Developing the Warrior Within
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Summary
As a member of the Ottawa tribe and someone who s worked with over 500 tribal nations, my guest has long been inspired by his Native American culture and heritage, particularly the tradition of native warriors. His name is Dj Vans and he s the author of The Warrior Within: Your Power to Serve, Fight, Protect and Heal. Today on the show, he explains what the Warrior Spirit is and how important it is for everyone to cultivate it.
Transcript
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brett mckay here and welcome to another edition of the art of manliness podcast as a member of
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the ottawa tribe and someone who's worked with over 500 tribal nations my guest has long been
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inspired by his native american culture and heritage particularly the tradition of native
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warriors and he thinks those warriors have much to teach all modern people about work
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life and leadership his name is dj vanis and he's the author of the warrior within
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own your power to serve fight protect and heal today on the show dj explains what the warrior
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spirit is and how important it is for everyone to cultivate especially those who want to lead
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serve and live with a purpose bigger than the self he takes principles of native american tradition
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and philosophy including living off the land taking a vision quest counting coup being a fire
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keeper and developing toughness and shows how they apply to anyone who's looking to develop
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resilience achieve their goals and make a positive impact on the world after the show's over check
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all right dj vanis welcome to the show thank you so much for having me brett so you got a book out
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called the warrior within own your power to serve fight protect and heal we're gonna talk about this
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book today i really enjoyed it let's talk about your background first you are a speaker and a
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leadership consultant how'd you get into this business oh my gosh i kind of fell into it to be
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honest with you it opened a doorway i didn't even know existed i'm a graduate proud graduate of the
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u.s air force academy and when i graduated from there i had a conversation with the recruiting office
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because i said hey there's you know there's only a few of us who are native can we work on changing
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that i basically i i got hired to work for them for a year and i went out and i spoke to tribal
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communities in particular all across the nation and talked about the benefits of the air force academy
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being an officer in the military and i found that i absolutely loved it being out there and and being
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able to share a message of you know higher education of self-improvement and it kind of grew
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from there and into this it kind of became a life of its own and just kind of took off so i had to
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make a choice at a certain point between being a full-time officer and starting my own speaking
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business and it was a good problem to have it was really stressful but that's that's how it came to
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be it just kind of opened a pathway and took on a life of its own okay so you mentioned that you
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are native american you're a member of the ottawa tribe of michigan i had to look that up because we
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have we have an ottawa tribe of oklahoma that's part of our tribe too one of the bands who actually
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got moved down there during the trail of tears right and uh i believe they were in northeast or
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northwest ohio as where their community was but everybody else stayed back in michigan so you uh you
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started off your speaking career started off by you're sort of like a liaison for the air force
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to the native american community right then you decided i'm gonna i could do this on my own i really
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enjoy here so what who are your main clients like who who hires you to come speak and and teach yeah
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great question the majority of who i serve and it's my wheelhouse is those who are in service to others
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so people who are in health care education benevolent businesses government and tribal employees
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community builders at every level i mean that's where my heart is it's who i you know so enjoy serving
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i grew up in a very service-oriented family too my dad was career military my mom was a career nurse
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so i grew up seeing that mentality and then seeing the you know the cultural alignment with what our
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you know warriors were all about which is to be in service to others it just all kind of dovetailed
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together into what i share now and that that's why those are the groups i serve most often and like i said
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i i love being where the givers gather and something that makes you unique from the other you know
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consultants and speakers out there is that you you call upon you look to your your native american
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heritage to show people that there are principles there that that can apply to anyone when did you
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make that connection like oh this could serve a wider audience yeah i think that started early on i mean
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probably my teenage years definitely in college absolutely once i joined the military i started to see
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this beautiful alignment between you know these ideas these these cultural principles especially
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specifically you know what our warriors used and saw great alignment in the world that we live in
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today how useful they can be and they've been tested under the worst of times they were tested you know
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our warriors fought against incredible odds they were outmatched technologically in numbers and it just
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having those principles at our disposal gives us resiliency strength you know focus and commitment in a very tough
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world so i thought that's that's when i started making that connection everything started to change
