I’m known for my mental toughness.
At the gym no one really likes me because I look like a flat out psychopath.
During a heavy set I will see stars and I have literally NO FEAR of dying in the gym.
I have endured some truly horrible life experiences and NOT merely survived them: I became a MUCH MORE stronger, more complex person.
But that’s only ONE side of me.
I am also contemptibly weak.
It’s true.
And I’ll prove it to you… RIGHT NOW!
Get me Out of this Cold Shower…Where’s my Blanky!?
I’ve known about the benefits of contrast showers for over a decade.
You’d therefore THINK I’d have been taking contrast showers for all of these years NOW.
But you’d be dead wrong.
Like a little punk bitch, I’d do them for a couple of days and then flat out STOP – always for some b.s. reason.
As my boy Ben Franklin observed, “So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.”
In TRUTH I was too much of a little boy to do them.
The cold water would make me shiver. I’d jump right out of the cold water after 30 seconds or so.
“Enough of this crap, I bet they don’t even work!”
A few months ago I told myself to stop being so contemptible and revolting.
I take a contrast shower WHENEVER I shower, and have been reaping all of the benefits of contrast showers, including developing my mental toughness with cold showers.
I Touch Myself When I Think About NOT Having Any Self Control.
A short while ago I posted a well-researched and thoughtful article on the hazards of masturbating to online pornography.
Heck no.
I told myself, “Only Christians and feminists have a problem with porn.”
Plus, I always had a GREAT sex life.
Porn didn’t impact my libido or relationships with women. (Or so I told myself.)
I recently stopped touching myself.
The results have been NOTHING short of astounding. (I’ll talk about them in a future post.)
I Became More Extroverted by Not Using my Introversion as an Excuse for Laziness.
On a Myers-Briggs or any other personal inventory, I’m going to come up as being an introvert.
Being in “crowds” simply wears me out.
TOO MUCH talking flat out exhausts me.
Being around OTHER people is less likely to energize me and more likely to VERY simply drain me.
Attending a recent Business Seminar forced me to ask myself something.
Am I really introverted, or is even that REALLY just a limiting belief?
My own personal limiting belief is that I’m just a low energy, naturally introverted guy.
I consciously chose to make room for the possibility that my introversion is REALLY just an excuse.
It’s how I avoid extremely challenging situations.
It’s a way to actually avoid personal growth.
People would often reach out to me and I’d ignore them.
“Enough of that,” I finally told myself.
“If people care enough to reach out, stop being a jerk and at least thank them for thinking of you.”
Instead of avoiding the numerous Tweets, emails, private messages, blog comments, and text messages people send me, I resolved to answer them all.
Instead of staying home so often, I decided to actually go out MORE.
It was hard as first.
It really was.
I’d be tired and drained.
I’d see a bunch of comments or text messages and grimace.
Do you know what I VERY SOON eventually realized?
Yes, I am introverted.
But personality is NOT fixed just like height.
It’s malleable.
Being around people and talking to people is far less draining than BEFORE.
Rather than being drained, I’ve actually felt much more fulfilled than ever, as helping people overcome their own weaknesses and watching people I mentor grow enriches me and nourishes my soul.
Here’s the Question to Finally Ask Yourself.
In case you haven’t figured it out by now, this isn’t a post about me.
It’s a post about YOU.
I just used myself merely as an example because who do we KNOW better than ourselves?
Here’s EXACTLY what you need to ask yourself:
What am I too weak to do? What have I been avoiding because it seemed like it would be impossible to do or require too much effort?
That’s a hard question that requires total honesty and self-reflection.
Who wants to admit weakness?
Yet if you answer that ONE question, you’ll be able to dramatically improve your life.
(“If you can’t fix it, you don’t own it.”)
No more Weakness. No More Excuses.
Until next time.
Your man,
-Elijah “The Realist”