How Being a Warrior Can Help You in Every Area of Life

by Bamboo Forest

When you think of ‘warrior’ what thoughts are elicited?

The first thought that springs to my mind is that a warrior is someone who’s relentless in his pursuit of a desired outcome.

That outcome can consist of anything from consistently embodying specific character traits such as kindness and courage to an athlete who performs with his whole heart.

The one common factor that all definitions of a warrior will have is–relentless persistence.

Here’s a quote that embodies the spirit of a warrior:

The most essential factor is persistence — the determination never to allow your energy or enthusiasm to be dampened by the discouragement that must inevitably come. ~James Whitcomb Riley [Bold emphasis mine]

A Warrior Has Relentless Determination

Reasons to be discouraged will always come yet it’s the warrior who persists in spite of not only outside circumstances, but internal ones as well. That is, he won’t even listen to his inner voices when they’re negative and will march forward to the beat of his own drum independent of negative voices that want to overshadow his true will.

The following is my idea of what a true warrior is:

A warrior always lets go of the past because she knows that energy channeled to the past is energy that could instead be channeled into the present to improve her life.

A warrior focuses on being the architect of her identity by making calculated decisions in life instead of allowing circumstances dictate her behavior. She has such a clear understanding of the identity she demands for herself, that any deviation from it causes her ultimate pain.

“Your actions speak your truth.” ~Taro Gold

A warrior constantly strives to have mastery over his thoughts. He realizes that he alone must run his mind instead of his mind running him.

A warrior strives to consistently remind himself of the blessings in his life. Such as having 10 fingers and 10 toes and lungs that work without the assistance of a machine. And if he’s not blessed with the aforementioned, he then focuses on what he is blessed with and is filled with gratitude because of it.

A warrior focuses on his goals and aspirations because he knows that what he focuses on will either inspire him or discourage him to fulfill his goal. If you want something bad enough, you don’t allow yourself to think thoughts that discourage you from attaining it.

Focusing on what you don’t want in life is like tearing down a motivational poster in your room and replacing it with a poster displaying a discouraging message.

A warrior reads daily because he realizes that the mind conveniently forgets wisdom. And that internalizing even just one new distinction can change his destiny forever.

A warrior understands that aggression is often weakness disguised as strength. A warrior only fights when it’s the intelligent thing to do. Like when someone is in danger, or he himself is in danger. Never for honor, for fighting for honor isn’t honorable. It’s merely ignorance of what true honor is.

We should all strive to be warriors in our lives because nothing truly worthwhile was ever achieved through anything but relentless persistence.

What’s a warrior to you?

Bamboo Forest is a professional email life coach and also the founder of Tick Tock Timer

Photo by tiseb

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November 11, 2010 at 11:46 pm

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The Vizier November 12, 2010 at 4:56 am

Hi Bamboo Forest,

This is a great post on being a warrior!

My idea of a warrior is someone who has great clarity about his priorities in life. You see, warriors of old often found themselves in life and death situations. As they stared death in the face on repeated occassions, they stripped away all that was unnecessary in life. There is no needless excess in the skills of a warrior. They have no need for useless flourish or wasted movements. They have no time for doubts or fears. All that remains are pragmatic skills that enable them to survive.

As a result of their experience and wisdom, a true warrior has a zen-like calm and composure in the face of changes and challenges. This is a result of a lifetime on the battlefield.

Thank you for sharing this post!

Reply

Scott McIntyre November 12, 2010 at 2:26 pm

Hi Bamboo Forest,

At first, I thought of a warrior as a war-like figure, with fighting and aggression at the forefront. But, on reading your definitions, I can see that having a warrior mentality is a lot more sophisticated.

Especially, that a warrior has to have calmness and purpose of mind to be the architect of their identity. I like that concept of being an architect, able to shape oneself into a desired design.

PS Is the Chinese character in the image that of ‘warrior’?

Reply

Bamboo Forest November 12, 2010 at 5:43 pm

@ The Vizier: I like your description of how a warrior has great clarity about his priorities in life. If only we could all embody that great quality.

@ Scott: The warrior can teach us a lot about how to live life, because even though we may not have physical enemies we’re doing battle with, we are, indeed, constantly doing battle with our worst enemy, ourselves.

I like how you apply the word ‘architect’ in your eloquent description.

Yes, it’s the Chinese character for warrior.

Reply

Mars Dorian November 13, 2010 at 11:04 pm

Hey Bamboo Forest,

I have seen your guest posts all over the interwebs, and that made me curious enough to finally check out your blog.

Sweet post – your kind of warrior has that certain spiritual flavor and that is awe-some. I agree – a warrior has to have relentless determination, a sharp focus and the hunger to feed his mind with daily, awesome reads.

Tweeted your magic,

keep shining !

Reply

Bamboo Forest November 14, 2010 at 1:27 am

@ Mars: Haha, yeah, I’m in the midst of a guest posting campaign.

Glad people are noticing 😀

I appreciate your kind words and your tweet.

I’ve frequented your blog and am impressed with your writing.

Reply

Ricardo Bueno November 30, 2010 at 7:20 am

When I read your definitions of what it is to be a warrior I feel like they apply to me (even if only a little). Before I used to have trouble with letting go of the past. Today, that’s not the case. I know my goals and I push to meet them daily (inching closer and closer towards my ultimate goal).

But then you ask me: What’s a warrior to you?

…and I don’t know that I have an answer. I think a fighter (mentally and physically). But I also think of someone calm who thinks things through and looks at all the angles…

Reply

Bamboo Forest November 30, 2010 at 7:26 am

@ Ricardo: I like your definition of a warrior.

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