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Win Before the Battle: How Sun Tzu Builds Unshakable Self-Discipline · The Strategize, Adapt, and Overcome Podcast by Brad Young

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: When before the battle, how Sun Su builds unshakable self
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: discipline and what's up, everybody? Welcome back to strategize, adapt, overcome.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Brad Young, and I'm genuinely glad you're
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: here with me today because we're about to dig into
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: one of the most powerful ideas ever written down by
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  Speaker 1: anyone anywhere. It comes from a man who lived more
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  Speaker 1: than two thousand years ago, a Chinese general and strategist
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  Speaker 1: named Sun Su, and his.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Book The Art of War.
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  Speaker 1: Now, I know what you might be thinking, Brad, I'm
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  Speaker 1: not going to war.
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  Speaker 2: I'm just trying to get through my week. I'm trying
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  Speaker 2: to build a business.
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  Speaker 1: Raise my kids, get in shape, stop procrastinating. Stick with me,
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  Speaker 1: because here's the secret. Sun Su wasn't really writing about
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  Speaker 1: swords and battlefields. He was writing about how to win
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  Speaker 1: in the battlefield. He describes, that's your life, that's your morning,
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  Speaker 1: that's the war between the person you are and the
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  Speaker 1: person you're trying to become. And today we're going to
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  Speaker 1: folk on one single idea from Soon Sue that I
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  Speaker 1: believe can change everything for you. Here it is the
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: battle is won before it has ever fought. Let me
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  Speaker 1: say that again, because I want it to sink in.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: The battle is won before it has ever fought. Soun
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  Speaker 1: Sue put it like this, he said, victorious warriors win
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  Speaker 1: first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go
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  Speaker 1: to war first and then seek to win. Read that
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  Speaker 1: twice the winners decided the outcome before they ever stepped
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  Speaker 1: onto the field.
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  Speaker 2: The losers showed up and hoped for the best.
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  Speaker 1: And that, my friends, is the whole game when it
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  Speaker 1: comes to self discipline. Let's get into it. So let's
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  Speaker 1: start with what this actually means in your real life.
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  Speaker 1: Most people think discipline is about will power. They think
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  Speaker 1: it's about gritting your teeth in the moment, white knuckling
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  Speaker 1: your way through temptation, summoning some heroic burst of strength
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  Speaker 1: right when things get hard.
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  Speaker 2: And here's the truth.
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  Speaker 1: That approach fails almost every single time. Why because willpower
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  Speaker 1: is a terrible so it's unreliable. It shows up strong
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  Speaker 1: in the morning and abandons you by nine at night.
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  Speaker 1: It's there when you're rested and gone the second you're.
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  Speaker 2: Tired, stressed, or hungry.
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  Speaker 1: If your entire plan depends on you making the perfect
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  Speaker 1: choice in the heat of the moment, you have already lost.
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  Speaker 1: You went to war first and then tried to win soon.
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  Speaker 1: Sue would look at that and shake his head, because
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  Speaker 1: the master strategist doesn't rely on the heat of the moment.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: The master strategist wins before the moment ever arrives. They prepare,
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  Speaker 1: they position, They set up the condition so the victory
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  Speaker 1: becomes almost automatic. Let me give you a simple example.
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  Speaker 1: Picture two people who both want to eat healthier. The
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  Speaker 1: first one relies on willpower. They keep cookies, chips, and
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  Speaker 1: ice cream right there in the kitchen, and every single
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  Speaker 1: evening they tell themselves tonight I'll resist, and night after night,
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  Speaker 1: exhausted from the day, they lose that fight. Of course
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  Speaker 1: they do. They're going to war first and hoping to
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  Speaker 1: win now. The second person thinks, like Sun Sue, they
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  Speaker 1: never even let the enemy end of the camp. The
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: junk food simply isn't in the house. When they're tired
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  Speaker 1: and craving something at nine at night, there's nothing there
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  Speaker 1: to grab. They won that battle days ago at the
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  Speaker 1: grocery store, when they were clear headed and strong. They
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  Speaker 1: didn't need willpower in the moment because they made the
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  Speaker 1: winning decision in advance. See the difference same goal, completely
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  Speaker 1: different strategy. One person is fighting every night, the other
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  Speaker 1: person already won that.
