If what our heart’s want is adventure, then where’s our battlefield?
Teddy Roosevelt found his battlefield in Cuba. He found his adventure in his post-war days in the excursions to Africa, South America, and the Western frontier of America.
William Wallace found his battle avenging the death of his wife and liberating his countrymen from the tyranny of an unjust ruler.
Napoleon Bonaparte’s battlefield ended up being the entire world, while General Patton, a man who felt connected with the warriors of antiquity, was finally given his in the Second World War.
Our battlefield’s most likely aren’t filled with lives lost at our hands; instead, maybe they exist in lives saved. But we still need this adventure, we still need an opportunity for glory, and heroism. We need to feel alive, truly alive. This can’t happen in a placid, domesticated, emasculated existence that is today’s way of living. We need something greater – but what is that thing?
To Be A MAN, is To Be A Warrior
Somewhere deep down in the abyss of what excites us, down in our hearts, our souls, there is a desire for adventure. Great men have had the courage to seek it out, defeated men have not.
It is not the critic who counts, Roosevelt once said, The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood. This business is, in part, my arena. Just like your work and your mission are as well. I love this business. I’m utterly passionate about waking up every single day and bleeding in this arena. But there’s a part of me that wants to look down at my feet, and see them stained with real blood, be it my own, or those of my enemy, or my opponent.
There’s a part of me that, along with the mission I’m blessed to have found in this site, wants an adventure beyond the confinement of my laptop, greater than merely traveling and seeing new places, faces, and monuments to those who came before I, who made their mark on the planet.
I’m not getting back in the ring, I’m not joining the army – though I have the utmost amount of respect from those who have, and do, and I thank you – I don’t know, yet, where my battlefield is, or where my adventure lies, but I will find it, and together, I hope to help you find yours.
Finding Our Battlefield
Adventure is something we can create simply by attempting to find it. Adventure lies in taking risks; the greater the risk, the greater the adventure. Starting a business is, yes, an adventure, as any entrepreneur will attest. But men – be they entrepreneurial or not – need more than that. We need to connect with the great outdoors, we need to face dangers bigger than ourselves, more powerful that we are.
Seek adventure in nature, keeping in mind that the better shape you’re in, the better you’ll be equipped for said adventure. Train your body as if the world is your battlefield. Take up a sport to aid in the process, take up other activities that will do the same.
Boxing, for me, was an adventure, but that day is done, now I have to seek others. Seek them daily in small ways, and find them in greater undertakings like vacations, a big move away from your hometown, a hunting trip, fishing trip, the climbing of a mountain.
I don’t know where our battlefield lies. I don’t know where our big adventure is. What I do know, is that simply by getting in touch and releasing that warrior we all have within us, we’ll find our adventure, we’ll save our beauty, free our countrymen, and finally live. Guys like Richard Branson or Tim Ferris are adventurous. There are others that I don’t know about who are as well. They’re in touch with their true ambitions, and I respect that. With each day, let’s get in touch with ours.
Push yourself in every way you can, every day. Push yourself to do what you normally wouldn’t. Understand your fears, and face them. So many of us live in ignorance of what we fear because, just like our ambitions, we push them down. Know them just like you know what you love. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Often it’s your fears that are closer to your ambitions than your loves.
Maybe its because I watched The Outlaw Josey Wales last night, or Patton a few days before, or the fact that I’ve been reading about Roosevelt, Napoleon, and Churchill, but I want an adventure, something to fight for, or a battlefield. Life should be our adventure, but are we man enough to make it so?
Be Legendary, Be a Warrior.
