Education
Credit goes to James Northeimer—@JamesNortheimer, the Beta_Killer, on Twitter—for the title of this essay. Ok, so your life is bad right now. You’ve hit rock bottom. Good. Reality has sunk in. You’ve got a place to remember for comparison. A place you never want to return to. But how in the hell do you get your ass out of there? First step: get yourself a mentor. Reach out and ask for some help. I bet there’s someone out there who’s just been waiting for the opportunity. Someone who’s been working his ass off to put himself in the strongest possible position; simply because there was nothing else he could do; and simply to be ready when and if the call came. Have the courage to reach out. Your future self will thank you. It could be the smartest thing you ever do. Take the help and do your part. Listen, be humble and do the work. Second step: stop doing things that make you weak. You know what these are. No more inebriation and no more Shallow Distractions. Quit television, ignore the poison of politics, let go of people who are a bad influence and no more junk food. Get comfortable being alone and without distraction. Quit hiding from yourself. Have the courage to be alone for a while. Face yourself. Stop running away. Good and bad, face yourself. You’re not the first man to be where you are and you won’t be the last. There’s nothing unique about your difficulties. Accept your situation. Accept who you are right now. And let’s roll from there; but without all of the things that make you weak. Clear a damn path. Start simply and build a foundation for success Third step: Progressive Resistance as a Way of Life. Here is where we will begin to roll forward. We will start simply and build a foundation for success. And then slowly dial it in, slowly add some progressive resistance. Just as with weight lifting to add muscle mass and power you will start with some basics and pay attention to form. There will no heavy lifting to start. But you will begin to take action. Day in and day out you will take simple action. You will handle what needs to be handled and take care of what needs to be taken care of. No more putting off and no more weakness. Ask your mentor for help and ask him to keep you accountable. And when he does, stand up and be accountable. Always remember where you ended up and where it is you don’t ever want to ever be again. And just as with weight training, growth will begin in the kitchen. It’s much harder to be mentally strong if your physiology is not also strong. Quit eating processed foods and switch over to real food instead. Eat as humans have evolved to do. Eat meat, fish, chicken, eggs, cheese, butter, vegetables and some fruit. In other words, move away from a carbohydrate based low fat diet, to a protein based high fat diet. And cook only with butter, olive oil and coconut oil. No more vegetable or seed oils. They are unnatural and no good for you. Moving away from carbohydrates to animal based saturated fat for energy will convert your metabolism from being a sugar burner to a fat burner for energy. This will have obvious benefits if you’ve got some excess weight to lose, but it will also prevent the ups and downs of a carbohydrate based diet. You’ll have steady energy all day long and mental clarity like never before. Energy and mental clarity, this is a good start. Next up, get your sleep cycle in order. Get your ass out of bed early in the morning. Life is for the awake and is meant to be lived during the daylight. Getting your diet in order will provide you with the energy to keep going all day long. Get up and get busy. Get busy and tire yourself out. This is a good kind of tired; the kind of tired that is rewarded with a good night’s sleep. Just as you will get up early at the same time each day, set a consistent time to get to bed and stick to it. If you have trouble falling asleep, then read until you do.