Warrior Notes: How to Stop Being Stagnant

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 with one simple reason, to live your best life while you can. This is the Warrior Soul podcast.

So a lot of times life doesn't go how you want it to go. Right? You grow up, you have dreams, you believe that you're gonna be something big, you believe that you're gonna become something. And then as you get older, life gets in the way. Right?

The world tells you that you can't be what you wanted to be. It tells you that you aren't as good as you thought you were, and you start to listen to the world. Right? You start to get that notion in your head that nothing you ever wanted is possible. So you begin to settle.

Right? You begin to settle into a life that the world decided for you, that the world told you was good enough for you, and you made that compromise, and you said, hey, you know what? This is how it's gonna be, so I'm gonna man up, I'm gonna do it. And you know what? There's nothing wrong with that.

Right? We all do it at some point or the other. But what tends to happen is this. You know, you go with that for a while. Right?

You settle into that life. You you gain responsibilities. You you get bills. You might have a family. You might have, you know, other things that you have to do throughout the day, you know, your job, your responsibilities, all those different things that that make up your day to day.

And what starts to happen is you start to rebel against that a little bit. Right? There's something still inside your brain, inside your soul that says, you know, there's gotta be more than this. There's gotta be more than this world I've created around me. And there's gotta be more than than what I've got in front of me right now.

That's where a lot of people get depressed. You know, particularly people in our community. Right? You go from having this job, right, this unit that you're a part of, and then you get thrust into civilian life. And you end up living the life you told yourself you weren't gonna live when you signed that contract and said I was gonna serve my country.

Right? You end up there. And a lot of times, it's not planned, and a lot of times, it's not, you know, something you wanted to do. It's just something that happened. Right?

And what I wanna talk to you about today is how you get through that and how you overcome it. Alright? The first thing is this, you gotta forgive yourself. Right? And and I mean this with all my heart.

There's too many of us who blame ourselves for the way our lives are right now. And don't get me wrong, I'm all about personal responsibility. I'm all about you owning everything. I think you need to own everything in your life. Right?

Your world is of your own making. But what I hear from a lot of guys is this, They think they they didn't do enough in the military. They feel guilty about leaving. They feel guilty because, you know, they get to settle in this life now, and their friends don't get to be there with them. And they take it all upon themselves and say, hey, you know, I I should be out there.

I should be doing this. I should be doing that. I should be serving my country. I should have done more. All these different things.

And what you've got to remember is that when you sign that contract, you didn't get decide to decide what capacity you would serve in. Right? Maybe you got to choose your MOS. Maybe you got to to, you know, decide what type of job you'd be in. You definitely probably decided what service you would go into, but you didn't get to decide how you would be deployed, where you would be deployed.

And for all intents and purposes, yeah, you know, you make a decision when your enlistment is up as to whether you wanna continue or whether you wanna get out. But if you served a full term, you've you served a full enlistment, you did what you were supposed to do. Right? If you did your job, you got an honorable discharge or even, you know, some of us have made mistakes and we got less than honorable discharges. Right?

But you gotta forgive yourself because life is not a stagnant thing. You don't get to be one thing in life. Right? In life, you're gonna be a lot of things. Right?

You're gonna be a marine, a soldier, an airman, a sailor. Right? You're going to be an employee. You're gonna be a boss. You're going to be a father.

You're gonna be a son. Right? You're gonna be a citizen. You're gonna be all these different things in life, and you're gonna move through those things. Right?

If you're a father right now or a mother right now, you know, someday your kids are gonna grow up, and they're gonna turn 18, and they're gonna leave the house. Right? If you're an employee right now, companies change. Right? Businesses open up.

They shut down. Right? The economy changes. All these different things out there are beyond your control, but what you do control is how you respond to them. What you do control is how you carry yourself as these things are going on.

And there's a right way and a wrong way to carry yourself, and that's the choice you gotta make. You gotta decide what your life is gonna be like post military service. You gotta decide what your life is gonna be like if you lose your job. You gotta decide how you're gonna respond when your kids decide they're it's time for them to move out of the house and go do something else. Right?

