fear coming at me from a new direction.

Alright? Because things have been good for me. Alright? My my life is great right now. I'm living in a great state, living in the awesome state of Florida.

I have an awesome job. I have an awesome team that works for me. I have a great partner, the love of my life. She's been there for me through everything. So things are actually pretty good for me.

But that fear that fear tried to come at me in a new direction and tried to unsettle me. And what you have to remember is that fear is a liar. Fear is gonna lie to you. It's gonna try and keep you from being your best self. It's gonna try and hold you back.

It's gonna try to make you into the worst version of yourself. And if you're able to manage fear in a better way, right, if if you're able to manage that fear and you're able to handle that initial impulse, then you could switch it around. Right? Fear can either make you the worst version of yourself or the best version of yourself, and the choice of what it does to you is yours always. Right?

It's it's it's your choice as to what it does to you. Right? We see that in combat. Right? It can either make you the worst version of yourself or the best version of yourself.

Same is true here in life. Right? The worst version of yourself is gonna say, you know what? Maybe it's time to give up. Maybe it's time for you to take a step back.

Maybe it's time for you to just give in. Alright? Maybe it's time maybe you're weaker than you thought you were. That's that thought process. But there's another thought process there.

The thought process goes something like this. You can handle this. You're in control. Right? All you need to do is maybe course correct a bit, maybe try a little bit harder, maybe work a little bit harder, maybe learn something new.

But you're not gonna give up. Alright? You're gonna keep going. Right? And that's the thing.

Courage isn't the absence of fear. Courage is action in spite of fear. Right? If we had no fear, there would be no courage. Right?

There would be no bravery. When you act in spite of fear, when you act in spite of that negative attitude, when you act in spite of those negative thoughts who try to haunt you, you are a brave person. When you allow those negative thoughts to take over you, when you allow them to turn you into somebody that you don't wanna be, that is a coward. That's the definition of a coward. Alright?

And one way or another, what I don't want you to do after the show is to sit back and say, oh, man, I've been a coward, I've been this, or I've been that. What I want you to understand is that you have a choice. Alright? In order to make that choice, you gotta forgive yourself for all your past transgressions. You've got to find the bravery in yourself.

And by finding the bravery in yourself, you will find the good in yourself. And it's up to you to decide that that's the side of you that you wanna show this world. That's what I got for you guys this week. I hope that makes sense. I'm always happy to start conversations about this stuff over social media.

You can always welcome to hit me up. I am at warriorsoulagoge on Instagram. And, otherwise, I will be back at you next week with some more awesome content. My name is Chris Albert. This is the Warrior Soul podcast.

Get out there and live your best lives while you can.