Welcome to the third and final instalment of the James Bond badass analysis. In case you missed them, the previous two articles have covered:

• The James Bond Skillset – the skills and knowledge that make Bond as dangerous as he is.

• The James Bond Mindset – the traits and behaviours that make up the unstoppable Bond persona.

All up, we’ve gone through a ton of different things that you can steal from Bond to improve your own results. But there’s still one final piece we need to cover – what not to do. Specifically, I’m talking about the flaws and weaknesses that make Bond a little more human.

I’ve got three big character weaknesses to go through, all things you’ll want to minimise and get under control in your own life.

Now, let’s go through them one by one.

Avoidant Personality

It would be an understatement to say James Bond is independent. He takes being a lone wolf to an entirely new level – one that comes with its fair share of drawbacks and consequences.

He gets away with it to some extent because of the skills and mindset covered in previous articles. But when push comes to shove, Bond insists on working solo not because it’s better for the mission but because he’s afraid of getting too close to other people.

We see this in his relationships, where he seems to find a new love interest in every movie while seemingly only ever allowing himself to truly love one of them – Vesper from Casino Royale. Unfortunately, she would go on to betray him, further reinforcing his solitary beliefs and methods.

Although Bond’s level of independence can seem compelling, I think we should actually tilt in the other direction here. Rather than pushing people away and insisting on handling everything yourself, I recommend prioritising building healthy relationships.

This does open you up to getting hurt just like Bond fears. But the potential upside – the support, love, and life experience – far outweighs any risk of emotional hardship.

Arrogance

Unfortunately, arrogance tends to be forgiven when backed up by competence. 

This couldn’t be more true with Bond, who consistently displays a planet-sized ego and disdain for anybody who disagrees with him. But thanks to his mastery over his trade and his ability to always come out on top, we look past and forgive his flaws.

Unfortunately, if you were to bring that same level of arrogance into your own life, people wouldn’t be so forgiving. Even if you were somehow as skilled as 007 himself… which none of us are.

No, quite the opposite would happen. You’d quickly drive away the people around you and become the dude that never gets invited to parties.

Instead, you’re far better off developing healthy levels of confidence while trying to stay well in touch with and humbled by your weaknesses. This will help you simultaneously maximise your ability to perform and improve, while also maintaining relationships with the people around you.

Inexpressive Communication

Despite what all those self-proclaimed ‘sigma males’ on Instagram think, the unreactive, inexpressive persona that Bond and many other action heroes possess, isn’t actually something you want to emulate.

As a dude who is naturally somewhat monotone and inexpressive, I’d love it if carrying yourself in this way could be deemed charismatic. But it simply isn’t.

It works for Bond because he’s a man of insanely high status and the camera follows him around – this last part can’t be understated. We’re forced to watch him at all times.

But for most of us, being quiet and inexpressive will actually have the opposite of the desired effect. Rather than commanding a room with an aura of mystery and quiet confidence, you’ll fade into the background and go completely unnoticed. For better or worse, louder communication styles tend to be the ones that get the most attention. 

The guys from the Charisma on Command YouTube channel have spoken about exactly this concept. Check out the video below for an awesome explanation.

With all of the above in mind, rather than trying to be calm and mysterious like 007, I recommend steering towards authentic expression of emotion. If something excites you, make it clear. Don’t hide your thoughts and feelings behind a mask.

Sure, some people might not like your authentic expression, but that’s fine. Far better to have some people love you and some people dislike you than to go unnoticed by everybody.

So, what are your takeaways? 

Is there anywhere in your own life that you might be making one of these big three mistakes? 

If so, how will you go about fixing it?

Food for thought.

In my last article, we covered the skillset that makes James Bond the most capable man in Hollywood. But that was only part one in a 3-part series.

In this article – part 2 – we’re going to look at who 007 is in more intimate detail  – the personality traits and mindsets that make him who he is.

If you’ve ever wondered how you could build a James Bond personality of your own, this is the perfect place to start.

So with that in mind, let’s dive in and look at some of the different traits that make up our favourite super spy.

The James Bond Personality Traits

Fearlessness

Let’s start this article where the previous one finished – with James Bond’s seeming lack of fear. 

Movie after movie, Bond is routinely thrust into the most fear-inducing situations imaginable, and barely reacts at all. Heights, bullets, torture, and even something a little more relatable for the common man – talking to beautiful women – all of them are everyday activities for 007, and so he engages in them with barely a care in the world.

Despite how unattainable this lack of fear might seem, the previous sentence holds the key. Repetition is the fear killer. The more you’re exposed to something, the less afraid it’ll make you.

With that in mind, the best way for you to develop courage is to regularly and deliberately expose yourself to the things that frighten you. 

Psychologists call this practice Exposure Therapy. You start by exposing yourself to a small, watered-down piece of what frightens you and then gradually increase the exposure, much like slowly submerging yourself in a hot bath.

To provide an example, someone who has a fear of spiders could follow these steps, sticking with each until the fear level diminishes:

1. Looking at photos of spiders

2. Staying in the same room as a spider (healthy distance away)

3. Holding a spider

I’ve only included three steps to keep it simple but in reality, you could have many more, with tiny jumps in difficulty between each. The idea here is twofold:

First: The next level of difficulty never feels unobtainable or significantly more difficult than the previous.

And second: But you’re still able to see substantial results over time as long as you keep progressing upwards.

If you start employing Exposure Therapy in the ways outlined above, you should be able to whittle down most of your fears over time.

Confidence

Just like we mentioned above, one of the most immediately evident parts of James Bond’s personality is how he seems to be emotionally unaffected by just about everything.

On the flip side of his lack of fear is his extreme confidence. In a sense, they’re yin and yang. He’s unafraid because he’s confident he can handle the situation, and he’s confident he can handle the situation because he’s unafraid. It’s this combination that allows him to take risks and continually come out on top.

