Summary
In Episode 13 of “Warrior: The Art of War for Life ~ A Podcast on Winning” I present Sunzi’s (Sun Tzu’s) Three Secret Strategies for Overcoming Our (Inner) Enemies, which are:
1. Slay Your Enemies 殺敵: Know Who the Real Enemy Is that We Need to Slay
2. Master Your Motivations, Part I: 怒 Indignation — Know What We Are Fighting Against?
3. Master Your Motivations, Part II: 貨 Tangible Benefits — Know What We Are Fighting For?
With inspirational quotes from Lou Allen, Anjali Chaturvedi, Walt Kelly, Jordan Peterson, Viktor Frankl, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, this episode talks about fighting our inner battles and defeating the demons of debilitating self-doubt, the fiery fiends of feral fear, the antagonists of anger, and the legions of limiting beliefs that can swarm our thinking and taint our beliefs with lies and self-deception. It’s time to take back the battleground of our minds and hearts!
Featuring an original soundtrack by Sentius.
Transcription
Podcast Intro (Previously Recorded)
Welcome to Warrior: The Art of War for Life – A Podcast for Those Who Want to Win! Leadership Lessons, Motivational Mindsets, Empowering Principles, Success Strategies, and Transformational Tactics from Sunzi, the Master of Victory
I am your guide on the side, David Boyd, award-winning educator, transformational speaker, and Certified Life Coach.
It’s time to start winning at life!
Episode Introduction
Hey! Hey! Hey! Welcome everyone! Thanks for joining us! I am so glad you are here listening! Last week, we had the pleasure of hearing from my mentor and friend USAF (retired) Brigadier General Paul Pirog in our second Warrior Mindset Unplugged! He was a “Cold-War” B-52 navigator, Air Force JAG, and Head of the Law Department at USAFA during his 37 years of dedicated service, so don’t miss it! You can listen to it or watch the video on Youtube! Next week, we are going to talk about Sunzi’s The Keys to Growing in Abundance and Strength, so stay tuned! This week, we are talking about Sunzi’s: “Three Secret Strategies to Overcoming Our (Inner) Enemies” So let’s go!
Disclaimer
“Just to be clear: The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the United States Air Force Academy, the Air Force, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government. Thank you. Thank you very much!”
Four Secret Strategies to Overcoming Our Enemies and Growing in Abundance and Strength!
In Chapter 2.4 of Sunzi’s Art of War, we read:
Therefore, what drives us to slay the enemy is indignation, as if our women were enslaved; what drives us to seize the enemy’s assets is their material wealth. Thus in chariot warfare, when ten or more chariots are seized, reward the first to the one who seized them and change the flags and banners. Then, intermix the chariots and drive them with ours. Treat the prisoners of war excellently and nourish them. This is what is called defeating enemies while increasing abundance and strength.
故殺敵者怒也, 取敵之利者貨也。故車戰, 得車十乘以上, 賞其先得者, 而更其旌旗, 車雜而乘之, 卒善而養之, 是謂勝敵而益強。
In this passage Sunzi identifies three secret strategies to overcoming our enemies. They are:
1. 殺敵 Slay Your Enemies: Know Who the Real Enemy Is that We Need to Slay
2. 怒 Master Your Motivations: Know What You Are Fighting Against
3. 取貨 Seize Tangible Benefits: Know What You Are Fighting For
This week we are going to talk about the first two: Slaying our enemies and mastering our motivations. Next week, we’ll talk about being gracious in defeat, not skipping our self-care, and treating ourselves and others excellently through self-talk, and nurturing and nourishing ourselves and others – especially during times of difficulty and defeat.
1. 殺敵 Know Who the Real Enemy Is that We Need to Slay
Similar to concepts of the “Grim Reaper” in Western traditions, the Chinese character sha1 殺 (simplified: 𣏂) meaning to kill, to slay, or to cut down. The character is comprised of two elements: 𣏂 (sha1) on the left, which means to cut or chop down millet grain stalks with shears, scissors, or a scythe. The right side is 殳, also meaning to kill or cut down, which is further comprised of a hand 又 (you4) holding an axe, sickle, or other curved blade that could be used both in agriculture and war.