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okay so let's talk about some of these principles and what you do in this book is you take ideas
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practices from all sorts of tribes uh in the united states but i think oftentimes when people think about
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native americans i think sometimes there's this idea that they're sort of a monolith but they're not
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every tribe is unique they have their own unique culture and practices absolutely you'll go ahead i was
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going to say we have diversity within diversity yeah we have over 570 federally recognized tribes
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that speak over 200 different languages different belief systems cultural you know concepts a lot of
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commonalities but yeah there's definitely a lot of diversity that's why i enjoy so much working in
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tribal communities so you you kind of found some principles from from different tribes and showed
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people like what you can learn from this whether you're in your as you said you're you're focused on
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leaders people who serve health care doctors first responders etc let's talk about this definition
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of a warrior right do you think all these people could be considered warriors what does it mean to be
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a warrior in native american cultures and how does that differ from our typical conception of a warrior
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in the west yeah great question my tribe we call a warrior ogichida and that term has nothing to do
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with what we see in tv and movies you know the stereotypical image that hollywood image that we
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all know you know the sweaty chiseled figure that you know steps down the street and knocks over
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buildings with bazookas and bad guys you know with eight million bullets it's a it's a different
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concept and and it goes back to um the idea of a person who dedicates their life to developing their
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creator given talents and abilities so they could become an asset or a benefit to the tribe that they
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served and today whether that tribe is your own family your community your team your agency your
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organization your nation the planet we all get to choose what tribe we serve but we all have one
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and that warrior role was all about service it wasn't about what we could get it was about what we could
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do for someone else it was somebody who led by example and somebody who did not quit that was a really
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important part as somebody who found a way forward because they knew it wasn't about them
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it was about the people that they were taking care of and contributing to and so your book's called
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the warrior spirit so is the warrior spirit just that internal drive to develop your talents so that
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you can be a service to other people absolutely yeah the warrior within in the book i unpacked the
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warrior spirit in particular and it goes beyond motivation i mean it goes to a a spiritual level
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if you will i mean it's that deep internal core of us that comes out when we're challenged when we go
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through hard times when we go through loss or pain we're fear and it's that reserve that we can pull
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from in those moments and that warrior spirit is that no quit bare knuckle i will find a way forward
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even if i have to crawl across the finish line type of attitude you know it's fiercely solution oriented
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and it it suffers no fools you know it is it is all in and that's what i try to unpack in the book is that
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this is what sustained our warrior societies for our tribes because like i said they went through
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incredible odds incredible setbacks deprivation you know organized genocide and they still found a way
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to deliver and protect their people and what does that warrior spirit look like in someone who
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you know they're in a leadership position like as you said you're the people you're you're writing
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for or talking to the the first responders the the people who serve etc yeah that warrior spirit is it
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first of all it has to be fostered you know it's who we surround ourselves with how we what habits we
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practice for ourselves but like i said it's that internal core of a spirit that is willing to face fear
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head-on that's willing to accept when things aren't going well being able to change and not let
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our pride and ego determine you know the fact that we're just going to keep banging our head on a
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brick wall there's there's a lot of things that go into it but that warrior spirit is that
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unquenchable fire you can't put it out it's always there the only question is is it burning down to an
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ember which sometimes happens when we're not taking good care of ourselves and surround ourselves with
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the right people or have the right practices or is it burning like a bonfire that's the only question
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we always have it but what we do with it is up to us yeah i think a lot of people when you when
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as you're describing this i i've experienced that when there's something that i'm doing that's more
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it's more it's beyond just money right it's not just a job it's like a calling right but i think all
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right and you get excited and you're you're you're willing to you know put in the long hours and the
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upsets and the frustrations but as you said sometimes that warrior spirit can sort of go down to an
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ember that's when people start feeling burnout and you're just like i don't want to do this anymore
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and that's why i wrote the book i mean to be honest with you those people who i said i love being around
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most you know those people who have a servant's heart and are trying to make the world a better
