Latest / The Strategize, Adapt, and Overcome Podcast by Brad Young / Know Yourself, Know Your Battlefield: Strategy for the Goals That Matter

Transcript

Know Yourself, Know Your Battlefield: Strategy for the Goals That Matter · The Strategize, Adapt, and Overcome Podcast by Brad Young

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Know yourself, know your battlefield, strategy for the goals that matter.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: What's up, everybody, welcome back to strategize, adapt, overcome. I'm
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: your host, Brad Young, and I am genuinely glad you're
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: here with me today because we've arrived at what might
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: be the most important episode in this whole series. In
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: our first episode, we talked about winning the battle before
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: it's ever fought. In our second, we talked about flowing
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: like water through the chaos of life. And today we're
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: going to the very center of everything. Soon Sue Ever
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: taught the line he is most famous for the idea
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: that holds all the others together. You probably know the
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: line even if you've never read The Art of War.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Soon Sue wrote, if you know the enemy and know yourself,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: you need not fear the result of one hundred battles.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: But he didn't stop there. He went on.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: He said, if you know yourself but not the enemy,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: for every victory gained, you will also suffer a defeat.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: succumb in every battle. Read that whole thing again in
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: your mind. He's laying out three levels. Know both, and
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: you're unstoppable. Know only half and you'll win some and
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: lose some. Know neither and you lose everything. Today, we're
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: gonna make sure you're operating at that top level. We're
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: gonna learn how to truly know yourself, how to truly
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: know your battlefield, and how to use that clarity to
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: chase the goals that actually matter.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: Let's get into it.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: So let's start with a hard question, and I want
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: you to actually sit with it. How well do you
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: really know yourself? Not the version of you in your head,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: not the story you tell other people, the real you,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Your true strengths, your actual weaknesses, the patterns that trip
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: you up over and over again, the fears you don't
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: say out loud.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Here's what I've learned.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Most people are strangers to themselves. They chase goals that
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: aren't even theirs. They borrow their dreams from social media,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: from their parents, from what they think they're supposed to want.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: They march into battle with no clue who they are
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: or what they're actually fighting for. And then they wonder
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: why winning feels so empty, or why they keep losing
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: the same fights again and again. And Sun Su would
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: tell you that's a guaranteed defeat, because if you don't
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: know yourself, you're walking onto the battlefield blind. You can't
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: use your strengths if you don't know what they are.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: You can't protect your weakness as if you refuse to
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: look at them. You can't choose the right fight if
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: you don't even know what you truly want. Self knowledge
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: isn't some soft, fluffy idea. It is the hard foundation
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: that every single victory is built on. So today I'm
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: going to break this down into three parts. First, know yourself.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: We'll dig into real self awareness. Second, know your battlefield.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Will learn to read your environment and your obstacles with
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: clear eyes. And third will bring them together to pursue
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: your goals with precision and purpose. Let's take them one
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: at a time. Part one, Know yourself. The general you've
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: been ignoring sons, Sue was relentless about this. He believed
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: that before you study the enemy, before you study the terrain,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: you must first have a clear and honest picture of
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: your own forces. How strong are you, where are you weak?
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: What do you have and what are you missing? A
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: general who lies to himself about his own army is
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: a dead man walking, and so is a person who
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: lies to themselves about who they really are. So let's
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: start with your strengths, because this is where I want
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: you to be honest. In the other direction, a lot
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: of people are quick to list their flaws, but freeze
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: up when you ask what they're good at. That's a
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: mistake sons who taught that you win by bringing your
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: strength against weakness. He said, avoid what is strong and
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: strike at what is weak. But you can't do that
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: if you don't know where your own strength lives. So
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: here's your first practical application. I want you to take
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: honest stock of your strengths. Sit down with a piece
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: of paper and ask yourself what comes easily to me
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: that seems hard for us other people. What do people
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: consistently come to me for When do I feel most alive,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: most in my element, most like the best version of myself?
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Those answers point straight at your real strengths. And here's
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: the strategic move. Once you know them, build your goals
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: in your daily life around them. Whenever you can. Don't
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: spend your years trying to become average at things you're
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: bad at. Spend them becoming exceptional at the things you're
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: already wired for. That's how you fight on favorable ground.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: And now let's talk about the harder side, your weaknesses.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: And this is where real courage comes in, because most
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: people simply refuse to look. They've got blind spots they
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: protect at all costs.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: But Sun Su.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Would tell you that an unseen weakness is the most
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: dangerous thing you own. It's the gap in your defense
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: is that the enemy walks right through. So here's your application,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: and it takes some guts. Get honest about where you're weak,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: What patterns keep tripping you up? Where do you consistently
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: fall sh what's the thing you keep avoiding, keep procrastinating on,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: keep making excuses about. Write it down without flinching. Because
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: here's the beautiful part. The moment you name a weakness,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: it loses half its power over you. A weakness you
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: can see is a weakness you can plan around, you know,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: you can build systems to protect it, you can bring
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: in other people to cover it, you can train to
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: improve it. But a weakness you refuse to look at,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: that one will defeat you every single time, and you
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: won't even know what hit you. And there's a deeper
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: layer of knowing yourself, the deepest of all knowing what
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: you actually want, Sun Souit taught that a war fought
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: for the wrong reasons or for no clear reason, drains
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: a kingdom and leads to ruin. The same is true
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: for your life. If you're chasing goals that aren't truly yours,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: you'll pour your whole life into a fight you never
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: even wanted to win. So ask yourself the question most
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: people are afraid to ask. What do I actually want?
