Episode 40: Becoming Battle-Ready for Life, Part 1: Undisturbable Amidst Chaos

The first half of chapter 5.4 of Sunzi’s Art of War reads:

紛紛紜紜, 鬥亂, 而不可亂也。 渾渾沌沌, 形圓, 而不可敗也。亂生于治, 怯生于勇, 弱生于強。

“Entangled, nebulous like clouds, & frayed like silk strands in the chaos of battle, yet undisturbable. Incited and tumultuous as formations revolve, yet undefeatable. [Enemy] chaos is born from our good order, their cowardice from our courage, their weakness from our strength.“

This passage describes the chaos of war and what is needed to win in that ferocious fog.
From this passage I’ve extracted five butt-kicking bootcamp strategies to become battle-ready for life. They are:

1. 不可亂 Become Undisturbable in the Thick of It
2. 不可敗 Become Undefeatable Amidst Changing Conditions
3. 亂生治 Bring Order to Chaos
4. 怯生勇 Become Brave: Encourage & Embrace Empowering Beliefs
5. 弱生強 Become Strong: Take these Broken Wings and Learn to Fly Again

In this Episode, we’ll be covering the first strategy, 不可亂, Become Undisturbable in the Thick of It.

Strategy 1: 不可亂 Become Undisturbable in the Thick of It

The first of Sunzi’s five butt-kicking boot camp strategies to become battle-ready for life is to become undisturbable in the thick of it! Do you know someone like that? Someone who just never seems to let the chaos and confusion of life derail them or get under their skin?

Conversely, do you know someone who always just seems bothered by everything that is going on around them and in the world?  

If we want to become battle-ready for life, or in other words, ready for whatever battles we will need to face in our daily lives, the first thing we need to do is become undisturbable, unperturbable, which isn’t actually a word I don’t think, so it would be imperturbable, and safeguard our own inner peace, serenity, and joy!  We need to protect our own little happy place inside.  We all need that!

And yet it is so easy to get caught up in the commotion of our culture and the “dooms-daying” of all the troubles, real and imagined, that are rampant in the news and social media.  While we need to prepare for real threats and possibilities, we also cannot let it all rob us of our hope and courage.  We can’t let the chaos disturb us!

So, how do we become undisturbable?  The first thing we need to do is make a decision that our own inner peace, our own peace of mind is worth defending and stop giving away our power and our serenity to external stressors.  Simple but not always easy. We start by emptying our minds and creating some space for some of our own thoughts, some room and time to just think.

So many of us are like mental and emotional hoarders, carrying around stuff from years ago or in my case decades ago – careless comments, hurts, disappointments, other people’s opinions, unprocessed emotions, and unresolved issues, etc.

If someone throws a stone into your serenity, just let it sink to the bottom, let the ripples run their course, and then move on.  It’s not about you, it’s about them.  Their problem.  Not my monkeys, not my circus!

So how do we do that?  There are a lot of ways.  Some things that work for me are to just do a simple breathing exercise: in through the nose and out through the mouth.  Just listen to the sound of your breathing and watch as thoughts come up and drift away like clouds.  That’s one thing I do every morning as soon as I get up because that’s when I tend to get hit with a lot of unresolved thoughts and emotions. That’s when I need to get rooted to win my day!  If I can get anchored and get in touch with my goals and what’s important to me, then most of the rest of it drifts away pretty quickly.

Once we’ve created some mental and emotional space, we can also begin to identify the sources of chaos in our lives.  Is it finances, health, relationships, work and then we can decide if we want to change things in those areas.  We get to choose!

Previous Episodes Referenced in this Episode:

Getting preoccupied by Chaos: Episode 6: “Sunzi’s Six Traps of (Self-) Deception and How to Avoid Them”

How many hands are steering our lives?: Episode 26: “Sunzi’s Pentagon Principles for Predicting Guaranteed Victory.”

Practicing good boundaries: Episode 7: “Eight Tactics to Transform Your Life”

For more information, tools, and resources to help you in your daily battles, for questions or to work with us, shoot us an email at artofwarforlife@gmail.com and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Art of War for Life Facebook page and @artofwarforlife.

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 US Government. Thank you.