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place i have watched this dynamic for over two decades of people who have the best intentions noble
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intentions and their execution is a hot mess you know they're they're trying to give everything they
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can on a daily basis but they're not taking care of themselves they're not doing what they need to
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stay strong they're not practicing resiliency on purpose not having it as a good thought in your
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head but actually practicing it and what they end up doing is falling apart and they stand back and
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they look at the debris field left and they go how the heck did this happen and what it comes down to
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is that the reality the truth you can't be a warrior when you're falling apart you know i wrote the book
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so that people can be resilient not for this week or this month but for a lifetime for a career
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you know there are people depending on us to deliver the goods to be brave in a moment of fear
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we can't do that if we just go until we can't anymore and that's you know it just it leads us
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to burn out it's not a sustainable model and we want it to be sustainable okay so let's dig into some
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of these principles that people can apply to foster that warrior spirit and keep it keep it burning
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bright and the first principle you look at from native american culture is this idea of learning to live
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off the land what does that look like yeah that's uh learning to live off the land i've been inspired
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doing this work for 25 years now i've worked with over 500 tribal communities every single one of them
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used what was in their backyard to create success you know the the pueblo people in new mexico live in
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an area that's you know very harsh hot in the summer cold in the winter they literally use the mud in
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their backyard to create adobe and create these beautifully engineered multi-level apartment complexes
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built into the side of a cliff by the way that some of which are still standing today my people
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will use birch bark for everything for shelters for containers and the canoes that made us famous
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we also tapped the trees in our backyard specifically maple and created a wonderful concoction called maple
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syrup you're welcome and that that's you know how we use those you know resources that are right in our
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backyard in a modern day context we have a wealth of resources in us and around us on a daily basis
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and an embarrassment of resources that we sometimes don't recognize and we don't tap we don't leverage
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and including simple things like our time our energy our talent i mean really basic stuff let alone you know
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technology other people i mean we should never feel stuck or that we can't find the answer and and that's what
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that learning to live off the land is all about is be aware situational awareness you know look around take a
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resource list you know when european europeans made it to the shores of north america they thought native people
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were magic we were mystics because we were such good observers of what was going on and had such a great
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understanding of our resources that it bordered on magic you know in the eyes of the europeans so
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we can develop that in our daily lives as well just by taking the autopilot off and really recognizing
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what we have to work with no i've seen this dynamic play out in my own life and also the lives of other
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people where they got this grand goal they want to accomplish for the greater good but then they think
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before i can even get started i need this and i need that thing i need this and because they do that
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they don't ever they never get started that's it it's that prepare to prepare to prepare to prepare
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and then we never actually take action you know when i when i started well again going back to that
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tribal centric way of thinking you know using our resources our warriors could use a rock and a stick
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and shape the rock and shape the stick into something that could get dinner defend the village you know
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skin uh or a scrape of skin multi-purpose tool based off of a rock and a stick you know i started
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my business i was scared to death when i started i was an officer full-time in the military you know
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very stable lifestyle you know good pay great benefits and full of purpose but when i left i went
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into basically a blue sky type of project and there was a lot of fear there and i started my business
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with literally a kinko's business card and a sky pager yeah and and so you just have to start where
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you are and grow from there and i see i think a good practice that people can do in their own lives
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before they say you got this this goal they want to accomplish before you get going just like make a
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list of the resources you have already at your disposal and like you have to be like you said
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situationally aware to to so you don't overlook really obvious things in your life yeah and that's
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a that's a great practice i mean it really is is to be able to do that before you start taking action
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is just get organized you know list all the things that you've got to work with list all the people
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in your network that you could ask these questions i am blown away by when i get stumped sometimes
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that i you know 99 and a half times out of 100 i have somebody in my immediate network that has an
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answer or could probably find an answer to what's stumping me and so when we're able to take an
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assessment like that a few things happen that are great number one we're much more likely to find a
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solution to our challenge two we're a lot more confident in dealing with fear and setbacks and
