- Do you want to learn how to get yourself right in order to accomplish the work you were meant to do? Do you want to discover the warrior spirit that lies within you? If so, you might want to read The Warrior Within: Own Your Power to Serve, Fight, Protect, and Heal by D.J. Vanas.
- To find out more about this book and how it can help you develop and apply the warrior spirit in your own life, click here1. You can also check out the author’s website for more information and resources. Don’t miss this opportunity to unleash your full potential and make a positive difference in the world!
The Warrior Within (2022) shows you how to harness and strengthen your inner power so you can fulfill your roles in business and life. Find out how to cultivate your warrior spirit and live with strength, humility, and connection.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Cultivate the power of your warrior spirit.
What makes a warrior a warrior? Immense power? A muscular physique? A habit of never losing?
Well, despite what the media would have you believe, true warriors are not stoic, fearless superbeings focused on winning physical fights. In fact, anyone can be a warrior. That’s right, anyone.
But if warriors aren’t defined by being incredibly strong, emotionless fighters, what are they defined by?
A true warrior is someone who helps others. Someone who fights for something bigger than themselves, not just for personal glory. Someone who makes a difference.
Many people today try to achieve these goals by pushing themselves to the breaking point in service of others. But that doesn’t work. Not taking time for ourselves, avoiding unpleasant feelings, or trying to meet that unfailing warrior stereotype – these actions smother the flames sustaining us.
You can’t serve in any role when you’re a burned-out shell. But you can learn to strengthen your warrior spirit, achieve your goals, and avoid burnout by serving the right way.
In The Warrior Within, D. J. Vanas draws on his Anishinaabe heritage, his experience as a captain in the US Air Force, and the testimony of numerous modern warriors to explain how anyone can strengthen their warrior spirit and live a fulfilling, service-filled life. He emphasizes how anyone can make a difference – without burning out – even amidst the chaos of modern life.
In this summary, we’ll show you how you can cultivate a true warrior spirit: You’ll learn the importance of taking time for yourself, uncovering your unique mix of skills, and staying focused but flexible while pursuing your goals. Discover how to own your power, serve your community, and protect what matters to you.
What is a warrior?
As we’ve already said, a warrior is much more than the stereotype of a fearless, emotionless fighter. Trying to bend yourself into this shape leads to feelings of frustration at best, to burnout at worst. And yet the image pervades, sustained by media images and personal expectations of what being a warrior means.
Think for a moment about the last time you gave more of yourself than you should have. Perhaps you accepted so many shifts you barely got any sleep or helped every time someone asked despite having your own work to do. How did you feel afterward? Tired? Resentful? Run down? Mad at yourself for not being able to do it all?
You don’t have to keep up the dizzying cycle. A true warrior does serve others. But they also know they’re not bulletproof, that they must care for themselves first before they can help other people.
What else defines a warrior?
They come in all shapes, sizes, and genders. Anyone can be a warrior. You just have to cultivate your warrior spirit.
A true warrior understands they’re not a lone wolf. They need support. And they don’t let fear stop them from seeking it out. They find the right way to serve, so they don’t burn out. They’re not arrogant, and they don’t quit. Though they do know the value of strategic surrenders!
Find your unique mix, values, and vision.
How would you transport 300 babies from Vietnam to the United States for adoption? Probably with copious planning, helping hands, and car seats.
Well, in 1975, LeAnn had none of those things. Plus, she had to get the babies out of Saigon before the North Vietnamese Army overtook it. Birthed from fathers from the US services and Vietnamese mothers, the babies were referred to as Amerasians and were hated by the North Vietnamese Army. If LeAnn couldn’t rescue the babies in time, the army would enact terrible revenge on the innocent infants. To make the task even harder? She’d originally expected only six babies and had only a few helpers.
But LeAnn had a warrior spirit. She knew we almost always have what we need to solve a problem, even if we don’t have exactly what we’d like.
So she and her fellow volunteers transported the babies in batches via an old bus with no seat belts – let alone car seats – and cardboard boxes. They evacuated the babies from Saigon only three weeks before it fell to the North Vietnamese Army.
LeAnn’s incredible story exemplifies some of the key things you must do in your role as a warrior: utilize your unique mix of traits and abilities, clarify your values, and build a vision for your life.
LeAnn dug within herself, drawing on her creativity, dedication, and values to achieve her vision: saving the Amerasian babies from the North Vietnamese Army’s terrible vengeance.
Every one of us has a unique mix – a “personal medicine bag of characteristics,” as Vanas describes it – that we can leverage to achieve our visions. Consider what your unique traits might be. Are you especially good at making others laugh, for example? Or solving engineering problems? Or perhaps you have a vast knowledge of bees you can share with others and use to help create habitats they thrive in.
Whatever your unique mix, it’s important you spend some time recognizing it. Then, determine what you value – whether that’s clean neighborhoods, time with family and friends, rehabilitation of injured wildlife, or something else.
Once you’ve determined your unique mix and your values, you can craft your vision. This determines how your life proceeds, what roles you seek out, and how you channel your warrior spirit to do the most good.
