Synopsis
Do you ever feel like you aren’t getting what you want out of your days? Do you feel like your days just slip away from you? Do you ever look back at the end of the day and wondered what happened? In Episode 18 of “Warrior: The Art of War for Life ~ A Podcast on Winning,” I discuss four dual actions for attacking our day. They are:
1. Strike Down Our Self-Sabotaging Plots and Strike Up A Winning Battle Plan
2. Strike Down Our Old Associations & Strike Up New Alliances
3. Strike Down Enemy States of Mind & Enlist New Operators
4. Besiege the Bastions of Our Belittling Belief Systems & Build Up Bridges for Better Breakthroughs
With quotes from Stephen R. Covey, Brooke Castillo, and Michael Elmore-Meegan, this episode identifies four concrete actions for adopting the warrior mindset in the battlefield of our minds and start winning our daily battles!
Podcast Intro
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 discussed Sunzi’s: “Three Principles for Achieving the Ultimate (Personal) Victory in Life!” Preservation, Permission, and Persistence. We also talked about compartmentalization and avoiding collateral damage. If you are a visual learner like me, check out the blog version of this podcast at www.artofwarforlife.com, which includes the Chinese characters I discuss along with additional images. Don’t forget to join the Art of War for Life Facebook page and follow us on Instagram @artofwarforlife. For any questions, comments, or to work with me, shoot me an email at: artofwarforlife@gmail.com. Today’s topic is “Four Steps to Attack Your Day.” So let’s go!
Disclaimer
“And as always: 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 Steps to Attack Your Day!
In Chapter 3.2 of Sunzi’s Art of War, we read:
Therefore, superior military action is to strike the enemy’s plans, then to strike their alliances, then to strike their armies, and only at the end to attack their strongholds.
故上兵伐謀, 其次伐交, 其次伐兵, 其下攻城。
In this passage Sunzi identifies four priorities for superior military action: strike at the enemy’s plots and plans, then strike at their alliances and allegiances, then strike at their military, and lastly to strike at their fortresses and strongholds. From this passage, I have derived four dual actions for attacking our day. They are:
1. 伐謀 Strike Down Our Self-Sabotaging Plots and Strike Up A Winning Battle Plan
2. 伐交 Strike Down Our Old Associations & Strike Up New Alliances
3. 伐兵 Strike Down the Enemy Soldiers & Enlist New Operators – Search & Destroy
4. 攻城 Besiege the Bastions of Our Belittling Belief Systems & Build Bridges for Better Breakthroughs
1. Strike Down Our Self-Sabotaging Plots & Strike Up A Winning Battle Plan
– Etymology of 伐 = A person holding a halberd or Chinese dagger-axe. To strike down.
– Etymology of 謀 = Speech 言 next to the fruit of the sweet plum tree 某, which is represented by the character sweet 甘 (gan1) on top of a tree 木 (mu4).
– Have you ever seen a large, plump fruit up high in a tree, the ones that have been ripening the longest, and wondered: How can I get that? Then we start plotting a course of action … That’s the imagery of this word. Conversely, have we ever wanted something really badly but then talked ourselves out of it? It’s a double-edged sword!
– Do we focus on how to get to that sweet fruit, that outcome at the end? Or do we succumb to all the stinking thinking that says we can’t have it?
– Do I really want this outcome or situation in my life, for my life, and out of my life? Why? What am I getting out of it? Why do I want that?
– As we reflect on what we really want and as we get really curious without blame, shame, or judgment, without all the woulda, coulda, shoulda’s we place on our decisions, we may discover that what we thought we wanted isn’t really what we want, and what we really want is something else entirely.
– The problem is that we often subconsciously self-sabotage …
– Why? Because of our beliefs …
– How do we get out of our own ways?
– Have you ever said something like: “If so and so does that I’m going to be so mad!” or “If this happens I’m gonna lose it!”
– Are those outcomes that we really want or are we just setting up conditions where we feel justified in bad behavior?
– Every time we justify an undesired outcome with a set of external conditions and circumstances we are giving away our power to choose something different.
– That is a subtle form of self-sabotage and self-abandonment is the emotional root of self-sabotage.
– Every time we embrace a limiting label, a belittling belief, a diminishing doubt, or an enfeebling fear, we unwittingly abandon our hopes and dreams, our power and possibility for a less than life, we accept that this is just the way we are or life and that things won’t ever change or get better, and we settle.
