Preface — The War
What’s stopping you from finding inner peace and fulfilling your potential.
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle” — Various
Thank God I’m a Millennial. Instagram is the spark for this book/blog. See, I’ve long been fascinated with social progress, leadership and the great people who make it possible from within. This fascination inspired me to learn more, and as I did, I recognized that all these people weren’t just fighting for a cause, they were fighting within themselves too.
There is currently significant focus on our psychology; mindsets, mental health and sleep are some of the few topics being explored. However, it was seeing the quote at the top on Instagram, that sparked the point of it all; the purpose of life, learning and Love itself: The battle.
But against what enemy? Who or what are we fighting? What are we fighting for? How are we to fight? What do we have to fight against them?
Most importantly, what does victory look like? All valuable questions this one, simple quote raised. But it was the first one that proved the most important because if we’re all fighting a battle, we need to know what the enemy is and the cause for which we are fighting. The simple truth is, the first thing you must-do if you are to defeat your enemy, is identifying it first. It was during a conversation with a leader who was between organizations that I saw the value of the first question, “what is your enemy?”, their reply was simply “inequality”. The reaction was one that immediately signified focus, strength and motivation. The ability to reflect on their career, their relationships, as well as themselves, had exposed a target that had plagued them silently their entire lives.
Born into a system that wasn’t made to recognize or value me because of my skin colour, or the women around me because of their gender; where tolerance is a virtue accompanied by a culture of blame and complaining; my experience in management, mentoring and teaching hasn’t seen things getting better. Love faces a dilemma because those who want change are too tired to fight, and those who are responsible for implementing such changes need a strategy beyond “we need more money” to invest in progress, to invest in humanity, to invest in Love. It is here that I came upon the revelation that Love and Evil are the causes for which we fight. Our enemy, Evil, is whatever is hindering either your own or others peace, with the simple intent of creating ‘chaos’. The enemy is many things; fear, oppression, pride, selfishness, revenge, pain etc. but they are all on the side of Evil.
A combination of quotes provide Love with some wisdom, “don’t argue with idiots because they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience”, and “you can either commit to being right or effective, because rarely can you be both”. Not only has Love been dragged down to Evil’s level, but Evil is right and wins the argument when Love loses the desire to be effective.
Yet I have seen hope in this philosophy, knowing where my mindset was best placed to have an impact and how others, past and present, could support me with their own expertise. Such expertise I saw came from four main human drives, which went on to become “The Battalions”. These Battalions represent how each of us seeks to contribute and to learn, find community, develop our emotions and share Love. They’re ingrained in our characters, to share our findings with others so that they too might know how Love for their craft, their industry, themselves, others, or a cause can improve the lives of others.
I also identified four factions for Evil, so that we might be better placed to identify the purpose of our enemies, so that we can face them head-on, unite when we must and improve lives in the process, making it harder for Evil to distract, delay or disrupt Love’s cause — peace.
It was Martin Luther King Jnr’s dream which inspired me during a ‘Council Meeting’; a meditative idea by Napoleon Hill’s — Think & Grow Rich; which included Napoleon Bonaparte, MLK and Christ. I asked them all one question, “what would’ve made this war easier?” To which they unanimously agreed to a straightforward principle, “if our people knew their enemy.” This dream sparked a vision of humanity being better because we have increased our individual and unified capabilities in the name of Love by fighting our internal and external battles. Where Love continues to fight for the infinite cause of peace, because we put our finite lives on the line for it; meaning that generations are equipped to continue fighting battles against depression, murder and abuse forever, in pursuit of peace.
