How to Write Your Own Personal Credo (The Warrior Code)

0:00 Welcome to the Unapologetic Man Podcast, the only podcast that's all about self-improvement, confidence, success, women, and being a man without making any apologies for it. What is up guys? It's Mark Sing. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of the UMP. And today we are going to talk about writing our own personal credo, our own personal ethos, so what exactly is an ethos? What is a credo? What am I talking about here? So it's basically a rule of conduct, kind of like a poem that you write for yourself to dictate how you behave in day-to-day situations.

0:40 So many of us just kind of bounce around through life and we don't have a rule set that we try to adhere to in our day-to-day lives. So what I've done is I've written a credo for myself and I've stolen shamelessly from the credos of other organizations like the Army Rangers, the Navy SEALs, the Marines. There's all kinds of cool credos. If you actually go out there and research it, there's all kinds of cool shit. And that first one I was talking about was from the Spartans.

1:10 So that was a battle credo that they would say, and they trained for battle. And I think in life, we have to have rules of conduct. So what will you do if the shit hits the fan? What will you do if somebody tries to hurt your family? What are you going to do to try to make yourself a success? So at the end of this episode, I'm going to read you my own credo. And up until then, I'm going to read a bunch of other different creeds to give you some ideas.

1:32 And it's a fun thing to do, man, is to create this for yourself and to figure out what your ideals are. What do you want to accomplish? What is your purpose? Why do you do what you're doing? Why should you have discipline? And when you have this and you kind of always have in the back of your head, it dictates your behavior. Are you going to eat that ho-ho or are you going to have discipline because you have a higher purpose? See, discipline means acting on your higher motives, not your lesser motives.

2:02 So when you have this creed, you can always abide by it and you can behave better because of it. All right. So let's explore some of these creeds and check them out. I think they're really fucking cool. I actually have this next one in a poster that I made, and it sits right next to my door that goes into my garage. And every time I pass it, I always kind of read it a little bit in addition to other motivating things that I'm going to say on this podcast.

2:23 And it gets me fired up because when I'm going out the door, I'm usually going to the gym or I'm going to jujitsu and it gets me fired up. Now, this next one is from the Navy SEALs. It's not the entire Navy SEAL creed, but it's a part of it that I really like. So let's check it out. I will never quit. I persevere and thrive on adversity. My nation expects me to be physically harder and mentally stronger than my enemies. If knocked down, I will get back up every time I will draw on every remaining ounce of strength to protect my teammates and to accomplish our mission.

2:57 I am never out of the fight, dude. I fucking love that, bro. Fuck, dude. I want to go fucking do a hundred pushups right now. I am never out of the fight. I actually got that printed out. I had this custom sticker made, this big ass sticker. It says, I'm never out of the fight. Or wait, does it say I am never out of the fight? No, it says never out of the fight. And I have it up above my bed, like on the, my ceiling kind of drops down a little bit and there's this section.

3:27 And I was like, dude, it would look so sick if we're up there. So it says never out of the fight right there. And every morning I wake up, man, I realize get up, get going, get after it, kick some ass. So it fires me up every time I get up. All right. This is a, uh, part of the ranger creed. So the army rangers are a special operations component of the army and they were featured in the movie black Hawk down. I'm sure you've seen that.

3:56 So this is part of their creed. Energetically. Will I meet the enemies of my country? I shall defeat them on the field of battle for I am better trained and will fight with all my might. Surrender is not a ranger word. I will never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy. And under no circumstances will I embarrass my country readily. Will I display the intestinal fortitude required to fight on to the ranger objective and complete the mission though. I be the lone survivor.

4:24 Bro. I want to do some pushups right now, man. I might have to press pause on this thing and get some pushups knocked out. All right. So this is the second Marine Raiders creed part of it. This, this isn't the entire creeds every time I just took out little sections of it. So you can get an idea and you can get fired up and knock out some pushups too. Spiritus Invictus, an unconquerable spirit will be my goal. I will never quit. I will never surrender. I will never fail.

4:46 I will adapt to the situation. I will gain and maintain the initiative. I will always go a little further and carry more than my share. Fucking sick dude, right? Come on. All right. So this one is kind of funny. This is from the movie 13th warrior. It's a Viking prayer or like a Viking creed. So check this out. This gets me fired up. Low there. Do I see my father? Low there. Do I see my mothers and my sisters and my brothers? Low there do I see the line of my people back to the beginning.

5:25 Low they do call to me. They bid me take my place among them in the halls of Valhalla where the brave may live forever. Sick. How many pull-ups do you want to do right now? All right. So here's some other quotes that I really like. And this is, this is one that I have printed out as well. And I made a kind of a poster out of it and it sits next to my door as it goes into the garage. This is said by Jocko Willink, who, as you guys know, I'm a big fan of.

6:00 You should check him out. The Jocko podcast. All your excuses are lies. He always says that all your excuses are lies. Think about that, dude. All your excuses are lies. That's a really profound statement. If you think about it, when we make excuses, which all of us do, it's just a fucking lie, bro. It's just an excuse. It's just a way to get out of doing something that's painful. And that leads me into my next one, which also sits next to my door into my garage.

6:27 To reach your potential, you have to suffer. Now, at first blush, you think to yourself, what the fuck is this guy talking about? To reach your potential, you have to suffer. This was said by David Goggins and suffering is his definition of going into pain willingly. And, you know, there was an interesting thing. I was listening to an interview with another Navy SEAL and he said, you know, these guys who get through SEAL training, which is probably like maybe 20 guys out of 200 that start, they actually almost like the pain.

