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“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”--Marcus Aurelius 

I’ve been a small business owner and fitness professional for over 20 years and I’ve had plenty of experience when it comes to solving problems. I’ve also always had an obsession to learn about philosophy and history in order to try to bring more understanding to life and how the world actually works. 

With that being said I wanted to take this opportunity in this podcast article to talk to you about some things you may have not considered, or have taken the time to think about when it comes to certain aspects of your own life. 

To do this I first want to point to an amazing thing I witnessed years ago when I was kid. I remember my father taking myself and my brother on a fishing trip to lake Hartwell South Carolina early during one cool Summer morning. 

On this trip we took a boat out onto the lake relatively early in the morning. I remember how calm the lake was as there was no other boat traffic and the wind was non-existent. The water was so placid that the boat glided across it with seemingly zero effort. 

Once we got to our destination we dropped our fishing lines into the water and started to wait on something to bite. As I was sitting there in the boat I looked across the lake to the beach across from us. The trees stood tall on the land across the lake and sitting at the top of one of those trees was one of the biggest hawks I’ve ever seen in my life. 

This bird of prey seemed to be looking at the water and as soon as I came to that assumption it launched itself from the tree branch and flew straight up into the air only to peak and turn its body to dive straight back down towards the water. 

As it came swooping down towards the water it leveled up right at the last second just above the lake water and quickly snatched a fish right out of the water as if the thing was just sitting there waiting for the bird to take it. This happened so fast that I almost couldn’t believe what I just witnessed. 

The Power Of Your Mind

So why was that hawk so capable of pulling off such a feat as snatching a fish right out of the water as easily as a kid could snatch a cookie from the cookie jar? Well aside from the ability of being able to fly and having talons as sharp as a samurai sword the other main factor is the hawk’s vision. 

You see, a hawk has an eyesight that’s about 8 times greater than that of a human. This is because of the fovea in their eyes. The fovea is a small depression in the retina where visual acuity is the highest. Unlike humans, hawks have both a central and peripheral fovea. Humans only have a central fovea which limits more well rounded vision. 

So why did I choose to tell you this story about the hawk? 

Well as amazing as the hawk’s eyesight is when it comes to hunting, if we compare the hawk's mind to that of a human mind when fostering the abilities of creativity and planning it falls way short. Maybe I should make this comparison when referencing a critical thinking human mind, but I digress. 

The larger point here is that as a human being you have an enormous advantage in life and in your ability to survive and thrive in society because you have a very powerful mind. As I say this you’re probably wondering exactly what am I getting at? 

Well think about this in the simplest way. Human beings are the only species on this planet that have the ability to foster life while having equally as much ability to destroy the entire planet at the same time. 

Human beings are capable of this because they are equipped with the ability to plan ahead and to think down range. Your human mind requires about two decades to fully develop and mature while during that time it is also gathering and storing data, as well as, the means to compartmentalize that data and apply it directly towards the ability of problem solving. 

So if this is the case then why is it that some people are able to excel at life, to discern fact from fiction, and to become successful while others seemingly become stagnant and imprisoned by society rather than being a force of success and creativity within society? 

Knowing that the brain possesses this kind of ability and power, why do you think so many people fail to harness its full potential? After all, in a relatively free society where a man or woman has the ability to choose from a variety of pursuits and a variety of resources why is it that so many people end up broke at the end of their lives, or seem to never get off the runway so that they can soar through the air like that hawk I mentioned in my story earlier? 

Complacency Is A Death Trap

One of the most dangerous things a person can do is to fall into the trap of being complacent. Complacency has killed more dreams, more positive outcomes, and more opportunities than effort ever did. 

The problem with modern day society is that most everyone in our population has been conditioned to think in a very narrow minded way. This is largely due to a combination of things ranging from the public education system to succumbing to the monotony of the death trap of life. 

So what exactly do I mean by the death trap, and furthermore what do I specifically mean when I criticize the public education system? 

I’ll start with the public education system, but I first want to ask you a few questions. 

When you graduated from high school or college did you know how to file your taxes? 

Even better, were you taught in school the art of negotiating deals to apply to everyday life scenarios such as when you might go to purchase a car, to buy or sell an item to your neighbor in a typical garage sale, or to use this skill in the event that you decided to start a small business? 

