Complacency gets you killed. 

You may not be in war, but you're in life, and the daily mantras we use have a tremendous impact on our experience. 

Tony Robbins says, "change your words, change your life."

The military has a mantra, "embrace the suck."

How are soldiers expected to overcome the grueling training? How are they supposed to mentally survive as bullets whip past their head at 2,350 ft/s?

According to Gil Mayer, who wrote "Subconscious Mind – How to Unlock and Use Its Power?" The mantra is one of the most powerful techniques to control our subconscious. 

"How you speak to yourself directly influences how you experience things in life," Tony Robbins writes.

He tells us we need to accurately label our emotions — notice how we use negative language. Instead of saying, "I'm angry," say, "I'm a little annoyed."

Imagine the mental shift this has on your life. You're in control of your emotions. 

Let's fix how we speak to ourselves.

Embrace the suck. 

The mantras to follow help me develop premeditatio malorum ("the pre-meditation of evils"), which is a stoic exercise of imagining things that could go wrong, or be taken away from us.

According to the Daily Stoic,

” Seneca, for instance, would begin by reviewing or rehearsing his plans, say, to take a trip. And then, in his head (or in journaling as we said above), he would go over the things that could go wrong or prevent it from happening—a storm could arise, the captain could fall ill, the ship could be attacked by pirates.

“By doing this exercise, Seneca was always prepared for disruption and always working that disruption into his plans. He was fitted for defeat or victory.”

Using mantras won't help you prepare for tough moments, but what they will do is help you get through them. 

Here are two powerful short mantras I use to help me embrace the suck. 

A word of caution, these are the mantras that work for me. One is vulgar and direct. 

It forces me to control my mind and not let my mind control me. 

Don't be a bitch.

I use to hate running. It's hard, boring, and my body felt like it was smashing into the pavement. 

Because I hate it so much, I decided to train for a half-marathon. If I don't like something because it's hard, then I need to embrace it. 

As I started to train, I was terrible at controlling my pace. I wanted to run fast. I wanted to be a pavement badass. 

My body, and my lungs, didn't agree. A pavement badass, I was not. Halfway through my run, I'd be out of breath. My fingers would tingle.

During my training, I must embrace the suck. Instead of walking or resting, I'd tell myself,

”DON’T BE A BITCH!”

Yes, this isn't the kindest mantra, but it helps me overcome mental barriers. Sure, I'm not in the middle of a war, with bullets racing past my ears, but it helps. 

It helps me embrace my suck. 

I use this mantra in business as well. 

I was training a young team member to hopefully run part of my business one day. He was kind, funny, and worked hard. 

He rarely made excuses and fixed issues instead of complaining about them. He was on a path to some sort of succession planning.

One day he came into my office. He handed me a letter. At that moment, I knew he was resigning. 

He wanted to travel to Australia with his best friend. I thought about grabbing a broom and smacking him over the head, but I contained myself. 

On my drive home, I was emotional. I was pissed off, mad, and angry. Then, I took a deep breath and told myself, 

”DON’T BE A BITCH!”

Once I engaged in my mental mantra, I calmed down and decided that I'd accept this, and fix it.

Premeditatio malorum.

GOOD!

”If you can say the word good, it means you’re still alive. It means you’re still breathing. And if you’re still breathing, you still have some fight left in you. Get up. Dust off. Reload. Recalibrate. Reengage. And go out on the attack.” -Jocko Willink

Jocko's video is about a simple mantra, GOOD! Its effectiveness is in it's short, raw meaning. 

So life has thrown you some difficulty?

Good. 

Are things tough? 

Good. 

Are you tired?

Good. 

You're alive, breathing. Get up, dust off, and embrace the suck. It's the suck that makes you stronger. 

It's why the book Chop Wood, Carry Water is an excellent reminder of greatness does not come from complacency or weakness.

Good! Don't be a bitch.