See every belief that we embrace, every thought that we entertain is like a seed in our minds. We reap what we sow whether consciously or unwittingly. Since our beliefs and our thinking shape our feelings and our feelings drive our actions, and our actions and response to a large extent determine our outcomes and our results. So what do we need to cut out or cut down on in our lives? Before we begin slaying, seizing, and defeating enemies, it is essential to know who the real enemies are in our lives.
敵 The Real Enemy
The word enemy has a fascinating etymology and profound imagery in Chinese. The character di3 敵 (ancient form: 𢿪; simplified: 敌) means enemy or adversary. The ancient form 啻 is comprised of Thearch, the supreme ruler, emperor, or god 帝 (di4) in ancient China, above a mouth 口 (kou3), implying to speak. It is related to headdresses or crowns worn as symbols of sovereignty and the right to speak for and speak as god and rule over people. It also has an agricultural imagery to it, as it also means sheaves and is therefore linked to the harvest, prosperity, and abundance. Di was known as the “sheaf king” or the “King of Harvests” controlling the prosperity of people, the livelihood of individuals, and the abundance of nations. A later version of the character 𢿪 adds a hand holding a weapon 攵 on the right side.
To achieve victory in our lives, we need to understand what the real enemy is, and it is rarely other people. I had a coworker once who I felt was just passive-aggressive and constantly out to get me. Though our offices were close to each other, we rarely interacted in person but mostly through email – especially as the tension built between us. This person would never come to me with anything in person but the instant I stepped away from my office for any reason, even to go to the restroom, they would go to my supervisor and ask where I was. I began to feel attacked, manipulated, and resentful. Eventually, leadership intervened but things didn’t change. When I went through the Arbinger Institute Outward Mindset training for the first time, I decided to take full accountability for my part, stop blaming, and shift my thinking about this individual. It was hard work. I went out of my way to interact with and get to know my coworker and to express care and concern for some of the challenges they were experiencing in their lives. As I did, my resentment dissipated and I was able to rise above some of the real and imagined issues that had almost driven me to the point of leaving. As I battled my own thinking, I changed my experience with this individual. Furthermore, as I changed what I was putting in and how I was showing up, my coworker changed some things too.
In Episode 0, I quoted Lou Allen who said: “Some battles are fought with swords, some with words, but the hardest battles are those we fight in our own minds.” In Episode 1, I introduced the concept of the “Battleground of the Mind.” It is time to revisit that here. Because, as Anjali Chaturvedi has said: “In the end, it’s you fighting against you, for yourself.”
In the humorous and witty words of political satirist Walt Kelly’s (1913-1973) Pogo: “We have met the enemy and he is us.” The real enemy in our lives is almost always lurking in the shadows of our mind, in our own toxic thinking, limiting labels, and belittling beliefs. It is our festering fears and our debilitating doubts that usually convince us to settle for less, to accept things the way they are, and to stay in bad situations. It is the malevolent meaning that those parasitic beliefs create that destroys our dreams and sucks the life out of us! Most often, long before any external foe or adversary appears to challenge us, it is our inner beliefs, our inner thinking that has already defeated us.
The imagery of enemy or adversary is anyone or, for our purposes, anything that enforces limitations and constraints upon us, that would speak as a false god in our lives; anything that would reduce or diminish our opportunities or stature, or anything that inhibits or constrains our personal prosperity and individual abundance; anything that coerces, manipulates, or threatens our inalienable human rights and sovereignty by force of arms or at gunpoint; anything that obstructs our ability to reap what we sow and to live and let live – the real enemies are those ideas, those limiting beliefs, those negative names, those enslaving labels, and insidious stereotypes that we accept and even unwittingly embrace in our lives, that say we can’t do this or we aren’t enough to achieve that, or that we are destined to stay stuck as and will never be able to rise above and create something different in our lives, out of our lives, and for our lives – those are the real enemies that we must slay in the battleground of our own minds!