The prescription here is quite similar to above. Forget about the confidence hacks you see online – power poses and mantras might give you a temporary boost, but the real confidence comes from doing the work.

You become confident in your job, not by delivering a heartfelt speech to yourself in the bathroom mirror, but by putting hours into learning and practising your work-related tasks. Kobe Bryant was so confident because of the hours he spent on the court practising.

Intelligence

Although there’s seemingly nothing we can do to boost our IQ, there’s still plenty we can learn from Bond’s high levels of intelligence. In particular, let’s focus on how he collects and uses information.

Being able to effectively collect and use information is a massive advantage in almost every field you can think of. Which means you need to constantly find and absorb new information that’s relevant to your goals.

The last bit is key here. Bond doesn’t waste time reading about the Kardashian’s latest exploits. He focuses on information that’s directly relevant to his mission – You should do the same. Read books, listen to podcasts, and talk to experts in whatever fields you’re pursuing. Do this constantly and consistently, and watch the results flood in.

Independence

Although Bond is capable of working alongside others when necessary, he does his best work solo.

However, this lone wolf mentality only works for him because of how capable he is. He never needs anyone else’s help because he’s got the skills to manage everything himself.

To develop this in your own life, it once again comes back to building skills. Learn how to handle all the different aspects of your life effectively. Learn how to cook, change a tire, do some basic construction, and so on.

Of course, we also need to talk about the flipside here. Independence is romanticised in the modern world, but it’s not always a good thing. It’s very possible to prioritise independence, not out of the desire to be a more effective human, but out of a fear of getting too close to others.

It’s here that we touch on one of Bond’s flaws – his unresolved abandonment issues, stemming from the early death of his parents.

This is an important balance to keep in mind. You absolutely should spend time trying to become more capable and self-sufficient, but I don’t recommend retreating into a bubble the way Bond does.

It’s far better to try to develop self-sufficiency while also building a range of healthy relationships. Allow yourself to experience the best of both worlds.

Drive

Unlike most normal people, Bond doesn’t ever seem to struggle with a lack of motivation. On the contrary, he seems utterly driven to achieve his goals at all hours of the day.

This isn’t to say he doesn’t take breaks or have time off – we routinely see him enjoying the comforts of alcohol and beautiful women. But he only spends time on these things when the mission permits. When he has some kind of downtime.

The point I’m making is that we never see Bond battling with procrastination or trying to pull himself away from his phone.

Partly, this is the kind of perfection that can only exist within a fictional character – to be human is to be tempted by notifications and dopamine hits. But it’s definitely possible for us to craft our lives in a way that leads to more drive and less distraction.

With that in mind, here are a few simple ways you can start taking back some control immediately:

• Make your phone less enticing by uninstalling apps, using grayscale to remove colour, and leaving it in a different room so that it’s less convenient to check.

• Tackle the more difficult and less appealing tasks on your to-do list first thing in the morning when your motivation is at its highest. Save the more enjoyable tasks for later in the day. Being tired won’t matter as much if you’re looking forward to the activity.

• Practice pairing difficult tasks with some kind of reward. If you enjoy listening to podcasts or music, pairing that with your evening cardio can be a great way to make it seem more enticing.

And there you have it.

Hopefully, this article has given you a few nuggets to help you think and act more like Bond in your day-to-day life.

Of course, we’re not done yet. In the next article, we’ll talk about what not to copy – Bond’s character flaws, the elements that make him a more appealing character and a less effective role model.

Stay tuned.

I sat down to watch the James Bond movies recently, specifically, the Daniel Craig instalments. And I loved them, just like most men do.

Partly, I think it’s because of a combination of great action and compelling storytelling – the movies are excellent at their core. But that’s not the primary reason that I love them so much. No, the primary reason is that I can’t help but feel inspired by the James Bond character.

He’s the definition of a badass after all – capable, charismatic, and in control at all times.

So naturally, after finishing them, I’m now feeling inspired to write some badass content. With that in mind, this will be the first article in a 3-part series to help you bring more Bond-like results into your life.

This one will be all about the James Bond skillset – what you need to learn to become highly capable like 007.

The second and third articles will cover what we can learn from Bond’s mindset as well as the important inverse: his character flaws. Stay tuned for those.

Now, without further adieu, let’s dive in.

The James Bond Skillset

Bond is in a difficult line of work. To have any degree of success in Hollywood’s over-the-top take on espionage, he requires mastery over a wide range of skills.

Some of them are clearly just for show – existing solely to build the persona of an almost perfect masculine figure. 

But I’ll try to strip that away and focus on practicality throughout this article. We’ll look at how learning a similar skillset can translate into your own life and lead you toward results.

1. Combat Skills

You only need to watch one movie to understand that James Bond is evidently skilled in every form of combat imaginable. It doesn’t matter if it’s hand-to-hand, a shootout, a knife fight, or even a vehicle shootout – Bond is going to win.

So, let’s address the elephant in the room. This level of combat skill probably won’t be that useful to you. For those of us who live in western countries, violence is a rare occurrence. The likelihood that you’ll be in a knife fight and then a rocket-launcher shootout in the same week are practically zero.

Practicality has to prevail here. I don’t believe combat skills should be ignored entirely but put your time and effort into the things that provide benefits.

And to that end, martial arts are where it’s at. This is because, even if you don’t actually need to fight anyone, it can develop a range of other skills and traits that will benefit you in all other areas of your life.

In particular, the confidence, discipline, and mental grit could very well make all of your other pursuits feel easy by comparison. Knowing that you’re more prepared to defend yourself and the people you love in the unlikely event of violence is just a bonus.

2. Driving

With at least one or two high speed chases making it into every movie, Bond clearly has insane skill behind the wheel.

It even seems to extend beyond cars into pretty much every other vehicle you can imagine – trucks, planes, bikes, helicopters, and probably UFOs and hoverboards too.

But again, this leads us back to practicality. Learning to drive/fly all these different vehicles probably isn’t a productive use of your time. 

