Being ready for war is a good analogy for being prepared for fighting through the struggles of your daily life. If you are ready for the fight, you’ll be able to overcome challenges and live the life you want to live.
The warrior who is prepared starts with developing a moral conviction. They say to themselves “My position is justified by my orientation to the highest ideals and I have a duty to stand up for what is right.” Once you have this moral conviction set you can begin the hard work of preparing for the fight.
A warfighter trains to be smarter, faster, and stronger than their enemies. You need to train your mind to think quickly and critically while accounting for the wisdom of intuition. You need to train and develop the capability and capacity to be mindful of strong emotions and practice the skills needed to regulate them effectively and efficiently. Physically, you need to build muscles that can push and pull heavy loads for long periods of time while maintaining enough flexibility to avoid injury. You must develop the stamina to do all of this over long periods of time with little rest.
Once the mind and body are in order you can start to think about acquiring “tactical” skills. A modern warfighter learns to shoot, move, and communicate under intense stress and pressure to perform. In your own life this may look more like learning to aim your focus on the most important target, move towards it through your intentional actions, and effectively communicate your need for help and support.
A fully prepared warfighter is also armed and armored. While the warrior may wear body armor and a helmet, while carrying firearms, knives, and explosives the weapons and armor you need are knowledge, skills, and abilities. Functional knowledge of how the world works, technical skills for building and interacting with the world, and abilities that enable you to be creative and constructive.
Finally, and I would argue most importantly, the warfighter surrounds themselves with other warriors. These brothers and sisters provide support, encouragement, accountability. They fill in the gaps in our knowledge, skills, and abilities. They help us aim. They train alongside us. And they let us know when our moral conviction is failing or misaligned.
If this all seems daunting to you that’s ok. Being ready to face the world is a challenging thing to do. Just remember that you can start preparing anywhere and at any time. You can start with one push up or you can start with one walk. You can start with making one new connection. Or you can start with a moral inventory to check your alignment.
The important thing is that you start because you will be ready for the inevitable challenges the world will be sending your way.
Thanks For Reading
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