If you want to develop a true warrior spirit within yourself, you’re going to have to put forth some effort. Achieving excellence in any endeavor takes hard work, and this is no exception. To succeed, you need motivation. Motivation to go out and sign up for a class. Motivation to stay on top of your personal safety. Motivation to keep improving your physical ability to defend yourself in today’s society. You need something that inspires you to stick with it, even when you get tired, or bored, or distracted.
Everybody’s motivation is different. What I’m going to do in this chapter is create an outline for you to live by, and you’re going to fill it in with the details of your life. You’re standing in a room. Behind you is a safe. It’s the biggest, strongest safe in the world, and you’re the only one who knows the combination. Nobody in the entire world can get what’s in that safe unless you open it for them, or give them the combination. Not the best thief in the world, not the toughest person. They have to go through you. You remember that picture we painted earlier, of the toughest guy in the world – the guy with all the false bravado? That guy –your biggest fear – is now in that room with you. He wants to know what’s in the safe. Here’s what’s in that safe: The top three things you value most in your life.
Number one should be your actual physical wellbeing and life, because without that you can’t have anything else. Number two would be every person you care deeply about – family, friends, and loved ones. (Or if you prefer, you can detail it down to the one person you love the most.) Number three is maybe your favorite material possession. Picture these three things in as much detail as possible. Do you have it? Is the safe full? All right. You have the combination in your head, and you also have it written down in your back pocket. Your biggest fear justwalked into the room. He wants it. What’s going to happen now? Are you going to just give it to him – or are you going fight? He asks you for it, and you tell him no. He slaps you in the head. What do you do then? He pushes you to the ground. What do you do? You stand up. You become angry. But he’s intimidating you. You’ve built him up to be bigger than he is. What do you do?
You strip away his false bravado, you take his confidence from him, and you destroy him. You don’t let him take another step. Why? Because what’s in that safe matters to you, and you know that nobody on this earth has a right to take it from you. You can do this mentally as well as physically. Your opponent might be that boss at work who is intimidating you, giving other people raises over you, not appreciating your hard work. And then you step into her office, because right now she is your biggest and toughest bad guy. And you have the training and you have the heart and you have the will to confront her. You eliminate that lump in your throat, and you stand there, and you look at her squarely, and you stare right through her. You make her understand that she will never get that combination. Ever. You’ll die first. You’re willing to fight tooth and nail, to the end, verbally, mentally, and physically.
When you do that, the individual standing across from you will be able to feel your confidence, your energy, and your absolute resolve. And that will affect what they try to do to you. If what you put in that safe is dear to your heart, then you will take this chapter, and thoroughly understand that the motivation you need to do what you need to do has to come from somewhere. And it’s in that room, in that safe.