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Not what impresses people.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: Not what looks good.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: What would make you feel proud and alive if you
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: achieved it, even if nobody ever found out.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: That's your true objective.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: And until you know it, every strategy in the world
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: is useless, because strategy is just the path to a destination.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: If you've got the wrong destination, the best map on
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Earth only gets you lost faster.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: Part two.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Know your battlefield, Read the ground you're standing on. Sun
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: Sue was obsessed with terrain. He wrote entire chapters on it.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: He said, we.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: Cannot enter into alliances until we are acquainted with the
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: design of our neighbors. We are not fit to lead
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: an army on the march unless we are familiar with
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: the face of the country. It's mountains and forests, it's
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: pitfalls and precipices, it's marshes and swamps. In other words,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: you must know the ground you're fighting on, or the
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: ground itself will defeat you. Now, your battlefield isn't mountains
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: and rivers. Your battlefield is your real life. It's your environment,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: your circums dances, the resources you have and the ones
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: you don't, the people around you, the obstacles standing between
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: you and your goal. And most people charge toward their
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: goals without ever scouting this terrain. They make a plan
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: in a fantasy world, then get ambushed by the real one.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: So here's your application. Before you chase your goal, scout
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: your battlefield. Get clear eyed about your actual situation. What
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: resources do you really have right now? Your time, your money,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: your skills, your connections. What are the real obstacles in
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: your path, not the imaginary ones, the actual ones.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: What's working in your favor that you can use?
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Don't plan for the life you wish you had, plan
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: for the life you've actually got. The general who knows
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: the real terrain always beats the one who's fighting in
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: imaginary war. And part of knowing your battlefield is knowing
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: the people on it. Soon, Sue spent enormous energy understanding
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: the other side. Who helps you, who holds you back?
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Who are the allies will fight alongside you, and who
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: are the forces, even well meaning ones.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: That drain your energy and pull you off course.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: You know you don't have to declare war on anyone,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: but you do need to see clearly position yourself near
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: the people who push you higher, and protect your energy
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: from the ones who quietly pull you down. Here's another
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: piece of the terrain most people miss.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: Timing.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Sun Zou understood that the same move can be brilliant
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: in one moment and foolish in another. He talked about
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: choosing the right time to act and the right time
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: to wait, So read the timing of your battlefield. Is
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: this the season to push hard in advance or is
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: this a season to build quietly, gather strength and prepare.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Sometimes the most strategic move isn't charging forward, it's holding
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: your position until the moment is right. Knowing the difference
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: is wisdom. And here's where knowing yourself and knowing your
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: battlefield come crashing together in the.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: Most powerful way.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Ensue's whole genius was in the matchup he won by
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: bringing his strengths to bear exactly where the enemy was
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: weak on terrain that favored him. So your job is
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: to find the overlap where do your true strengths meet
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: a real opportunity in your environment or that intersection right
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: there is where you should be pouring your energy. That's
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: the favorable ground. That's where winning gets easier, not because
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: you're working harder, but because you're working smarter. You're fighting
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: where you're strong on ground that's built for you. Part
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: three Strategy for the goals that matter, precision and purpose.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Now we bring it all together because self knowledge and
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: battlefield knowledge aren't the goal.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: They're the foundation.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: The point of all this clarity is to act on it,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: to pursue the goals that actually matter, with precision and
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: with purpose, and those two words precision and purpose are everything.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: Let's talk about purpose first.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Most people scatter their energy, chase ten goals at once,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: and make real progress on none of them. Soun Su
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: warned against this directly. He said, if you send reinforcements everywhere,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: you will everywhere be weak. Read that one twice. If
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: you try to be strong everywhere, you end up weak everywhere.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: Spread yourself across too many fronts, and you have no
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: real force anywhere. So here's your application, and it's one
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: of the hardest and most powerful moves you can make.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: Choose your battle.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Out of all the goals you could chase, pick the
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: one that matters most, the one that, if you want
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: it would change everything, and then concentrate your forces there.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Since Sue loved the idea of overwhelming force at the
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: decisive point, so stop dividing your energy into one hundred
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: week little streams. Gather it into one powerful current and
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: aim it at the goal that counts. You can get
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: to the other goals later, but you win by winning
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: one decisive battle at a time, not by losing ten