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number three we're rekindling restrengthening those bonds when we reach out uh to connect with other
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people that have resources we need because down the road we're going to have resources they need too
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so one of the resources you talk about in this chapter is this idea of the medicine bag
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what is the medicine bag in native culture yeah a lot a lot of our tribes have a version of a
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medicine bag and just being you know general with this it's a it's a bag that held sacred items to
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the wearer so that the items in there could be um you know herbs or tobacco you know sage it could be
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animal teeth or claws it could be a stone it could something that has significance for the person wearing
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it because when they have that around them again we're confident we're brave we're courageous we
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have something we can lean on because we know we are literally carrying part of our own power around
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our necks and the way that we do that today is is kind of taking that assessment again of all the
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stuff that's in our own medicine bags our skills our talent ability education the wisdom that we learn
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in life by by taking it in the chin you know those are sometimes the lessons that are number one
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most valuable and number two the ones we never forget and we tend to overlook those in times of
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struggle and what i encourage people to do is you know instead of getting a freaked out deer in the
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headlights type of look like we get look down at your medicine bag open that thing up and see what
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is in there you have collected so much in there uh you've got more in there than you need in 100
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lifetimes but we but it doesn't do us any good if we don't know what it looks like and we don't
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bring it out and use it all right so principle number one learn to live off the land look at the
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resources you have be having an abundance mindset instead of this uh scarcity mindset right another
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principle you talk about is this idea of vision quest and this is a part of warrior cultures across
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tribes uh this is something you've done and i'm wondering could you share about your personal
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vision quest and you know like what the process is like and you know more importantly how did it change
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you yeah it was well it was transformative you know um first and foremost it's a ceremony that we do to
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get to seek guidance in our own life journey and so we do that by isolating ourselves in a small patch of
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wilderness for you know days and nights on end uh no food no water no shelter and i will tell you
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you get more clarity in that exercise in that ceremony than i've ever been able to do in any
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other aspect or any other activity in my life i mean you literally let everything kind of fall away
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you're out in wilderness no media no fighting your way to traffic on the way to work no other people
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around it's just you your prayer pipe the outdoors and your creator and i tell you what it is like the
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ultimate exercise in letting the mud settle in your dirt or letting the dirt settle in your mud puddle
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um you you get back to a place of clarity you really reprioritize what's really important in this
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life um and when i was out there you know i didn't think about politics i didn't think about career moves
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i didn't think about uh arguments that i had or petty squabbles uh or you know any of the other stuff
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taxes the stuff that kind of gets you know weighs down on our head i thought about water i thought
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about shelter food the people i love the kind of person i want to be in this life and so it was a
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it was an ultimate exercise in clarity uh when you go through that and i mentioned in the book you know
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we can get that we don't have to go through that ceremony to get clarity in our life and career
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um we can spend the first 10 minutes of every morning letting the dirt settle in our mud puddle
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and get a lot of benefit doing that what is what what would that look like just taking 10 minutes
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of solitude quiet time you know no media no no phones no checking your email just having a bit
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of quiet space to kind of reflect on what you need to get done that day what type of person you want to
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be in that day and have the grace and the strength to handle whatever may come your way pre make that
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decision before the day starts and the quality of our our day shoots through the roof when we're able
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to do that because so often we just roll right out of bed and jump into our life and we're kicking
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up dust and sometimes we don't even know if we're going the right direction when we give ourselves a
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little bit of that solitude we give ourselves a great gift in this crazy world we give ourselves
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clarity in a world of chaos and something else people could do too and you talk about this in the
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book is they could even go deeper with this that beyond that 10 minute daily thing and actually set
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aside time where they go off somewhere where they have time just to think about their mission in life
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what are their their motivating values and i think you know stephen covey famously talked about this
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idea of having a personal mission statement and he'd often encourage people to you know take a weekend
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where you're just going to think about what it is that you're about not only professionally but as
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you're as a as a member of a family a community etc and really hone in on that vision because that's
