Are We Winning The War? By Krystal Zellmer

You know those phrases that you will never forget? Brian had a lot of those. If you worked with him closely you would often hear him say, “Are we winning the war?” Some of you can hear him saying it now in your mind and maybe even picture him with his fist in the air like he used to do. I can see it and hear it now.

What did he mean? This was an incredibly impactful phrase for us because of what it represented. Brian was a West Point Graduate, so he was trained in the US Military. He learned many lessons through that training and this was one of them that he used in his real life and in his business on an everyday basis.

In every war, you don’t just win with one fight. There are many, sometimes countless, battles that are fought in any one war. Brian used this as a representation for life. There is the “war” of your life. The goal. The big picture. The purpose. The legacy. Then there are the everyday things that get to be tackled in pursuit of all of those things. They are the daily, weekly or yearly “battles” that exist in pursuit of the big mission, winning the war.

Sometimes when we take a micro approach to viewing our lives, it feels defeating, overwhelming or frustrating. When we can back it up and look at it from a macro viewpoint we have a better comprehension of why we are choosing into each and every one of those “littler” battles. When we feel like we are losing the battles daily in life it can feel like we are lost when really we might be winning. Just because you lose a battle or two does not mean you are losing the war!

That’s why he would ask the question, “Are we winning the war?” Where are you focusing? Are you focusing on the battles you have lost? Are you focusing on where you feel defeated or like you aren’t doing so hot? Or are you focusing on the big picture of your mission? Are you choosing to focus on the “war?” And are you winning the war?

This saying has inspired me to get up many days when I’m choosing for it to feel hard. When a conversation doesn’t go the way I want it to, or I’m discouraged or disappointed with an outcome, I come back to, “Are we winning the war?”