How to be a Warrior

To me it is one of those quotes that you really have to stop and think about. A lot of people say you have to withstand the storm. The storm isn’t necessarily rain and wind, it can be something in your life: business, health issue, personal relationship, some terrible disease, or finances trying to knock you down, trying to hurt you. A real warrior doesn’t just withstand the storm. He doesn’t say, “How am I going to get through this?” No, the real warrior says, “I am the storm, whatever it is that is coming my way, whatever it is that is trying to hurt me, it has to withstand me.”

What makes a warrior able to do that more than the average person? To me a true warrior, is the warrior in battle, when the bullets are flying and things are coming his way. To think they are not scared is just not true. Nobody wants to die, nobody wants to get shot, but they find a way to overcome that fear. They turn that fear around and go after whatever is trying to hurt them. They have a job, not just to survive, but they have to go out and win the battle. They don’t win the battle by just hiding from the danger, they have to go and attack.

The warrior is someone who summons up some strength inside of him/her. How do they do that? First of all, they are trained. They don’t just show up on the battlefield, they are trained the same way an athlete is trained. They don’t just show up on the playing field. They have to put years of training in to be prepared. They have to be in shape physically and mentally. The same thing with a job, you don’t just show up one day and know how to complete a project. You have to put years of training in to perfect your craft.

When your health is threatened it’s different. Who is ever prepared to be told I have a terrible disease? But if you have trained your mind to believe you can do anything- if you build yourself up to be a strong person – you won’t just accept that you have the disease, but you’ll push back. You will have the attitude to not just get through the disease, but to tell the disease to get the hell out of your body. The strong person will tell the disease, “Do you know who you’re dealing with? How dare you come into my body and try to take me!”

There’s a great scene in the movie Forrest Gump when Forrest and Lieutenant Dan are out on the boat in the storm. Dan is up on the mast with no legs and he’s yelling. He’s not accepting the storm coming his way. He was up there challenging it.

The key is, you don’t just withstand something that is coming your way, you turn it around and you say, “How dare you do whatever it is that is coming my way? How dare you? I am Tom Laidlaw, who do you think you are coming into my world and trying to hurt me, trying to take something away from me? Do you think I can’t make money? Do you think I can’t finish this project? Do you think I can’t fight off this disease?”

Push back with a vengeance. Be a warrior.