– I know. I am a master of self-sabotage.
– I have all these little plots in my head, like a story or narrative, reasons and rules that keep me stuck where I am – like some pencil pushing bureaucrat who appears every time I want to live, dream, risk, or try something new.
– He appears in my mind, saying: “You can’t do that!” “You’ll never make it!” “Why try?” “You don’t deserve this!”
– If we fail to plan, we plan to fail.
– Episode 1: “What’s Your Big Deal?”
– Strike the personal plots, the Stinking Thinking, the self-sabotaging schemes.
– Strike at our lack of a plan or our plans to fail and put a battle plan in place for the day.
2. Strike Down Our Old Associations & Strike Up New Alliances
– Etymology of 交 = A bow and fire drill, used in ancient China.
– This is the root word for efficiency that we discussed in Episode 2: “Look in the MIRROR – You are in Charge!”
– The intersection and interaction within and with others where sparks can fly and connections can be made.
– Two types of associations to look at: internal and external.
Internal
– Episode 17: “Three Principles for Achieving the Ultimate (Personal) Victory in Life” I presented the idea of calling into question our assumptions and associations.
– Strike down the assumptions and associations, interrupt the cycle, get off the roller coaster.
– Triggers
– Waterslide analogy: I love waterslides! But once we get on a waterslide, it can only take us one place — down to the bottom. This is the difference between a waterslide and a rollercoaster, which always brings us right back to the same place every time.
– There are a lot of steps involved in getting to the top of a waterslide. So it is with our thinking. So, in attacking our day, we can call into question our assumptions and associations about things. Where is this thought leading me? Do I really want to go there? Is that how I want to show up in the world?
– Instead, we can reframe our assumption and associations and face our fears!
External
– Are those we associate with empowering us to pursue our “Big Deals” or enabling us to stay stuck?
– As Leon Brown puts it: “Our circle of friends must match our own aspirations and dreams. Otherwise, we will find little support when we need it most.”
– So, surround ourselves with the dreamers and the doers, the believers and the thinkers. But most of all surround ourselves with those who see greatness within us. We need to associate with people that inspire us, people that challenge us to rise higher, people that make us want to be better.
– And we need to be wary of people who are not adding to our growth, who belittle, coerce, or put us down; people who use us, or prevent our growth or sap the life and energy from us.
– That doesn’t necessarily mean we need to cut everyone out of our lives who doesn’t encourage us. It means we need to be intentional and change our dynamics and interactions with others.
– How do we find that sort of association? We start by being that sort of friend for others!
– I’m not great at math but one real life application I have learned is that changing one side of the equation changes the outcome.
– Too often we wait and demand that other people change what their putting in to create the outcome that we want and then we get upset when they don’t. Or we’re only willing to change if they change too.
– It only takes one! Be the one!
3. Strike Down the Enemy Soldiers & Enlist New Operators – Search & Destroy
– If there were enemy soldiers roaming this country, we would immediately launch a search and destroy mission to hunt down every last one of them. We would not tolerate the presence of militant enemy forces within our borders.
– So why do we tolerate enemy states of mind and thoughts running amok and running rampant in our minds actively undermining our wellbeing and sabotaging what we really want in our lives, for our lives, and out of our lives?
– Fears are the foot-soldiers of our insecurities – they get their marching orders from our own inner resistance!
– Doubts are the double-agents of our insufficiencies – they pretend to serve us but do no good!
4. Besiege the Bastions of Our Belittling Beliefs & Build Bridges to Better Breakthroughs
– The fourth and final action is to besiege the bastions of our belittling beliefs and work on building up bridges for better breakthroughs.
– Etymology of gong1 攻 = to attack or assault. From gong1 工 = to work (also provides the sound) and 攵 a hand working with a tool or weapon.
– What did Sunzi say we needed to attack, assault, or besiege? Walled cities, fortresses, and battlements.
– The Chinese term is cheng2 城, which is comprised of the earth radical 土 (tu2) next to “to become” 成. The ancient form added a tower on the left. The etymology of to become was further comprised of a mouth 口 (kou3) beneath a dagger-axe 戈 (ge1), the traditional Chinese halberd weapon we discussed above.
– One of my favorite activities in China is backpacking the Great Wall, which in Chinese is 长城, which literally means “the Long Fortress.” I have hiked miles and miles of abandoned and maintained sections of the Wall over the years. I love thinking about what life was like for those who built the wall and who were stationed on the wall. It is a marvelous feat of ingenuity and engineering.
