I’ve gone through a lot of ups and downs in my life. I got to serve in the United States Marine Corps, I graduated from college, and I’ve opened several businesses. But I’ve also suffered from depression, survivors’ guilt, and massive financial hardship.
Even when I’ve been more stable in my life, worries were still on my mind. Fear of loss and failure has chased me through all of my years. As a Marine it was always related to fear about whether or not I’d be good at my job. As a civilian, I feared loneliness, and whether or not I’d be able to find the right person. As a self-employed entrepreneur, I lie awake at night wondering if I’ll be able to keep business up and support my family.
But after all of these years, I’ve discovered something about fear. It’s never really done anything for me. My fear of being good at my job as a Marine led me to make dumb mistakes in the field as a team leader. It tarnished my leadership ability and seriously held me back from being the Marine I know I could have been.
In my dating life, fear of being alone often led me to womanize, and womanizing led me to really bad relationships. There is nothing I can think of that has held me back more in my life than choosing to be with someone just because I was scared of being alone. This led me to a really bad marriage and a bitter divorce that left me living out of my car.
In business, my fear of failure has always caused me to focus on the wrong things. I’ve often found myself doing things just to hold ground rather than doing things to grow.
But here’s the biggest bitch about fear, most of it is made up. Fear is a big old fucking lie. The only thing it does is keep us from being who we truly want to be. Fear is that thing that will keep you on your couch because it tells you that doing anything positive, like working out or putting work in on your dreams, is useless. Fear is that thing that will tell you that you need to hit the bars tonight and get shit faced because you’re scared of reality. Fear is the lie that will tell you that you just aren’t capable of great things. Fear is what will keep you from having meaningful relationships because fear keeps you from trusting anyone else.
How do I know that fear is a lie? Because of death. If there is one truth in all of our lives that makes every person on this planet equal, it is death. One hundred years from now, everyone listening to this will be dead. Everyone you know, everyone currently living in your family, will no longer be living.
You know what that means? In the grand scheme of thing, fear means nothing. Whether we are rich or poor, happy or depressed, successful or stagnant, death will touch us all one day. The question becomes this: if death is going to happen to us all one day, then what’s the point of holding onto fear? If this is all going to end one day, then why are we not doing everything we can with the limited time we have to make every effort possible to live the lives we want to live? Why would you spend any minute of that time in misery?
Fear is a lie my friends. And it’s the single biggest thing in this world holding you back. It’s not the world, it’s not the government, and it is not any other person on this Earth that is preventing you from living the life you want to live except for you.
The good news is that you can stop it from ruining your life at any moment. You just have to commit to stopping it.
So what I want you to do is this:
Take 30 minutes out of your day and go to some place where you can be alone. Take a notebook with you and maybe some earphones and a radio and an MP3 player. Turn on some of your favorite music and write down what you want your life to look like five years from this day. This is your life vision, and I want you to write it as if anything were possible. Don’t think about anything that could hold you back.
Then I want you to take that vision and write down a list of goals that you need to accomplish to make that vision come true. Start with the final goal, and work backward all the way to the first goal that you need to accomplish. Set dates for when each goal is due.
Take this piece of paper and hang it up some where that you will see it every day, and work on those goals one by one until all of them are accomplished.
When difficulties arise in accomplishing any of those goals, I want you to assess what’s keeping you from accomplishing them. What have you been focusing on? How have you been spending your time? Yeah, you might work all day, but could you sacrifice an hour each day of your free time to make that goal happen?
If the answer is no, then think about this, whether you are sacrificing an hour of sleep or an hour of television, how much could that little bit of suffering each day for this short space of time be worth if it changed your life forever?
The truth is that none of us have anything to lose by pushing harder. Many years from now you will never say, “hey I wish I spent more time watching Game of Thrones” or “I wish I spent more time in bed.” You’ll be thinking about the dreams you didn’t accomplish and the life you didn’t lead.
Kill your fear, and dominate life.
Semper Fi,
Chris
Transcript
Machine-generated from the episode audio and lightly edited — may contain errors.
Chris Albert (link to this point)
Good afternoon. Welcome to the Warrior Soul Podcast and this is the second edition of our Warrior Tips. These are shorter episodes that are going to be in between our longer episodes that are just gonna give you some tips on life. Some things that I've come across, some things that I've read, some things that I've learned from other people. And in this episode, we're going to be talking about the fact that you truly have nothing to lose.
You know, I've gone through a lot of ups and downs in my life and I got to serve in the United States Marine Corps. I got to graduate from college. I've opened up several businesses, but I've also suffered from depression and survivor's guilt. And I've had massive financial hardships that left me homeless living out of my car and left me with a lot, without a lot of sleep, you know, staying up at night, being so scared, worrying about bills, worrying about whether or girlfriend at the time was going to stay with me, worrying about my future. And even when I've been more stable in my life, these worries were still on my mind, you know, fear of loss, failure has chased me throughout most of my years.
As a Marine, it was always related to fear about whether or not I'd be good at my job. You know, worrying if I was going to do the right thing in combat, worrying if I was going to be a good Marine or not. And as a civilian I feared loneliness. I feared loneliness so much that I would womanize and I was just scared of not being able to find the right person. So I was constantly on the search and I was scared of being alone.