And if you don't do that, that's when you run into problems. That's when you run into issues. Right?

So that brings me to the next thing. You know, you gotta forgive yourself, and then you gotta move on. Right? You gotta search for the next thing that's gonna be important to you in your life. And, you know, I hear from people all the time like, oh, I never felt the way I did in combat.

Never felt like this or that when I when I had a uniform on, all these different things. And trust me, I get that. I get that. What I need you to understand is that there's more than one way to serve. There's more than one way to serve.

We're in a time and place in our country where the battle, honestly, is no longer out there in Afghanistan or Iraq or anywhere else. We're in a time and place where the battle is here. And it's not a battle with guns and knives or bombs or anything like that, at least yet. Right? And I'm not saying that it will be.

But the battle is really for our society. Right? I hear a lot of people complaining about the way society is today, that they don't like the education system, that they don't like the way kids are being raised, that they don't like the way our culture's going and things like that. Well, guess what? Right? If you're sitting there on your couch not doing anything, you're not contributing to the way the world is gonna come out. Right?

You're not contributing to how this community should be. You're not contributing to anything. Right? You gotta decide that you're gonna help, you're gonna shape, and you can't do it all. You can't.

Right? You can't change people's opinions. You can't change culture. You can't change all these things. But what you can do is you can step up in your own community.

Right? You step up in your family. You teach your kids the right way. At work, you can guide your employees. If you want to and you're still undergoing your education, you could become a teacher.

Right? You can run for office. There are so many things that that you can do, but you gotta get yourself into position to do them first. Right? And that brings me to the third thing.

After you move after you forgive yourself, after you move past everything, then you gotta take action. Right? In order to do these things, you gotta be in position to do them. That means that your financial house needs to be in order. That means that you have to have the requisite training and education necessary in order to do what you set out to do as far as your goals go.

Right? You need to have those things. So you need to be ready to take action. Right? And if you're constantly thinking, hey.

Next year, I'm gonna do this, or hey. Next month or after this happens, I'll do this, or after the economy gets better, I'm gonna do this. Stop doing that. Start taking action now. Alright?

And then the final thing is this, action is nothing without a goal you're trying to get to, without a vision you're trying to get to. So if you haven't done so yet, what you need to do is you need to sit down. You need to write out what you actually want your life to look like.

Right?

What you actually want your life to look like. Write it out and and think about it with no barriers, with no obstacles in mind. Think about it in a way that is going to allow you to think big. Right? And if you do that, at least you have a target to shoot for.

Maybe you get there, maybe you don't. Maybe you fall flat on your face on the way. Maybe maybe you make mistakes. But you gotta commit yourself to dusting yourself off, getting up, and continuing to move toward that goal. Right?

And I'm not qualified to say a lot of things, but I am qualified to say this. I've been down. I've been out. I've had many nights where I was staring up at my ceiling wondering where the hell I was going, but I never stayed stagnant. Right?

I never stayed stagnant. It's because I had a target in mind. I knew exactly what I wanted. I knew exactly where I wanted to go. And through lots and lots and lots of hard work, I'm finally in a position now where I'm not as worried, where I feel like I'm contributing, where I'm pushing the boundaries of what I think I'm capable of.

You know, this show, I'm not a top 10 podcast. I'm not making millions off of this show. I do this every week because I have a goal in mind, and that is to transform this community. Right? That's why I do it each week.

Right? You don't see me, you know, with millions of dollars in sponsorships or anything like that. Never made a living off of this or anything. I do it because it fulfills me, and that's what you gotta find in your life. Right?

Maybe that that doesn't have to be a podcast. It could be so many other things, but you gotta find something. Alright? I hope this all makes sense, gents. And ladies, I'm sorry.

I I always I've been around so many men in my life. I'm I always forget to put the ladies in there, but I'm speaking to you ladies too. And, you know, this is Chris Albert with the Warrior Soul podcast, and I am out.