By Shazad

“We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.”

Archilochus

Thankfully, most of us are not involved in actual military conflicts or physical battles during the week. Hopefully, we can avoid this for the rest of our lives as well. So why talk about being a “Warrior”? There is a benefit from learning what the Warrior traditions have to teach us and how to apply those things to our everyday lives. The alternative is to spend your life as a “Worrier” fearing everything and everyone because you don’t know how to handle situations. Let me share.3 simple ways you can “WIN the “battles” of everyday life and become a Warrior.

First, have a very compelling reason to live your life and spend your energy the way you do each day. Make every day a disciplined day of purpose and action that is fulfilling your mission in life. This will prevent you from just trying to ‘get through’ the day or ‘surviving’ another workday, etc. Make the days count and they will be more enjoyable.

Second, prepare for and expect difficulty, challenges, obstacles, and even temporary failures. Rehearse some common or expected challenges in your mind and how you can manage the situation if they occur. This inoculates you to some of the shock and sadness when you actually face this setback. It also prepares you to respond and recover more quickly.

Third, develop your confidence by getting things done early in the day and challenging yourself over time. When you complete simpler tasks early and work to achieve harder tasks over time, you feel better about yourself and can be proud of yourself. Having constantly challenging projects to work on and learn from prevents you from becoming too comfortable with your current abilities and helps you stretch so you are always improving even if it is just 1% each week. You need to be challenged regularly so you know how strong and capable you really are.

Many people want to just enjoy a comfortable life without worrying about the future or doing hard things. They think everything will be ‘fine’ if they don’t think about what could go wrong and plan for it. Such people are usually the first to be shocked and often lose hope in themselves as well as the world when something does take an unexpected turn. Your physical, mental and emotional well-being depends on you developing your inner WARRIOR so you are alert, prepared and constantly improving your skills.

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By Ahsan

One of my childhood activities was going to Cub Scouts. It was a very positive experience, and we earned badges that my mother would sew onto my Cub’s shirt. I still have that shirt, by the way. The badges represented a skill that you learned, and believe me, they all came in handy as you grow up. I owe a lot to that early training. Here is a link to see the type of things we learned: https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/cubscouts/pdf/Wolf_Addendum.pdf

Not surprisingly, The Boy Scouts have a motto: Be Prepared. Likewise, the US Coast Guard has a similar slogan: Always Ready.

You may appreciate many things you know because they help you live your life better and can even save your life!

Have you ever heard of someone falling unexpectedly out of a boat and drowning? This is a colossal tragedy. However, sometimes, it is determined that the person did not know how to swim and could have survived if they knew how.

So, there are specific skills that need to be learned before they are required.

Swimming is one such skill among many.

Can you think of certain skills you are glad you have?

Now that you think of it, are there any skills that you should acquire?

Maybe you need to learn how to get up and speak in front of people. Or perhaps you need to know how to drive a car. What about taking up a bit of First Aid training or cybersecurity skills to protect you from scams and identity theft? Perhaps most importantly, how to think on purpose so you enjoy the moments of your life.

May I challenge you to think of at least three skills you need to acquire over the next 3 months and present you with a dose of motivation with a concept of the 3 Ps of Skilling?

3 P’s of Skilling:

Proactive approach to identifying your gaps in skills.

Prepare in advance, so you survive and thrive.

Performance when it counts.

So here is the game plan for your 3 Skills Challenge

Proactive: Start thinking. Consider some excellent results you need in your life and identify the skill you need to learn to attain it. A golfer might need to learn how to chip onto the green closer to the pin.
Prepare: Feel the excitement of doing the skill. Then, get started on training for the skill. Take the course or get the lessons or get a coach or whatever you need to do.
Performance: See yourself doing the skill in your mind's eye. When you need to chip onto the green and leave yourself with an easy one-foot putt to win, you will do it because you proactively prepared and got the performance when it counts most!

Most people have the skills to live a life that will be just fine.

You, however, are now more aware of how learning new skills before you need them will lead to a more Awesome Life!