Ask yourself, "What would the strongest version of myself do?"

[TheProspect]

First off, I’ll shamelessly admit I have recently started an intensive form of Hot Yoga. No slow smooth transitions into poses or relaxing stretches (except at the end) or anything like that. Just a non-stop 45 minute ab/leg workout in the heat in a room mostly full of slim, perspiring women.

And no, the answer to the thread title is not to do hot yoga lol.

Anyways, I attended a class earlier this week and towards the end my shoulders arms legs and core were absolutely exhausted. The final exercise before the end was a stationary plank (this plank is the one where you hold yourself in the extended up portion of a pushup). We were to hold this position for 60 seconds, which goes by extremely slowly when your muscles are exhausted and you are sweating vigorously.

As soon as I got into position, my arms started shaking. My core struggled to remain tight. My shoulders and parts of my legs began to ache. I thought I would probably only last 15-20 seconds at best. I started counting by 7's in my head to distract my mind. It was literally only moments before I said “fvck it”, when a question randomly popped in head, “What would the strongest version of myself do?”

I didn’t answer the question in my head, I just kept mentally repeating it over and over again and my body reacted accordingly. Before I knew it, the 60 seconds were up.

I was surprised at how just asking myself the question repeatedly without mentally answering it persuaded my body to just do what I had to do. I used the question over the next few days in situations where I was having minor temporarily mental dilemmas of making a binary decision, and it increased my productivity significantly:

• On leg day I didn’t want to do 12 rep squats because my energy level was mild and didn’t want to push myself and feel the burn. “What would the strongest version of myself do?”. I did each set until failure.
• I told myself on the drive home from my university class that I needed a quick nap before homework. When I walked through the door and was prepping my phone alarm for the nap the question popped in my head, “What would the strongest version of myself do?”. I turned my phone off and finished my math homework immediately.
• I had a few days accumulation of dishes, cleaning, and tidying to start. But it was 10 minutes before the regular time I usually go to sleep. I would clean first thing in the morning. The question popped in my head, “What would the strongest version of myself do?”. I woke up to a clean, tidy house.

Those are just a few examples. I believe each of you can try out this question for yourself, and see how it works out for you. Ask yourself, “What would the strongest version of myself do?”, and then do that immediately before your mind starts negotiating with you not to. The strongest version of yourself is obviously subjective and it should be based on the ideal version of yourself, whatever that may look like to you.

You can apply this to women and dating…

• You are going about your day-to-day activities, or you’re out gaming, and you see a cute girl. She makes eye contact and gives you a smile. Ask yourself, “What would the strongest version of myself do?”. The end result should either be a new number in your phone or at least an increase in confidence from making an approach.
• The girl you are dating is starting a trivial argument, and you feel yourself getting irritated. Ask yourself, “What would the strongest version of myself do?”
• You been on a few dates with a girl. She seems DTF but she has few red flags, but you don’t have any other options currently. Ask yourself, “What would the strongest version of myself do?”
• You are in a long-term relationship. You get a lingering thought that maybe it’s not going to work out. Ask yourself, “What would the strongest version of myself do?
• A drunk women, for no reason, gives you a few slaps in a crowded bar OR b!tches you out making a scene. Ask yourself, “What would the strongest version of myself do?”

You can apply this to other areas of your life…

• You are in university and have an important exam coming up and you know you need to study this weekend to pass, but a girl you like asked you to hangout. Ask yourself, “What would the strongest version of myself do?”
• At your work you become aware that best producer at your position will be promoted at the end of the month. Ask yourself, “What would the strongest version of myself do?”
• You are out at the bar and it is crowded. You accidentally bump into a random guy. He gets belligerent and tells you to meet him outside. Ask yourself, “What would the strongest version of myself do?”
• You are being insulted. You start taking it personally, and want to react violently. Ask yourself, “What would the strongest version of myself do?”

etc etc etc

It would help to define what the strongest version of yourself would look like. For me, it would be a man who remains calm no matter the circumstances and responds rationally to situations instead of reacting emotionally. A man who does not procrastinate or waste his time nor energy on trivial things. A man who works hard every day to make the next day better. A man who is always moving forward, making progress, and carving a future of success and abundance for himself. A man who is afraid of stepping outside his comfort zone, but does it anyway until it becomes second nature.

I noticed that the question is usually has a binary answer/decision. And the two decisions are opposites… One decision is a strong decision and the other is a weak decision. The strong decision is usually one that I noticed forces you to take responsibility now and push yourself out of your comfort zone, it is productive and makes your life better than it was 5 minutes before. The result is usually you become a stronger version of yourself, in whatever aspect that may be. Whereas a weak decision is based on fear, procrastination, and a lack of work ethic, willpower, and ambition. Choosing the weak alternative to a binary decision when asking yourself the question I assume would reduce your (positive) energy and self-confidence. Whether you make a strong or weak decision when you ask yourself the question, you reinforce the effects of that decision which would govern how you would make your next decision. Strong decisions beget strong decisions, weak decisions beget weak decisions. Keep in mind, this only based on my experience over the last week, and obviously not a well substantiated theory that I am suggesting is absolute truth. I only suggest you all give it a shot because it’s working for me.


