The Arete Path

Forging excellence in mind, body, spirit through ancient wisdom and modern performance science.

Leadership Coach | Retreat Leader | Navy SEAL (Ret.)

[The Arete Path @TheAretePath]

Each Warrior has a path. Few choose their own.

[The Arete Path @TheAretePath]

@pinpulleddrmf 👀

[The Arete Path @TheAretePath]

Know Thyself...

Sorry to say, but you are like an old TV with only two channels. The good news is, they are not Fox and CNN.

Channel 1 is Awareness. It is the most used one, and the one that helps us make sense of the world around us. It is our ability to interpret innumerous data points and classify them in the original human binary system: opportunity or threat.

It is the hardware program that guided us through land migrations, ice ages, saber-toothed tigers, and allowed us to narrowly escape beanie babies. It is what we use to either lean in and go for the kiss or ask for the check. It is the faithful lamp that guides our steps up the misty mountain.

Channel 2 is Self-awareness. It is the lamp turned inward that understands the traveler on the path. If awareness is your ability to see the path ahead, self-awareness is knowing what shape you are in, what equipment you have in your pack, and why you are even climbing this mountain in the first place. To put it differently, self-awareness is an objective understanding of where you are:

Mentally

Physically

Emotionally

Spiritually

What your values are (how you climb the mountain)

What your purpose is (why you climb the mountain)

What skills you have (your technique and equipment)

A few points on self-awareness:

-Knowing yourself clears a path more than any light someone else can shine for you.

-Self-awareness is a skill you can develop. All you have to do is tune in. (To start, I recommend five minutes of quiet breathing to start your day).

-Knowing where you are at allows you to choose to stay there or change. (This is freedom).

-If you can lead yourself well, you can lead others well. (Every solid leader I work with is self-aware.)

Stay on the path of discovery. The view is always worth it.

[The Arete Path @TheAretePath]

@KFCApologist Ask your heart, it knows the answers.

[The Arete Path @TheAretePath]

"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind." -Albert Einstein

Unplug. Breathe. Be.

[The Arete Path @TheAretePath]

@beadadkidsneed Good stuff.

[The Arete Path @TheAretePath]

Anthony De Mello brings a welcome reminder of how to access all the wonder that life has to offer:

Be Present.

“…places they never saw but only photographed…”

is a place we can all avoid.

[The Arete Path @TheAretePath]

@beadadkidsneed 💪🏽That’s the way!

[The Arete Path @TheAretePath]

Excellence is a choice, dependent solely on you.

[The Arete Path @TheAretePath]

A Warrior's Recipe for Courage

Courage takes many forms and is easy to make. Like any skill, consistent practice is required. Here is a family favorite you can enjoy.

Ingredients:
-Fear-inducing event (real or imagined)
-Choice to do said fear-inducing event
-Ability withstand the forces of transformation as your choice becomes reality. Nearly endless options for this one, here are a few: endurance, persistence, surrender, grit, discipline, sisu, will, gumption, (you get the idea).

Instructions:
1. Choose to do fear-inducing event.
2. Transform
3. Remember to breathe

For best results:
-Apply courage liberally.
-Support others in their development of courage
-Some choices require multiple applications of courage.
-Give yourself some grace. Sometimes courage is getting up.
-Transformation of fear into courage can be a painful, embarrassing, and relatively uncomfortable experience at times.
-Know that the fire within burns hotter than any fire without.

My son forging courage in his first cold plunge.

[The Arete Path @TheAretePath]

@_NateNorman "I challenge you to list out the inalienable attributes of the flag you fly, and once you have established your pillars, let it wave." -NN

[The Arete Path @TheAretePath]

"Urge the young on to virtue not only with advice but also by demonstrating to them with actions how good men should be." -Isocrates (436-338 BC)

"Be the example you want others to follow." -Gary Denham. (2009)

Two-thousand years later and those statements are interchangeable.

My four-year-old son loves to ask if we can do workouts and runs together.

"We gotta do training, Dad! We can't stop!"

I love it and I'm so proud of him.

The other day he looked at me and asked when he could have a phone.

Roger that. Time to autocorrect.

When things matter enough, behavior change is easy.

Truth is timeless. Use it.

[The Arete Path @TheAretePath]

@mikeymayers @SenecaQuote The little book of stoicism. -Jonas Salzgeber

[The Arete Path @TheAretePath]

@_NateNorman "Fight the good fight! Lay hold to that which you were called." - NN

[The Arete Path @TheAretePath]

"If you ever find yourself looking for outside approval in order to curry favor, you can be sure that you have lost your way." -Epictetus

Your true light emerges when you walk your own Path. Have courage. Have faith. Take a step.

[The Arete Path @TheAretePath]

@HumbleFlow @liftyourmind

[The Arete Path @TheAretePath]

We face an inevitable truth: death. That truth can either free you or imprison you.

Having an end gives meaning to the present moment.

A full awareness of death opens us to the possibility of life.

Live now. Live now. Live now.

[The Arete Path @TheAretePath]

@liftyourmind

[The Arete Path @TheAretePath]

Each Warrior has a path. Few choose their own.

[The Arete Path @TheAretePath]

@HumbleFlow

[The Arete Path @TheAretePath]

@beadadkidsneed Amen brother.