In our last +1, we talked about committing to closing the gap between who we’re capable of being and who we’re actually being—LIKE A WARRIOR!
Moment to moment to moment.
Stepping forward into growth. Or back into safety.
Not too long ago, we did some bird watching with Carlos Castaneda and his wisdom on trusting the process and showing up like our red-tailed hawk.
Today I want to go back to him and his wisdom.
He’s a fascinating guy. I read all his books nearly two decades ago. The Wheel of Time is a nice little best-of kinda book that captures the essence of his perspective.
You know what he tells us we need to do?
Become warriors.
As you may know, Castaneda was an anthropologist out of UCLA (go Bruins!) who studied (and practiced and wrote about) the ancient Toltec wisdom tradition.
He says things like this: “To be a warrior is not a simple matter of wishing to be one. It is rather an endless struggle that will go on to the very last moment of our lives. Nobody is born a warrior, in exactly the same way that nobody is born an average man. We make ourselves into one or the other.”
And this: “If his spirit is distorted he should simply fix it—purge it, make it perfect—because there is no other task in our entire lives which is more worthwhile… To seek the perfection of the warrior’s spirit is the only task worthy of our temporariness, our manhood.”
And this: “The hardest thing in the world is to assume the mood of a warrior. It is of no use to be sad and complain and feel justified in doing so, believing that someone is always doing something to us. Nobody is doing anything to anybody, much less to a warrior.”
And, well, that’s Today’s +1.
Let’s put on our Optimizing battle gear.
Stand up straight.
Feet nice and wide.
Pull the thread through the head.
Chest up. Chin down.
Take a deep breath in through the nose.
Down into the belly.
Exhale slightly longer than the inhale.
Let’s go win the battle within so we can give ourselves to our families, communities and world.
TODAY.
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