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  Speaker 2: Right. There is the entire.
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  Speaker 1: Philosophy we're building on today. So let me break down
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  Speaker 1: three ways suns Sou teaches us to win before the battle.
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  Speaker 1: Three strategic principles you can start using the moment this
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  Speaker 1: episode ens. The first is preparation, the second is positioning,
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  Speaker 1: and the third, the deepest one of all, is knowing yourself.
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  Speaker 1: Let's take them one at a time. Principal number one preparation,
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  Speaker 1: win the fight before it starts. Sonsu was obsessed with preparation.
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  Speaker 1: He believed that the outcome of any conflict was largely
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  Speaker 1: determined by the planning that happened long before the first move.
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  Speaker 1: He said, the general who wins makes many calculations in
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  Speaker 1: his temple before the battle is fought. The temple was
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  Speaker 1: the quiet place, the place of thought and planning, far
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  Speaker 1: away from the chaos of combat. He's telling us that
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  Speaker 1: the real work happens in the calm, not in the storm.
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  Speaker 1: So here's your practical application. You need a temple, You
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  Speaker 1: need a quiet time away from the battle where you
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  Speaker 1: plan your victory in advance. For most of us, that's
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  Speaker 1: the night before or early in the morning before the
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  Speaker 1: world wakes up. This is where you decide. You don't
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  Speaker 1: leave your data chance, you map it out. Let me
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  Speaker 1: make this concrete. Tonight before you go to bed, take
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  Speaker 1: five minutes and plan tomorrow's battles. Lay out your gym
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  Speaker 1: clothes so there's no decision to make in the morning.
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  Speaker 2: Decide exactly when you're.
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  Speaker 1: Going to work out and write it down like an appointment.
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  Speaker 1: Prep your meals or at least know what you're eating
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  Speaker 1: so you're not making desperate choices at lunch. Look at
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  Speaker 1: your calendar and decide which one task actually matters most tomorrow.
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  Speaker 1: You see what's happening here. You're making your decisions in
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  Speaker 1: the temple, in the calm, when you're thinking clearly, so
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  Speaker 1: that tomorrow, when you're tired and busy and the chaos hits,
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  Speaker 1: you don't have to decide anything. You just follow the
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  Speaker 1: plan you already made. The disciplined you, the wise you,
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  Speaker 1: the rested you made the decision in advance. The tired
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  Speaker 1: you just has to obey. That's how you win before
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  Speaker 1: the battle. Since Sue also warned, if you know the
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  Speaker 1: enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result
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  Speaker 1: of one hundred battles. Part of preparation is knowing what's coming.
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  Speaker 1: What are the obstacles you'll face tomorrow, what usually trips
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  Speaker 1: you up. If you know that three in the afternoon
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  Speaker 1: is when you always crash and reach for sugar, then
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  Speaker 1: prepare for it. Have a plan for three o'clock. Don't
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  Speaker 1: let the enemy ambush you in the same spot it
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  Speaker 1: ambushes you every single day. Scout the terrain, know where
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  Speaker 1: the traps are, and set up your defenses in advance.
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  Speaker 1: Principal number two positioning. Put yourself where winning is easy.
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  Speaker 1: This is one of suns SU's most brilliant insights. He
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  Speaker 1: talked constantly about the importance of position. He said, the
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  Speaker 1: skilled warrior puts himself into a position where defeat is impossible.
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  Speaker 1: He doesn't pick fights on bad ground. He arranges things
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  Speaker 1: so that the terrain itself is fighting for him, not
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  Speaker 1: against him. Now here's how that applies to your discipline.
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  Speaker 1: Your environment is your battlefield, and most people are trying
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  Speaker 1: to win on terrain that's working against them. They're trying
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  Speaker 1: to focus with their phone six inches away buzzing every
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  Speaker 1: two minutes. They're trying to wake up early with the
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  Speaker 1: phone charging right next to the bed, So the first
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  Speaker 1: thing they do is start scrolling. They're trying to save
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  Speaker 1: money with the shopping apps one tap away. They're fighting
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  Speaker 1: uphill every single day against an environment designed to defeat them.
