Practicing the Sun Tzu Way: 5 Exercises To Get You Started

The Sun Tzu Way is, at its core, designed to be a practical philosophy of life. As such, there are a number of practices or exercises you can implement in your life to give you greater clarity, calm, and confidence. In my own life, there are five exercises I try to use on a regular basis:

1. Cultivate your Tao
2. Find your high ground
3. Play the spy
4. Contemplate the dangers
5. Put yourself on death ground

Let's look at each exercise in depth.

EXERCISE 1: CULTIVATE YOUR TAO
"A skilled military operation cultivates the Tao, yet preserves the Methods. Thus, one can become master of victory and defeat."
- Sun Tzu

For Sun Tzu, Tao, or the Way, refers to one's sense of purpose - what one is trying to do or achieve and why. To cultivate your Tao means to regularly bring it to mind, see its application in everything you do, and to adjust your understanding of it with new experiences. In other words, it's to live and breathe it. 

For me, I cultivate my Tao by reviewing and editing my personal philosophy statement on a regular basis (usually every week or so). This statement is a document on my Google Drive that outlines:

• What I feel I'm on this planet to do
• My values
• My aspirations
• My main priorities

Not everything I do will align with this statement. But reviewing it regularly, I am able to see if I'm going off track and if I need to reduce some responsibilities or habits. It helps to keep my eye on the ball.

You don't need to follow my statement, but I suggest that you also have a personal philosophy statement and that you review it regularly.

EXERCISE 2: FIND YOUR HIGH GROUND
"In general, the winning army prefers the high ground and hates the low, values the sunny side and despises the dark."
- Sun Tzu

Life can be stressful and chaotic at times. It can be demoralizing, anxiety-provoking, and frustrating. It can throw you challenge after challenge until you just want to disengage, procrastinate, lash out in anger, or complain.

For Sun Tzu, true strength comes from a calm, focused mind. As he tells us, "Using discipline, await disorder. Using calm, await clamor. Such is managing the mind." When the world throws obstacle after obstacle at you, you must approach each with a steady mind.

Getting to a calm, focused place requires what I call "finding your high ground." Just as Sun Tzu advises positioning the army on the high, sunny ground where the army has greater visibility, finding your high ground means using a reliable practice that you know always helps give you a sense of clarity and calm.

For example, some people gain clarity when they go out for a run. Some people gain it through cleaning or organizing their space. Others gain it by brainstorming or doing a to-do list.

Personally, I gain it by wrestling with my thoughts and frustrations, either on a long walk or through writing my thoughts down. In talking to myself, I start to articulate my problems and feel greater clarity in dealing with them.

Whatever your practice is, you need to clearly define it and use it whenever you feel stressed, anxious, upset, or frustrated. Doing it may not solve your problem, but it will help get you into a headspace where you have the clarity and confidence to deal with it. 

EXERCISE 3: PLAY THE SPY
"What enables the enlightened rulers and good generals to conquer the enemy at every move and achieve extraordinary success is foreknowledge."
- Sun Tzu

For Sun Tzu, knowledge is the key to any kind of success. And for him, it does no good to try to gain knowledge just when you need it the most. This is why, in his time, leaders would have a network of spies already in place to inform them of any important information that may threaten their nation's security.

Likewise, so that you are never caught unaware, you need to play the spy yourself. You must always be listening to things that may help or hurt your situation. This is how you gain wisdom (zhi).

Playing the spy doesn't mean that you are trying to "uncover" secret information from others or anything insidious like that. Rather it means always being observant and vigilant. It means

• listening more than you talk, and listening between the lines of what people are saying
• paying attention to body language, tone, and other nonverbal cues in conversation
• capturing useful information - from books, from videos, from conversations - and storing it in a place where you can access or review later
• asking probing questions about what a person feels or thinks and refraining as much as possible from butting in with your own opinions or thoughts. 

Playing the spy also can be turned to yourself. You can use it to capture your thoughts and feelings in a journal or diary, or to ask probing questions like, "Why do I feel this way? Where does this feeling come from? Why did I react like that? Why do I think x, y, z?"  

In my own life, for example, I use my notes app on my phone to write down suggestions people say, thoughts I'm having, resources to read later on, pieces of a conversation that stick with me.

Overall, the motto of a good spy is, "Every interaction is an opportunity to learn." Repeating this motto to yourself is a good way to stay observant and keep on the lookout for opportunities or dangers that may be lurking about.

EXERCISE 4: CONTEMPLATE THE DANGERS
"Therefore, one who does not fully know the dangers of using the army cannot fully know the advantages of using the army."
- Sun Tzu

This exercise involves accounting for the risks or dangers involved in taking on any endeavor - whether it be a project, a goal, or an idea - before you take on the endeavor. For Sun Tzu, it's by contemplating the dangers of the endeavor that we can actually strengthen our plans and thus increase our likelihood of success.

Afraid you won't know what to talk about on a date? Write up a list of topics and questions to ask if the conversation dries up.

Worried that the hiring manager for an interview may ask why you're leaving your current job, which you hate? Come up with a strong response that explains your decision to advance your career.

Worried that a project at work may derail? Set up regular check-ins to monitor progress.

There's a second benefit to contemplating the dangers: it prepares you for the possibility that things can, and probably will, go wrong. It reminds you that nothing ever goes smoothly and you will encounter hiccups on the way. Being ready for that keeps you sharp and ready to adapt.

EXERCISE 5: PUT YOURSELF ON DEATH GROUND
"On death ground, fight."
- Sun Tzu

Although the Sun Tzu Way is, at its core, a philosophy of life, in many ways, it is also a reflection on death. For Sun Tzu, war is a grave matter. Not only are soldiers' lives at stake, but the lives of the people.

But death, for Sun Tzu, can also be a unifying force that pressures the army to focus their energy and fight with full strength. At the heel of death, even cowardly soldiers become courageous, since they have nothing to lose. This is why Sun Tzu tells us that the role of the general is throw his soldiers into danger.

You too can put yourself on death ground and let it motivate you to go all in on an endeavor. In my own life, I try to put myself on death ground by regularly practicing memento mori (a Latin phrase that translates to "Remember you will die"). It's an ancient practice that involves keeping death at the forefront of your mind by imagining your death or meditating on your mortality. Although it sounds morbid, the idea is to remind yourself that life is fleeting and that if you want to accomplish something, you have to move now before it's too late.

Another way to put yourself on death ground is to give yourself tight deadlines on projects or goals (the deadlines should make you uncomfortable), and to have some big consequence (e.g. giving money to an organization whose values you despise, taking a bet) if you fail to complete or achieve the project or goal.