– At times, I have thought about how anyone ever got through such a massive and imposing obstacle. For most of Chinese history, people didn’t.
– An often unintended side effect of building walls to keep people out is that they also keep us trapped within.
– Besiege Belittling Beliefs & Walls We Hide Behind (Strongholds of Safety).
– In Episode 10: “Sunzi’s Five Full Send Tactics for When We Hit the Wall” I introduced the concept of not continuing to throw ourselves at the wall but to try something different.
– Etymologically speaking we can become anything we can honestly say we are willing to fight for.
– Indeed, Sunzi was actually wary of siege warfare because of the time and cost, which is why it is the fourth of his strategic priorities.
– Prior to besieging enemy strongholds, he advocated for foiling enemy plots, breaking enemy alliances, and defeating enemy soldiers in the field. Only then, do we need to turn our attention to the enemy strongholds.
– So it is with our lives. In order to really besiege our belittling beliefs, limiting labels, and debilitating doubts, we need to first overcome our self-sabotaging plots and put winning plans in place, break out of our mental associations and surround ourselves with thoughts and supporters that empower, encourage, and inspire us, seek out enemy states of mind and destroy them – no more settling for less than, no more tolerating negativity, and no more beating ourselves up when we fall short!
– Then we are ready to breakthrough the walls!
– Irish humanitarian Michael Elmore-Meegan: “If we are ready to tear down the walls that confine us, break the cage that imprisons us, we will discover what our wings are for.”
– We are confined only by the walls we build ourselves.
– Others can try and people can help but the only one who can ever truly tear down our walls is the one who built them – us.
– This reminds me of the old Sting song “Fortress Around Your Heart” – people in our lives, may have given us the bricks and stone but we put them in place with the mortar of
– While I would say that some walls and some boundaries are essential and we need to make sure we build a portcullis – a gate … and a bridge.
– If we close off our lives to others and seal ourselves up behind bastions of belittling beliefs and our fortress of fear – it will become our tomb. Sooner or later, we need throw open the gates, invite some safe people into our lives and occasionally venture out to feel alive.
– This reminds me of the popular Disney film Frozen. In the film, the castle of Arendelle was closed up following the death of Anna and Elsa’s parents, leaving the two sisters painfully isolated from themselves and the outside world to battle their fears, doubts, and loneliness on their own. This sets the stage for the events of the film, when Elsa comes of age to take the throne and “for the first time in forever” the castle gates are opened.
– Episode 5: “Four Keys to Tip the Scales of Life & Shift the Balance of Power in Our Favor”
– Become Expeditionary – Get out there and make your mark! Leave the world a better place!
– Let’s start thinking thoughts and believing things about ourselves, each other, and the world that will bridge the gap between where we are right now and where we want to be in our lives! It’s time to throw open the gates!
Today, we’ve discussed four steps to attacking our day. They are:
1. 伐謀 Strike Down Our Self-Sabotaging Plots and Strike Up A Winning Battle Plan
2. 伐交 Strike Down Our Old Associations & Strike Up New Alliances
3. 伐兵 Strike Down the Enemy States of Mind & Enlist Battalions of New Thoughts
4. 攻城 Besiege the Bastions of Our Belittling Belief Systems & Build Bridges for Better Breakthroughs & Connection.
In order to attack our day, we need to get clear on our plan of attack and work backwards. What do we want to create today? How do we want to show up in our lives? We also need to plan for any self-sabotaging or excuses that might undermine, get in the way, or prevent us from executing our plan.
Then we need to call attention to and call into question our assumptions and associations. Are they serving us? If we believe and think as we always have, we will continue in the same patterns and same results, which is great if those patterns are creating the outcomes we want — but if we want something different, then we need to believe and think something different, something better than what we have believed. So we need to be our own general and lead the attack against any and all enemy states of mind — any thoughts that detract from or inhibit us in the pursuit of our “Big Deal.”
Lastly, we need to begin working on the walls we hide behind — the bastion of belittling beliefs, the fortress of enfeebling fears, and the dungeon of debilitating doubts that keeps us locked away in our self-imposed limitations. Instead, let us begin to build bridges from where we are to where we want to be in our lives. As we take these four steps, we will begin to win more of our daily battles.
Warrior: The Art of War for Life - A Podcast on Winning 
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