The mind is the most delicate, yet the most powerful attribute that we have as humans.
The mind is something that fascinates me because it is like a piece of clay that you have full control of molding into being whatever you want it to be.
When you see people climbing Mount Everest, or rock climbing steep cliffs without any sort of rope anchoring them to the mountain, is all from their ability to use their mind.
When you see super successful people, whether it be athletes like Michael Jordan, or celebrities like Arnold Schwarzenegger, they are all able to understand and harness the power of their own mind.
Listening to a man like David Goggins (who is known for accomplishing incredible feats such as running in ultra marathons, completing over 100 miles in one race) speak of how he was able to harness the power of his mind to overcome adversity to achieve desired outcomes, is nothing short of fascinating.
The truth is, when people see other people doing incredibly hard things, it is hard not to find it admirable.
First of all, who in their right mind would ever think of running 150 miles non-stop?
Secondly, how did they prepare for such a feat, and what did they learn from it?
Everything we are comes from our mind and this is why we discuss heavily on things like trauma and the effects on the mind.
Some people live with permanent scars on their mind and never allow themselves to unlock their full potential because of things they have been through.
There are a select few that are able to break free and use the scars on their mind to propel them down a path of achievement and fulfillment.
We also discuss heavily on the importance of having self-awareness because true self-awareness is being able to identify that your mind is your most valuable asset, and how you choose to use your mind will determine your fate in life.
The reason why it is so important for men to immerse themselves in things that are inherently hard to do is because it hardens the mind for battle.
When I say battle, I mean hardship because hardship is a natural part of life and there is no escaping it as a man.
Hardening of the mind plays a different role for women because women were not biologically designed to uphold the amount of stress that men are.
This is not to say that women aren't capable of achieving the incredible feats that men do because they are 100% capable, it is just not practical given our biologic dispositions.
As we have stated before, women are inherently emotional feelers, so the stress tolerance that women have compared to men who were designed for battle is much lower.
This is why men were designed to protect women, so that women wouldn't have to protect themselves.
Now, before people jump down my throat, I am aware that women today are often put in positions to where they must defend themselves, but this is also what generates masculine-like qualities.
The whole idea of fighting to defend oneself is a masculine trait because men have been going to war since the beginning of human existence having to fight to defend themselves, their tribe, and their women.
I will be the first to admit that the only reason why a woman would have to learn how to defend herself is because of a lack of men being men in their lives.
When a woman is truly protected, even from the time she was a child, she will naturally seek the best possible choice of a man for survival.
The reason why women choose shitty men is because they were never shown how to be loved and protected by a man the way that a lady should.
Before they know it, they end up in a downward spiral of constantly choosing shitty men, in search for the man that they think in their minds that they want, even though it is not what they really want.
Now that I have spun off on a tangent, let's get back to talking about the topic of today's post - the mind.
It is importance for people to understand the power of thoughts, especially when they influence behavior.
Our behavior is what makes us who we are, and this is often a result of how we think.
If people continuously play the victim, pointing the finger at others instead of taking accountability for their own actions, they lack the ability to understand and harness the power of their mind.
Instead of these people being in control of their mind, they allow their minds to control them.
The reason why I say "allow" is because that is exactly what it is - the choice of allowing their own mind to have control over them.
This is also seen as always taking the path of least resistance.
On the flip side, you have those that choose to harness the power of their minds to make something of themselves.
This is something that is hard because it takes a tremendous amount of work, focus, consistency, and discipline to master.
This means showing up everyday and completing all of the little strenuous things.
In other words, showing up everyday to do the things that you don't want to do, but know that you have to do them.
David Goggins said it best when being interviewed, "all people know exactly what they have to do, they just don't do it."
This statement couldn't be anymore true because everyone knows what they have to do to have the things that they want, they just don't do them.
If you're fat and out of shape, you inherently know that you should diet and workout to lose weight and be healthy, but you don't.
If you're dumber than a box of rocks, you inherently know that you should study something to get educated, but you don't because you're lazy and don't feel like studying.
This is something that every single one of us has experienced in our lives before - wanting something and doing absolutely nothing about it.
It isn't until one begins to immerse themselves into things they have never done before that they really start to test the waters of their own minds.
The reality is, every one of us will fail and continue to fail, but the more we continue to show up and do it anyway, the more we harden our minds for battle.
To me, a life of fulfillment sounds a lot better than a life of "what ifs".