Escaping Level One
Tomorrow Begins Today
Whoever is first in the field and awaits the coming of the enemy, will be fresh for the fight; whoever is second in the field and has to hurry to battle will arrive exhausted. - Sun Tzu, The Art of War
This season I have read The Art of War - one version with commentary and one without. Both are great ways to read the short book.
While war is not something to celebrate, I believe the book is applicable to everyday life.
The war that most of us can relate to is the one with ourselves. What writer Steven Pressfield calls the resistance.
The resistance describes the forces that work to sabotage your ability to make meaning out of this jumble of events that we call life.
It locks you into eating cheese puffs on the couch when you know you should be getting your steps in. It keeps you in bed just a bit longer, until the morning is a complete gong show.
The quote above from Sun Tzu speaks to the idea that I have written about before, which is Tomorrow Begins Today.
This is not written to create a sense of panic. If anything you can glean the opposite feeling. Because just a few minutes of planning can help create calm as you move throughout a day or a week ahead.
This theme comes up many times throughout The Art of War: That the war is won or lost before a soldier has even laid a foot on the ground. Because everything is strategy.
If I could go back in time to the years of being a teenager, I would have wished for being struck by some sort of lightning bolt1 that would have taught me how to wake up earlier than I needed to be awake (hint: you can only wake up early if you go to bed early).
The ability to visualize a day in advance of it coming in, and seeing what pockets of time I had to work with to complete homework.
And with that, I would say that I probably needed an entire day each weekend to complete the homework. Or they could’ve made the school week four days to make for that fifth day of focus.
From these changes, a teenager would have the ability to not just stay on top of the demands of school (which is essentially their job), but to actually get ahead of the program.
Whatever you think of the education system - such as the idea that it is just remnants of the factory system imposed on kids - the point would remain the same.
Because whatever job you find yourself in, you are basically in an escape room. The clock is ticking and you need to crack the puzzle to unlock the door and get to the next level.
A teenager is going to have to figure this out sooner or later, so they might as well get wise to the game early on.
Because when your grades across the board start slipping, you now have the police (parents and administration) on your ass, and congratulations, this is going to continue on into college/university and into the working world until the moment the person becomes conscious of the system and learns how to show up and crack the code on the safe.
The good news: Whether you were a good student, bad student, a financial success or someone who has struggled through life, none of it matters.
Because every night you retire to sleep, you will awake to another set of hours for you to work with.
To undo bad habits that caused you or your family pain and stress. To learn and get wise to the games that are being played around you.
Ultimately the goal is to get leverage. To soar 3,000 feet above all the nonsense around you.
What would it take for you to live life on your own terms?
Never underestimate what a few minutes of planning can assist you with. Measure twice and cut once as they say.
Last week I shared a clip from the movie Alive before signing off. As I write this, the snow keeps accumulating outside my window.
Wishing everyone a safe end of the weekend whereever you are located.
And just remember, nothing goes better with being snowed in than bagels and Elliott FM…
The lightning bolt that was missing when I was in high school was effective coaching. Parents were too busy to understand what wasn’t working with their kids at school. And the schools hired guidance counsellors who from my experience at the time, did not spend sufficient time with students nor were they versed in any areas such as coaching for peak performance and leadership.
How serendipitous! Today I presented myself to the thing that needing doing, and afterward, today I read your words. Thank you!