And if you never save 300 babies from an army, well . . . we can’t all be LeAnn, but we can be warriors in our own way!
Face your fears.
Remember that fearless warrior image we talked about before? In reality, all humans have fears. It’s what we do despite them that defines us.
A warrior faces their fear and acts anyway. Doing so is what we call courage. To be a warrior, you must practice being courageous.
The good news? You can strengthen your courage in small, meaningful ways every day. Doing anything that scares you, whether it’s clearing away cobwebs or trying something new, builds your courage. Facing one fear emboldens you to face the next. As these victories pile up, you’ll find you eventually have the courage to face any truly big fears you have.
Two common fears are failure and criticism after a failure. These fears are natural. It can be really hard to deal with them. And just building up your courage might not be enough to help you successfully face them.
But you can combat these fears: by using a perspective shift. Remember, warriors aren’t almighty. Real warriors sometimes fail. Everyone fails, usually many times over the course of their lives. The only way to avoid failure is doing nothing.
If we let fear of failure stop us from attempting anything, we won’t even have a chance of succeeding. So keep building your courage, keep facing your fears. And maybe think of Crazy Horse while you do.
Who was Crazy Horse? He was a nineteenth-century Lakota war leader defending against the US Army. He was the last to surrender, and only after striking fear in all he fought against thanks to his brilliant tactics. And yet, when he was younger, he might have been called a nerd, had the word existed at the time. His tribe found him a strange child, and he grew up to be a strange man. Nonetheless, he was loved for his warrior spirit. He had to overcome any fear of failure or criticism in order to become that man.
So, if you’ve been building your courage and still have trouble facing these big fears, remember Crazy Horse. Even such an iconic warrior had to face down what you’re now dealing with to become a successful warrior.
Now we’ve covered what a warrior is and isn’t, the importance of finding your unique mix, your values, and your vision, and how you can build your courage and face your fears. You’re well on the path of living as a warrior.
In the next sections, we’ll discover how warriors stay focused yet flexible, feed their motivation, and deal with setbacks, change, and loss.
Stay focused but flexible.
You might have heard that you’ll never finish everything on your to-do list. This is a difficult thing to acknowledge for warriors seeking to do the most good and help the most people they can.
But it does highlight the importance of determining your values and vision. We humans simply don’t have time to do every single thing we’d like to. Because of this, we must say no to the things that don’t matter as much, so we can say yes to the things that do matter.
How do you determine what does and doesn’t matter? Revisit your values and your vision.
Stay focused on your vision, so you know what you need to do to achieve it. There’s not enough time in the day to do everything, but do something each day, and you will make progress.
With all this talk of too little time, it can be tempting to fall to multitasking as a solution. Getting multiple tasks done at once sounds like a great way to check everything off your to-do list! Right?
But this way of thinking is a trap. What really happens when you try to multitask is that multiple tasks get accomplished . . . but poorly. True warriors know the value of focusing on one task at a time. When you give your entire attention to an activity, you can complete it well.
But as you focus on your vision, take time to come up for air once in a while and check on the world around you. It can be tempting to put your nose to the grindstone and work, work, work. But in doing so, you might miss changing circumstances around you.
Consider the lynx. These cats are incredibly specialized predators – their giant feet help them walk over snow and their pelts help them blend into snowy environments. They’re powerful, cunning, and deadly. These are wonderful traits for hunting the only prey they eat: the snowshoe hare. And yet according to a recent study reported in Smithsonian magazine, the number of lynx in Montana has dropped to less than a tenth of what it was about 30 years ago. Why’s that? Because they’re so specialized, so focused on their single source of food, that recent changes in their environment and increased competition for food – from their cousins, bobcats and mountain lions – have made it harder for them to survive.
So keep your vision at the forefront of your mind, but check your methods every once in a while. Stay up-to-date with what’s going on in the world. You never know what new idea might help your efforts.
Feed your motivation.
Another pernicious myth perpetuated in our world is that once you’ve found your true calling, you’ll be automatically and unceasingly fulfilled and motivated for the rest of your life.
The truth is, motivation is much like a fire in a hearth. It burns brightly at first, but if you don’t feed it, you end up with a pile of ash.
To keep the fire of motivation alive, return to your values and vision and check in with your community.
In the past, within various Native American tribes, warriors could depend on other tribe members for support, to keep them motivated while on their path of serving the tribe. Today, that might look like reaching out to your tribe: coworkers, blood relatives, or chosen family.
And it’s not just the fuel for your fire you need to keep an eye on. If you don’t shelter your fire in the right environment, it might go out. So you need to cultivate the right environment for your warrior spirit to thrive.
You probably already know a fire’s ideal environment – dry, with lots of fuel available. But what exactly does a warrior spirit need?
Similar to how you can maintain your motivation, you need community to help you keep your warrior spirit strong. Remember, warriors aren’t – nor need they be – bulletproof. If you’re struggling with something, look your fear in the face and ask for help.
Another way to keep your warrior spirit strong is to balance your stress. The goal isn’t to eliminate stress entirely. Stress can help you determine which things truly matter, what must be done versus what can wait until later or be dropped entirely.