I know I wasn’t taught any of these things in school and I think that it’s fair to question why such things are not taught. Don’t get me wrong I’m one of the biggest advocates for personal responsibility, but at the same time I don’t want to ignore and fail to point a finger at real societal obstacles that can serve to be more of a liability rather than an asset to our lives.

This is one of the biggest problems with the public education system, but there’s another issue as well. The other issue in my assessment goes hand in hand with what the Psychologist Carol Dweck points out in her theory of neuroplasticity which involves the brain’s ability to continue to form new connections long into adulthood. 

According to Dweck this is why you can adopt what is known as a Growth Mindset at any point during your life, but the problem is in our society we’re not conditioned to know about this Growth Mindset. 

As an example Dweck points out that when we tend to think about successful people we tend to associate the word talent when looking at someone like Thomas Edison. Granted Edison was a talented individual, but as Dweck points out an example like Thomas Edison wasn’t born possessing that talent, but rather nurtured that talent when overcoming the problem of working towards successfully lighting a light bulb. In this example Edison demonstrates his ability to nurture his Growth Mindset. 

When difficult problems arise some people will continue to work on the problem until the problem is solved, whereas others will throw their hands up in frustration and walk away. Dweck points out that those that quickly give up on the problem  believe they can’t solve the problem because they lack the intelligence to do so. This is what is known as having a Fixed Mindset. 

In short, the Fixed Mindset individual basically believes that he or she is born with only possessing a certain level of intelligence and skill and that it can’t change or improve in their lifetime. 

Dweck also points out that praising effort is much better than praising accomplishment as the praising of the effort of an individual engaged in a task will challenge and promote a Growth Mindset in that individual rather than the limiting Fixed Mindset. 

So going back to my point regarding the death trap what exactly do I mean? 

If you think about our society we’re conditioned to think very narrowly about our existence and what we’re capable of doing with our lives. I don’t know about you, but when I was growing up I remember the prevailing message in middle and high school being that both myself and my classmates were expected to make good grades so that we could then attend college to get a degree, so that we could then be capable of going out into the workforce to get a job. 

This message is a prime example of a Fixed Mindset form of teaching. This sort of limiting message and reductionist thinking only perpetuates the societal trap of getting sucked into a monotonous repetitive existence. Furthermore it can very quickly lead to complacency which is the societal death trap. 

Here’s a simple way of explaining what I’m talking about. Let’s adopt this model of thinking with teaching people to get good grades so they can then get a degree in order to graduate college and then ultimately are able to go out into the workforce to get a job working for someone else. 

This form of reductionist thinking isn’t only horrible messaging, but it is dangerous. Everything I just pointed out in this message is literally designed to teach you and I how to go through life being completely dependent on other institutions and people for our very existence. 

Now don’t misunderstand me there’s nothing wrong with getting a job working for someone else, or for getting an education for that matter. However, there are MANY more ways to acquire an education and a job rather than going to college and by having to have a degree from some college institution. 

After all, these colleges and universities have apparently proven to be more of a liability and a scam than an asset with so many complaints coming from post graduates regarding the amount of student loan debt they’ve accumulated in trying to carry out this plan in their own lives. 

Right away the complaint of this massively burdensome student loan debt should serve as a warning to these people that continue to go out into the public education system to take out these loans, yet they continue to follow a plan time and time again that has been proven to fail our society at large. 

As I write this piece many post graduate millennials are currently moving back into their parent’s homes because of a terrible economy and a weak corporate job market. 

Now you may state the obvious as I just mentioned and blame the job market and the economy and I would agree with you. However I would argue that the failure of these people to go out into the free market to create and grow something unique, with their generation being a major piece of our society, is the cause of there being a lack of economic opportunity for them in the first place. 

One could also point to the failing policies of a societal collapse at large that many of these young voters have traditionally supported in the past 20 years. For the time being I won’t dive into this as I’ll allow that to be a topic for a different day, however many of the failed public policies that younger millennials have traditionally supported are in line directly with individuals who possess a Fixed Mindset rather than a Growth Mindset. 

Humans fear reason, but they ought to fear stupidity-for reason can be hard, but stupidity can be fatal.--Wolfgang Goethe

Problem Solving

Most average men and women don’t tap into the full use of their mind’s potential despite living in a society where their potential can be richly fertilized. 