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  Speaker 1: Son Sue would say, change your position, don't fight the
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  Speaker 1: hard battle engineer situation where the easy choice and the
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  Speaker 1: right choice are the same choice. So here's your application.
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  Speaker 1: Look at your environment and ask what is my terrain
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  Speaker 1: doing to me? Is it helping me win or is
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  Speaker 1: it setting me up to lose? Then start moving things around.
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  Speaker 1: Want to read more? Put the book on your pillow
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  Speaker 1: and the phone in another room. Want to stop the
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  Speaker 1: late night scrolling. Charge your phone in the kitchen, not
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  Speaker 1: the bedroom. Want to drink more water, Keep a full
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  Speaker 1: bottle on your desk where you can see it. Want
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  Speaker 1: to work out in the morning, Sleep in your gym
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  Speaker 1: clothes if you have to. These sound like small things.
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  Speaker 1: They are not small things.
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  Speaker 2: This is positioning.
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  Speaker 1: This is you arranging the battlefield so that victory becomes
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  Speaker 1: the path of least resistance. The strongest move you can
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  Speaker 1: make is to design a life where doing the right
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  Speaker 1: thing barely requires any effort at all. You don't rise
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  Speaker 1: to the level of your willpower. You fall to the
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  Speaker 1: level of your environment. So build an environment that catches
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  Speaker 1: you when you fall. And here's a deeper layer of positioning.
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  Speaker 1: It's not just your physical space, it's the people around you.
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  Speaker 1: Son Sue understood that you're shaped by the forces surrounding you.
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  Speaker 1: If everyone around you is given up, has no goals,
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  Speaker 1: mocks your ambition, that's bad terrain. Position yourself near people
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  Speaker 1: who are climbing, who push you, who expect more from you.
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  Speaker 1: The company you keep is part of your battlefield, too.
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  Speaker 1: Choose it on purpose. Principal number three, Know yourself the
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  Speaker 1: deepest victory of all. We come now to suns SU's
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  Speaker 1: most famous line.
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  Speaker 2: And it's the heart of everything.
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  Speaker 1: He said, if you know the enemy and know yourself,
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  Speaker 1: you need not fear the result of one hundred battles. Now,
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  Speaker 1: most people focus on knowing the enemy, but I want
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  Speaker 1: you to focus on the other half, the part people
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  Speaker 1: skip know yourself. Because here's the truth that took me
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  Speaker 1: years to understand, and the war for self discipline. You
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  Speaker 1: are both the general and the battlefield. The enemy isn't
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  Speaker 1: out there. The enemy is your own impulses, your own excuses,
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  Speaker 1: your own patterns of self sabotage, and you cannot defeat
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  Speaker 1: an enemy you refuse to look at. So knowing yourself
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  Speaker 1: means getting brutally honest. When do you fail? Not in
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  Speaker 1: some vague way, specifically, what time of day does your
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  Speaker 1: discipline collapse? What emotion sends you running to the very
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  Speaker 1: thing you're trying to quit? Is it stress, boredom, loneliness?
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  Speaker 1: What's the story you tell yourself right before you give up?
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  Speaker 1: For a lot of people, it's I've had a hard day.
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  Speaker 1: I deserve this. Once you can see your patterns clearly,
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  Speaker 1: you stop being a victim of them. You can finally
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  Speaker 1: outmaneuver them. Here's your application this week. Become a student
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  Speaker 1: of yourself. When you slip up, don't beat yourself up.
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  Speaker 2: That's useless.
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  Speaker 1: Instead, get curious, like a general study in a lost battle, Ask.
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  Speaker 2: What happened, what was the trigger? What time was it?
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  Speaker 2: Who was I with? How is I feeling?
