Veteran Suicide: Why I Won’t Do 22 Pushups

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

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This is Chris Albert, and I'm here to remind you of one thing. Someday, you're going to die. 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.

Hey. What's going on, guys? Chris Albert here, and, welcome to this Warrior Notes edition. Today, I wanna talk about an issue I've spoken about in the past. I haven't spoken about it as much lately, but it's something I addressed at the very beginning when I first started this podcast.

And for those of you who've been around for a while, you might remember the very first episode that I did. For those of you who did not listen to that episode, I don't suggest going back there and listening to it because the audio was awful. I I really didn't know anything about podcasting, and I was literally speaking directly into my laptop. So there's a lot of echo, a lot of crazy feedback, but the subject matter is very serious. And I'm just gonna speak frankly here and say this.

I don't want anything to do with the number 22. And this is an issue that I brought up this past week when I was speaking to Vincent Rocco Vargas on the show, and he's since talked about it on one of his episodes of his show, the Vinny Rock podcast, which is an absolutely awesome show. You guys should go check that out. But I don't want anything to do with the number 22. I don't want to participate in the 22.

I don't want to participate in twenty two days of anything. I don't want to put 22 on my website. I don't want t shirts with 20... The number 22. I don't want anything to do with the number 22.

That's because I think that constantly talking about the number 22, the twenty two veterans a day who commit suicide, is not good for veterans. I don't believe it's helping the cause. In fact, I actually think that in many ways, it's hurting veterans, and it's actually exacerbating the situation. Now it's at this point that I need to say this. I am not putting anybody who has done these things at fault.

I know that there are so many organizations out there that truly want to bring that number back down to zero. I... And and that itself, and I'll talk about that in a second, I don't think we're ever gonna get down to zero. And it's because suicide is a problem amongst the general population in this country. But, again, I'll say this.

I think that those who are doing these push up challenge, those who who run 22 style events, those who have organizations with the number 22 in them, I know that they have the best intentions at mind. And I know that they truly wanna help, and I'm taking nothing away from them. But I will not contribute to what I see as something that's actually counteractive. That's actually not... That's actually working against the purpose that they're trying to create.

So what do I mean? Well, here's a psychological concept that you need to think about, and it's it's something called social proof. When you see somebody else who's a lot like you, who who has a similar background to you, who might even wear the same styles you do or or like the same things you do, you feel an affinity for them. Right? And just like we do in this community, we see other veterans.

We see their style. We see what they wear. We see the fact that they've served. We see that they have similar backgrounds to us. And, well, that's part of what creates a bond between us.

But when we're talking about the concept of social proof, it is a well known psychological concept that's been demonstrated over and over again. It's been utilized by marketers. It's been utilized by psychologists. It's been utilized by the military. And it has to do with the fact that when we see somebody else who's very much like us, who shares our attributes doing something, well, that makes us way more likely to do that thing as well.

And if you want to reference this, you can go back to a book named influence by Robert Cialdini. That is one of the foremost books, the the best books you could read on the psychology of influence, how marketers trigger us to buy things, and how different types of triggers can actually create certain behaviors in human beings. And one of the things he brings up in that book is in is that when a suicide is highly publicized when a suicide is highly publicized in a specific geographic area, the plane crashes in that area will actually rise, will actually go up. And that at first looked like a statistical anomaly. It looked like it was two unrelated things that were were just highly correlated.

But upon digging a little bit further, what they found was that, well, those pilots, after reading those stories, actually had decided to commit suicide. And of course, I might not be getting this story a 100% accurate. You guys can go back to the book. It's something you should definitely read. The audiobook is actually awesome as well.

But the other part of this was that suicides in general also went up in these geographic areas. And so essentially, what has been supported over and over and over again in the psychological literature is that when a suicide is highly publicized, then that increases the likelihood that more suicides will occur. Now let's get back to what we've essentially been doing for the last fifteen years in The US military veteran community since that number 22 has come out and has been plastered everywhere. We've been talking about suicide nonstop. And the fact that that we just know that they're veterans, well, that...

That's a huge factor in creating that social proof there. But you add to it a few other things. You add to it the fact that, well, people who serve together generally keep in touch. Right? And so a lot of us are gonna find out about suicides within our units, and we're gonna remember those people.

We're we're gonna remember our friendships with them. We're gonna remember our affinity to them. We're gonna remember so many things. So that by itself is gonna create a situation where we are gonna be more likely to do it. But you add to that the fact that, well, twenty two veterans a day have been committing suicide and you plaster that everywhere.

