Think Like a General, Fight Like a Sergeant

Neither coward nor fool

Feb 19, 2026

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This is the first in a long series of posts focused on an idea I have often repeated: Life is War.

You may not like that or even agree with it, but I believe it is so.

Give me a few paragraphs to convince you.

The generally agreed-upon definition of war comes from Prussian General and military theorist Carl von Clausewitz, one of the preeminent military thinkers of his day and the author of ‘On War’, which, while published in the 1830’s, is still taught today. Carl defined war as: “…a clash of opposing wills characterized by friction, uncertainty, fluidity, and disorder…”

That sounds a lot like my average day, and I suspect, yours.

Try to think of the last time that you have had a day without a clash of opposing wills. It needn’t be violent, just a disagreement, or a difference of opinion that caused friction, uncertainty, fluidity, and disorder with a spouse, child, parent, friend, pet, boss, employee, coworker, poor driver, ATM Machine, etc.

Unless you have been in solitary confinement, I would wager that a day seldom passes without a clash of wills, and if so, we can agree with Carl, Life is War.

But the first (and one of the most important) lessons to learn is that clashes of will with others are nothing but minor skirmishes that misdirect our attention and resources from what’s really important. They are not the war.

The real war is constantly raging within us. Between our ears, a war between the body and the mind. A war between the person that we are and the one we want to be. Between what we want to do now and what we know we should do for the future. Between the image we try to project and the person we see when looking in the mirror.

In war, we can either attack or defend. As Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu said, “Invincibility lies in the defense; the possibility of victory in the attack“.

I know that invincibility sounds cool, but what he is referring to is stagnation, sameness. If you insist on only defending, you will never grow your empire. Reward, real reward can’t come without risk. If you want more or better, you have to take the chance of leaving the safety of your fortification and going on the offensive.

But attacking does not guarantee victory; it only makes victory possible.

The bad news is that you are a significant opponent with a strong defense. You will put up a hell of a fight. The rugged terrain of the modern world favors the defender. It is crafted to offer easy answers, alternative options, and fast ways out that make the enemy hard to pin down. The small skirmishes of life mentioned earlier will try to pull our attention from the real fight, and the battlefield is full of would-be generals vying for your attention, promising victory if you will only follow them.

The good news is that our objective in this war is to defeat ourselves. To attack and destroy the person that we are using all means at our disposal, and to emerge from the smoke and chaos of the battlefield victorious, and better.

To succeed in this, we need to think like a General and Fight Like a Sergeant. We have to understand and master the three levels of warfare.