And as a self employed entrepreneur, I gotta tell you, I lie awake a lot at night wondering if I'm gonna be able to keep the business going, wondering if I'm gonna be able to keep momentum, and wondering if I'm gonna be able to make enough money in the future to help support my my family. But after all these years, I've discovered one thing about fear. And that's that it's never really done anything for me. You know, my fear of being good at my job as a Marine, you know, it caused me to make a lot of dumb mistakes, caused me to hesitate, and it tarnished my leadership ability as a team leader. And it seriously held me back from being the Marine I knew I could be.
In my dating life, fear of being alone led me to womanize a lot, and womanizing led me to really bad relationships. It also led me to a lot of alcohol abuse, going out to the clubs and the bars. And there's nothing I can think of that's held me back more in my life than womanizing, going out daily to those bars and clubs. When it led me into bad relationships, life just got even worse. Led me to a really bad marriage and a bitter divorce.
That was a large cause of me being homeless in the first place when I was. And in business, my fear of failures always caused me to focus on the wrong things, to focus on the little things and not on the big things that were gonna help to grow the business and to bring my message to more people. And found me basically trapping myself in front of a computer, focusing on things that didn't really matter. But here's the biggest bitch about fear. Most of it's made up.
Fear is a big old fucking lie. The only thing that it does is it keeps us from being who we truly wanna be. Fear is the thing that's gonna keep you on your couch because it tells you that doing anything positive like working out or putting work in on your dreams is useless. Fear is the thing that tells you you're gonna fail whenever you try at anything. Fear is the thing that will tell you that you need to hit the bars tonight and get shit faced because you're scared of reality.
Fear keeps you from wanting to experience everything that life has to offer. Fear is a lie that will tell you that you just aren't capable of great things and that's gonna force you into leading a mundane life. Fear is what's gonna what's gonna keep you from having meaningful relationships because fear keeps you from trusting anyone else. But how do I know that fear is a lie? How do I know that it's something that's made up?
I know because of death. If there's one truth in all of our lives that makes every person on this planet equal, it's death. One hundred years from now, everyone listening to this will be dead. Everyone you know, everybody currently living in your family, everyone you see on TV, all the rich people, all the poor people, all the good people, all the bad people, all of them are going to die. And you know what that means?
In the grand scheme of thing, fear means nothing. Whether we're rich or poor, happy or depressed, successful or stagnant, death is going to touch us all one day. Then the question becomes this, if death is going to happen to us all, then what's the point of holding on to fear? If this is all going to end one day, then why are we not doing everything we can with the limited time we have to make every effort possible to live the lives we want to live? Why would you spend any minute, any second of your life in misery, without hope, without trying?
Fear is definitely a lie. And it's the single biggest thing in this world that's holding you back. It's not the world. It's not the government, and it's not any other person on this earth that's preventing you from living the life you want to live. It's you.
Fear comes from inside of you. And the good news is that you can stop it from ruining your life at any moment. You just have to commit to stopping it. So what I want you to do is this, and this is an exercise. Take thirty minutes out of your day and go someplace where you can be alone.
Take a notebook with you and maybe some earphones and a radio or an m p three player. Turn on some of your favorite music. And I want you to write down what you want your life to look like five years from this day. This is your life vision, and I want you to write it as if anything were possible. Right?
So there's nothing holding you back. There's not a lack of talent, not any financial hardship, nothing. Just get it out and write down your dream life exactly how you want your life to be five years from now. Then I want you to take that vision and I want you to write down a list of goals that you need to accomplish to make that vision come true. Start with the final goal and then work backward all the way to the first goal that you need to accomplish, and set dates for when each goal is due.
Make sure that with your vision and with your goals, we're talking about things that are going to be challenging for you. Things that are going to be big, that can change your life. Once you write all this down, I want you to take that piece of paper, and I want you to hang it up someplace where you're going to see it every day. And I want you to work on these goals one by one, until all of them are accomplished. And when difficulties arise in accomplishing any of these goals, I want you to assess what's keeping you from accomplishing them.
What have you been focusing on? How have you been spending your time? Yeah, you might work all day, but could you sacrifice an hour each day of your free time to make that goal happen? If the answer to that is no, then think about this. Whether Whether you're you're sacrificing an hour of sleep or an hour of television, how much could that little bit of suffering each day for the short space of time be worth if it changed your life forever?
The truth is that none of us have anything to lose by pushing harder. Many years from now, you're never gonna say, hey, I wish I spent more time watching Game of Thrones, or I wish I spent more time in bed. You'll be thinking about the dreams you didn't accomplish and the life you didn't lead. So take some time and put some work into yourself. A lot of you work really hard, but how hard are you working for you?
How hard are you working to make your dreams come true? And how much of your free time is spent helping other people's dreams? Whether that's an actor on the television whose ratings you're boosting or you know just some random blog that you're cruising on the internet. You can all sacrifice a little bit of your time each day to make your life better. So thank you for listening to this today.
I hope each and every one of you does this. And if you do, feel free to send me your vision and your goals. I know it's a very private thing, but if you wanna share it with me, by all means please do. I'd love to hear about them. You can email me anytime at info@warriorsoulapparel.com, and I'll put that email address up in the show notes.
And for all of you out there, just kill your fear and dominate life. I love you all, take care, Semper Fi, Peace.
Host of the Warrior Soul Podcast and founder of Warrior Soul. Worldwide trainer and nutrition coach, contributing author at Testosterone Nation and Muscle and Strength.