However, it’s absolutely a good idea to work on your competence behind the wheel. There are professional driving courses on offer, but even if you don’t want to go that far, there’s plenty of things you can do to improve. Get used to driving in difficult conditions, practise reverse and parallel parking, and so on. Anyone who winds up in your passenger seat will respect you for it.

3. Communication & Language Skills

Long-time followers of my content will know just how much importance I place on communication skills.

While some of the other items on this list might only be useful in certain circumstances, communication skills are always useful. Wherever you go in life, you’ll stand to benefit massively from being able to communicate effectively with the people around you.

If you want to extend this a step further, you can follow in Bond’s footsteps and start learning a foreign language. 

It may not be useful in your immediate environment, but it’ll improve your speaking skills drastically, even in your primary language. Not to mention how impressive it’ll be when the opportunity arises to start speaking fluently while you’re out and about with friends.

4. Situational Awareness, Understanding of Human Behaviour, & Observation

Something that Bond and other Hollywood super-spies (*cough Jason Bourne *cough) all seem to have in common is their unbelievable ability to assess situations and respond accordingly.

Bond is able to do this partly due to his training, which has taught him to keenly observe his environment and accurately assess threats. But he’s also able to do it because of his uncanny understanding of human behaviour.

He intuitively knows how people think and operate, something that he puts on display and even acknowledges himself in Casino Royale.

Fortunately, adding this skill to your repertoire will make you dangerous in all areas of life, not just the poker room. 

5. Physical Fitness

I don’t think I need to do another spiel on why fitness is important, do I?

One of the most vital James Bond skills to learn is physical fitness, whether that means hitting the gym, or starting up a callisthenics routine.

It’s simple. If you want to be capable, start by making your body capable. Bond understood this as well as anyone. 

6. Calmness Under Pressure

One of the most appealing aspects of the James Bond persona is his composure under pressure. He consistently manages to stay calm in all kinds of terrible and terrifying circumstances, from high stakes poker games, to shootouts, to even being tortured.

I wanted to finish the article on this point because I believe there to be an important truth here. We admire Bond so much for his composure under pressure, because it speaks to his immunity to the thing that holds each of us back the most in our own lives – fear.

We all have those little demons in our lives that we want to conquer but can’t quite bring ourselves to confront. This, I think, is why Bond is so admired and respected. Sure, he’s got the charisma, and the skills, and the fancy cars.

But we love him because he shows us possibilities. He provides an example for what we could be capable of if we were to conquer our most extreme limitations.

Fortunately, most of us will never have to worry about enduring torture. Our fears tend to be much less threatening, although admittedly more likely to occur.

But that’s okay. There’s a simple solution for building composure and courage in the face of your fears.

You need to regularly and consistently do things that are uncomfortable for you. Do them over and over and over again, ideally every day if possible.

Get used to sitting in that discomfort. Show yourself that you can endure and survive. Show yourself that there’s nothing to be anxious about after all.

It’s this experience that will break down the fear and anxiety, and ultimately, let you show up as your calmest self. And that’s the most badass part of the James Bond skillset.

Growth. Improvement. Lots and lots of skill acquisition. The badass lifestyle is one that demands you learn constantly. You’re always reading a new book. You’re always taking new classes and picking up new hobbies.

And because growth is so important, the speed at which you’re able to grow has to be as well. The ability to learn quickly is vital.

After all, it could be the difference between you becoming excellent at five different skills over a two-year period, vs only becoming excellent at one.

It’s with this in mind that I’ve written this miniseries of articles on how you can learn faster. In case you missed them, we’ve already covered goals, cognitive rest, and growth mindset.

Now let’s talk about another key component – why you need to learn from the master.

Why You Need a Teacher or Coach

Having the guidance of a good teacher can dramatically improve your learning speed, for several reasons. Let’s go through them one by one.

You’re Learning the Right Things

One of the most overwhelming parts about picking up a new skill is figuring out where to start. 

It can be tough to know what’s important and what isn’t. Which areas are foundations that everything else will be built upon, and which are things that won’t be overly useful in the grand scheme?

This isn’t to say that you can’t figure these things out yourself. It’ll just take a longer, more indirect route than a teacher can provide. Think about it like fumbling around in the dark. Eventually you’ll find your way to the light switch but it’ll take time and you’ll probably bang your shin on the coffee table along the way.

And this is all for the simple reason that novices don’t tend to know what they don’t know. That’s what makes them a novice in the first place. Fortunately, having a teacher completely nullifies this issue.

After all, their primary purpose is to tell you exactly what to work on and how to do it. This makes the process simple and ensures you’re not wasting time on things that won’t provide bang for your buck.

Spotting Errors

Just as self-learning can lead to an inefficient path, it can also lead to you developing some bad habits.

When we start with a new skill, we do things in a certain way because they feel natural or seem correct to our untrained brain. Over time, we reinforce them so much that unlearning them or replacing them with a better habit becomes frustratingly difficult.

But it goes even further. Beyond bad habits, you could also potentially be making incorrect choices during the learning process without realising it. For example, you might choose an inferior method of doing something, while believing it’s effective.

Fortunately, both habits and choices can be corrected by a good teacher. They’ll be able to notice troublesome habits early on and guide you to replacing them with something more effective.

Once you have that effective foundation, you’ll benefit from compounding improvement in all of your practice sessions, because your brain is free to focus on more challenging aspects while also having an effective support network of dialled-in fundamentals.

Accountability

For many of us, this will be the most powerful benefit behind having a teacher. While the sections above focus on the learning itself, accountability is all about motivation and showing up to learn – something almost all of us struggle with from time to time.

The reason is simple:

It’s much easier to convince yourself to skip a practice session when you’re the only one who’ll know about it.

Once you bring a teacher into the fold, the circumstances change. Now you have someone setting assignments and placing expectations upon you. If you choose to skip a practice session or not meet the standards that your teacher sets for you, you’ll have to have an uncomfortable conversion. You’ll have to explain yourself.