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the thing when things are going tough you can always fall back to that and let that be your your guiding
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your guiding star yeah it's an anchor point and the thing is we're the ones who define that not
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our supervisor not our organization not our friends not our family we're the one who defines that this
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is our life this is our gift and if we don't define that for ourselves then we allow other people to do
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it for us um and sometimes that you know that can go arrive very quickly um but yeah that that same
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idea of taking a weekend taking a sabbatical uh a vacation you know 10 minutes of solitude in the
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morning this is why so many of our ceremonies you know across indian country had um this element
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incorporated into it because our elders and ancestors knew that the quieter we are in that moment the
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louder that voice inside of us comes out and we can't hear that when we're constantly immersed in chaos
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when we're running around with our hair on fire and um you know living the lives we typically live
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and wonder why we're not getting where we want to go we're gonna take a quick break for your word from
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our sponsors and now back to the show a concept you discuss in the book is this it comes from the
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plains tribes they had this warrior practice of counting coup what is counting coup and then let's
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talk about how can leaders count coup in their work yeah counting coup is a great tradition that
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the plains tribes warriors practiced and what it was and the reason why it was such an honor is
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because of what it required uh counting coup was going up to your enemy during live combat and not
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striking your enemy down with a tomahawk or a lance but simply touching them touching them with your
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hand or with what's called acoustic like it looks like a riding crop and that that's it you just
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touch them because of what it required was the ultimate act of courage to stand face to face
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with your fear with your obstacle with your enemy and say i am not afraid of you i'm so not afraid
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of you i'm not even going to destroy you or strike you down i'm just going to face you eye to eye and
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we have to do that in our own lives i mean it's a great tradition that has a beautiful alignment with
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what we deal with on a daily basis which is fear and we can run away from it we can you know we end up
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exhausted it still shows up or we can just face it and once we face our fears we're able to do some
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things in that moment that really help us out we can start asking ourselves a question like what story
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am i telling myself about what i'm going through right now um we can ask ourselves questions like
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is that story real or is this just fear showing up in my life um we can ask ourselves questions like
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are these thoughts useful because sometimes we're just ruminating and we're building up an obstacle
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or a challenge into this giant mountain based on the things that we're saying over and over again
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this isn't going to work out it can't work out oh my gosh who am i to do this you know we've got to
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be able to face our fears head on so that we can go through them um if if not then we can't move
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forward well one tip you provide is uh for people to develop their own war cry uh what can a war cry do
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to help develop that warrior spirit yeah war cry was done traditionally by our warriors for two purposes
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one was you know and and first of all just to clarify a war cry was you know a full-throated scream
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you know wild gestures you know just and it was done for two reasons one was to scare the hell out
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of the enemy so you want to win the battle before the fight even starts that was the first reason
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and the second reason was to boost our own adrenaline to boost our courage when we need it the most and a
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war cry now if you if you you know bring it into modern day terms doesn't have to be a full-throated
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yell it can be a prayer it could be a mantra it could be a motivational quote that you go to as
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a touchstone it could be something that you wear it could be a song you know anything can qualify
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as that but it's something that you go back to in a moment of doubt fear hesitation that when you go
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back to that touchstone and use that war cry we have what we need in that moment which is just a
00:24:35.940
little boost of courage so we can take that next step well i know uh in the lakota hoka hay was the
00:24:41.980
war cry yeah like it's a good day to die yeah it's a pretty it's a pretty good mantra for for life that
00:24:48.840
means i'm all in you know like like leave it on the table i'm not holding anything back this is my life
00:24:54.940
i want to live it fully and i want to live it fully right now i don't want to wait for tomorrow or next
00:24:59.560
week or when i get this done or when i retire i want to do it today right now in this moment
00:25:04.900
and i think sometimes people roll their eyes at the idea of having a mantra but it can't help when
00:25:09.260
you're when you're in that stressful situation i think you know sports psychologists talk about that
00:25:13.680
a lot of these high performance athletes they have a word they'll just tell themselves when they're
00:25:17.440
doing that you know putt that's you know worth a million dollars they just repeat that over and over
00:25:23.000
again it's to control it's to control the fear that's it and and the thing is words do matter
00:25:29.660
the words that we share with other people matter the words that we share with ourselves matter they
00:25:35.440
have real impact they condition our brain they give us direction and guidance that you know the way that
00:25:41.180
we talk about something a situation or or even ourselves is kind of that primer yeah that that kind
00:25:47.040
of sets us up for a belief system towards that moment or towards ourselves so our words absolutely
00:25:53.020
matter we've all experienced that words can cut words can build the thing is we need to make those
00:25:58.660
choices conscientiously so we can you know create that environment of strength around us so i i you
00:26:04.660