I would like to present an alternate paradigm for personal empowerment – though we rarely have full or even partial control over the circumstances and situations that the River of Life brings our way – we ALWAYS have control of our RAFT and how we navigate the currents of challenge and the tides of trial and tribulation. The acronym RAFT stands for: Response, Actions, Feelings, and Thoughts. We have the power to take charge of our responses, our actions, our feelings, and our thoughts. No one can ever take that away from us! But far too often we don’t recognize the power we have in our RAFT and we throw it away, or give it away, or put other people in charge of our lives. No one can make us think, feel, do, or respond in a certain way – unless we give them that power! Why do we choose to give our power away to people and things that do not have our best interests in mind?
In Episode 2, I shared a quote by Holocaust survivor Viktor Fankl (1905-1997), who became one of the most influential thinkers of his age: “There is a space between stimulus and response, and in that space is a choice, and in that choice is freedom.” That space is the “Battleground of the Mind.” It is the place where we decide what we will believe about ourselves, each other, and the world as River flows all around us. It is the space where we make meaning of the MESS of the human condition. It is the place where we either choose to navigate our RAFT and plot a course through the rapids or allow ourselves, our hopes, and our dreams to be carried along downstream by the currents of culture or dashed by despair upon the rocks of what we have accepted as reality! It all comes back to beliefs. Our beliefs direct our thinking, our thinking creates our feelings, our feelings drive our actions, and our actions direct our responses. This is where the hardest battles are fought and won, this is where we fight for ourselves and against ourselves – in the silent chambers of our own minds.
Not who, but what are the enemies in our lives? What prevents us from achieving our “Big Deals” or “Grand Endeavors” or personal missions and pursuing our dreams? It is time to slay the enemies within! The ones that pillage and plunder our hopes and dreams, that sap us of our strength and courage, that enslave us to settle for a diminished life and a less-than existence and accept that things cannot and will not ever change, that there is no hope, that this is as good as it’s going to get, that we’ll never amount to anything or make a difference. They are all limiting lies, as I discussed in Episode 6, and these lies are the real enemies of our lives!
2. Master Your Motivations: Know What Fighting Against
The second strategy Sunzi lists is to know two things: what we are fighting for and what we are fighting against so that we can understand, maintain, and master our motivations. Both of these are related to our Why and as I discussed in Episode 3, one of Sunzi’s “Five Strategic Success Factors” is to get clear on our why because our why is our way forward. As with sports, where there is both defense and offense, Sunzi identified two types of why, two driving forces that motivate us to fight for what we want in our lives: the first is indignation, which motivates us to stand up in defiance of our enemies and to drive them out of our lives, and the second is tangible benefits, the goods, results, outcomes, and personal gain we will receive by fighting for what we want in our lives, out of our lives, and for our lives.
Some people are more motivated moving towards a goal or by achieving something and other people are motivated by preventing something undesirous from happening or pushing a possibility out. Which are you? Here’s an easy example to help you identify your motivations. Think about a health or fitness goal. If asked you why you wanted to achieve that is the answer because you wanted to achieve or become something or is it because you wanted to prevent something bad from happening – like a heart attack? Or is it both? For me, moving away from a bad situation or an undesirable outcome usually only produces a short burst of momentum and motivation like a turbo charge and can eventually be demotivating. Whereas I feel much more motivated by working toward something that I want to create or achieve – that gives me more sustainable, long-term momentum – but everyone is different. The truth is over two centuries ago, Sunzi already identified the need for both types of motivation in fighting our daily battles.
怒 Indignation:
The Chinese character nu4 怒 means anger, rage, or most accurately indignation. It is comprised of three graphic elements: a woman 女 (nü3) and a hand 又 (you4) above a heart 心 (xin1). When combined 奴 referred to a dark history of female slaves or servants who were considered property and often abused. When further combined with the heart, it refers to the feelings that such a tradition evokes. How would you feel if someone enslaved your mother, your grandmother, your sister, your daughter, or your spouse? How do you feel right now and how would you react to anyone laying hands on them?
For those who have been physically abused out there in any way, forgive me if this is triggering. You did not deserve what was done to you. It was wrong and horrible and I hope that you can find the courage to stand up and fight so that it never happens to another man, woman, or child ever again. Abuse of any kind has no place in this world!