This places a huge amount of psychological pressure on you. Skipping out on a practice session now has a price attached.

Although that might sound unappealing or intimidating, this type of pressure is often all it takes to push you outside of your comfort zone in a way that you would have been unable to accomplish by yourself.

And anyone who’s read my articles before will know that this is the key to substantial, rapid growth.

Bringing It Home

Between the three benefits outlined above, it should be easy to see why you need to learn from the master.

An effective teacher will put you on the most effective learning path, help you avoid and learn from errors, and speed up your growth.

And above all, they’ll provide the accountability you need to take your learning seriously. This will ensure you take the right actions more often.

All up, having a teacher is a recipe for becoming capable, and therefore a recipe for badassery. Which is ultimately what we’re all after, right?

You need to learn from the master. Food for thought.

But for those who haven’t, here’s a quick and easy definition straight from Carol Dweck (Stanford professor of psychology – originator of the growth mindset concept):

For contrast, here’s Dweck’s take on the other end of the spectrum, a fixed mindset:

They’re polar opposites, both in definition and effect. A growth mindset puts a person on an upward trajectory and a fixed mindset locks them in place.

That’s the obvious takeaway for why you should develop a growth mindset, but let’s look at the benefits in more detail.

The Benefits of Having a Growth Mindset

Here are just a few of the key benefits to having a growth mindset:

Detachment from Results

One of the most poisonous parts of having a fixed mindset is the amount of importance it places on results. After all, if our level of talent and intelligence is locked in, then the results we achieve are also locked in. If we perform poorly, a fixed mindset will tell us that that’s as good as we’ll ever be, which is a bitter pill to swallow.

This is why kids who are labelled as smart in school often grow up into adults that are afraid of trying new things or leaving their comfort zone. They’ve grown attached to their label of intelligence and are terrified of doing anything that would rip that label away – fixed mindset in a nutshell. If talent is locked in, then our results determine who we are… forever.

Having a growth mindset, on the other hand, allows you to detach from the results, at least a little.

After all, if you’re capable of learning and improving, failure and poor performance aren’t as big of a deal. Your results stop being a commentary on your value as a human being, and instead become a commentary on where you’re at right now in this moment.

And once you’re able to detach from your results, it reduces the pressure and anxiety, which in turn often leads to better results anyway. It’s a win-win.

Freedom to focus on improvement

Just as detachment from results reduces pressure, it also frees you up to focus on the things that matter – like learning and improving.

Once you’re able to fail at something without it threatening your entire identity, the failure begins to take on a new light. Now, it’s an opportunity to examine what went wrong and learn something new. And this ‘black box’ mentality can radically improve the speed at which you learn. 

Just imagine if you got a little better every single time something goes wrong in your life. How much better could you be in a few months or even a few years?

Peace of mind and hope for the future

Finally, as has been alluded to throughout the points above, a growth mindset provides a whole lot of peace of mind.

When your failures and weaknesses stop being an indictment on your value as a human and start being things to improve upon, it creates space for hope.

And hope for a better future leads to peace of mind. Things don’t feel quite as serious, which enables you to be more realistic, productive, and authentic.

How to Develop a Growth Mindset – The Key Principles

So, you know why it’s important, but now it’s time for the meat and potatoes. Let’s get into how to develop a growth mindset.

The important first step is recognising that you actually can change. 

After all, people who’re stuck in a fixed mindset will know just how limiting it is. Possibilities can feel closed off. From that stance, it’s inherently difficult to believe that change is possible.

With that in mind, the first principle is focused on breaking free from that disempowering mindset.

Look at the Evidence

You might believe that your skills and intellect are locked in, but is that actually true?

As humans with a bias towards survival and reproduction, our beliefs don’t always come from a place of logic and rationality. Often, they come from brief, traumatic experiences that we had 15 years ago, when we were a totally different person.

It’s with this in mind, that you need to take a cold, hard look at the evidence in front of you. Look at the areas of your life in which you believe you’re fixed, locked in place, or unable to improve.

Is there actually any evidence supporting that hypothesis? Conversely, is there any evidence that you can or have improved?

Often, looking at things from this angle will reveal your fixed belief for what it really is – a falsehood.

Even if we’ve been stuck in a fixed mindset, all of us can look back at our lives and see ways in which we’ve changed or improved. Focusing on these is all the evidence you need that you have far fewer limitations than you thought and that growth is indeed possible.

Effort > Results

We covered earlier how part of a healthy growth mindset involves detaching from results. This simple principle is all about reinforcing that idea. All you need to do is start rewarding yourself for effort rather than outcome.

Rather than worrying about whether you won a match or got rejected by that pretty girl in the bar, focus on the effort.

Get in the habit of rewarding yourself for:

• Spending extra time practicing

• Taking the risk even when you were afraid

• Doing a few more reps even after you want to quit

• And so on

It’ll be next to impossible to convince yourself that the results don’t matter at all. We all know they do on some level. But placing mental emphasis on the things within your control will help you reach a much healthier place, and make growth significantly easier.

Process & the Long-Term Perspective

Just as you should be focusing on effort rather than results, it can also be helpful to shift how you’re thinking about the timeline.

Rather than worrying about the outcome of today, think about today as just a part of the process on a long timeline.

It’s just another practice session or event that will get you to where you want to be in months or even years down the road. Take the pressure off today and follow the process.

Appreciate Frustration

We all know the frustration of failing at something that feels within reach. That move or piece of knowledge that you’ve been trying so hard to learn and remember, only for it to slip away when you actually need it.

Often, these moments of frustration are exactly what leads someone to arrive at the idea that they just aren’t cut out for whatever they’re trying to learn, and then quit.

But this is backwards. 

Although the frustration might feel uncomfortable in the moment, it’s actually a useful sign that learning is imminent. Spending time in the frustration is a signal to your brain that it needs to rewire and improve.

