Dear friend,
If you don’t feel powerful in life, how can you enact change? How can you make an impact?
Feeling more powerful vs being more powerful
This is the tricky thing:
There is a difference between being more powerful vs feeling more powerful.
Let us compare these two examples:
- You can give a person a line of cocaine, and after they get high, they will feel insanely strong; like they can conquer the world. Yet they cannot even deadlift 135 pounds. This individual feels strong, yet isn’t strong (in reality).
- Imagine another person who goes to the gym and deadlifts 405 pounds (successfully lifts this weight off the ground). After they lift successfully, they will feel powerful (and actually are powerful).
I cannot tackle more than one issue at a time, but let me try to first address this notion of becoming stronger in actuality.
How to become stronger:
Simple ideas:
1. Physical strength:
Go to the gym at least once a day (morning, noon, or night time), and do at least one powerlifting exercise. Keep it simple, here are your choices:
- Squats
- Deadlifts
- Heavy Dumbbell press (bench press is fine too, but the benefit of doing heavy dumbbell presses is that you don’t need a spotter; which gives you more flexibility and freedom to lift on your own. Also, if you’re not strong enough to lift the weight, you can safely throw the weights off to the side, instead of getting crushed by a barbell when you’re bench-pressing).
Each workout shouldn’t take you more than 30 minutes.
Example workout
Keep it simple:
- Warmup with the bar (3 reps)
- Add a 45-pound plate on each side (3 reps)
- Add another 25 pound plate on each side (2 reps)
- Add another 25 pound plate on each side (1 rep)
- [Here, you can either keep adding weights, and doing 1 rep, or just try to max out and do your ‘one rep max’]
If you cannot lift the maximum weight, you can lower the weight by 5 pounds on each side, and try again. If you fail again, lower the weight again by 5 pounds on each side and try again. If you fail again, that is fine, pat yourself on the back for getting your butt into the gym, take a nice shower, and head back home.
All training is good training.
I truly believe that powerlifting, weight lifting, yoga, hiking, or most physical exercises done daily can fix 90% of mental issues we have.
Furthermore, the best benefit of powerlifting or weightlifting is that not only do you feel more powerful after working out, you actually become more powerful after working out.
On the internet, there is this notion of ‘over-training’. Honestly our bodies adapt quicker than you might think. I’ve been doing extremely heavy deadlifts 7 days a week, for about a month (with no belt, or straps), and I’ve become much stronger, much quicker. But I powerlift because it is fun (it is like playing to me), not out of some strange duty or obligation.
2. Mental strength
First of all, I think that physical strength is actually more important than mental strength. Why? Physical strength is more “real”, in the sense that it is based on the laws of physics.
The question:
Can I lift a 400 pound weight off the ground? Yes or no.
This will determine the “truth” in terms of physics. Physics doesn’t lie.
However the question:
How mentally strong are you?
This is a bit more vague; by what measures are we quantifying your “mental strength”?
Furthermore, if you become physically stronger, you will naturally also become mentally stronger!
Why I prefer focusing on physical strength
To clarify the arrow of “cause and effect”:
- First build your physical strength
- Next, your mental strength will naturally increase
Besides building your physical strength, there are also exercises to build up your mental strength (we also need daily mental training).
What does it mean to build up your mental strength?
The basic idea is this:
Challenge yourself with interesting, often contradictory ideas.
For example, my favorite thinker is Nietzsche. He had the intellectual courage to challenge everything– all the past philosophers and thinkers of the past. Ultimately, it isn’t about whether he was ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ — it is about this:
Having the intellectual courage to challenge convention, even if others might try to burn you at the cross.
By reading the work of other thinkers, it can be a positive stimulus for you to think for yourself, and for you to challenge what seems like bullshit to you.
Being influenced by others is good.
There is this silly notion that one should not read or consume the ideas of others because you will become “influenced” by them. But what does the word ‘influence’ even mean? It means to “flow in” (in+fluere). It is good to be influenced by others; especially when you admire their work. And you will contribute to this flow of knowledge, wisdom, and ideas. The point is to find inspiration from others, but to add upon their ideas 100x. The idea is to produce more than you take. Also this is just a good principle of success in life in general.
How do you become boxing champion of the world?
Seneca once said something like:
If you want to become a stronger boxer, you want to be matched against the best boxers in the world.
We need challenge. If you participate in a sport, you need great opponents. Without having a great challenge, how can you ever become stronger? We must need a reason or a motivating force that provides us the opportunity to become stronger.
For example, I don’t think I would have become so mentally strong myself if I did not experience all the crazy shit that I experienced as a kid. If I never witnessed my father beat my mother (both physically and mentally), I would have never learned how to respect women. If I never saw my friends fall victim to drugs, gangs, and violence– I would have never understood the vicious cycle of poverty. If I never was bullied as a kid, I would have never learned how to stand up for myself.
Even more recently– I would have not built self-confidence if I didn’t get ‘haters’ on the internet photography world. To have even the opportunity have ‘haters’ is a blessing: it affords you the opportunity to stand up for yourself, and really ask yourself: “Is this what I truly believe in? And if so, what am I willing to risk to stand up for this belief?”
No limits.
Anyways, to conclude, becoming stronger includes:
- New and greater, more epic challenges.
- Not being afraid of taking on these new challenges.
- Building both your physical and mental strength (first, focus on the physical strength).
- Learn to despise comfort and stability; love change and flux.
- You got no limits!
GO HARD!
ERIC