Indignation is the internal resistance to something in our lives that is misaligned with our values. It is an internal signal that something is just not right. If there is something in our lives, in our thinking, in our feelings that we just can’t stand anymore, then stand up to it! Take a look at it. The things that we cannot stand for are often clues to our “Big Deals.” In the words of Canadian psychologist and award-winning author Jordan Peterson: “Well the first question is: ‘What bugs you? What’s bugging you? Where is [your] destiny? Well, what bothers you? Well, that’s where your destiny is. Your destiny is to be found in what bothers you. Why do those things bother you? There’s a lot of things you could be bothered by – like a million man! But some things grip you. They bug you…. They’re your things man!” As Peterson notes, the things that bother us, that really get us riled up, that we will not and cannot stand for another minute are often the things that we feel the most indignation toward and that we feel the most motivated to take a stand against and fight to eliminate.
Internally, what are the thoughts and feelings that we just can’t stand anymore? What have we tolerated in our lives? Where have we settled? What have we just accepted that we don’t like? That we feel indignant toward? We can choose to doubt our doubts and silence our fears. We don’t have to let them dominate our minds and dictate our decisions. There are things worth fighting for in our lives! Indignation is our call to arms! If we are sick of believing the same old things and getting the same tired results, then it is stand up for something more, for something better! Fight back against your fears! Slay our enfeebling enemies!
What are the enemies that hold our hopes hostage? That destroy our dreams? Ransack our relationships and kidnap our creativity and control? That pillage our personal power? That bombard our bravery and boldness? These are the enemies of our lives! How much more are we going to take? How many more abuses are we going to endure before we declare war on our doubts and fears? Are you fed up yet? What are you fighting against? What are you fighting for?
3. 取貨 Seize Tangible Benefits
The other half of Sunzi’s motivational why is to focus on getting the goods or seizing the commodities. As discussed in Episode 11, the Chinese character meaning to seize or secure is 取 (qu3) and is literally a depiction of a hand grabbing someone by the ear. What exactly are we seizing? The term used here is huo4 貨, which means goods, commodities, material things, and tangible benefits. The character is comprised of the word for transformation 化 (hua4), which literally means to turn around or turn upside down, above a cowry shell 貝 (bei4), which as I discussed in Episode 10, was a precious and valued form of ancient currency. Taken together, the term commodity or goods represents the quantifiable value added to our lives, whether intangible or material goods, those transformative treasures that can tip the scales of life, shift the balance of power, and turn our lives around. This ties back to visualizing the value of the victory we are fighting for, which I also discussed in Episode 10. In Episode 2, I discussed how I shifted my mindset around taking the stairs from focusing on the difficult of the obstacles to the tangible benefits and opportunities that taking the stairs provided – such as how every step makes me stronger and every step gets me closer to my office where I have the privilege of mentoring cadets, conversing with colleagues I respect and conduct research that I enjoy – including working on this podcast!
What benefits are we going to bring to the world by pursuing our Big Deals? What are we working to build or create in our lives? What positive seeds are we sowing so that we can reap a bountiful harvest of abundance and prosperity in our lives and in the lives of others? Whenever we can visualize the value of the victory we are winning and lay hold of the tangible benefits and value that we are adding to our own lives and the lives of others, we bring a grounding perspective to the hard work and sacrifices that we make to realize our dreams and they become more of a labor of love.
In the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger: “I could not wait to lift another 500 pounds in the squats, I could not wait to do another 1000 sit ups. I could not wait to do bench press, more bench press and more curls until I couldn’t move my arms anymore. Because I knew every rep got me closer to standing on that stage as a champion. As a matter of fact, when I lifted weights, it didn’t really feel like I was lifting weights, I felt like I was lifting a trophy over my head each time I lifted.” That is the power of vision, the motivation to seize those tangible benefits that we want in our lives, out of our lives, and for our lives.
