mistermachismo

This post is about one of the simplest solutions I’ve made a habit for my health.

There’s a real elegance about simple solutions to problems.

They’re often deceptively effective at achieving what we want, and indicate just how much we tend to over-intellectualise solutions to problems.

For example, health/fitness/nutrition is an almost unnavigable field of complete BS and scam artists, accompanied by a changing story about what is the perfect way to eat or exercise.

In reality, the most simplest intervention that the average Joe or Jane could undertake to improve their health and wellbeing is:

Walk for 1 hour outside first thing in the morning every single day.

I love this intervention because:

• Most people simply do not walk enough each day, this changes that,
• Practically everyone despite current fitness levels can walk for 60 minutes,
• The consistency of the habit is a foundation you can build from,
• You need zero equipment,
• Spending additional time outside is always beneficial, fresh air and calms you,
• Walking itself is incredibly therapeutic for ailments, especially the back,
• There’s practically no circumstances where you cannot walk,
• You get to observe sunrises, which are beautiful, and sync your circadian rhythm,
• You’ve accomplished something significant for your health first thing in the morning,
• Walking first thing in the morning means you are fasted, which helps control weight,
• When done consistently over a long period of time your cardiovascular health improves,
• Done barefoot on grass or sand, it improves your foot, ankle, knee and hip health,
• Walking without music or podcasts, etc. turns it into a kind of walking meditation.

I’m sure there are countless other reasons why doing this is beneficial, but the point of the story is that sometimes very simple solutions are the best ones.

This is something of a personal ethos of mine that has naturally developed over the course of the last few years.

The characteristics I’ve come to admire most in other men, and therefore those I’ve sought to develop more within myself, can be summarised as:

• Strength, in all things,
• Self-reliance wherever possible,
• Individual sovereignty.

When combined, these characteristics make for powerful and influential men that create freedom and value for their families and their local communities.

If this could be reduced to a single characteristic, it would be strength.

Strength could be used by all men as a guiding principle for improving their lives.

Being physically, mentally and spiritually strong is a hallmark attribute of successful men. Seeking to maximise strength in all the critical domains of your life, as a man, is a worthwhile and useful pursuit.

This might seem a little one dimensional, but there are really a multitude of aspects to strength that make it the most important attribute to develop as a man.

Consider that you can be strong in the following ways:

• The most obvious, physically strong and robust, you are healthy and capable of difficult challenges, resilient to ailments and injuries,
• Mentally strong and resilient, capable of withstanding moments or periods of high stress and difficulty without succumbing to pressure, assertive with positive intent, won’t quit,
• Financially strong, able to provide for yourself and your wife and children, cushioned from the unexpected events that life inevitably presents to you, building a future and a legacy for your heirs and local communities,
• Spiritually strong, the spirit is your life force that is immutably strong at its core, capable of driving you forward infinitely, driven by a strong resolve to achieve a mission,
• Sexually strong, virile and capable of strong sexual connection and expressing physical love is essential to male fulfilment.

Many modern men are not strong in the ways or domains I’ve listed above. And it is little wonder that most modern men are depressed, out of shape, purposeless, broke and lonely.

You can see how being strong in all of those domains would create men of worth and value in the world. It is also easy to see how being strong across those domains effectively gives rise to the other two key characteristics I called out earlier – self-reliance and sovereignty.

In fact, being strong is a pre-requisite for admission into the territory of self-reliance and sovereignty.

To my mind, the person I want to be and the life I want to live, is embedded within the pursuit of strength, self-reliance and sovereignty.

If you’re a man, I posit you could pursue strength in your life across all domains and it would not steer you wrong.

The world is a strange place these days.

Since becoming a father, my interest (and concern) about the future of our world has increased substantially.

For a long time, I'd subscribed to the ethos that I could largely just do my own thing and not worry about the machinations of politicians, governments and vested interest.

It's now apparent to me that to ignore all this is to enable the festering of evil. To remain silent is to be complicit.

Society is best served, and seems most robust, when the composition of it's members are strong, self-reliant and sovereign.

In my humble opinion, the average citizen is a long way from being any of those things in modern society.

I'm on a personal journey, perhaps even a crusade, to maximise my own strength, self-reliance and individual sovereignty in order to be capable of providing a sound future for my wife and children.

Becoming strong, self-reliant and sovereign are all things within my own locus of control, and can therefore be influenced by my own direct actions.

My writing is intended to document the journey of improvement.

My hope is that it helps and inspires others to embark upon their own journey of self-improvement towards strength, self-reliance and sovereignty.

Thanks for reading and best of luck.