英語閱讀訓練/The Warrior Mindset

Have you ever felt like life is hard? Like it can sometimes be a struggle to get up in the morning and do all of the things that you have to do?
Do you ever wake up feeling constantly tired and stressed? Does life just seem too much?
Sure, I get it. You have lots of work to do. You have debt maybe. Maybe you’re tired from shopping and maybe you’ve got a stomach ache.
Now think about a true warrior.
Think about someone who sleeps rough, unsure of whether or not they’re going die during the night. Then they wake up, no time for a shower or a nice breakfast, and they leap straight into action. They ignore their wounds, they take lives and they see their friends and their brothers in arms shot and killed in front of them.
But no I get it. You’re tired. You had to work until 6pm last night…
What I’m getting at, is that your life isn’t really hard. You might think it’s hard and sometimes it might feel hard.
But there are people out there with much worse lives than you. There are people out there who live with crippling illness and not two cents to rub together. And many of them do this with a dignity, a grace and a bravery that puts the rest of us to shame.
You see, the warrior mindset actually has nothing to do with combat. In fact, the hooligans that start bar fights and that think they’re ‘hard’ for starting fights are about as far from true warriors as it gets. Ask anyone who has seen real combat if they would want to risk their health and waste their energy on looking for trouble.
The warrior mindset is different. This is about knowing what you want and going for it. It’s about being hard and it’s about not letting little things get you down. It’s about pushing ahead with what you know is right and it’s about carrying responsibility and hardship on your shoulders with dignity and pride. It’s about not letting your emotions get the better of you and it’s about not taking the easy answer or the easy route to solve your problems.
What is the Warrior Mindset?
The warrior mindset is different. This is about knowing what you want and going for it. It’s about being hard and it’s about not letting little things get you down. It’s about pushing ahead with what you know is right and it’s about carrying responsibility and hardship on your shoulders with dignity and pride. It’s about not letting your emotions get the better of you and it’s about not taking the easy answer or the easy route to solve your problems.
So where does this title and this approach come from? What is the theory behind the warrior’s mindset?
Of course, it comes from our romantic image of the warrior and from stories of warriors from history. It comes from tales of our bravest men and women who fought actual battles while remaining cool headed, sacrificing themselves for others and doing incredible things.
Now, we all know that in reality, not every warrior fits this mould. For every heroic individual who put themselves in the line of fire, there would have been hundreds more soldiers that complained, that were in it for the wrong reasons, or that wouldn’t put themselves out for others. Romanticising warfare is in fact a terrible idea – it is a truly horrific state of affairs and very few people feel like ‘warriors’ when they are faced with enemy fire.
But it’s that image of the ideal ‘warrior’ that we’re looking at here. And at our notions of history’s greatest warriors like the samurai or the Spartans.
The point is that some people manage to stay cool and calm in even the worst situations. Some people constantly forge ahead and do not allow small inconveniences or a lack of creature comforts stand in their way.
And those people put us to shame. Those people make our complaints seem very minor indeed.
Now imagine if you could take that same mindset and apply it to modern life. Instead of getting tired or bogged down, instead of being distracted and tempted, you would instead drive forward with an unstoppable, bulletproof mentality. Your enemies would quake knowing that there was nothing they could do to stop you and your career obstacles, relationship goals and financial plans would all crumble beneath your will.
If you apply an iron will and warrior mentality to a modern lifestyle, you get extreme efficiency, determination and pride. Self-discipline, determination and self-sufficiency are traits that make us strong and that help us get what we want. They are traits that make us good parents, good friends and good partners. They are traits that help us to live with ourselves and to earn respect and admiration from others.
Imagine if you had the mental strength to sit in a freezing cold shower for hours on end. Imagine if you weren’t phased in life threatening situations. Take those traits and then put them up against the absolutely measly challenges that most of us face today. They would fall like dominos.
Having a warrior’s mindset and going through modern life is like bulging with muscles and having to lift 5kg. Developing that warrior’s mindset is like a workout for your mind, your philosophy and your soul.
It will make you unstoppable.