Rather than it being an indication that you’re failing, you should take frustration as an indication that you’re learning and tomorrow will be better. 

The ability to reframe frustration might just be one of the most important skills to build when learning how to develop a growth mindset.

Change Takes Time

Lastly and importantly, always remember that change and improvement take time.

You won’t be able to flip the script or dramatically improve overnight. You’ll need to keep reinforcing new ways of thinking and new habits.

This might seem unfair but it isn’t. After all, your current fixed mindset wasn’t built overnight either. You’ve been reinforcing it for years.

It’ll take some work to undo that, but that’s okay. As long as you’re proactively and consciously working towards healthier ways of thinking, things will get easier.

So, what are you waiting for? You’ve just learned how to develop a growth mindset. Get to work.

If you’re aspiring towards badassery, there’s going to be a lot of learning and failure in your future. It’s part of the process, for better or worse.

Fortunately, the principles above will make this a much easier pill to swallow. You’ll be better equipped to bounce back from failures, improve faster, and have a lot more fun along the way. 

Food for thought.

By now, we all know how important it is to be capable if you want to become a badass. I’ve been hammering that point in every article, after all.

Becoming a badass means building a whole heap of knowledge and learning a whole heap of skills.

Unfortunately, we all know that learning can be a slow process. You don’t learn how to speak fluent Spanish overnight, nor can you become a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu in just a few classes.

But because the learning process is so slow by default, anything that helps you speed that process up becomes a golden ticket.

Which brings me to the point of today’s article, something that most people don’t think about.

Let’s talk about cognitive rest.

Cognitive Rest

Most of us already understand recovery, at least in a physical sense. We all know that we need to recover from workouts by having a break, sleeping, eating some good food, and so on.

But, for some strange reason, we don’t give ourselves the same courtesy for mental workouts.

A deep, focused learning session is extremely taxing for the brain. The levels of intense focus required are pretty much impossible to maintain for long periods.

Because of this, your brain needs breaks. Periods of lower intensity that help it recover and adjust. That’s cognitive rest in a nutshell.

Many of you will be resistant to this, and I get it. Allowing for ‘brain breaks’ can feel unproductive or wasteful on the face of it. But this is just a feeling. It’s not true. These breaks are actually both a vital part of the learning process and something that will help you continue to be productive in the long term, while avoiding any dips in performance. You need to give your brain this space regularly.

Now let’s talk about the how.

How to Do Cognitive Rest the Right Way

To keep things simple, there are 2 key principles I want you to follow:

1. Allow your mind to wander after learning

After a learning session, give yourself 10 minutes of peace. Do something that relaxes you and calms your biochemistry down – in the same way that you’d want to be calm before sleep.

This process will give your brain a much needed rest from the intense focus required during the learning session. On top of that, it’ll help your brain start preparing for the neural rewiring that will occur during sleep, to reinforce the new things you’ve just learned.

As for specific methods to relax yourself in this way, here are a few recommendations:

• Walking

• Listening to slow tempo music

• Anything that you find makes you zone out and daydream (showering is a common one for many people)

Hopefully, you won’t have to fight too hard to make this one happen. Most of us find ourselves doing it naturally, vegging out and resting our tired minds after a long day of grinding.

2. Get a good night’s sleep

The learning session itself is important, of course, but it’s nothing without the sleep you’ll get afterwards. 

This is because that’s when the changes are actually happening in your brain. It’s during sleep that all those little neural circuits are rewiring themselves, to help you remember important knowledge and perform skills more smoothly and effortlessly.

With that in mind, give your brain every chance to make the necessary changes by ensuring you get plenty of sleep.

However, keep in mind that it’s not just about the number of hours you spend in bed. You also need to make sure you’re getting high-quality sleep as well. 

This could be a whole article by itself but here are a few simple tips:

• No alcohol

• Avoid caffeine later in the day (this one should probably go without saying, but here we are)

• No eating within 3 hours of bedtime

• No screens or bright lights within an hour or two of bedtime

• Do something relaxing in the hours leading up to sleep, like reading, stretching, or whatever you find works for you. This will also provide some extra cognitive rest before you’re even asleep.

One Final Talking Point

An interesting concept that I encountered recently is the idea that there’s no such thing as overwork, there’s only under-rest. 

Whether that’s true from a biological standpoint is up for debate but it’s absolutely a useful reframe to keep in your back pocket.

When you think about those times in life where you feel totally burnt out and overwhelmed – it’s not removing some of your workload that would fix it, but adding more rest.

Often, they equate to pretty much the same thing: spending less time at work and more time sleeping or reading your favourite book. 

But the meaning behind it makes all the difference. Overwork is disempowering. It makes people panic, with every minute spent working potentially taking them one step closer to their inevitable collapse.

Under-rest is the opposite. It means each of those minutes of work are fine, as long as you’re prepared to add some rest as well.

I think it’s a much more appropriate angle for all the badasses out there, who will inevitably encounter periods of overwhelm on their journey.

Food for thought.

For an aspiring badass, the most important thing to focus on is becoming capable. 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The game is all about building skills. Building as many of them as possible, to become as capable as possible.

However, acknowledging that is only step 1. After all, there’s a million different skills out there. A million different things you could be learning, and time is limited.

So, the obvious next question then becomes: where should you start? What skills, specifically, should you be spending your time on?

While searching for answers to this question, I think there are a few important things for you to consider.

The first is where your interests lie. It’s easy for me to tell you to go and learn how to write code, but if you’re uninterested in computer science and prefer to work with people, that probably won’t be something that you’re motivated to stick with.

So make sure any skills you decide to pursue are things that connect with your interests.

The second consideration is what’s actually useful and what’s likely to be useful in the future. Where should you be placing your focus now to get the most bang for your buck over the next 10 years?

As technology improves and AI takes over, certain skills will become more valuable and others will become less so. For example, driving is something that pretty much everybody should know how to do in the modern world. But with driverless cars on the horizon, skill behind the wheel will likely become less useful over the next 10 years.