Finally, consider again your unique mix. What do you, personally, need to keep your spirit strong? Maybe it’s a daily bubble bath. An hour-long call with someone you love. A good book. Whatever it is, make sure you incorporate it into your life frequently enough to keep yourself rejuvenated and ready to keep fighting for what you believe in.
Deal with setbacks, change, and loss.
We just covered how to keep yourself motivated and thriving during the day-to-day strivings of your warrior path. But one thing’s for certain – life is full of surprises. How can you stay focused and motivated when faced with a setback, unexpected change, or loss?
To deal with change or setbacks, it helps to stay philosophical, focused yet flexible, and connected to your tribe. By now, you might be sensing some repeating themes when it comes to living as a warrior. The same things that help you face your fears and live within your warrior spirit can indeed help you gracefully face change.
Keep in mind that change is the only constant in life, other than death. And setbacks happen to everyone. Everyone. Knowing these are inevitable, you can better accept them when they come, then move on to actually dealing with what they mean for your vision. Remember to stay focused on your vision, but be flexible in adapting to new situations.
But what about loss? There are no easy answers when it comes to dealing with the strong and difficult emotions loss raises. But a warrior does at least these two things in the face of a loss: reach out to their tribe, and face and acknowledge the pain of the loss.
When Vanas and his wife lost their son, Vanas tried to push the pain away and get right back to work. But he felt lost and stuck inside. It wasn’t until he faced his heartbreak during a “wiping of the tears” ceremony that he was able to truly begin healing.
Summary
Though the prominent image of a warrior is a cool and collected, physically-powerful winner, warriors focus on helping others. But they know they have to serve themselves before they can serve others. Warriors know they’re not bulletproof. They work to strengthen their courage and connections to community to help them deal with the challenges of life. They know their individual assets, and they stay focused yet flexible in working to realize their vision.
You might ask, When is a warrior’s work done?
The answer is never. A warrior doesn’t stop serving, they simply transform into an elder whose purpose is to share the wisdom they’ve collected over their years as a warrior. This shows exactly how important it is to maintain your motivation and cultivate the right environment. If you keep your warrior spirit strong, you can make a difference in the world throughout your entire life.
D.J. Vanas is an internationally-acclaimed speaker for Fortune 500 companies, hundreds of tribal nations, and over 7,000 audiences nationwide. An enrolled member of the Ottawa Tribe of Michigan and a former U.S. Air Force officer, he inspires others to practically apply the power of the warrior spirit in business and in life. He is the author of The Tiny Warrior and Spirit on the Run and was featured in the PBS film The Warrior Tradition. He hosted the Discovering Your Warrior Spirit show on PBS. He lives in San Diego.
Genres
Inspiration, Personal Development, Personal Finance, Personal Transformation Self-Help, Motivational Self-Help
Table of Contents
Introduction xi
1 Own Your Warrior Spirit: Putting It to Work 1
2 Live Off the Land: Using What You’ve Got Right Now 19
3 Prepae for Battle: Vision Questing for Life 43
4 Count Coup on the Enemy: Facing and Defeating Fear 65
5 Attack Again and Again: Overcoming the Impossible 87
6 Keep the Fires Lit: Sustaining Your Strength in the Headwinds 105
7 Read the Signs and Stay Vigilant: A Warrior’s Work Is Never Done 129
8 Use Your Medicine to Heal: Creating the Right Environment for Sustained Strength 151
9 What to Do When the Wolf Comes: Navigating Change, Setbacks, and Loss 169
10 Transform into an Elder: Warriors Don’t Retire 195
Conclusion 217
Acknowledgments 223
Index 229
Review
The Warrior Within: Own Your Power to Serve, Fight, Protect, and Heal is a book by D.J. Vanas, a speaker, former U.S. Air Force officer, and member of the Ottawa tribe. The book is a transformational guide to getting yourself right in order to accomplish the work you were meant to do, drawing inspiration from Native American philosophy and tradition. The book outlines a new model for personal power in the face of overwhelming chaos, based on what Vanas calls the warrior spirit, the kind of strength that looks outward but comes from deep within.
The book is divided into four parts, each focusing on a different aspect of the warrior spirit: serve, fight, protect, and heal. In each part, Vanas shares stories and examples from his own life and career, as well as from other warriors he has met or learned from, such as vision quests, treacherous hikes, veterans and service providers at the front lines, and more. He also provides practical exercises and tips to help readers develop and apply the warrior spirit in their own lives.
The book is not only an empowerment manual, but also a call to action to accomplish the world-changing work you were meant for by tapping into the power of the warrior spirit. Vanas challenges readers to commit to self-mastery, navigate change and disruption, transform setbacks into opportunities for achievement, refuse to quit, and most importantly, always fight for something bigger than the self.
The book is a powerful and inspiring read for anyone who wants to unleash their full potential and make a positive difference in the world. Vanas writes with passion, humor, and wisdom, blending ancient wisdom with modern insights. He shows how the warrior spirit is not only relevant but essential in today’s complex and uncertain world.