7:04 And I think there's a whole philosophy and I think there's wisdom in the philosophy that in pain hides your peace. In pain hides your happiness. As I said in a previous podcast, when you do things that are hard, your life will be easy. When you do things that are easy, your life will be hard. I think there's a lot of wisdom in that. And so when he says to reach your potential, you have to suffer. When he says suffer, he means go into that pain willingly, deal with it.

7:30 And there is a sense of peace in it. That's why I love to work out. When I'm doing those reps, when I'm feeling that burn, I close my eyes and I listen to that hardcore music playing in my ears and I just feel that burn. And there's almost like a sense of equanimity in it. There's a sense of peace in it. There's a sense of release because you're going into something that everybody else is trying to avoid. And in that hides your peace. There's another Viking saying, and it's very simple.

7:59 It's actually an epitaph that they put on their tombstones. He didn't run. How fucking sick is that? He didn't run. He didn't flee battle. His wounds were in the front, not in the back of his body, right? He stood in the face of fear and dealt with his fear with courage. You know, courage means doing the thing anyway, despite being afraid of it. Cowardice means running away because you're afraid of it. Both the hero and the coward feel fear. The only difference is the hero acts despite the fear.

8:33 And that's what I want to try to be. And that's why I'm into this kind of stuff because it fires me up. I'm naturally very soft. I'm naturally very much a fucking pussy and I am fighting to harden up. And through these kinds of things, it gets me fired up to do so. All right. So shifting gears slightly, I also think that spiritual texts are very profound. And to me, spirituality, meditation, God realization is my first priority. And after that comes things like hardening the fuck up.

9:03 So I have a philosophy that I want to be a peaceful warrior. Peace is my highest virtue. Peace is that which I try to accomplish first. But if you fuck with me, my family, or my brothers, I want to have the ability to defend myself. I want to have the ability to protect my family. I feel that being a man means that you need to be a protector, a presider, and a provider. Protect means you should fight. You should train to fight. Provide means you make enough money to provide for your family and protect them and keep them sheltered.

9:41 And preside means you look over. You are the sheepdog, right? You protect the flock from the wolves. And that's what you should be. So this is a poem that goes more into spirituality that I have memorized. And I've been trying to figure out how to get a tattoo of this, but it's so goddamn long. I can't really figure out how to do it. But this is from the Tao Te Ching, which is an amazing spiritual text that I highly suggest you guys check out. So here's how it goes.

10:10 Empty your mind of all thoughts. Let your heart be at peace. Watch the turmoil of beings, but contemplate their return. Each separate being in the universe returns to the common source. Returning to the source is serenity. When you don't realize the source, you stumble in confusion and sorrow. When you realize where you come from, you naturally become tolerant, disinterested, amused, kind hearted as a grandmother, dignified as a king. Immersed in the wonder of the now, you can deal with whatever life brings you. And when death comes, you are ready.

10:55 Fucking bad ass, right? God damn. I love that shit. All right. So this is my personal credo. I wrote this to first tackle what's most important to me, which is peace, God realization, meditation. And then there's a little bit of not to be fucked with there at the very end. And I have admittedly stolen shamelessly from the creeds of others. But I advise you guys to think about what your creed would be. Would you say things like, I will never quit? I will never surrender. I will never dishonor my family or myself.

11:30 I will have strength and honor. Nintai ryoku to hokori. Strength and honor in Japanese. What would you write in your creed? By the way, that nintai ryoku to hokori, that means strength and honor in Japanese. And what I did is when I was teaching English in Japan, I told somebody that I wanted a shodo. And a shodo is one of those like long scrolls that has like the sick ass Japanese writing on it. Well, I told that to somebody and they had this professional shodo artist make me this badass eight foot tall scroll that's hanging right next to my desk right now.

12:01 And I was just looking at it. It says nintai ryoku, which means perseverance, getting through pain, perseverance through pain. Toh, which means and hokori, which is like honor, being a man of your word. Interesting little fact here. You know the word ninja? Well, nin means perseverance and ja comes from the word sha, which means person. So ninja, the original meaning was person who perseveres. And the reason they said that is because ninjas had to sit outside of palaces and castles in the freezing rain and they had to be cold and they had to persevere through the elements in order to get inside and be assassins.

12:46 So that word ninja is pretty fucking cool. And the first kanji nin is the same kanji that's in nintai ryoku, which means like persevering strength. All right. So here's my credo. And once again, I don't claim that I came up with all this myself. In fact, I stole from many other credos, but that's okay. And I advise you guys to do the same thing. Peace is my highest virtue. The laws are written in my heart. I am growth oriented, impeccable with my word and thankful to be alive.

13:15 My purpose is to help others. My passion is to serve. I will set an example for all others to emulate. I will be the strong who protects the weak and I will always go a little further and carry more than my share. I will never quit. I persevere and thrive on adversity. I train to be physically harder and mentally stronger than those who would do harm to myself, my friends, and my family. If knocked down, I will get back up every time. My sword is sheathed.

13:47 But if prompted, I will execute without mercy. I will draw on every remaining ounce of strength to protect my tribe and accomplish our mission. I will never quit. I will never surrender. I will never back down. I am never out of the fight. Fuck! Dude, it gets me pumped. I'm going to go to the gym right now. I'm so glad I did this podcast before I hit the gym. Jesus Christ, dude. I'm going to bench like 500 pounds today. It gets me so fired up. All right, guys.

14:15 So that was today's podcast, how to write your own personal credo. I strongly suggest you do this. Not only will it keep you in line with your morals, keep you in line with your discipline, help you act on your higher purpose, but it also gets you pretty fired up when you write it, I noticed, dude. This podcast got me pretty pumped. All right, well, I thank you so much for listening. I do appreciate your time, and I will see you in the next podcast. We'll see you in the next podcast.

14:51 We'll see you in the next podcast. We'll see you in the next podcast.

This transcript was made automatically, so a few words may be off.