Why I love my body:

First I love my body because I crafted it myself. I enjoy lifting weights, and my muscles and body is a manifestation of my love of weight lifting.

Second, I am happy and proud I did it without any strange chemicals, steroids, artificial or “natural” growth hormones. Purely meat and black coffee.

Third, a manifestation of my theories and training. For example, no protein powder, creatine, all while fasted. No meal in the ”golden 1 hour window” post training. I did everything ”unoptimally” and still got the gains.

My body is mine.

Fourth, I have pride in my body because it belongs to me. You’re born with only one body, and cannot swap it out for another body — irregardless of how rich or clever you are.

Fifth, I like the way my face looks. A result of my natural testosterone, manliness, high muscle mass, and low bodyfat percentage.

A ”perfect body”?

So once you have a “perfect body”, then what?

Then the funny irony:

Once you have a body you consider perfect, then you no longer think about your body.

The via negativa body.

Rather, instead of goals instead … focus on continuous kaizen improvement, indefinite growth in strength!

Ever ascending strength is the way!

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Beautiful body, beautiful mind:

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I would not trust a skinny fat guy philosophizing about beauty, the human soul, or the body.

Why is this important? The body is real, the mind is not.

Also, what manifests as our “mind“, is simply an offshoot of our body.

Body therapy, not mind therapy

The reason why this is such an important and radical idea is this: all of this talk about mental therapy, mental health, etc., is misguided. The focus should be bodily health, and physical health, not mental.

Or another words, if your bodily health is great, your mental health will also be great.

Why does nobody seem to have good mental health?

Besides myself, I don’t really know anybody who has good mental health, nor good physical health. Why is this? My theory is that it seems like other guys are too dependent on steroids, drugs, alcohol, marijuana, or other unnatural things, protein powder, creatine, pre-workout powder, etc.

Also, the problem is that the typical American is far too addicted to media, spends too much time indoors, and is typically an office slave.

What does a beautiful or healthy body even mean?

This is where philosophy is important; what is the meaning of a beautiful body, or a beautiful soul?

The reason I cannot trust anybody as role models is that I don’t know whether they have taken steroids, or “cheated” or not. I can only trust myself in my own experiences. Because I cannot lie to myself.

For example, my successful 540 pound deadlift, at a body weight of around 160-165 pounds, and at a height of around 5 foot 10 to 5 foot 11. Also, doing it all fasted, not eating breakfast or lunch. Also, Not using protein powder, creatine, pre-workout powder, steroids, drugs, human growth hormone, etc. in my strength building. Just plain old black coffee, and meat.

Man or woman?

I’m not gonna talk too much about female matters, because I am a man. I feel uneasy philosophizing too much about woman beauty, if I’m not a woman.

As a man, I could comment about male aesthetics, and male beauty. My first thought is what do we really seek as men? I think it is to become more sexy. Not necessarily to become more buff, or bigger.

For example, when it comes to women, it seems most women prefer more of the Brad Pitt physique in fight club, than the modern day bodybuilder look. In fact, it is only typically men who are more interested in becoming a super super massive, rather than being an attractive quality to women.

Why is this? My theory is that humans we know what is naturally proportional and what is not naturally proportional. Even me, I was naive for so long, but essentially I’ve learned that when it comes down to it, essentially everybody is on steroids, or some unnatural form of human growth hormone. This includes not only bodybuilders, but powerlifters, strong man, cross fitters, even the people in yoga and the natural “calisthenics” crowd.

Less adipose tissue

My first thought is this: for man, to have less body fat, a.k.a. adipose tissue, is more attractive, sexy, and beautiful.

What is the ideal? You don’t want it to be too low, as when men dip into the single digits for body fat percentage, they often lack testosterone and vigor. I suppose a good ideal it’s just whether you could see your six pack abs or not.

Testosterone

Then it seems like the next thing is this: to increase your testosterone, which is the life force energy of a man, as testosterone is the hormones which comes out of her testes. A.k.a. our balls.

Now this is my critique; there are a lot of guys for slightly older, who rely on unnatural forms of testosterone injection to “even the playing field“. But I think this is a bad idea, as it probably negatively affects your health. If you’re a man who does external testosterone injections, your health will lesson, not improve.

The more meat-based cholesterol you consume, the better

Also, what is the most superior way to naturally boost your testosterone? Simple, consume more fatty red meat, more cholesterol, more organ meats like liver and heart.

Cholesterol is the natural steroid. Therefore, if you want to boost your testosterone, consume more (meat based) cholesterol.