Why is this? 

It goes back to how we’ve been conditioned to think about our existence and what is expected of us instead of what we should look to expect from ourselves. 

After all, have you considered all that you have available to you? Have you examined everything from your philosophy on life, your ambitions, and your views? Looking at these aspects of your personality do these align with a Growth Mindset, or a Fixed Mindset? 

Robert Seashore once Chairman at The Department of Psychology at Northwestern University pointed out that successful people aren’t people without problems, but rather people that have just figured out how to efficiently solve their problems. 

Having been a strength coach in the fitness industry now for over twenty years I’ve noticed the rapid decline in youth athletes, as well as adults in terms of their ability to simply be aware of their environment. Because of this they are unaware of the cause of their problems when said cause of their ailing problems should be more apparent to them.  

This lack of awareness is something that I would attribute to the dumbed-down messaging of people to develop more of a reductionist line of thinking instead of a systems based line of thinking throughout a lifetime. 

Because of this reductionist approach people fail to recognize the root cause of many of their everyday problems when working through their day to day environment. 

As an everyday concrete example I’ll point to a common problem that is widely known in the fitness industry and should be a fairly simple issue to diagnose if someone understands their body and environment and has adopted a more systems approach to thinking which develops from having a Growth Mindset. 

A few years ago I had an accountant call me on the phone not to discuss my taxes, but rather to talk to me about helping him to start a fitness training program. He was open to the prospect of me coaching him, but his enthusiasm was tempered because he had communicated to me that he had been dealing with chronic back pain for at least a year and wasn’t sure if he would be able to participate. 

He was carrying a lot of frustration because he had spent the better part of the past year going to the doctor, treating his pain with NSAIDS, and remaining inactive. Keep in mind he communicated all of this to me before he ever stepped foot into the gym with me to help walk him through an assessment to help him identify any potential areas of needs. 

Once I was able to look at him I asked him to stand with his feet together, to straighten his legs, and to bend at the waist to see if he was capable of touching his toes. As he attempted this he stopped with this hands above his knees. 

Shocked at how stiff and immobile he was I asked him how he managed to tie his shoe laces every morning and he said that it was about a 10 minute ordeal because of his lack of mobility. 

Well right away I knew what he should have known and that is that he didn’t have a back problem, but rather he had an immobility problem. After the diagnosis I worked with him for the next 30 minutes on stretching and mobilizing his hips and he was able to bend at the waist enough that he could at least touch his shins below his knees after this correction. 

From here he told me he had about a 80% reduction of pain and could literally feel the ground beneath his feet much better which even improved his balance. I communicated to him that for the past year he had been treating the symptoms of the problem, BUT not the root cause of the problem itself. 

Granted this was not some ancient secret that I showed him. I merely identified a problem that should have been obvious to him, but because of his lack of physical intelligence and having adopted a more fixed mindset regarding his back pain and environment he had set himself up to live with pain for over a year before he was able to resolve the issue in a single 30 minute training session with me. 

To be clear I’m not using this as an example to openly give myself a pat on the back, or to insult this man for his ailment. I’m merely pointing out the unnecessary hardship and difficulty this man caused himself simply because he was unaware of his environment and lacked a Growth Mindset to enable him to solve the problem sooner. 

The Wrap Up

At the end of the day I just want to expose you to the reality that you can foster and develop a Growth Mindset at any point in your life as long as you accept and work towards that end.

I hope you enjoyed today’s article podcast.

If so I really need your help to push this piece out to your friends, family, and coworkers.

In order for BOTH you and me to influence and strengthen our society we must not stay idle so please make sure you hit the subscribe and share buttons here below.

Spreading messages like this one is how we influence our culture and I need your help in order to do it.

Also listen to this episode here on…

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If you like this podcast and the message please take a moment to give it a Five Star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating on the Spotify platform.

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Stay strong. Stay focused. Stay active.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brandonrichey.substack.com/subscribe

Bumper Music Credit: Prazkhanal

Today’s guest is Matt Dial

Matt is an Entrepreneur, Promoter, Digital Marketer, and Manufacturer.

Make sure to connect with Matt with the links below:

Tamed Savage Digital

Tamed Organics

[email protected]

Also listen to this episode here on…

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If you like this podcast and the message please take a moment to give it a Five Star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating on the Spotify platform.

