Anxiety is unavoidable, especially in our highly competitive, dynamic, and ever-changing world. Just as we feel we've overcome one challenge, a new one arises. Just as we catch up on our work, finish that home project, overcome that obstacle with your child - another problem pops up that needs to be solved.
All of this leads to feeling like nothing in our lives is quite under our control. Like the world is a huge mystery to us. Like we are always pawns in someone else's game, but don't know whose game it is or how even how to play it. This feeling is the source of the anxiety all of us feel, day to day. It's the reason why we always feel like we are barely able to keep our head above water. 2,500 years ago, Sun Tzu and the warriors of his time also had to deal with constant anxiety. He lived in an extremely chaotic and turbulent period in China, where different states fought for domination in the region by attacking and taking over other states. States that were once powerful would quickly be toppled by another state. You were never quite sure who your allies or enemies were. Needless to say, this was an anxious period for everyone. It was in this period that Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War. It was written as a tool to help rulers and generals overcome their fears and anxieties of going to war and come out on top. And surprisingly, it is a battle-tested tool that has lasted 2,500 years, guiding military generals, business leaders, politicians, and competitive athletes. So what does Sun Tzu have to teach about dealing with anxiety? How can we use Sun Tzu's principles to defeat one of our biggest internal enemies and come out on top? The following are four lessons I've taken from The Art of War to help me address anxiety in today's world:
Let's go through each lesson in greater depth. Lesson 1: Find your high ground For Sun Tzu, it's important in war to try to occupy a ground that offers you as much visibility as you can get. He calls this the high ground. This puts you in a position where you can see your situation as clearly as possible. In your own life, the first step to dealing with anxiety is that you need to find your high ground - that mental place that gives you clarity and room to just breathe. This could be done through walking, talking to a friend, journaling, meditating, listening to music, whatever. For me, I find my high ground by walking, talking to myself, or writing down my thoughts. Doing this alone will not take away your anxiety, but it will help you feel like the world is a little more manageable. It also puts you in a place where you can better analyze and overcome your anxiety. Lesson 2: Know thy enemy, know thyself Sun Tzu tells us, "Know the other and know the self, and in one hundred battles, there will be no danger." Overcoming anxiety is a question of knowledge, not willpower or determination. When you know your situation, know who the real enemy is, and know your ability to persevere, then your anxiety will no longer control you. The truth is, many of us don't know what anxiety really is. Anxiety is not simply a feeling of being overwhelmed by some task or possibility. Neither is it simply a feeling in the back of the head that some unknown event is lurking around the corner. These descriptions are simply how anxiety manifests itself. But something underneath is going on. Anxiety occurs when you do not feel like you have control over your situation - whether over a relationship, your work, a responsibility, or the direction of your future. In our day to day living, our subconscious minds are constantly calculating what is possible with every decision we make or situation we face. When we are uncertain of a result from our decision-making, or if we feel our direct situation is beyond our control, we feel a little bit of anxiety. Anxiety itself is very natural and actually serves as a warning signal to your consciousness that not everything is under control - that you should be alert and paying attention to make sure nothing goes wrong. It's kind of like a security alarm that beeps whenever a door or window is open. It beeps more intensely for the certain doors or windows (e.g. the front door) and less intensely for less concerning doors or windows (e.g. the attic window). The reason why anxiety is a problem is that our lives have become so complicated and we have become responsible for so many things, big and small. You have to be a loving parent, a supportive partner, a caring friend, a hard-working employee, an inspiring leader, a hobbyist, a manager of a household, your own personal accountant, and so on. Our minds do not have the capacity to keep track of all the things that could go wrong, so it generalizes all these responsibilities together. The more things you are responsible for, big or small, the more anxiety you will feel. This is the equivalent of the security alarm mentioned above beeping 24-7, because of all the open "doors and windows" (i.e. on-going tasks and responsibilities) you have to manage in your life. The alarm may not be loud, but if it's going on all day, then it will eventually have an effect on you. This anxiety is low-grade, meaning it lurks in the background. But it can come out more pronounced in specific, uncertain situations. For example, it's normal to be anxious about giving a presentation in front of other people. But a lot of low-grade anxiety will make your anxiety for your upcoming presentation on Monday morning feel even more intense. In short, anxiety is so powerful and so prevalent because we, in our modern lifestyle, have opened ourselves up to being overcome by it. We've allowed ourselves to take on more and more responsibilities and tasks than our minds can handle effectively. This keeps us divided with ourselves, expending our precious time and energy putting out fires here and there without ever feeling calm and at peace. As you can see, anxiety is not our real enemy. Anxiety can be very healthy in keeping us alert to potential dangers we face. Anxiety that pertains to a specific situation (e.g. a presentation, a competition) can actually be very helpful because it spurs us to be cautious and thoughtful in our plans. Our real enemy is not anxiety itself, but our lack of control over our responsibilities and commitments. This lack of control makes us vulnerable to anxiety's effects on us. We've become weakened in our ability to handle uncertainty, because it adds one more fire to the mix. Understanding this distinction is key to overcoming anxiety on a day-to-day basis. Lesson 3: Elevate and simplify Now that understand who our real enemy is - not anxiety, but our lack of skill in managing our responsibilities - we can develop a strategy for overcoming this enemy. As Sun Tzu tells us, "A skilled military operation cultivates the Way and preserves the Methods." What he means by this is that a skilled general continually communicates the army's purpose and follows the appropriate military principles. When it comes to anxiety, if our problem is that we are divided and unfocused in the number of commitments we decide to take on, leaving us vulnerable to feeling overwhelmed by anxiety, our strategy will be to reduce our number of commitments. This reduces the number of "doors and windows" that can cause our alarm (anxiety) to sound. To reduce our number of commitments, we can't simply start cutting things off. Rather, we have to elevate our perspective. We have to think about what is important to us and what falls outside of that. We have to think of our purpose - what Sun Tzu calls the Way. Understanding our purpose - our values, our priorities, our key responsibilities, our mission - shows us the way to distinguishing what we should commit ourselves to and what we shouldn't. If we feel our sense of purpose is to raise confident and supported children, to be healthy and fit, and to lead your business team to be successful, then any commitment outside of these should be put into question. Using this perspective, you can start reducing your commitments. Ask yourself:
In continually eliminating extraneous responsibilities and commitments, you are closing and locking these doors and windows. This makes it easier to deal with the important responsibilities that should be taking up your time and deserve your attention. Lesson 4: Adopt the mindset of an invader It is not enough simply to reduce our responsibilities and commitments. We must continually guard ourselves from adding on responsibilities that do not serve our overall purpose. Doing this involves adopting the mindset of the invader. As Sun Tzu says, "In general, this is the Way of invading: if you enter deep [into enemy territory], you are united. The enemy will not be able to subdue you." Surrounded by the enemy, your army will be focused, alert, and united. This is the mindset you need to adopt: the world is constantly conspiring to get you to tend to more and more of its responsibilities and needs. People want your attention. Politicians want your votes and money. Coworkers want your time and effort. You must constantly be alert to the fact that people want to drive you away from your purpose to fulfill their own needs and agendas. And that you, deep down, want to be helpful and supportive. You must resist this. You must keep your focus. You must see yourself, with your purpose, as an invader in enemy territory. You have a mission to accomplish, a purpose to fulfill in the world. And you won't let anyone distract you from that. In adopting this mindset and keeping firm to it, you will be channeling your anxiety towards a higher goal: cultivating your purpose. Staying focused in this way, not only will you be able to conquer your anxiety, but, as Sun Tzu says, the world will be unable to subdue you.
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