Conclusion
In the Art of War, Sunzi clearly defines how to defeat our enemies. Today, we have discussed three secrets for doing so – for overcoming our inner enemies. They are:
1. Slay Your Enemies: Know Who the Real Enemy Is that We Need to Slay
2. Master Your Motivations: Know What You Are Fighting Against
3. Seize Tangible Benefits: Know What You Are Fighting For
First and foremost, in order to win, we need to know who the real enemy is that we are fighting in our lives. The real enemies are not out there somewhere but lurking within the selfish shadows of our mind, the corners of our consciousness. They are the demons of debilitating doubt, the fiends of festering fear, the pariahs of powerlessness, adversaries of anger, and the legions of limiting beliefs and parasitic thoughts that the suck the life out of our hopes, dreams, and noblest aspirations. Those are the enemies within that bring us to the very brink of defeat and disaster and would subjugate us to a lesser world of indentured servitude, enslaved to past failures, present insufficiencies, and a bleak future. Those are the enemies who whisper lies and deal in self-deception, that speak as false gods and seek to enforce their lies at gunpoint, telling us that we can never have what we really want in life, that we’re not good enough, strong enough, smart enough, attractive enough, or deserving enough to have the “good life” that “personal paradise” that we envision for ourselves – whatever that looks like.
They scream that we are insufficient, incompetent, and unworthy. They shout out example after example of tainted evidence as to why what they say is the cold, hard truth about us, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy and downward spiral – a triple tailspin of trouble, trial, and tribulation – but they are all lies. It is the pain of those false beliefs about ourselves, each other, and the world that leads to so much contention and conflict. Once, we know the real enemies that we are fighting against in our hearts and minds – the thoughts and feelings that keep us stuck, hold us back, and kick us when we’re down, it becomes much easier to stand up and fight against them. To embrace new beliefs and think new thoughts, and by so doing to change how we feel and experience the world. No matter how long we’ve been fighting losing battles with our own demons, whether they show up in our lives as doubt or fear, anger or resentment, conceit or arrogance, self-condemnation or being judgmental of other, or whether its despair or worthlessness, we can take back our minds. We are the only one’s who get to decide what we will believe and what we will think, which will shape how we will feel and likely what we will do, which will determine our experiences and results in our lives. We have the power – no one can take it away from us. If a thought or belief does not serve us, we can change it, we can let it go, and we can replace it with something more empowering and ennobling.
Sunzi’s second secret to overcoming is to master our motivations to get clear on what we are fighting against and what we are fighting for. What is it that we can no longer stand in our lives, for our lives, or out of our lives? What can we no longer tolerate in our thinking and our feelings? What is it that we need to stand up to? Where do we need to draw a line in the sand and say “no more?” What do we need to cut down on or cut out of our lives? Once we have cleared away the clutter of confusion and gained some clarity on what we don’t want, we create space to explore new possibilities and potentials to fill the void vacated by our doubts, fears, and resentments. Blame can become boldness, shame can shift to self-confidence, and (mis)judgment can transform into acceptance.
We can begin right now to move away from what we don’t want, draw the battle lines, utter our battle cry, our call to arms, and stand up for ourselves and our hopes and dreams. We can begin to reclaim our hearts and minds, and one by one drive out the debilitating doubts, feral fears, and legions of limiting labels and belittling beliefs that threaten our wellbeing or even that have dominated our lives. We can resist and rebel. We can throw off the shackles of shame and self-condemnation. We can chop down the lumbering limits and limiting lumber of lies and cut a path through the wilderness to wherever we want to go, to whatever we want to create in our lives. No matter how long we have felt trapped, lost, or defeated there is ALWAYS a Way forward, a way onward, a way upward. No matter how impassible or impossible our challenges feel, the instant we overcome our own thinking and beliefs, we will find a way through, a way around, or a way out that seemed invisible to us before. Remember, our why is our Way. So get clear on what the real enemies are, why we are choosing to stand up and drive them out of our lives, out of our hearts and minds, and what value and benefits we are choosing to create instead. That is how we begin to overcome our enemies in the battleground of the mind – that is the warrior mindset in action.
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Warrior: The Art of War for Life - A Podcast on Winning 
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