Way of the Warrior Kid – Jocko Willink

Here are my favorite quotes from the book Way of the Warrior Kid: From Wimpy to Warrior the Navy SEAL Way: A Novel by Jocko Willink:

If you need rest, you go to sleep earlier. You don’t sleep in, and you don’t miss workouts. Even if you can’t perform at a high-level, showing up and doing something is still a thousand times better than not showing up at all.

The most important part of discipline is following rules that you set for yourself. It is doing things you might not always feel like doing – things that make you better.

I don’t worry about motivation, because motivation comes and goes. It’s just a feeling. You might feel motivated to do something, and you might not. The thing that keeps you on course and keeps you on the warrior path isn’t motivation. It is discipline. Discipline gets you out of bed. Discipline gets you onto the pull-up bar. Discipline gets you to grind it out in the jiu-jitsu class.

We don’t quit. Ever.

Fear is normal. In fact, fear is good. Fear is what warns you when things are dangerous. Fear is what makes you prepare. Fear keeps us out of a lot of trouble. So there is nothing wrong with fear. But fear can also be overwhelming. It can be unreasonable. It can cause you to freeze up and make bad decisions or hesitate when you need to act. So you have to learn to control fear. And that’s what you need to do right now.

The fear is in the waiting. Once you have prepared, trained, studied and planned, there is only one thing left to do: go.

You know the path. And you are humble. That is the most important thing about being a leader.