So when tasked with two decisions where one will make you stronger and one will make you weaker, no matter how insignificant you think it may be, just ask yourself, “What would the strongest version of myself do?” and do that.

Every time I asked myself this question in the last week, I became a stronger version of myself.

 

[guru1000]

Bravo.

To add, YOU are an amalgamation of your genetic proclivities and social conditioning, both of which can be reconditioned. The more often you take the “strong approach,” the greater you habituate your normal standing, conditioning, and go-to in strength, insofar as the habitation eventually metamorphoses unconsciously into your subcommunications and actual behavior, thus reconditioning You into YOU.

Act like a soldier and you will eventually become one.

Yes, Conscious directives recondition, but also never commit even one small weak action. I attribute much of my overall success in life to this simple concept.

 

[Von]

I am amazed no one picked on this thread before Guru.

100% agree with OP and Guru.

Always ask: "what would the best version of me do"
Always answer: "is it good for me"

I would add: always do something that makes you better, if it's feel challenging more reason to do it.

"Pain is temporary, glory is for ever"

Respect yourself too. You have to make it a routine, a discipline.

You don't want to be the loser who say: okay I am gonna do this 24/7 because successful people do that... than 3 months later... you give up.

You want to start slow.. But repeat it every day.

Start: 10 approach a day for 1 month, than next month it's 20 approach a day.... Do 30minutes a day of reading.. Next month it's 1 hour.

Things dont happen over night and you need to build the "habit", the habit of being on the track to success. Respect your brain, body.... Otherwise you'll crush your motivation

Successful people took the time to make it part of who they are.

It also touch the relationships... if you take your time to know the other without engaging in " sex" than likely that person can be a better LTR option

 

[Macaframalama]

Great post! I meditate nightly. Sometimes, with an empty mind and other times repeating affirmations. I think I'll steal this one if you don't mind.

 

[TheProspect]

To add, YOU are an amalgamation of your genetic proclivities and social conditioning, both of which can be reconditioned. The more often you take the “strong approach,” the greater you habituate your normal standing, conditioning, and go-to in strength, insofar as the habitation eventually metamorphoses unconsciously into your subcommunications and actual behavior, thus reconditioning You into YOU.

I view myself as a type of determinist; I don't believe in free will, I believe we don't consciously author our own thoughts and choices. However, I am not a fatalist, and so I do not think we are doomed to our genetic programming and social conditioning either, I don't think we're destined for a predetermined fate. I think your post resonated with me because you, more or less, articulated my beliefs in such a fashion that you acknowledge the deterministic side while showing how determinism does not necessarily have to equal fatalism. Therefore, we should always strive to recondition and improve ourselves despite any hardwiring we may be born with (or have acquired through our environment).

Great post! I meditate nightly. Sometimes, with an empty mind and other times repeating affirmations. I think I'll steal this one if you don't mind.

I'm a proponent of meditation, but I don't do it as often as I should. I am a fairly emotionally intelligent individual so it won't ruin my life if I don't meditate, but it definitely improves it when I get into a routine.

Regarding affirmations, I can't pre-meditate them. I have to be in a situation where I am receiving negative self-talk from my mind and have to consciously tell myself why I shouldn't list to the voice inside my head. Lol that may sound like I'm crazy, so I'll elaborate: If I wake up at 4:30am to hit the gym, I need to get going before my mind negotiates with me a reason why I shouldn't. I can't negotiate with my mind using my mind, so I have to talk out loud to overwhelm the voice in my head. When I wake up and on the odd morning where the voice inside my head starts persuading me to stay in bed I have to literally say verbal commands out loud to overcome it. Regarding the topic of this thread, I could alternatively ask myself "What would the strongest version of myself do?" when the voice starts to negotiate with me. Posing that question to my mind forces it to avoid seeking an excuse to be weak and ultimately causes me to take action to do what makes me stronger.

 

[TheProspect]

Reason I don’t normally respond to threads like these is because it’s not new information and i don’t want to take anything away from the poster.

But The idea of this thread has been covered in the past “what would an alpha male do?” Or “what would James Bond do” or any character or person you approve of for that matter

It’s good that people are coming to these epiphanies on their own. It’s further proof of what I keep repeating that men are inherently born with all the tools necessary to succeed with chicks and in life in general.

People will continue to mock the alpha/beta dichotomy. But that’s only because it’s been cheapened by a market thats trying to sell you something and filtered out naturally by our skepticism of snake oil salesman and as a reaction to too much external stimuli.

Alpha isn’t a process of self development, it’s a process of self discovery

You're right. But I think it's more effective to use yourself and your potential as the reference point for your decisions rather than some abstract idea of an ideally emulatable character you read on the internet or saw in a movie. I say that because your mind could always tell you "But I'm not James Bond." or "But I'm not really an alpha male", especially if you are not delusional, whereas you always have the capability to be the strongest version of yourself. You are not comparing yourself (or your decisions) to someone (or their decisions) who you are not and never will be. You could, however, argue that the strongest version of yourself and being an alpha male are synonymous. I agree with you nonetheless.