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Fear has always been an intriguing phenomenon to me. 

No matter how many times I’ve been faced with it I’ve always found myself thinking back on it and working to block it out of my mind. 

I understand very well that we’re all human and it’s totally normal to be afraid at certain times during our lives, but I think it’s vital and important to understand there’s a huge difference between being caught off guard with something that can make us afraid in the moment rather than allowing fear to grip us daily. If you allow fear to grip you to the point you’re living in fear then this will guide your decisions as you try to navigate the journey of life. To make decisions out of fear is not a healthy way to live.

After all, we’re living in a Fourth Turning in history right now and like any Fourth Turning things can be very concerning when you take the time to examine all of the things that are going wrong and could go wrong with our country and by extension with the world at large. If you’re not familiar with the Fourth Turning concept please make sure to reference my article here on my Substack to learn more. 

So what’s the reality? 

When you look at the news cycle you can see that you’re going to have to be dealing with inflation, high gas prices, a housing market bubble (and crash), potential World War III, the elimination of free speech, and the erosion of your individual sovereignty. 

These are all issues that are part of OUR reality. Whether you have previously read this blog or listened to this podcast and disagreed with my perspective there’s no disputing the list of those very concerning and very serious realities that I just outlined. 

It’s easy to see how anyone could read that list of problems while possibly experiencing a chill down the back of their spine. In fact, I wouldn’t fault you for it if you did. 

However, it’s important to recognize the severity of a situation while not allowing the concerning nature of the situation to completely paralyze you. This is where the rubber meets the road when it comes to self mastery and it’s also an essential element to your survival and will prevent you from falling victim to a situation by allowing the paralysis from fear to keep you from exercising your ability of strategic action, or personal human agency. 

Now I know it’s Halloween and I’m not trying to paint a doom and gloom picture here. In fact, I want to discuss something that should be very important to you when examining the realities of this Fourth Turning without allowing yourself to be paralyzed by it, but before I do I want to point to how this cultural issue of fear has infected our society. 

Fear Is A Control Mechanism

“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.”—Rahm Emanuel

This quote, particularly in this context, came from former Obama White House Chief of Staff and  current Ambassador to Japan under the Biden regime Rahm Emanuel. 

I couldn’t think of a better way for someone to communicate how the phenomenon of fear can be leveraged for political and economic gain as we’ve witnessed firsthand in the past couple years regarding the pandemic crisis, the prospect of war crisis, the inflation crisis, and I could go on and on. 

After all, Mr. Emanuel is pretty up front and in your face with this in his own words here. There’s no conspiracy or conjecture in this assessment as he pretty much outlines the strategy of a modern day politician in a single sentence. 

Why do I say this? 

Well let’s take a look at the recent couple years with everything surrounding the pandemic as an example of how fear can root into society and further create what the well known author and professor of psychology Mettias Desmet points out in his writings as the chilling and fascinating phenomenon of Mass Formation Psychosis. 

I recommend Mettias Desmet’s writings and Substack on the Recommendations section of my Substack here and I want to strongly encourage you to invest some time and to access and read over those as well.  

According to Mettias Desmet this incredibly chilling phenomenon of Mass Formation can take root in a society when society has been conditioned to focus on a certain object of fear which can then cause the group of people to be radically blind to everything that goes against what the group believes in. 

As a chilling real life historical reference to the danger and destruction that the end stages of Mass Formation can result in, Desmet references a shocking example of how this develops in stages in the 1979 Iranian Revolution. 

He (Desmet) points out that as the group is infected by the Mass Formation in the early stages the group will then take the most absurd beliefs for granted. Initially in the early stages of this he points to many well documented stories of the citizenry of Iran all claiming to see the face of their leader the Ayatollah Khomeini on the surface of the moon with each full moon. As such many people would point at the full moon on display showing each other where the face of Ayatollah Khomeini could be seen. 

This being the first phase of Mass Formation Desmet points out that the second phase of how an individual can be gripped by the Mass Formation is where an individual will then radically and willingly sacrifice their individual interests for the sake of the collective. 