know i use these type of things all the time they really work because like i said the question isn't
00:26:10.100
if fear shows up the question is when it does how are you gonna handle it so lately the past few years
00:26:16.820
one of the parts of american history that i've gotten really into is the the indian wars i think it's an
00:26:22.300
overlooked part but it's just completely fascinating because you learn so much about
00:26:27.540
native american warfare and their strategy especially after the civil war there's some
00:26:32.440
i mean there's there's stuff that happened that the native americans did that later on the u.s
00:26:36.800
military incorporated into their strategy and one of their tactics was this idea of just constant
00:26:42.720
raiding warfare and you use this idea to talk about the importance of taking action so what can
00:26:48.820
we learn about taking action from raiding warfare style of of native americans plains tribes yeah
00:26:55.000
great question and what it came down to was wearing the enemy down right because our warriors were
00:27:00.420
outmatched technology wise numbers wise so when it came to that warfare that raiding type of warfare
00:27:07.920
it was attack and then melt away attack and then melt away until you win or until you know you defend
00:27:14.400
your your people and can get away and when we talk about how important that is i mean that it really
00:27:19.920
did have a real world impact i mean this is how the american colonies defeated the most mighty military
00:27:25.680
in the world at the time the british empire to form the united states i mean they used those tactics
00:27:32.620
precisely and it it made a huge difference it changed history how we use that in our own lives is we
00:27:39.060
attack an object or or we create momentum towards our goal a little bit at a time and when we when
00:27:46.480
we need a break we take a break we need another resource we get that but we keep moving forward
00:27:51.340
incessantly towards our goal and it's not about doing everything in one day that's what leads to
00:27:56.440
burnout that's what leads to frustration it's doing a little something every day that's what ultimately
00:28:01.840
gets us to the goal that's what ultimately gets us to victory and so that's why i use that analogy in
00:28:07.240
there because so so often you know we start off strong we're like i'm gonna do it all today
00:28:11.380
and we're all you know we're all gung-ho and then when things get rough we pull back and say things
00:28:18.000
like well i guess it's not meant to be i guess it's not going to work out after all you know we have to
00:28:22.400
have that relentless type of attack you know regroup and attack again until we get to where we want to be
00:28:29.680
no i like that because i think you're right i've done that before where i have this project i want to
00:28:34.120
take on and then i just decided i'm not going to stop until i i finish it and then i just burn
00:28:39.060
myself out and then i'm useless i'm useless for like the next couple of weeks and it would have
00:28:44.280
been better if i just you know tacked a little bit and yeah you said go back take a break and then
00:28:48.200
just keep because you can do it for longer man this is why boxers yeah i boxed in college i mean this
00:28:53.180
is why boxers take breaks in between rounds you know and the reason why is because you recharge
00:28:58.820
your batteries you know spiritually emotionally and physically so you can get back in to the fight
00:29:04.100
and be effective you can't do that if you just go until you can't go anymore that's that's burnout
00:29:09.700
and then we're no good to anybody but then you also talk in this chapter about action the importance
00:29:14.960
of developing momentum how do you develop that momentum so you can have that ceaseless relentless
00:29:21.180
you know attack and retreat attack and retreat yeah momentum is so critically important in
00:29:26.540
achievement because it's it's doing those little steps that get kind of the the energy that we want
00:29:33.000
to create flowing in the right direction it's like pushing a stalled car you know those first couple
00:29:37.800
steps can be back breakers and this is what makes most people walk away from their goals or the things
00:29:42.980
that they're trying to achieve as a leader is those first couple steps are back breaking but once you
00:29:47.860
get the momentum going it's a lot easier to keep that car going down the road and so it's those little
00:29:53.660
things that we do daily that's what i was saying it's you know the small stuff that we do each day
00:29:58.260
that creates momentum in the goals that we're trying to achieve and there's also something else from
00:30:05.500
native warriors that we could possibly learn from like they didn't fight all year round there was a
00:30:10.640
season for fighting and then there was a season for hunting i think there's something you can learn
00:30:14.740
from that you're gonna have periods where you have like a war season i got this thing i need to do
00:30:18.860
but then you also need to have periods where it's rest and recuperation and recovery that's it and
00:30:25.200
when we do that we're sustainable in what we're pursuing if we don't do that we just quickly very
00:30:31.440
quickly sometimes get to burnout we get frustrated we get you know we have health issues relationship
00:30:36.640
issues it just we push ourselves in a way that you know it's it's like our life and career start to
00:30:42.160
feel like a treadmill with one button on it faster so if we don't take that recovery time that's
00:30:47.660
exactly what happens i don't care how strong you are physically mentally emotionally you keep doing
00:30:51.820
it that way it's only a matter of time before you fall off the treadmill so taking those breaks and
00:30:56.580
respecting the season and the flow like you're talking about that that's one of the you know
00:31:00.920
native american philosophies that every tribe i've worked with has which is the concept of balance
00:31:05.280
you know there's a day for night a joy for pain into every life and career you're going to have
00:31:09.760
your victories and you're going to have your stumbles and your you know your humility moments that's all
00:31:14.680
part of the deal and you can't get away from it when we violate that like i said we end up in bad
00:31:21.240
places that we don't want to be yeah i think this idea of recovery this is going to the idea of
00:31:26.240
maintaining that warrior spirit once you got it going you have this whole chapter about the fire
00:31:30.100
keeper what's the fire keeper native american culture and like i mean let's flesh out more this
00:31:34.980
idea of keeping that fire going yeah yeah the the fire keeper was a sacred role in our travel
00:31:40.920
communities and it was all about keeping that that fire that beating heart of that community burning
00:31:46.200
and under all conditions any circumstance and especially during ceremony a fire keeper's role
00:31:51.960
is really really important because if that fire goes out the ceremony is often ruined and so you know
00:31:59.400
and fires provide a lot of things for villages that are are critical you know food for sustenance
00:32:04.040
light heat but also a gathering place for people to exchange ideas and and rekindle bonds in our own
00:32:11.440
life we have that fire too and it's that internal drive it's that you know you can call it motivation
00:32:15.600
inspiration and we are responsible for keeping it burning bright and when we don't do that it can
00:32:21.720
burn down to an ember sometimes it even goes out and that's because we falsely think that you know
00:32:28.000
that what we do is automatically going to provide us motivation and it doesn't work that way
00:32:33.280
uh i don't care if you're an imagineer for disney a you know astronaut a teacher trying to you know
00:32:38.860
change the landscape of inner city education we get into things because we know that they have value
00:32:44.340
to us and we want to make an impact so we think that we're always going to be motivated but that's