Conversely, digital skills have exploded onto the scene over the last few decades. Skills that revolve around websites, social media, video, and digital marketing are all now insanely useful.

So with the above considerations in mind, let’s go through the top 7 badass skills to learn in 2024 and beyond.

*Note - I’m putting this list in order, starting with the least important (but still very important) at number 7 and working my way up. Who doesn’t love some dramatic effect?

7 – Written communication

Writing is everywhere – emails, texting, resumes, dating app profiles, etc.

And whether you realise it or not, you’re selling yourself in every one of these. This might be more overt in your resume and your Hinge bio, but it’s true in other mediums as well. Hear me out.

Your best friend might not judge you for bad grammar or replacing ‘you’ with ‘u’, but other people might. A poorly crafted text might be exactly the thing that loses you the date with an awesome girl or the opportunity to network with someone important at your company.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that you should start treating your WhatsApp conversations like a life or death struggle where everything needs to be perfect. But I am suggesting that you’ve got a lot to gain by learning to write well.

Learn how to construct sentences in a logical manner. Learn how to persuade. Expand your vocabulary and learn how to alter the meaning of what you write. There’s nothing stopping you from reverting back to a simpler style when needed, but having the ability to communicate effectively can only help you in your day-to-day life.

6 – Weight Lifting & Strength Training

Badasses need to be strong and physically fit. I’ve said it a million times but I’ll say it again because it’s not changing anytime soon.

Besides the obvious perks of improved confidence and looking good naked, it’ll prepare you for all the other things a badass should be able to do.

You’ll be ready to help your friend move house because they were too cheap to pay for movers. You’ll be ready to pick your kids up, one over each shoulder to run them to the playground. You get the picture. Manly shit requires manly strength. Be ready.

5 – Digital Skills

This is the big one for professionals out there. If you want to have career success or make a bunch of money, it pays to have digital skills up your sleeve.

Think of all the things that have popped up over the last decade or two – websites, social media, video streaming, digital marketing, phone apps, etc.

The world will continue to become more and more digital and you’ll need to adapt or die. Start by adding some digital skills to your arsenal. Maybe that means becoming hot shit with AI. Maybe it means getting great at building audiences on social media. Whatever it is, learn some skills now and get paid for it in the future.

4 – Martial Arts & Fighting

Although it’s important to be able to defend yourself and those you care about, the odds of you actually having to fight someone on the street aren’t that high (assuming you live in a western country).

The real benefit behind learning to fight is actually just the immense confidence gains that come along with it. 

Once you’ve experienced the physicality of training and know you’re able to handle yourself, you begin to carry yourself in a different manner. Think of the way an action hero moves in a movie, with the confidence that he can handle whatever situation arises. That’s a kind of confidence that can only come from physical experience.

3 – Understanding Psychology & Human Behaviour

Just like written communication, this is one that’ll help you in all aspects of your life.

It’s quite simple really: it pays to know how human beings work beneath the hood. It pays to understand how we think and the mental traps we fall into. 

Building this knowledge will help you better understand yourself, which in turn can help you break free from old behavioural patterns. But it also helps you better understand other people, which then helps you better choose the people you want to have in your life and then communicate with them effectively. 

This could be one of the most impactful skills to learn in 2024.

2 – Communication Skills (in-person)

Speaking of communication, I can’t understate this one. Your ability to communicate is everything. It dictates how people see you and therefore determines your identity, at least in a social context.

Not to mention that you have to communicate in every single aspect of your life, from dating, to work, to family, to ordering your coffee from your local cafe.

Communication is everywhere. If you’re bad at it, it creates roadblocks in your life. If you’re good at it, it creates opportunities.

Given both the prevalence of and potential impact communication has within your life, it’s amusing to me how few people put the time into improving their communication skills.

This is something Vinh Giang (incredible communication coach) talks about on his YouTube channel. Check out this clip: 

If you don’t want to listen to me, then listen to Vinh. Devote time and energy to working on your communication skills. Future you will love you for it.

1 – Learn How to Learn

If becoming capable is the most important element in becoming a badass, then the ability to learn is the most important skill for becoming capable.

Your ability to learn is your greatest weapon and something that you absolutely should spend time developing.

With this in mind, I recommend reading ‘Peak: How All of Us Can Achieve Extraordinary Things’ by K. Anders Ericsson. It’s by far the best and most comprehensive book I’ve ever read on the science of learning.

Go through it and practice applying all of the key principles Ericsson teaches. Get used to learning actively rather than passively, and pay attention to the results you’re rewarded with.

That’s a wrap! Those are my top 7 badass skills to learn in 2024. Start spending time working on each of them now, and become one of the new generation of badasses conquering the world over the next decade.

Good luck, stay frosty!

Everyone has bad days. This is true whether you’ve just begun your journey towards badassery or whether you're a seasoned veteran. It’s even true of the great badasses that we look up to from history.

Those days – the ones where you feel heavier and can’t drag yourself out of bed or off the couch to do the shit you know you should be doing – they’re normal. It’s human to have them.

But just because it’s a human tendency, doesn’t mean you have an excuse to give in. Not at all. In fact, badassery is about rebelling against exactly that feeling.

And one useful way I’ve found to do this is by exposing yourself to something that you know will get you jazzed up. Something that will inspire you enough to get up and start building momentum.

With that in mind, here are 15 of my favourite badass quotes – both the real and the fictional.

1. “If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth writing.”

~Benjamin Franklin

To me, this quote is a healthy reminder to live fully. Have adventures, build skills, create things you’re proud of.

This isn’t just the key to impacting other people and being remembered. It’s also the key to fulfilment and enjoying yourself along the way.

2. “Peace has cost you your strength. Victory has defeated you!”

~Bane, The Dark Knight Rises

This quote serves as a great reminder for me that discomfort means you’re on the right track.

If you aren’t pushing yourself through pain and difficulty, you’re probably leaving some growth on the table. If you want to be strong and successful, difficulty is a necessity. 