Things you can control, things you cannot control.

As an American, I like the idea that I have some control over my fate, and myself. I do not like the idea of being at the mercy of your genetics.

This is the huge benefits of weightlifting, bodybuilding, powerlifting, etc.; there are certain things you cannot change about yourself, like your height, however, there are things you could change, like your muscle mass, your haircut, or your physical strength and valor.

A big thing you can control at the gym, how much hype you exert, how loud you get, how loud you scream, I call this hypelifting.

How I hype myself up >

Beauty for the sake of what?

Assuming that you’re already married and have a kid, what is the point of becoming more beautiful? I say it is partly for yourself; you look at yourself in the mirror 1 billion times a day, and you always yourself naked before you shower. Therefore, you want to look beautiful to yourself in your own eyes.

Secondly, the more beautiful and strong your body, the more elevated wall your thoughts will be, creative artistic or philosophical. I trust no philosopher who doesn’t deadlift.

For example, how can you trust a skinny fat, overfat male nerd, who is scrunched over his desk all day, commenting about masculinity and courage, when he has never attempted a one rep max lift in his life?

Third, maybe it is a good idea to look sexy, in front of your spouse, if your goal is to have more children.

Fourth, it seems that being more beautiful is also advantageous from a social economic perspective. For example, if I want to be in a Hollywood movie, I must look as handsome as Brad Pitt if not more handsome. In fact, I aspire to become the next Brad Pitt, which is good timing considering Korea is on the up and up. Being Korean American is finally an advantageous thing for me.

ERIC

Clout — to ball up, amass.

Perhaps clout is actually more important than money.

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1. Don’t be disingenuous

The first simple thought is this: don’t be disingenuous. Everyone is honest in different ways; just stick to your own gut in terms of what feels right, and don’t do what you feel is “wrong“.

The tricky thing is this; there will be certain times, when you speak what are you personally believe in, and, others will hate you for it. In other words:

There will be times, in which you say something honestly, and are not disingenuous, yet you will be hated for it.

Why is this important? If you desire to build clout, you need to build deep trust with other person. The suspicion that everyone always has, especially when it comes to the Internet:

Why should I trust you?

I know for myself personally, when I hear somebody say something very very unpopular, or unorthodox, my ears perk up and I’m actually more prone to listen to the person. Why? A lot of people who are “nice“ are actually very disingenuous, and have hidden motives. Or in other words, put more trust in the asshole, than a nice guy. Why? It is impossible to fake being an asshole. It is very easy to fake being a nice guy. Similarly speaking, whenever you’re traveling, in the Middle East or in India, never trust anybody who says “my friend“.

Also, with our own personal relationships, real friends don’t call each other their friends; we just consider them as an extension of ourselves.

So, if someone tells you, “I am so happy that you’re my friend”, be very suspicious. They are more likely to use you as a dependency, rather than being a true friend.

2. Think at the decade plus level

With Elon Musk, his success is at least 20 years plus. He has been building SpaceX and Tesla for a very very long time. It did not just happen overnight.

I wonder if I actually agree with Peter Thiel; rather than “iterate “your way forward, better to set an interesting and audacious 10+ year goal, and pursue it with great vigor and tenacity.

Why is it so difficult for people to think long-term? My theory is that it is just not that encouraged; also to think long-term is not natural. We see others right now with social media fame, and we want to emulate it. But if you think long-term, all social media platforms will soon die sooner or later.

Do you remember my space, Napster, Flickr, live journal? Blogger?

Even young kids, don’t use Facebook.

Even in the world of photography, when I started off, it was all about Flickr. Now, nobody uses Flickr, and it is all about Instagram. But, sooner or later, people forget what Instagram is as well.

3. Own your own platform

Whwb I was in middle school in high school, xanga was popular for blogging. But finally one day, they deceased their services, and all the content which was created on Xanga was deleted.

I am very happy that about a decade ago, I created my own website. Erickimphotography.com, which was registered through 1and1.com, which is now rebranded as ionos.com

I am very happy that my website has lasted until now.

Be very suspicious about building your own empire on foreign soil.

For email newsletter, sendy.co — which is what I use here.

For website and blog, WordPress.org

The least bad service provider right now seems to be bluehost.com. I use ionos.com and don’t love it, but at least it works.

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4. Think video and vlogs

We trust faces and voices more than abstract text.

Make a YouTube channel for the sake of building clout, not money.

For example, even my friend Timothy Flanagan told me:

You had me sold on Cambodia after your first video!