I’ll return to the Iranian example shortly, but in this second phase of the Mass Formation Mettias Desmet also points out a really good example here with the communist leaders who were sentenced to death by Stalin often with their shocking personal statements prior to their execution saying “If that is what I can do for the communist party, I will do it with pleasure.”

As crazy as that sounds, that was the reality and if you didn’t think the impact of the Mass Formation could get any worse you would be wrong. 

In the third stage of the Mass Formation Desmet points out that individuals who have progressed to this stage will also become radically intolerant of dissonant voices. 

In fact, those people who have progressed to the third stage will commit atrocities towards those people who do not go along with the masses and even do so as if it’s some sort of righteous sense of duty. 

To get back to the situation with the Revolution in Iran Desmet references a story in his writings where he spoke to an Iranian woman who had witnessed with her own eyes a woman that had reported her own son to the state for being a dissonant. If that’s not bad enough the witness saw the mother of the son grab the noose and hang it around her son’s neck herself as the boy stood on the scaffold where he would hang only in the short moment that followed.  

After the execution the mother was seen claiming to be a heroine to do what she did for the good of the state. After hearing such a story it’s hard to imagine how a society could get to this point, however similar Mass Formation is well documented and has taken place throughout history in Nazi Germany and in the Soviet Union. 

Desmet also points out that whether it was more of a spontaneous event like we’ve seen in Nazi Germany, or sparked intentionally through propaganda and indoctrination like in the Soviet Union that it must continue to be supported by propaganda and indoctrination by mass media in order to survive, or it will most likely fizzle out. 

The key element here that I want to point to as I reference Desmet is that if it is not resisted by dissonance, or if the propaganda and indoctrination continues it will lead to a full blown Totalitarian state. 

As these concrete historical examples demonstrate this is precisely how and why fear is used as a control mechanism and is the central motivation for my article and podcast episode today. 

The Infantilization of Adults 

So what makes fear a more prevalent issue with some people compared to others? 

Well I’m not a psychologist and don’t have some profound statistics to reference sitting here in front of me. However I would contend that some individuals are probably more wired for confrontation and have a stronger mind for independent thought whereas other people tend to be more emotionally wired and reactive to life and events that unfold around them. In my assessment it’s the latter that more easily succumb to an outside influence with less resistance when they are faced with an object of fear. 

After all, it’s pretty well documented and rock solid that during the pandemic those that tended to wear masks, to get jabbed, and to advocate for mandated lockdowns were all pretty much leftist Democrats. Now I want to specify one more time so that you don’t get confused about that last statement. I’m not saying that this was ALL Democrats, but the majority of far leftists Democrats fell and still fall into this category. 

That’s not an opinion, but a fact as it was even a rallying cry for many political campaigns and Democratic offices that ran entire metropolitan cities into the ground economically through mandated lockdowns. 

These politicians were so strict it resulted in a mass exodus of their citizenry out of the most major cities like New York, L.A., and Chicago  while also leading directly to an explosion of crime during the draconian mandates that they forced upon everyone. 

The narratives were all about slowing the spread, flattening the curve, and that “we’re all in this together.” This was a prime example of how Mass Formation started to take root after an object of fear was sold to the American people on a 24/7 media news cycle that was…and still is relentless. 

So once again what causes some people to be ruled more directly by fear compared to others? 

Well I agree this varies and everyone may have their object of fear if you will that would trigger an uncomfortable emotional response from time to time, but I also believe that the impact of culture has a lot to do with it. 

With one quick observation we can look back 50 to 60 years ago where most people had jobs where they worked with their hands and their feet on farms, in factories, and in various other positions that demanded a lot more physical labor. 

I would contend that this more rugged physical culture that existed among the majority of our society then made us a lot more resilient both mentally and physically. 

After all, in those days the obesity rate among American people was virtually non-existent, yet when you look at the obesity rate today in our society it’s close to 42% according to the CDC. 

As a lifelong fitness professional and strength and conditioning coach it’s my professional opinion that this is a direct result of the changing of our culture from being more physical to less physical with the growth and explosion of the laptop/ desk job class. The culture changed when the abundance of the free market produced jobs where physical labor had diminished and along with it so did a lot of rugged individualism. 

If you’re reading, or listening, to this and you happen to be a physically active individual then you understand this. You know that when you work at either a physically demanding job, or if you’re physically fit that it shapes your mind and toughens you up mentally to a certain point. 