Peace will sometimes be necessary. We all need moments to rest and reflect, after all. But be careful to avoid lingering there too long. That complacency might cost you your strength.

3. “There has been a constant war, a war with fear. Those who have the courage to conquer it are made free.”

~ Alexander the Great

For thousands of years, great men have known the truth – your biggest enemy is your own mind. Fear holds you back far more than other people or societal systems ever will.

If you can overcome the common fears of discomfort and social judgement, you’ll grow x10 faster.

4. "You are in danger of living a life so comfortable and soft that you will die without ever realising your true potential."

~David Goggins

Another reminder, from the king of ‘growth through suffering’, that difficulty is the key to a good life.

Put yourself through challenges. Do long, difficult workouts. Try new things. Face up to your fears.

It’s only by doing this that you’ll have any chance of reaching your potential.

5. “All the ways you wish you could be, that's me. I look like you wanna look, I fuck like you wanna fuck, I am smart, capable, and most importantly, I am free in all the ways that you are not.”

~Tyler Durden, Fight Club

***FIGHT CLUB SPOILERS***

Stop now if you haven’t watched the movie yet (seriously, if you haven’t, leave that rock you’ve been hiding under and go watch it now.).

This one becomes powerful once you learn the big twist: that Tyler Durden is a manifestation of the protagonist’s own mind. He was so tired of living a mediocre life that he created an idealised version of himself and started living through it.

Obviously, it’s important to acknowledge the mental health angle here – I’m certainly not glorifying delusion or genuine psychological conditions, nor am I suggesting people should start underground revolutionist fighting cults.

But there’s definitely some inspiration to be taken here. Maybe the only thing stopping you from becoming the man you want to be is your own mental limitations and beliefs.

Maybe if you were able to let all of that shit go for a moment, you’d be able to steer yourself in a direction you’ve always wanted to go. Food for thought.

 6. “Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men.”

~Miyamoto Musashi

This is one of my favourite badass quotes from Miyamoto Musashi, a legendary Japanese samurai. I think it’s a powerful message, as a reminder that the work you do today leads to the benefits you reap tomorrow.

All you have is now, so get to work. Get your workout in. Read another few chapters. Work on that project. These are the things that will push you ahead of lesser men.

7. “Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back.”

~Maximus, Gladiator

Although it’s from the blockbuster movie – Gladiator – this quote is incredibly appropriate, given how accurately it seems to portray Marcus Aurelius’s real-life Stoic philosophy.

Just like the quote suggests, a big part of this philosophy involves contemplating your own mortality, something which for many people, appears morbid but actually feels quite liberating.

It tends to put things in perspective and remind you of what truly matters – the things you care about and how little time you have to pursue and enjoy them.

8. “It is said that the warrior’s way is the twofold way of pen and sword, and he should have a taste for both ways.”

~Miyamoto Musashi

I love this quote because of how accurately it represents the need to be widely capable across disciplines. A man who’s physically capable but mentally weak is incomplete, and vice versa.

To truly become a badass, you must become both a scholar and a warrior. A thinker and a doer.

9. “We’re all stories in the end. Just make it a good one, eh.”

~The Doctor, Doctor Who

Another reminder to live fully; there’s definitely a running theme to this list, huh?

Remember, most of the details don’t matter. Most of the small moments will be forgotten. What does matter is the larger narrative. When you reach the end, what did you accomplish and how did you make people feel?

Those are the things that count. And therefore, those are the things you should do your best to focus on each day.

10. “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”

~Mark Twain

Another Stoic reminder to be aware of your own mortality.

Remember that you’re going to die and time is limited. In turn, allow this to prompt you to make things happen. As Andy Dufresne said in Shawshank Redemption, “Get busy living or get busy dying.”

11. “Do not go gentle into that good night; Old age should burn and rave at close of day. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

~Dylan Thomas

A brilliant poem made famous by its use in the hit science-fiction movie, Interstellar. I consider it a beautiful encouragement to persist in spite of difficulty.

It doesn’t matter if you feel like you’re too old, or you’ve missed your chance, or you’ve already failed and don’t have what it takes. None of that matters. Try again, with gusto.

Don’t go out gently. Rage against the dying of the light.

12. “Discipline is your best friend. It will take care of you like nothing else can.”

~Jocko Willink

Forget all the new age self-care bullshit. Forget mental health days and ‘treating yourself’.

The real self-care is discipline. It’s doing the things you know you should be doing, when you should be doing them. It’s the metaphorical ‘making your kids eat their vegetables before dessert’.

Discipline is the thing that makes life better for future you. It’s the best self-care there is.

13. “This task was appointed to you. And if you do not find a way, no one will.”

~Galadriel, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Although Frodo did actually have a special assignment given to him by a wise, old wizard, I think this quote is useful for its broader meaning.

Think about it in the context of the challenges in your life. Your challenges are your own. They were assigned to you. If you don’t find a way to conquer them, no one will.

Said another way: no one’s coming to help you. It’s scary, I know. But the truth. Get to work.

14. “The question isn’t who is going to let me: it’s who is going to stop me.”

~Ayn Rand

A helpful reminder that we’re often the ones who hold ourselves back the most. If you find yourself hesitating to pursue something, ask yourself this question – will anyone stop you? 

9 times out of 10, the only person who’ll stop you is yourself.

It can be scary to view yourself as the enemy, but also liberating. If you can get out of your own way, no one will stop you from getting the things you want.

15. “There is nothing outside of yourself that can ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker or smarter. Everything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of yourself.”

~Miyamoto Musashi

I know, I know… I could get away with two Musashi quotes, but 3!? Sorry, I had no choice – basically everything the man wrote down was badass.

This quote is so powerful that I have it up on my wall, to remind me not only that I can improve but that I have all the tools I need already.

This isn’t to say that there won’t be things you need to learn or knowledge you need to accumulate. It’s a mere reminder that you aren’t lacking any of the necessary ingredients. A powerful idea.

