sniper
Things are going well.
Your discipline has been on point for quite some time now…
You’ve been hitting the gym…
You’ve been going to martial-arts classes…
You’ve been keeping social-media use to a minimum…
You’ve been productive in your professional life…
You feel good about yourself…
You feel confident…
Everything is positive…
You start to think “this is it, I’ve made it. I’ve finally become self-disciplined.”
You feel proud of your new found self-control.
Then one day “it” happens…
“It” is when the enemy unexpectedly shows up at the gates of your mind.
More often then not, the enemy shows up when you least expect it.
When things are going well is when you put your guard down and the enemy takes your six.
“After winning the battle, tighten your helmet.” – Famous Japanese proverb
The enemy seemingly came out of nowhere but that’s not true. Had you remained alert, it wouldn’t have happened. You would have caught the motherfucker and sliced its throat.
At the moment your enemy shows up at the gate, you have a choice; you can slice it’s fucking head off or you can let it kill you, everything you stand for and love.
You must stay vigilant and extremely present at all times in order to be ready to destroy the enemy.
Stay present and aware like a sniper watching his perimeter.
sniper
The enemy is all forms of weakness; physical, mental, emotional, spiritual.
The enemy is fear, tiredness, compulsivity, reactivity, impatience, etc.
But more specifically, the enemy is the unskilled reaction to the above.
“A warrior acts, a fool reacts.” – Dan Millman
A warrior is always ready to fight and always prepared to win.
A warrior is prepared for victory by training his mind, body, and spirit on a daily basis.
A warrior occasionally falls but learns from every mistake.
When you’ve been self-disciplined for a while and it starts to weight down on your soul, be very careful.
There are two ways to respond:
Break things or take a break.
You may need to take a break from your routine especially if you’ve been pushing yourself hard or are going through a lot of stress.
Take a break in such a way that you truly rejuvenate.
Make sure to sleep deeply, fuck hard, eat nourishing foods, stop doing and simply be, truly relax, breathe deep.
Once you’ve done that for a while and you feel rested, resume vigilance.
You may also need to break things.
When I say breaking things, I’m referring to breaking your routine and changing it up in order to destroy the monotony of it. Instead of waking up at 5:00 AM, maybe you wake up at 4:30 AM. Instead of doing jujitsu twice a week, maybe you start doing boxing twice a week. Instead of eating eggs and bacon for breakfast, you start eating steak and nuts for breakfast. Maybe you skip breakfast altogether.
The point is that you change your routine in a way that maintains a self-disciplined lifestyle. You do NOT by any means fall off completely. The only time you can virtually fall off the routine is if you’re taking a break as discussed above.
That’s the key.
If you are tired of your boat, get a new one or paint it.
But whatever, you do, do NOT jump off the boat because then you’ll sink.
And such is the cycle.
Expansion and contraction.
Yin and yang.
Explosion and rest.
Repeat.
Spartan 365 Challenge Day 6 Field Notes:
For those of you that don’t know, I am currently doing a year-long challenge as of this writing. Click here to see what it’s all about.
The following are field notes on today so those who are following/interested can see my progress:
So far so good.
Went to sleep late last night.
Woke up late this morning.
I was groggy.
I could see lack of sleep being an issue as it impairs mental function.
I took a cold shower which helped revitalize me.
I still hadn’t gone to MMA this week and it’s Saturday so I only had one more day to go if I skipped. I wasn’t feeling it but I pushed myself to go. The enemy was procrastination and mental weakness and I destroyed it. I pushed myself and I did 2 classes instead of 1. I felt proud and happy after coming out.
The rest of the day today went well. It’s still not over yet but I am watching like a sniper waiting for the enemy to come out.
Best,
Maximillian Giamarco
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