So I believe this is one aspect of how our country and society has been weakened, making certain people more susceptible to fear and by extension controlled by a corrupt media narrative. 

Granted the lack of physical strength and fitness alone isn’t the sole culprit in the weakening of the minds of those that succumb to fear narratives over and over again. 

The other reason this happens is through the impact of pop culture and education. A recent example of this can be pointed out by the famous author and comic book artist and creator of the comic The Watchmen Alan Moore with the recent piece done on him in the Guardian. I will link you directly to see that article here. 

In the article Moore points out the reason he decided to quit the comic book business, which according to him, was directly because of the dangers associated with the infantilization it was contributing to adults in our modern society. He states “I’m definitely done with comics,” he goes on to say “I haven’t written one for getting on for five years. I will always love and adore the comics medium but the comics industry and all of the stuff attached to it just became unbearable.”

Later on in the article Moore is even more assertive in his reason for exiting the business by pointing out that “Because that kind of infantilization – that urge towards simpler times, simpler realities – that can very often be a precursor to fascism.” 

Looking at Moore’s perspective on this it’s hard to argue with it. All we have to do is simply take a look around at our society and we can easily see how accurate his assessment is with this given what we’ve seen with so many who succumbed to the Mass Formation that I referenced from Mettias Desmet earlier in this episode. 

Stoicism

“Complaining about a problem without posing a solution is called whining.”—Teddy Roosevelt

So how’s this sound for a starting solution? 

Adopting stoicism in the face of an emotionally charged and broken society is a great remedy for eliminating the possibility of a society being ruled by FEAR.  

So what is Stoicism? 

Stoicism is a philosophical discipline that involves one working to endure pain and hardship without the display of his or her feelings when experiencing such difficulty. 

Granted it’s one thing to talk about stoicism and a completely different ballgame to practice it in one’s day to day life. 

So how does one go about doing this? 

Over the years I’ve personally adopted stoicism to deal with some personal hardships. I quickly realized that in life I cannot control anything beyond my own actions and even that can be difficult to do at times. 

Stoic philosophy is ancient and some of the best writings of stoic philosophy come from our great thought leaders from the past such as Seneca, Epictetus, and the Great Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. 

I believe one of Marcus Aurelius’s greatest stoic quotes can beautifully apply to everything we’ve experienced in the past couple years. To me the following quote really cuts to the heart of every mistake we’ve made as a society with the forced lockdowns and destruction of lives over a campaign of FEAR. 

“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”--Marcus Aurelius. 

In examining this quote and comparing it to the fear surrounding the lockdowns, social isolation, and closings of businesses it’s easy to see how our society caved in and adopted the opposite of what Marcus Aurelius points out here. It’s evident that as a society we chose to fear death and to destroy what it means to live with freedom and purpose in exchange for the feeling of “safety.” 

In doing this it’s easy to look back and prove that warm fuzzy feeling of safety resulted in the destruction of many more lives, businesses, and families. Granted if you happen to be a Marxist then this would be ideal, but if you’re a freedom loving individual that cares for others then you know this was a complete disaster that was a result of weakness and a society that was infected more by the pandemic of Mass Formation Psychosis than a physical illness.

In order to not allow this to happen we must continue to speak out and be the dissonant voices while also working to make ourselves stronger and more resilient physically and mentally as a society at large. 

Practicing the stoic philosophy is a great start and you can exercise this within yourself by being conscious of your behavior and your emotions when a difficult, uncomfortable, and stressful situation arises. When this happens slow down, breathe, and learn to think through the problem in the moment rather than lashing out with a knee jerk reaction.

This is the whole point of self-mastery.

Once you can master yourself mentally, emotionally, and physically then you’re securing your environment and by extension your society, your state, your country, and ultimately the world.

I hope you enjoyed today’s article podcast.

If so I really need your help to push this piece out to your friends, family, and coworkers.

In order for BOTH you and me to influence and strengthen our society we must not stay idle so please make sure you hit the subscribe and share buttons here below.

Spreading messages like this one is how we influence our culture and I need your help in order to do it.

Also listen to this episode here on…

Spotify

Apple Podcasts

Stitcher

If you like this podcast and the message please take a moment to give it a Five Star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating on the Spotify platform.