Note, after the first VIDEO, not blog post, article, newsletter, etc.

5. Why do we put more faith in video than text or photo?

Video because real life looks more like video than text or photo.

I also like shooting vlogs on GoPro hero 10, ultra wide, 1080p, 24fps, disable blinking and disable front LCD because I can vlog and steam my thoughts without being self conscious.

This is what I’ve learned:

When I shoot a vlog and I can see myself in the LCD screen, if distracts me, and I cannot flow my words and ideas as easily.

Also, it is insanely small (fits in your front left pocket) and you can vlog yourself or thoughts whenever inspiration strikes!

6. Overthink your importance

When I first discovered how influential I was, I was surprised. That top guys in Hollywood and Silicon Valley knew me, followed me and admired me — huge compliment. And this is what I discovered:

My level of clout was always that high, but I didn’t realize it until AFTER I discovered the information.

Thus the lesson: don’t be humble.

Humility is a vice.

Bragging isn’t the opposite of being humble. And to brag isn’t necessary. Just think in your own mind, solo, individually —

I am insanely influential, and whatever I say and share can and WILL influence the top dogs.

Thus, don’t sell yourself short. Don’t censor yourself.

7. Clout for the sake of what?

Ultimately what do you want to do with your clout? If you see your clout as a tool?

I say—

Use your clout to change the minds and souls of others.

Also, my strategy:

Share the knowledge ideas and information I wish I had access to when I was a kid, teenager, starting off, etc.

For example, I would say my purest self was probably when I was either 12 years old, 14, 16, or 18, certainly before I went to college. In some ways, college corrupted me a little bit, and certainly life post-college corrupted me even further.

What is purity? Purity is:

Your own individual beliefs, before you learn to self censor yourself through “political correctness”, “woke talk”, etc.

Also —

Your mode of thinking BEFORE you gotta worry about the stressors of making money, “making a living”, etc.

8. You already got clout

This is the thing; everyone already has clout, simply it is different depending on where you live, who the people you have access to, the technologies you use, etc.

Therefore, rather than desiring to wish you had access to clout of the elite in society, rather, take extreme pride in the clout you already got and leverage that to the maximum.

Also, if you think about your clout as a ball, something which you amass and make bigger, to make the ball bigger is to gain clout is a gradual process.

9. Seek the elite Spartan 300s

One of the big biases that we have is that we think that having more followers is better. However this is false. Think yourself: would you rather have 300 followers, or 1 million followers?

Now this is the nuance; of those 300 followers, would you rather have access to the 300 elite spartan warriors, and assuming that those 1 million followers were a bunch of Persian slave mercenaries?

Or —

Would you rather have the world’s most beautiful woman (one human being) as your wife, or access to ten million “average” women?

I would prefer the first (Cindy).

Don’t seek more followers for the sake of more followers. Very much like if you’re a bodybuilder, you don’t seek more weight for the sake of more weight. The goal is to increase the weight of your muscle mass (skeletal muscle), NOT the weight of your fat (adipose tissue).

Numbers lie.

10. Practical assignments

1. Make your own self hosted website via bluehost.com and WordPress.org. Name it your first and last name .com (or first name last name photo .com)
2. Make a YouTube channel and start uploading videos and vlogs. If you got a Google or Gmail account, you already got a YouTube channel. Just go to YouTube.com/upload and start uploading. Just use your iPhone, iPad or smartphone front camera. Or just use the video function of your standalone digital video camera. I used to even vlog on my RICOH GR III 28mm.
3. Install the Google Amp Plug-in for your WordPress.org blog. Learn via https://amp.dev. For your theme use the Newspack theme.
4. Open source it all. Make your photos and videos and audio freely open full resolution to download, no paywalls, etc. Open source as a life approach.

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VLOG: How to increase your clout

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Just share it

If this have you any interesting ideas, feel free to share or republish, or translate to your own language!

ERIC

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Even Benjamin Franklin was a racist.

“Why increase the sons of Africa by planting them in America, where we have so fair an opportunity, by excluding all blacks and Asians of increasing the lovely white?”

Benjamin Franklin, 1751

Via http://timothy-flanagan.com

Simple — treat others the way you would like to be treated.

VideoPress.com — their tagline should be ”video freedom”, or ”video without distractions”.

Part of a premium subscription service to Jetpack WordPress.com premium plugin.

Why Videopress? Make it easy for your viewers to download your videos! And also, make it easy for you to download your own videos!

Self hosted video is the future.