Guess what happens? We're constantly reminded of the fact that people like us, people who wore uniform like us, people who served like us, have been taking their own lives. And you create a truly vicious cycle where we're trying to raise awareness about a situation, and we're constantly reminding that people that that people like them are are killing themselves and making it more likely that they're going to do it too. So when somebody contacts me and asks me to do a 22 push up challenge or to do anything related to the number 22, I generally pull back from it because I don't want anything to do with that. I don't want anything to do with that number.

I don't even like talking about that number right now Because every time it's mentioned, every time that we bring it up, guess what happens? We're reminded of that fact. We're we're telling people that people like them are committing suicide. Now, what should we be doing instead? And what have I tried to focus on here?

Well, what we should be focusing on is life. When I started this podcast, I said, well, how is this podcast gonna be different? It's gonna be different in the fact that this podcast is going to be about veterans going out there and despite everything they have against them, succeeding. This podcast is gonna be about bringing civilians onto the show who've done amazing things, who can teach the veteran community about what's possible in their own lives. This podcast is about transforming your life.

Despite anything that's happened in your past, despite the fact that you might see the world against you right now, helping you to know and understand that there are so many things that you can do. Helping you to know and understand that even though you're one of that 1% who knows what it's like to serve on a battlefield, you are truly lucky to be alive in a time and a place that allows for so many possibilities and for so much opportunity. Helping you to understand that you are so lucky to live in a country to where you can start a business, to where you can build the life that you want. And beyond that, being surrounded with technology that allows you to learn about anything, to communicate with anybody, and to really build a marketing platform or or a a communications platform with no money and little effort. That's what this podcast has been about, and that's why.

We shouldn't be sitting here treating ourselves like victims. The more we do, the more we're gonna adopt a victim mentality that tells us that we need the government's help, that we need other people to solve our problems for us. And the truth is that that problem, that awful problem that's plagued this community, well, the only way that that's gonna stop is through us. It's through us taking greater responsibility for our own lives. It's through us putting ourselves into better position to be able to influence others, to provide examples of successful veterans to the country and to the community so that we have case studies to go off of, to teach our younger veterans and those who are still serving what they need to know to come out here and dominate in the civilian world.

That's what we need to be focusing on. We shouldn't be focusing on suicide. We shouldn't be focusing on the negative. We should understand and know that those problems exist, but we're beyond that right now. We need to be building.

We need to be trying to thrive. And the more we do that, the more we'll see more successful veterans putting themselves into position to actually change this country, and to put it onto a course where it can continue to be the greatest country in the world. That's what I got, guys. So if you're wondering why I don't plaster that number everywhere, that's the reason. I want to thank you guys so much for listening.

I wanna encourage you to make a stand in your own life, to understand that you have every opportunity in the world, and I want you to take advantage of those opportunities. I want you to get out there and truly live. I hope that what I just covered speaks to your senses and your reason as far as this issue goes. I know it's an extremely sensitive issue. I know that a lot of us have fallen into the practice.

And again, I'm not talking poorly about anybody who thus far has gone down this road. But I think we need to change, and we need to decide as a community to change. Alright, guys. I hope that you enjoyed that episode. Like I said, it is an extremely serious issue.

It's one that we really need to think about, and we really need to think about how we're going to change and how we're gonna grow as a community. And I wanted to take the opportunity to talk to you guys about something we've been doing here at Warrior Soul. It's called the Warrior's Obituary Society. It's a group of men who are there to empower each other to live absolutely epic lives, lives worthy of epic obituaries. And we've got both veterans and civilians in the group.

The way it works is this, we've developed an eight week development program, and as our new members come in, they go through that program. They're focusing on building out their vision, understanding what they want out of life, and getting very clear about it. Once they do that, they're writing out their goals, being very clear on the steps it's gonna take to make that vision come true. From there, we're working on specifics. We're working on your personal finance.

We're working on your fitness. We're working on your relationships, and we are working on building out your dreams. If you wanna build a business, if you wanna improve your career, regardless of what it is, you're gonna find the tools in this development program. And once you're through the development program, the work just begins. That's where each month, we're holding you accountable to the goals that you want to achieve.

Each week, we're getting on a live calls, and we're holding powerful conversations over our private forum. We don't do anything over social media. I don't want anybody looking over your shoulder or... And I definitely don't want you getting distracted by a bunch of alerts and a bunch of notifications that somebody's like this or somebody's trying to message you. So if you're interested in this, a lot of these types of programs, they cost thousands of dollars and they don't get you anywhere.

This program is gonna cost you a low monthly fee, and there are no contracts or anything like that. So if you're interested, you can send me an email over at chris@warriorsoulagoge.com, or you can DM me at warriorsoulagoge on Instagram. And with that, guys, I hope that you have an amazing rest of your week. I'll be back at you later on this week with some more awesome content. Until then, get out there and live your best lives while you can.