Are you this person? You start your day by waking up 10 minutes late. You hurry through your morning routine, barely getting breakfast. You get unlucky with traffic and you’re 20 minutes late to work (or worse). Then you realize your socks don’t match.

You’re hoping for a good day, an easy day. But your wish it NOT granted. Reports are late. Your superiors have criticism of your work product. Your co-workers are unreliable. The day goes from rough to an unmitigated disaster…you get the idea.

And truly there are a million self-help books to teach you about the value of getting up early and having your clothes already picked out. This isn’t that kind of lesson.

I’m more interested in the mindset of being ready. To me, it isn’t that the person described above has bad morning habits. It’s more about where their mind was. They were hoping for a good day. They were wishing for light traffic. They were praying for the seas to part and let them pass easily.

They were not ready to face the challenges.

A warrior mindset is always ready for battle.

I don’t like to hope.

I don’t need to wish.

I don’t want to duck my head and hope adversity won’t see me.

I don’t feel like being lucky.

I’m ready.

I plan on having a bad day. If it turns out to be a good one? Hey! Lucky me!

But I plan on having a bad one. I prepare for it. I get up believing I’m going to be swamped at work. I meditate on the challenges I will face. I prepare for the aches my body will feel when I exercise. Today is going to suck and that’s okay.

I’m ready for it. And I’m going to win.

Understand everyone has problems. Buddha said everyone has 83 problems. The 84^th is wishing for a life with no problems.

I don’t care where you are in life, there is an obstacle. There will be something holding you back. There will be some chore you don’t want to do. And there will be something you don’t want to deal with.

Be ready for them.

So, what do you do? I like to envision the obstacles and challenges of the day are an army, an invading horde, trying to press in. I am completely cut off and in a void. Believe it or not, this makes me feel better. There is no hope. There is no comfort. I must go forward and meet it or I will die. And surprisingly, this does the trick. It focuses my mind and prepares me to meet these challenges head on.

You can too. And you will win.

Because the truth is our problems are nothing special. As I said, everyone has them. The real problem is wanting a life without them. I know people who always think if they can just get that job or move into this house or win that lottery, everything will be perfect from now on. And I’ll bet you do too.

But these people are just creating a fantasy for themselves. And they’ll soon be disappointed when that bubble pops.

Set your mind to ‘task oriented’ and ‘problem solving’. Do not be deluded by the ideas of an easy day or a comfortable retirement. There is no such thing so long as we draw breath.

Practice daily on the idea of facing adversity and obstacles. Learn to lean into them instead of running away.

Start with a cold plunge or cold shower. Why? Because it is a reminder that things can suck.

On your way to your job. Meditate on your problems. Live them. Visualize them.

Take a task no one likes to do and make it your favorite subject.

Let me give you an example. Once upon a time I was a police officer. And for some reason, the one thing every cop hates to do is DUIs. Oh, I know you of the general public think we love them, but the truth is we hate them. We’re afraid of them. There are a lot of steps. There is usually a lot of court time associated with these arrests. There are a lot of places to mess up and look like an ass in front of a lot of people. And looking like an ass when you are a cop is the worst because everyone expects you to be perfect today and improve tomorrow.

I was no different. The idea of working DUIs caused anxiety. I didn’t know what I was doing. I was going to screw up.

So I decided to lean into this. I started working every DUI I could get my hands on. There’s been a wreck? One of the drivers is drunk? The guy doesn’t speak English? He speaks Nepali??? (true story)…Oh I’m there!!!!

I took them all. I made the mistakes. I learned. And I got better.

It wasn’t too long before everyone was giving me their DUIs so I got a lot of practice. I became the shift expert on the subject.

And do you know happened? The anxiety went away. I dealt with the problem. And I didn’t die. (I didn’t end up looking like an ass either).