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  Speaker 1: You're gathering intelligence on the enemy, and the enemy is
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  Speaker 1: your own weak points. Every slip up is data. Every
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  Speaker 1: failure is a scouting report. The disciplined person isn't someone
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  Speaker 1: who never falls, it's someone who studies every fall until
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  Speaker 1: they understand exactly how to prevent the next one, and
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  Speaker 1: knowing yourself goes one level deeper. Still, it means knowing
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  Speaker 1: your why. Sons who taught that soldiers who understand the
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  Speaker 1: purpose of the fight will endure far more than soldiers
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  Speaker 1: who don't. When you know exactly why you're doing something,
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  Speaker 1: when that reason burns clear in your chest, you can
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  Speaker 1: withstand discomfort that would break other people. So get clear
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  Speaker 1: on your wooling. Why does this goal matter to you?
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  Speaker 1: Who you doing it for? What kind of person are
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  Speaker 1: you trying to become?
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  Speaker 2: Is still?
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  Speaker 1: When the battle gets hard, and it will, why is
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  Speaker 1: the ground you stand on it? So let me pull
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  Speaker 1: all of this together, because I gave you a lot today.
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  Speaker 1: Three principles for winning before the battle. Prepare in the
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  Speaker 1: calm so you don't have to fight in the chaos.
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  Speaker 1: Position yourself so the right choice becomes the easy choice.
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  Speaker 1: And know yourself so you can outmaneuver your own weaknesses
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  Speaker 1: before they ever take you down. Notice what all three
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  Speaker 1: have in common. None of them depend on will power
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  Speaker 1: in the moment. None of them require you to be
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  Speaker 1: a hero at nine at night when you're exhausted. They're
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  Speaker 1: all about the work you do in advance, the quiet
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  Speaker 1: and glamorous strategic work that nobody sees. That's where discipline
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  Speaker 1: is actually built, not in the dramatic moment of resistance,
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  Speaker 1: but in the calm decisions you make long before that
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  Speaker 1: moment arrives. And here's what I really want you to
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  Speaker 1: carry with you today. You are not undisciplined. Let me
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  Speaker 1: say that again. You're because I think you needed to
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  Speaker 1: hear it. You are not an undisciplined person. You've just
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  Speaker 1: been fighting your battles the hard way. You've been showing
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  Speaker 1: up to war first and then hoping to win. And
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  Speaker 1: no one can win like that, not even the strongest
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  Speaker 1: person alive. The problem was never your strength. The problem
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  Speaker 1: was your strategy. So change the strategy. Start thinking like
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  Speaker 1: Sun Sou, Start winning your battles in advance, in the
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  Speaker 1: in the calm before the chaos ever hits. Set up
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  Speaker 1: your environment so it fights for you. Study yourself like
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  Speaker 1: a general, studies the field, and watch what happens. Watch
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  Speaker 1: how the things that used to feel impossible start to
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  Speaker 1: feel almost easy, not because you suddenly got more willpower,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: but because you stopped relying on it. You outstrategize the
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  Speaker 1: fight itself. Here's your one move for this week. Just
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  Speaker 1: one tonight before bed, go into your temple, take five
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  Speaker 1: minutes of quiet, and plan tomorrow's most important battle in advance.
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  Speaker 1: Decide it now while you're clear and strong, so the
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  Speaker 1: tired version of you tomorrow just has to follow orders.
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  Speaker 2: That's it.
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  Speaker 1: That's how it starts, one planned victory, one before the
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  Speaker 1: battle begins, and then again the next night and the
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  Speaker 1: night after that. Because that's the truth Sun Sou understood
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  Speaker 1: two thousand years ago, and most people still haven't learned.
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  Speaker 1: The fight isn't one when the fighting starts. It's one
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  Speaker 1: long before, in the preparation, in the positioning, in the knowing.
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  Speaker 1: The victorious warrior wins first and then goes to war.
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  Speaker 1: So go be victorious, win at first, and the quiet
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  Speaker 1: where the real battles are always decided. This has been strategized,
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  Speaker 1: adapt overcome. I'm brad young. Now go out there, win
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  Speaker 1: before the battle, and strategize your way to a more
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  Speaker 1: empowered life. I'll see you next time.