00:32:50.240
not the case we have to create that in our lives on purpose with purpose that's why we keep that you
00:32:55.780
know that's how we keep that fire burning bright so what are some practical things that people can do to
00:32:59.660
you know keep that fire burning that you've seen work in your life and your clients lives
00:33:03.680
yeah go go out of your way for it you know start the day with reading something inspirational or
00:33:08.700
uplifting or educational surround yourself with people that keep you thinking keep you moving in
00:33:13.860
the right direction you know consciously choose the things that are in your environment on a daily
00:33:19.380
basis your habits your practices the growth elements you know the things that we're watching that we're
00:33:23.920
listening to our support structure who we lean on in times of trouble when we have a problem that
00:33:29.660
you know is we're really stumped or we're really feeling scared where are you going to go in those
00:33:34.020
moments these things all really matter plus the thing that we're talking about all those things
00:33:38.880
can help keep us at that level that we want to be as far as staying motivated motivation is not a magic
00:33:44.380
bullet you know i do you know i tell a story in some of my sessions about and people who are scared
00:33:49.460
to fly and if they're scared to fly you wouldn't want to run into a pilot who said they don't know what
00:33:54.100
they're doing but they're awfully excited to take off that's you know that pilot may have great
00:33:59.700
motivation but still needs experience skills training the reason why motivation is so important
00:34:06.240
it might not be everything but it surely affects everything that we do and it's up to us to create
00:34:12.880
it and maintain it yeah i really like that idea of you have this in that chapter you talk about
00:34:16.580
tribing up make sure you find surround yourself with people who will support you and just i don't
00:34:21.740
nurture you i think i think a lot of people lack that today because they just feel like they're
00:34:25.280
doing it on their own and it's amazing when you just have you can sit around with people
00:34:29.580
maybe kvetch a little but then just talk how much that can just buoy your spirits and so you can keep
00:34:36.800
going absolutely i mean this is medicine for us i mean it really is and it's who we surround
00:34:43.120
ourselves with and being able to have those moments where we do lean on other people let them lean on us
00:34:49.260
you know i i have a principle in the book that i share and and explain and it's that warriors never
00:34:55.980
fought alone fighting alone is dumb you know you are not going to get the results that you want to
00:35:01.980
get when you're just out there lone wolf in it you know there's moments in time where we're doing
00:35:06.200
things on our own i get that but overall we need each other we're better when we're with each other
00:35:11.220
or let me caveat that with the right people and it's up to us to make sure we're surrounding
00:35:15.960
ourselves that way quickest way i've ever seen to become a happy healthy human being
00:35:19.960
surround yourself with happy healthy people quickest way to become negative toxic a complainer a
00:35:25.180
gossiper surround yourself or allow those people to be in your environment had an elder years ago tell
00:35:30.580
me something that the older i get the more i see it to be true he said our spirits are like sponges
00:35:34.620
they soak up whatever they're around no that's true and i think a lot of people this yeah this idea of
00:35:39.080
a lone wolf it's appealing but even in you know native tribes the lone wolves often got kicked out
00:35:45.500
like they were that's it they were useless like they actually caused problems that's it and the thing
00:35:51.140
is that that you know there's an over romanticizing of that warrior role when we start labeling it as
00:35:58.120
something that it never was you know that warrior role we put them we put them on a pedestal on a
00:36:02.820
mountain and they are beyond pain beyond fear they need no one only the next worthy challenge
00:36:08.380
which is a bunch of garbage our warriors fought in the company of other warriors because if you want
00:36:14.000
to be brave you surround yourself with bravery they didn't do it on their own and the reason why is
00:36:19.700
because you know we had to get our pride and ego out of the way and remember what the role of a warrior
00:36:25.180
was to serve their people not just you know to feed and protect their people not to feed and protect
00:36:30.880
their ego so that lone wolf you know image is just it's it's false it gets us into trouble because we
00:36:37.180
think if we're really gonna you know channel that warrior spirit and be a warrior we have to go it
00:36:42.440
alone i have to do this myself which is absolutely positively not true and it's and it's not a good
00:36:49.080
strategy either another principle you talked about that really hit home to me in this keeping the fire
00:36:53.700
burning is taking time to celebrate your wins your past wins yeah why do you think that's important why do
00:37:00.040
we tend to not do that yeah because if we don't do it we condition ourselves not to care
00:37:05.080
you know taking the time to celebrate the wins the victories we do such a poor job of that because
00:37:11.380
we're so busy being busy you know we we can accomplish a great goal and instead of going man let me reflect
00:37:17.520
on what this took you know to take a few moments to to really acknowledge what it took for me to get
00:37:23.240
here we don't do that we just blow right through and go on to the next thing and then the next thing and
00:37:27.540
the next and that's what leads us to burnout you know we're really good at celebrating victories
00:37:32.360
when we first start our careers jobs we first join a sports team whatever it may be at the beginning
00:37:38.020
we're good at it you know we do one little thing right we're like you know celebrate high five but
00:37:43.980
we get really bad at it as we get busier and busier and we need to go out of our way to do that because
00:37:49.500
what it does is it it sweetens the flavor of success so that we crave another one and we're
00:37:56.580
conditioning ourselves to want that next thing when we actually reward ourselves for doing the
00:38:01.440
last thing well correct me if i'm wrong but isn't there something like like the war song in tribal
00:38:07.180
cultures like a warrior would develop their own war song it was basically them just talking about the
00:38:11.840
great epic deeds they did yeah i mean that was that was part of post-battle it was reflecting on you
00:38:18.340
know who did what why it mattered the impact that it had for the people i mean this was part of it it
00:38:24.160
was the reflection time and it was a celebration time if there was a victory and and also you know
00:38:30.200
memorializing the people who were lost if if it didn't go well and you know that is an important
00:38:36.280
part you know to think about as well as you know when we do that we're able to gather wisdom and
00:38:43.080
teachable points you know from what we just went through we can't do that like i said if we just blow
00:38:48.200
past and go on to the next thing so you have this chapter about how different tribes develop discipline
00:38:54.760
and toughness in their warriors what are some practices that you found in different tribes and
00:38:59.740
what can we learn from that yeah it was exposure to the elements it was going without food water at
00:39:06.100
times it was it was long runs it was games you know rough games stickball stickball i've seen that
00:39:13.920
that's rough it brutal and they called it the little brother of war for a reason you know these
00:39:20.360
were played on big fields or hardly any rules there was a clear goal but how you got there was you know
00:39:27.380
innovation fierceness toughness it was kind of like a mix between football basketball soccer and ufc
00:39:33.080