Also to connect with me please make sure you join me here on Facebook and GETTR

Stay strong. Stay focused. Stay active.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brandonrichey.substack.com/subscribe

Bumper Music Credit: Prazkhanal

Today’s guest is Dan Knutson

Dan is a writer, movie producer, and influencer.

Make sure to connect with Dan and Rock This World Productions here below:

Rock This World Productions

Facebook

Email: [email protected]

Also listen to this episode here on…

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Also to connect with me please make sure you join me here on Facebook and GETTR

Stay strong. Stay focused. Stay active.

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In today’s podcast episode (and article) I wanted to talk about the significance of having an adventurous spirit along with you learning to embrace the advice of your true inner voice.

So what do I mean when I refer to your inner voice?

When I speak about your true inner voice I’m referring to your ability to listen to your intuition. Your intuition is that voice inside of you that gives you confidence when you’re considering taking a leap of faith in life in order to pursue a challenge that you are passionate about, particularly when everyone else in your surrounding environment is communicating nothing more than fear and doubt.

Unlike this intuitive inner voice it is not to be confused with your other inner voices of fear and reason. These two are also possible inner voices that you may encounter in a given scenario that may involve you avoiding making a bad decision to act on something you think is good idea, but in reality isn’t at all.

A good example here might be you grappling with the decision to receive a certain medical treatment that you think is a good idea, but in reality it is not. In this case it’s easy to see how many people can confuse their intuition with their voice of fear in this scenario as we’ve seen play out in real time on a wide scale since the pandemic, but I digress.

However, your intuition is something that is more in line with your gut feeling and instincts than anything else. It’s programmed for your survival and is an accurate gauge as to what you can do when presented with a possible endeavor that you may possess a strong desire and interest in. However in this case you may find yourself at a crossroads contemplating whether or not to act on this certain passion in the form of an actual pursuit.

Perhaps the challenge, or endeavor, that arises is something you have always had a true passion for in your life, but is something that you find talking yourself out of because of your current station in life. Perhaps you’ve always had a strong passion for a certain endeavor, but always convinced yourself that it was nothing more than a hobby and wasn’t meant to be a serious pursuit by you and therefore didn’t really warrant a serious investment from you in terms of your time, energy, and effort.

Whatever the reason may be in your case if you’re being intellectually honest with yourself you know you’ve had such scenarios arise in your lifetime. Maybe you took that leap and acted on these challenges because you always had an interest in that particular endeavor, OR perhaps you allowed the prevailing outside sentiment of negativity and doubt to shift your attention away from your intuitive voice and shift over to that voice of fear. This may have caused that intuitive voice to go silent as your fear voice continued to grow louder ultimately leading you to turn your back and walk away from the challenge altogether.

Cocksurety

I was having a conversation with a close friend the other day and we were discussing the incredible feat of the recent space launch of SpaceX over the past few years. During this conversation we started acknowledging many iconic achievements in space exploration such as having Rovers on Mars and sending man to the moon. 

During this conversation the word Pioneer was brought up when discussing the men that thrusted these great achievements into reality. I suppose my brain automatically wants to default to an image of an astronaut, or record breaking pilot when I hear the word Pioneer. I suppose this is because of the visual of those men being part of the first to venture into uncharted territory with both a high level of risk and confidence. Regardless of this specific image in my head the truth is Pioneers come in many different forms when people take bold steps in life to reach for new horizons.  

I was thinking about a good way to illustrate the behavior of a Pioneer and the thing that came to mind was the Bell X-1. This was a rocket powered high speed aircraft that would eventually be piloted by the famous WWII hero captain Chuck Yeager as seen in the legendary movie The Right Stuff. 

Chuck would end up being the first pilot in history to exceed the speed of sound breaking the sound barrier only days after breaking his ribs during a horseback riding accident on his ranch in 1947. Being such a Pioneer this would set off a competitive environment with other pilots pushing harder to go faster and faster into the supersonic realm. 

During the supersonic testing era leading up to Chuck’s successful achievement of breaking the sound barrier there were a lot doubts in terms of what supersonic speeds may do to the aircraft and by extension what impact it may have on the pilot(s). In this scenario you can imagine the level of risk that the men who participated in the program were shouldering at that time.