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: at once.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Now let's talk about precision.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Once you've chosen your b you don't just charge in
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: swinging wildly. You move with intention, soun Sou said. The
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: quality of decision is like the well timed swoop of
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: a falcon, which enables it to strike and destroy its victim.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: The falcon doesn't flap around hoping to catch something. It watches,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: it waits, it understands the moment, and then it strikes
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: with total precision. That's how you pursue a goal that matters.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: So here's your application. Take your one big goal and
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: get specific. Vague goals produce vague results. Don't say I
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: want to get in shape, say exactly what, exactly when,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: exactly how. Don't say I want to grow my business.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: Define the precise next move that matters most. Break the
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: big objective into clear, concrete steps, and know exactly what
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: the very next action is. Precision turns a wish into
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: a plan, and a plan executed step by step is
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: how mountains get moved. And here's where all three episodes
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: of this series come together into one complete warrior. From
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: episode one, you prepare and win the battle before it's fought.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: From episode two, you stay fluid and adapt when chaos
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: hits your plan. And from today you ground all of
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: it in deep knowledge of yourself and your battlefield. Preparation, adaptability,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: and self awareness. Put those three together and son Su
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: would tell you that you need not fear the result
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: of one hundred battles. Let me give you one more
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: layer on knowing yourself, because it makes everything sustainable. When
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: you understand your own patterns, you stop fighting yourself. You
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: stop being shocked when you hit your usual obstacle because
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: you saw it coming.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: You designed for it.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: So track yourself like a general reviewing every campaign. After
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: a win, ask what worked and why. After a setback,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: don't beat yourself up. Get curious, Ask what happened and
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: what you missed. What you'll do differently Every battle, win
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: or lose becomes intelligence you carry into the next one.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: That's how you get sharper every single year, instead of
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: repeating the same mistakes for a decade. So let me
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: pull all of this together because I gave you a
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: lot today. Know yourself, Get honest about your real strengths,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: your real weaknesses, and what you actually want. Know your battlefield,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: scout your real environment, your obstacles, your allies, and your
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: timing with clear eyes, and then pursue the goals that
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: matter with precision and purpose. Choose your one decisive battle,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: concentrate your forces, and strike like a falcon with a
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: clear plan and a clear reason. Notice what all of
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: this has in common. That all starts with seeing clearly,
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: not wishing, not pretending, not telling yourself comfortable stories, just
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: looking at the truth, the truth about you and the
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: truth about your situation, and then acting on what's actually there.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: Is the rarest thing in the world, and it's the
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: deepest source of strength you'll ever find. And here's what
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: I really want you to carry with you today. You
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: already have everything you need to win the battles that matter.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: Let me say that again because I think you needed
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: to hear it. You already have what you need. The
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: strengths are in you, They've always been there. The opportunities
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: are around you, sitting on your battlefield right now. The
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: only thing that's been missing is clarity, the honest, courageous
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: look at.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: Who you are and where you stand.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: Most people go their whole lives never taking that look.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: They stay strangers to themselves, fighting the wrong battles on
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: the wrong ground for reasons that were never even theirs.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: But not you, not after the day, Because once you
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: truly know yourself and you truly know your battlefield, you
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: stop fighting blind, You start fighting smart. You stop wasting
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: your your one precious life on battles that don't matter,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: and you start winning the ones that do. That's not
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: just strategy, that's a whole different way to live. Here's
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: your one move for this week, just one. I want
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: you to get quiet, get a piece of paper, and
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: answer three questions with brutal honesty. One, what is my
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: single greatest strength. Two, what is the one obstacle on
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: my battlefield that's truly standing in my way? And Three,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: what is the one goal that matters most to me
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: right now that's actually mine? Just those three answers your strength,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: your obstacle, your real goal. When you can see those
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: three things clearly, you'll know exactly where to aim, and
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: you'll be operating at a level most people never reach
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: in their entire lives. Because that's the truth Son Su
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: understood two thousand years ago, and most people still haven't learned.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: The greatest victories don't come from being the strongest, or
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: the loudest or the busiest. They come from knowing knowing
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: who you are are, knowing the ground you stand on,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: and bringing your true strength to the battle that actually matters.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: Know yourself, know your battlefield, and you need not fear
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: the result of one hundred battles. This has been strategized,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: adapt overcome. I'm brad young. Now go out there, know yourself,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: know your battlefield, and strategize your way to a more
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: empowered life. I'll see you next time.