and and these are the things that brought out you know tough times don't necessarily develop
00:39:40.400
character but they sure reveal it and these were opportunities that
00:39:43.920
warriors in training had to develop their own but you know when you do that you develop that
00:39:49.700
that toughness that ability to flex under strain that ability to bounce back when you fall those are
00:39:57.020
the opportunities that you know we created on purpose to develop strength in our warrior societies
00:40:03.620
so what can that look like for just someone who's not native american it could be that next hard
00:40:08.920
workout it could be disciplining yourself to to change habits that aren't serving you anymore
00:40:14.860
it could be doing tough things on on a normal daily basis and you know that they're tough you know an
00:40:21.280
exercise of courage to face that next thing like we're talking about facing our fears head on
00:40:25.840
it's not you know the stuff that we typically think swimming with sharks or wrestling alligators
00:40:30.560
it's starting that project it's asking for help it's apologizing it's realizing that you know what
00:40:39.340
you're doing over and over again isn't working you know these things are also you know also require
00:40:44.240
courage so we get to practice that on a daily basis but it's it's basically putting ourselves
00:40:48.880
in a position to toughen ourselves up so that when times really do get hard we're able to weather that
00:40:55.200
so for a warrior you know they're they got to be vigorous they got to be disciplined tough
00:41:01.220
physically active there's a certain point where a warrior ages out right you're when you're 60
00:41:07.040
you probably can't be a warrior as well as you were when you were 22 but that doesn't mean that
00:41:13.780
they're they stop being warriors what happens to warriors when they when they age out and they're not
00:41:19.860
actually able to physically fight and take part in raids we get to a certain point even in our own
00:41:24.520
lives and careers just like those warriors who got older where we start getting into more of a
00:41:28.780
transition phase where we're not we don't have as much responsibility maybe we're getting close to
00:41:33.660
retirement and at that point the transition happens where we start benefiting our people by sharing our
00:41:40.360
knowledge and wisdom you know that's where we become an elder in our tribe and we're able to pass
00:41:46.340
down all the things that we've learned especially the stuff we learned the hard way and try to be
00:41:50.760
able to make somebody else's journey a little bit easier a little bit more effective
00:41:54.200
and so the contribution doesn't stop it just changes and the elders in our tribal communities
00:42:01.640
are the backbone of our culture they hand down the the values and the virtues and the wisdom and songs
00:42:07.020
and ceremony and all the things that make us who we are as native people and we can do that in our
00:42:12.080
own communities in our own groups that we serve when we're handing down the things like i said that
00:42:18.020
we've learned that we know are important that can benefit our people no matter what we do
00:42:22.840
you know for a living and how long the weeks get or how tough it might be i can i can make you one
00:42:29.580
promise you won't be doing it forever you know at some point you're going to transition and hand
00:42:33.600
the baton to somebody else and i think the highest hope we can hope for if we care about who we work
00:42:39.160
with and who we serve is that we're putting that baton into better hands than our own and that only
00:42:44.080
happens by design well i have a question like how do you know when you're in that that transition
00:42:48.880
period when it's you're moving from active warrior to elder warrior yeah i don't think there's a hard
00:42:55.840
fast line you know i mean it's a it is a transition in its purest sense it's it kind of happens over
00:43:02.280
time but i think we start to know more and more when it's time for us not to to be at the forefront
00:43:08.140
of doing the work but to more reach back and offer a hand to the people that are coming up behind us
00:43:12.820
and they're you know even in our tribal communities there was no magical age that you just become an
00:43:18.520
elder and when we try to do that we're you know putting a square peg in a round hole it's a transition
00:43:24.400
period you get to a place that where you start you know turning around i guess looking over your
00:43:29.940
shoulder and thinking about all the people that you can help with all the stuff that you've learned on
00:43:33.940
your journey so it it's something that's individual it's a personal decision but it's something to be
00:43:39.460
aware of so once you are making that transition what are some things that people can do so they
00:43:45.720
can really step into that role because i feel like i think it's interesting i'm approaching middle age
00:43:50.660
i think there's a lot of information out there for young men who are starting out like here are the
00:43:55.980
things you need to know do here's a rite of passage for you etc yeah but then once you get to middle
00:44:01.440
age and then into elder there's nothing like that there's no like here are the things you need to do
00:44:05.860
to be an elder but i think it would be useful so what are i mean do you have anything in your
00:44:10.020
experience where here's some things you can start doing once you recognize you're entering that
00:44:15.240
transition into becoming a quote-unquote elder yeah and that and that's a great it's a really great
00:44:21.900
perspective you know the first thing i would say is start collecting your stories start gathering your
00:44:26.840
stories and and find opportunities to share and when we share those stories with other people it's
00:44:33.260
not in a you know in a way that hey i've i've done all this and you need to sit down and listen to all
00:44:38.900
the wisdom i'm gonna jam down your throat it's being able to share a story where we're in a position
00:44:44.220
especially when we're vulnerable and share how things didn't go well you know that's sometimes the
00:44:49.220
best stories we can share with other people is the things that we learn when things went sideways or got
00:44:53.600
pear-shaped and how we came back and bounced and how they can too you know when we when we share those
00:45:00.040
ideas it's always in the spirit of how is it going to benefit the person i'm sharing this story with
00:45:05.880
so that would be the first thing i would say is start collecting your stories you know we've got a
00:45:10.160
treasure trove of that stuff to draw from and then find opportunities to to share it you know either
00:45:15.940
in person online at team meetings you know there are sometimes uh you know it doesn't take long
00:45:22.220
but they can be really impactful moments and some of the best ones we can share with other people
00:45:28.320
i love that well dj this has been a great conversation where can people go to learn
00:45:32.800
more about the book in your work best place to find me is on our website which is native discovery.com
00:45:39.160
my newest book the warrior within comes out very soon on august 2nd and is available everywhere books
00:45:46.560
are sold but native discovery.com is is uh the best place to get a hold of me fantastic well dj van
00:45:52.200
thanks for your time it's been a pleasure thank you so much for having me this has been an honor
00:45:56.060
my guest today was dj vanis he's the author of the book the warrior within it's available on amazon.com
00:46:01.120
and bookstores everywhere you can find more information about his work at his website
00:46:04.120
native discovery.com also check out our show notes at aom.is slash warrior spirit where you find
00:46:09.440
links to resources and we delve deeper into this topic
00:46:11.720
well that wraps up another edition of the a1 podcast make sure to check out our website at
00:46:22.840
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