In my life as a soldier and citizen, I have seen time and time again that inaction has dire consequences.
Stanley A. McchrystalRead
If who you were was entirely based upon the position you were in or the headlines you got in the newspaper, or you had essentially subcontracted out your self-worth to the judgments of others, then you're going to be like tumbleweed. You're going to be blown.
Interpretation
Self-worth should not be based on external validation or circumstances.
In this quote, Stanley A. McChrystal emphasizes the importance of personal identity and self-worth that is not reliant on external factors such as social status or public perception. He warns that if individuals base their self-worth on the judgments of others or their current situation, they risk losing their sense of direction and purpose, much like tumbleweed that is easily blown away by the wind.
In practice
During a motivational seminar about self-empowerment.
In my life as a soldier and citizen, I have seen time and time again that inaction has dire consequences.
I was raised to believe that soldiers were strong and wise and brave and faithful; they didn't lie, cheat, steal or abandon their comrades.
I was raised with traditional stories of leadership: Robert E. Lee, John Buford at Gettysburg. And I also was raised with personal examples of leadership. This was my father in Vietnam. And I was raised to believe that soldiers were strong and wise and brave and faithful; they didn't lie, cheat, steal, or abandon their comrades.
When you go through some controversy and you see your face on the news in a negative way for 48 hours... you doubt yourself. And your friends make the difference. They become a safety net that come in and say, 'That's not the case.' And the relationships that you've built... come to the fore.
The basic DNA we've got to implant in leaders now is adaptability: not to get wedded to the solution to a particular problem, because not only the problem but the solution changes day to day. Creating people who are hardwired for that is going to be our challenge for the future.
If every soldier is authorized to make one mistake, then we lose the war.
If you want to stay in for the long haul, and lead a life that is free from illusions either propagated by you or embraced by you, then I suggest you learn to recognize and avoid the symptoms of the zealot and the person who knows he is right. For the dissenter, the skeptical mentality is at least as important as any armor of principle.
And I know now that all the time I was trying to get out of the dust, the fact is, what I am, I am because of the dust. And what I am is good enough. Even for me.
Instead of resisting any emotion, the best way to dispel it is to enter it fully, embrace it and see through your resistance.
I used to think I had no will to power. Now I perceive that I vented it on thoughts, rather than people. Conquering an unknown province of knowledge. Getting the better of a problem. Forcing ideas to associate or come apart. Bullying recalcitrant words to assume a certain pattern. All the fun of being a dictator without any risks and responsibilities.
It isn't that a warrior learns shamanism as time goes by; rather, what he learns as time goes by is to save energy. This energy will enable him to handle some of the energy fields which are ordinarily inaccessible to him. Shamanism is a state of awareness, the ability to use energy fields that are not employed in perceiving the everyday-life world that we know.
I'm a very old man. _x000D_ I've had lots of problems. _x000D_ Most of them never happened..!
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