Re:
"The things you believe in constitute the baggage you carry with you in your life. The true sage believes in nothing other than the sacredness of all things. He lives in the spontaneity of energy. He doesn't defend or judge anything. His world is eternal and infinite; he sees beauty in all things, and he accepts the ways of man, including restrictiong and strife. He knows that without constraints, there would be no challenges." ~ Stuart Wilde "Affirmations".
I started off with that because BELIEFS truly are baggage. They either motivate you or they paralyze you. Those who have reached great heights have done so with powerful, motivating BELIEFS. Even Tony Robbins knows this. He mentions the power of beliefs in all his books. But beliefs come about over time. You must immerse yourself in what it is you want to belief. It must become your physical reality to become belief. It must be worked on each day. And dug into, and worked from different angles, so as to protect it from outside invasion.
Now...
I personally don't believe it what it is we belief that matters. We try to fix the our belief systems. We ridicule other's for theirs, yet we are not confident in others. And what are beliefs anyways?
They are our thoughts on what we deem reality is based on our experience. Yet, if we somehow misunderstood that experience a belief would then be false. Since situations/experiences can be viewed from multiple angles, there's no 1 right thing. There's no 1 right way. Meaning, how you saw it may or may not be true. Yet, we establish beliefs on things we deem to understand.
Much of what's done in the PUA community, for instance is based on what has been believed to work. Granted, it's not 100%, but it's work 51% of the time so guys pawn it off and replicate it. That's where beliefs are established.
Same with college. It's believed education = success/money, so we go. If college had no return on invested time or money, and the beliefs didn't match the outcome, nobody would go.
Beliefs direct reality.
That said, having them could help or hurt you. And we can't know if they help or hurt, because we must first know what it is we want, THEN establish beliefs. Trying to do something with misguided beliefs is useless. It's immediate failure.
We can sit here and ponder all the beliefs on life after death, on what the world means, and on what works with women, but it's all crap anyways. I was once called a nihilist on here because I was positing about the fact we know very little. We know alot, we've just forgotten it. We uphold beliefs that create the world we see before us. The before us is the result of the collective beliefs of the human race. It's a reflecting pool of those beliefs. And people condem the world for what it is, when they should condem themselves for it.
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The fact is we all want concrete beliefs, and this what leads to fighting, wars, strife, and lack in life. Beliefs are unknown as it relates to the physical plane, so we feel more comfortable with more people hoping on board with us. When that happens, it reaffirms the belief structure and gains power. NOW, it's more than belief, it's called knowledge. Religion does this. So does society. Society deems public education to be a positive institution, so parents send their kids away.
I do not pretend to know what some higher being is. I do not believe I can know, at least in my present mental state what he/she/it is. I think operating from a place of ignorance as it relates to life and spirituality is a safer bet. Many use beliefs to support their own concern in life, their own unhappiness.
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As it relates to working out and such, you can do it knowing you will gain favor from the opposite sex, and some respect from your friends and family. But normally that's what makes people unhappy. They do something so long, achieving their goal/dream, and it's not what it appeared to be because their motivations were outside themselves.
It's good to hold a vision of you winning a lifting competition, or coming in second, or being buff @ the beach, whether you receive praise or not. It's not so good to envision the women swooning at a bar, because it may not happen. There's a difference between firm vision and whimsical one's.
I believe if you have to be in shape for a wedding, you can firmly envision that and do it. I believe you can workout and envision being cut @ the beach, knowing you enjoy having no clothes. However, life is very random and spontaneous and it will likely throw curves at you, so when you're expecting something, you won't get it. You'll get it in some other way.
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Many of the top lifting pro's started with the simple belief that they got beat up by someone bigger and wanted to be the bigger guy this time. Or, they were tired of being made fun of, so they worked out to not be skinny. Or the fat guy was tired of being fat.
Pain v. pleasure.
Pain can be a motivator, too. Sometimes things get so low that the only way to go is up, and depending on your own limitations, you'll get there. To get more life, though, we must know where those limitations are, and when it feels painful, push further and create new comfort zones.
If you're in sales, and only go so far, or only do so much, then you know your comfort zone. Analyze that limiting factor.
If you work out, and seem to get in decent shape, realize where it is you stop and continue.
If you're into saving/investing, find out what happens when you get so far and turn around. Start pushing back.
It all changes with a slight action.
I read alot of motivationl/inspirational/spirtual and psychological books. Tony Robbin's theory is to increase by 1% each thing you do, each time you do it. I believe lifting works the same way. If your body is the reflection of the physical ability it has, and it reflects the work you can, push just a little further each workout.
If you do 12 reps this week at 50lbs, consider that weight volume 600lbs, go to 610 total, or 620, which would be 13 reps of 50lbs, or 12 reps at 52.5.
Doing that long enough, the pain of increase isn't so severe as to make you turn back.
My fam did that with vegetables. I used to eat a few peas, then more, until a whole patch. Now I like them. When you go like that, you don't realize progress is being made, but it is.
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A-Unit