Faced with a lifetime of training and discipline these men were willing to take a seriously raging out of control bull by the horns (metaphorically speaking) that had a track record of ending careers and lives very quickly.

I can’t remember the exact percentage, but during these supersonic testing programs the mortality rate was projected to be very high among the pilots. In fact, I believe it was close to a 90% mortality rate. Regardless, I know for a fact that it was an incredibly high risk for these supersonic pursuits.  

With a projected super high mortality rate Yeager and other pilots forged ahead anyways. Hell, as I mentioned earlier Yeager did the test run on a set of broken ribs. 

So the magic question is why did these men do what they did despite the result being unknown and the risk being so high? 

The answer to this question lies within that inner voice that I touched on earlier in the episode combined with the unwavering confidence each of the pilots had in their individual abilities.

This explanation cuts deep into the psychology involved when it comes to how we assess and take on certain risks. Well, the answer in this case is what is known as cocksurety. Yes, that is a real word. 

Taking A Leap Into The Unknown

"I was always afraid of dying. Always. It was my fear that made me learn everything I could about my airplane and my emergency equipment, and kept me flying respectful of my machine and always alert in the cockpit."—Chuck Yeager

So what is cocksurety?

What this means is that these pilots had clear explanations when asked about the misfortune of those pilots that had deadly outcomes that came before them. When addressing how previous pilots had sealed their fates in a tragic crash and burn test run the surviving pilots would immediately point to the mistakes of those that failed before them. 

This was not an attempt of disrespect, but rather a display of confidence coming from those that had yet taken that leap into the unknown. To those men that had yet gotten to supersonic speed and beyond they couldn’t be involved with such a pursuit being driven by fear. In their minds they were not allowing their fear voice to sway their judgement in continuing forward in their pursuit for breaking the sound barrier.

Now you might say well Brandon their intuitive voice got them killed and I would respond by saying that you’re forgetting about their voice of reason. They may have had a reason to ignore a test run that ultimately resulted in their tragic demise, but ignored that voice of reason by not acknowledging some existing problems that might have been unique to their given situation.

The truth is you and I will never know better than those pilots who actually stepped up to take on this mission. Once again, according to the surviving pilots that still had the opportunity to make the test run to reach supersonic speed those that did not make it were possibly at fault for not doing certain things that the surviving pilots are here to tell us about.

So at the end of the day those that continued with the mission had to forge ahead with absolute assurance in what they knew coupled with their experience and individual abilities. They had to be cocksure. 

The Main Ingredient

Cocksurety is a hell of trait and is really the main ingredient for all great Pioneers that have paved new paths and explored uncharted territory. 

So how does such a trait apply to our everyday lives? 

I would say it applies directly to you if you have invested everything into a dream, a set of skills, and a life education. You have demonstrated being a Pioneer everyday if you find yourself pouring your energy, time, and money into starting a new business(s), taking difficult stands, and fighting for freedom. 

None of these are easy to do in today’s society because the herd mentality is more about trying to fit in rather than trying to stand out. The herd mentality also silences the intuitive voice while more often than not magnifying the voice of fear.

A Pioneer is not about being a sheep, but rather about being an adventurous individual spirit driven by ambition and courage. Remember how significant the act of courage can be in any life situation. I also covered this in more detail in my podcast episode titled the Prisoner’s Dilemma.

A Pioneer is an individual that isn’t afraid of being just that along with standing firm in his or her abilities even when everyone in the room is pushing doubt and criticism in their direction on a constant basis. 

Do you relate to being a Pioneer? 

Now that you know what it takes to be a Pioneer can you see just how unique and rare it is in today’s world? 

If you’re a regular reader, or listener to this podcast then you understand the goal is to help you to be a Zenith during chaotic times so being a Pioneer is a major piece to that puzzle.

I hope you enjoyed today’s article.

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Today’s guest is Brian McKay

Brian is a pain free lifestyle coach and influencer.

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Today’s guest is Dave Morrow

Dave Morrow is a health and fitness specialist, veteran, author, podcaster, and influencer working to better veterans and people’s health.

Make sure to connect with Dave here:

davemorrow.net

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brandonrichey.substack.com/subscribe

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Also listen to this episode here on…

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Stay strong. Stay focused. Stay active.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brandonrichey.substack.com/subscribe