Life can be hard to figure out. What’s the point? What’s the meaning? Social media hasn’t helped with its divisive nature and focus on narcissistic goals like fame, beauty, success, and money.

Last week Scott wrote about the dangers of letting our ego run our life, and this week we’ll try to give an antidote or a different perspective on this matter.

Rob is the embodiment of stoic patience and focus. When we asked him about how he managed to qualify for the CrossFit Games, he told us that he hired a coach, and together they analyzed Rob’s strengths and weaknesses. After this assessment, they agreed upon a two-year plan—which worked.

It’s slowly becoming clear to me that my life trajectory has been fueled by an ego-driven madness—my ego tirelessly searching for things to prop itself up, and strengthen it’s hold on my identity. 

It could be argued that I survived my heart attack because I was in really good shape, and I’m sure there is some truth to that. But I am convinced that my inability to deal with chronic stress is what took me down—and I believe stress is the driving force for most chronic diseases. 

Go to your local supermarket at the hour when schools let out, and you will see lines of kids buying what can only be described as “Type 2 Diabetes Starter Packs” for afterschool snacks—endless varieties of the fat+sugar+salt combo. Isn’t it time we all stood up and said, “F*ck The Man?” 

People with limited knowledge will speak about a topic with great authority—thereby overestimating their abilities. The flip side is that people with deep and nuanced knowledge about a topic will often speak with great uncertainty about a topic, because they know how complex the topic is.

Well… We’re pretty sure that “likes” and an insanely busy schedule are not the end goals for most people. We think that most people should pull the plug on social media and what “culture” is whispering in your ear. Spend some time with your thoughts and listen to your inner voice—meditation, walks, or gardening are great ways of disconnecting from the expectations of society and reconnecting with your inner voice.

If someone had asked me this question sometime in the last 40 years, I would have looked at them incredulously, silently judged that they had read a few too many self-help books, and continued lifting the obscene amount of weight I was lifting. 

Ok—maybe that’s not the best conversation starter....or is it?

I’m one of the lucky few who have died and made it back to tell the tale.  Except for me, there’s no tale to tell.  Despite being without a pulse, in a clinical death state for 40 minutes or more, I didn’t see “the light.” I didn’t commune with energy forms of deceased relatives, I didn’t get to visit beloved pets that have passed on—just blackness. Despite being so incredibly lucky to be alive, I felt a bit ripped off.

Generation Z—those born between 1997 and 2015 (6-24 years old)—have been through a lot. A worldwide pandemic, an increasingly divided political climate, the social media boom, in school/out of school/in school/out of school, and the stress all of this causes in homes throughout the world. We have seen the effects in our own kids, as they try to adapt to this new world—sometimes withdrawing, sometimes dramatically acting out with new behaviors.  

Studies have shown that brain plasticity and health can be greatly improved if you learn new skills. It was believed that we lost the ability to learn new things with age—and the research still reflects this--but there seems to be another variable in play. We lose the ability to learn because we stop learning. As the saying goes “use it or lose it.”

We’ve been writing a lot about the benefits of high-frequency training. High-frequency training helps counteract a multitude of problems our sedentary lifestyle has dealt us. People are made to move around at a moderate pace all day long—that’s how our ancestors survived, and this strategy will help you thrive today. 

This theme has surfaced many times lately, in many different settings. We suspect that this theme strikes a deeper and underlying note, which resonates through other topics. We all need to assess our circumstances and evaluate if we’re surviving or thriving before we can take any meaningful action towards a better future. Of course, some action is better than no action, but we think this can be a potent tool to assess your situation and figure out what the best future action is.

Advice like doing fasted cardio while listening to an audiobook on 2x normal speed before 6:00 is common advice in the productivity/get fit industry. The idea behind this perspective comes from a noble place. If you get up early and get right at it, you get a head start—and over time this will have a compounding effect. We wrote about this topic a couple of articles back and we still believe that being consistent is the best way going forward, but as with all things in life—you should try to avoid extremes. Excessive or restrictive behaviour should, as a general rule, be avoided and be replaced with a more sustainable and enjoyable daily routine.

In the last couple of articles, we have been exploring the notion of getting started and the importance of getting stronger. There are a lot of excellent training programs and training strategies out there, but we want to focus on the one that we use (for different purposes—more on that later) and one that we think gets neglected in mainstream media.

“An addiction is manifested in any behavior that a person finds temporary pleasure or relief in,  and therefore craves, but suffers negative consequences from in the long term and is still unable to give it up.” 

By broadening the definition, we all end up in the same boat—users of illegal drugs, pharmaceutical drugs,  nicotine, caffeine, alcohol, sex, gambling, shopping, eating, work, exercise, gaming, pornography, poitical power, the acquisition of wealth, the hoarding of objects, Facebook, Netflix.

“You can eat all the right foods—be it Paleo or Keto, you can be in really great shape—but if you are not breathing properly, you will never be healthy.”

We as individuals are the sum of our routines and habits—we go through the motions of our days, barely aware of what we’re doing. This is why the present time is so valuable, from a behavioral perspective. Our old routines have been set on pause and this gives us the time and mental clarity to evaluate our daily habits, general values and exactly what is meaningful to us.

“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general.”

This quote from Strength Coach Mark Rippetoe never fails to give us a chuckle, but, I mean—Where’s the lie? Let’s get stronger!

You don’t keep walking around on a broken ankle, thinking, “Fuck it! It will heal,” right? The world is in very real turmoil—but this is not an article to scare you—it’s one to offer hope. It’s our practical guide of 10 things you can do when you just can’t take it anymore.