Before our clients embark on The Warriors Path, we recommend three short, narrative-driven books that align with each core phase of our system. Each book uses accessible storytelling to teach essential concepts our cadre will implement during training: Leadership Development, Mental Performance, and Building Culture. Read these three gain clarity, context, and a common language that will accelerate your growth and your team’s progress.

Leadership Development

Leadership and Self-Deception — The Arbinger Institute

This is an absolute classic, in its 4th edition. Leadership and Self-Deception has been impacting leaders for more than two decades. It explains how our self-focused thinking (self-deception) undermines leadership, teamwork, accountability, communication, and relationships. It reframes leadership as the ability to see others as people rather than objects or obstacles. That shift is foundational to effective leadership behavior and healthy team dynamics.

Self-deception is the ultimate enemy within—it clouds judgment, breeds excuses, undermines unit cohesion, and weakens resolve under pressure. Just as a true warrior trains to confront threats head-on and maintain situational awareness, overcoming the box demands brutal self-honesty, rejecting self-justifying narratives, and prioritizing mission/team over ego. Embracing Arbinger's principles builds the inner resilience and outward focus that define elite warriors: no room for victimhood or blame, only clear-eyed responsibility and service to others. This mindset shift isn't just leadership—it's mental warfare won daily.

What you’ll learn relative to The Warriors Path:

Leadership: How seeing others honestly strengthens influence and credibility.
Teamwork & Communication: How self-deception blocks real collaboration and how adopting a people-first perspective opens candid, productive exchange.
Accountability & Relationships: Why taking responsibility for impact, rather than blaming, creates trust and sustainable accountability.

Mental Performance

Chop Wood, Carry Water — Joshua Medcalf

The Warriors Path is intended to build a warrior mindset. Chop Wood, Carry Water is a short, parable-style journey that exemplifies that mindset. A warrior committed to mastery and becoming an eternal student. Drawing on the ancient saying, “before enlightenment, chop wood carry water, after enlightenment, chop wood and carry water,” this disciplined process is the mindset that transforms talent into sustained performance. Joshua Medcalf teaches the daily work of mastery through a narrative that’s easy to absorb and apply.

The core theme is to embrace the journey and the repetitive, disciplined tasks that build the foundation for mastery. Focus on developing a growth mindset and embodying gratitude, recognizing that our identity isn't tied to outcomes. Our biggest challenges often come from within, like comparison, ego, and discouragement. Greatness is achieved through faithful, daily execution of the small things, even when it's difficult. No matter what level of performance or success we achieve, we must continue chopping wood and carrying water.

What you’ll learn relative to The Warriors Path:

Self-Regulating Awareness & Mindset: How consistent, small actions and rituals shape attention and identity.
Resilience & Emotional Intelligence: How embracing the process builds patience, reduces reactivity, and strengthens recovery from setbacks.
High-Pressure Tools & Techniques: How focusing on process rather than outcomes delivers consistent performance under stress.

Building Culture

The Twin Thieves — Steve Jones & Lucas Jadin

The Twin Thieves tells an engaging story that illustrates how values, motivations, and hidden assumptions shape teams and organizations. A parable-style story follows the journey of a high school football team, revealing their real enemies aren't rival opponents but the “Twin Thieves” — the Fear of Failure and the Fear of Judgment—two relentless forces that rob individuals and teams of potential, trust, courage, and ultimately performance.

Great leaders rise above these thieves by creating cultures of vulnerability, accountability, and collective strength. Elite teams and unbreakable warriors are forged through faith and purpose, not talent or tactics. By confronting and defeating these hidden fears, true toughness emerges from connection and service to teammates, not from hiding weaknesses or chasing perfection. Success demands surrendering outcomes you can't control while owning attitude, energy, and effort—no matter the scoreboard.

What you’ll learn relative to The Warriors Path:

Mission, Vision & Purpose (MVP): How a compelling “why” unites action and meaning across a group.
Principles & Standards: How story-driven examples of choices illuminate the need for clear operating norms and standards.
Motivation, Focus & Succession Planning: How culture either preserves or corrodes long-term purpose — and what leaders must do to sustain focus, motivate responsibly, and plan for continuity.

Next Steps

Why narrative books work for The Warriors Path: engaging stories bypass resistance. They help make abstract concepts more concrete, model decisions in context, and create emotional memory — which means the lessons are more likely to be recalled and used during high-pressure moments. These three books are short, accessible, and rich with transferable lessons that pair directly with each phase of our systems-based approach.

Read Leadership and Self-Deception to prime your leadership and relationship habits.
Read Chop Wood, Carry Water to internalize process, discipline, and resilience.
Read The Twin Thieves to shape mission-driven culture and succession thinking.

How to Read for Maximum Impact

Read actively: Take notes on specific moments that resonate — phrases, scenes, or decisions you could emulate or change.
Journal one action step after each chapter: Convert insight into practice immediately, so learning compounds.
Discuss with a teammate: Share key takeaways before training starts; it creates alignment and primes joint reflection in the program.
Translate lessons into measurable behaviors: For each core theme (leadership, mindset, culture), define one observable habit to start, one to stop, and one to track weekly.

Don’t Just Read—Start Transforming Today

These three books are powerful seeds, but real growth happens when you plant them in your life with intention and accountability.

If you're ready to take the next step—whether it's sharpening your leadership, building unbreakable mental toughness, renewing your mind daily, or forging a winning culture in your team, family, or organization—our team is here to help you make it stick.

Contact our team and let's talk about how Warrior Mindset can support your journey: personalized coaching, implementation of The Warriors Path, or tailored strategies rooted in faith and proven principles.

Contact Our Team Now →