16. “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

~Theodore Roosevelt

A long one, but a great quote to end with, I think.
Roosevelt, a man who endured many hardships throughout his life, had great failures and great successes, reminds us to keep things in perspective.

People will talk. Sometimes they won’t approve of the things you do or say. Sometimes they’ll comment or criticise. But it’s all noise.

What matters is that you’re in the arena trying to accomplish something. Trying to live. That’s worth far more than anything they have to say.

So, what are you waiting for?

Inspirational, badass quotes are only worthwhile if they drive you to accomplish something. You’ve indulged. Now get up and get moving. Use this fuel to become badass.

As much as many of us wish this wasn’t the case, it’s an unavoidable part of life. You will bump into challenges. Things will be tougher than you thought. Outcomes often won’t go your way.

And thank god, because that means you’re living. That means you’re doing something with your tiny fragment of time on this planet.

I say this knowing full well that it doesn’t make the difficult moments any easier. But as demoralising as some challenges can be, it’s important to try and see them for what they really are – challenges are opportunities.

I think there are two key reasons they deserve this label.

Reason #1 - Challenges Help You Become Better

The concept of difficulty leading to improvement is by no means an original idea. Hell, there’s a million different inspirational quotes dedicated to it:

But the idea is so ubiquitous because of how inherently true it is.

Something challenging us is an indicator that we’ve moved outside of our comfort zone, and it’s this departure from comfort that allows us to stretch our abilities and, ultimately, develop.

In fact, this is a core tenet of deliberate practice, one of the most effective science-based strategies for learning new skills. 

The sweet spot for learning and improvement is in the frustrating point where the challenge slightly outpaces our ability. The point where doing the thing correctly feels within reach but mistakes are still frequent.

So, this is an important reframe – whenever you’re feeling challenged, recognise the frustration or negative emotion as a good thing. It’s a precursor for your improvement, which is what you’ve wanted all along.

Reason #2 - Everyone Else Will Quit

This one is a little more juvenile but I still find it to be useful. Recognise that for every challenge that makes you feel like quitting, it’s probably doing the same thing to everybody else.

Whether we’re talking in the context of career, business, or sport, challenges make your competition want to quit just as they do for you. In fact, some of those competitors will quit. You’ll have won simply by outlasting them, as long as you choose to continue pushing forward.

This concept was spoken about in detail by Chris Williamson and Alex Hormozi on Williamson’s Modern Wisdom Podcast. Watch it below:

The obvious conclusion here is persistence being a virtue. When things get hard, rather than taking that as a signal to quit, take it as a signal to keep grinding. Even if you tell yourself you’ll stop after 1 more set, 1 more chapter, or 1 more hour. Whatever it is, keep going. Watch everyone else quit behind you.

Challenges are Opportunities – Example Time

To provide a practical example, my most recent challenge has been recovering from a jiu-jitsu-induced broken hand.

Over the weeks since the incident, I’ve battled the frustration of many parts of my life being put on hold. I’ve been unable to train, unable to drive, and simple things like tying my shoelaces have been temporarily next to impossible.

The result of this was me becoming a bit of a hermit, shut away from life outside my house.

However, as I begun to adapt to my situation, I started to see the opportunities. I was unable to hit the mats or grip weights, but there were still plenty of leg and core exercises I could do. 

I could certainly use this break from all my other training to rehabilitate a few niggling lower body injuries – things that aren’t serious now but may well become that way if I’m not able to fix them.

With this in mind, the challenge of my broken hand has become an opportunity for growth. I’m also reminding myself of all the people that get injured during martial arts training and never again return to the mats. Each of them becoming another Hunger Games casualty, letting a setback prevent them from pursuing a goal and thus, no longer being competition for myself or others.

Thinking of it from this angle has me excited to show back up for that first session, in a few weeks once the fracture has healed. Hopefully this has inspired you to bring a similar mentality to your own challenges.

It might come in different forms for each of us – anxieties, areas in which we’re weak or behind, or past events that we’re ashamed of.

But it’s always there; our very own brand of poison.

Of course, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking we’re unique in this. That we’re alone in our suffering. But we aren’t.

It just feels that way because each of us spends all of our time in our own head and zero time in anyone else's. Your problems seem larger or more abundant because you have to deal with them 24/7. Conversely, you’re only briefly exposed to other people’s problems in moments where they choose to be open about them.

Personally, I find this to be a comforting idea.

My problems suddenly feel far less serious when I remind myself that everybody else in the room has something similar to contend with. In some cases, it might even be a near-identical challenge to my own.

But this raises an important point: if all of us have these kinds of problems, then that means the badasses you look up to do as well.

Which begs the question – how do they handle it? What are they doing differently that we can learn from?

Learning to Carry Your Baggage

It’s obvious that baggage can be a poison if not handled correctly.

I’m sure we’ve all met people who were unable to move past a mistake they made, instead insisting on shifting the blame everywhere but themselves. Likewise, there are many people out there who have been unable to move past a breakup or the loss of a loved one. 

And hell, if any of that’s happened to you, that’s okay. Part of being a badass is learning to overcome those problems. Learning to own and carry your baggage with integrity is part of the process. 

You can’t escape your past by running from it or trying to justify past actions. But you can begin to move beyond it by accepting things for what they are.

Acceptance

One of the most important principles behind owning your baggage is simple – acceptance.

If you’re trapped trying to rebel against something or you’re in denial about it, no progress can be made. 

Badasses avoid this by developing self-awareness and the ability to accurately assess situations. It’s these skills that will allow you to analyse and accept your life for what it is, both the events that have happened in the past and the tendencies that show themselves in the present.

Working on these and moving to a place where you can accept your baggage for what it is will allow for progression to the next step.

Sharing and the Removal of Shame

Although it might seem counterintuitive and incredibly uncomfortable, the best way to overcome shame is to talk about the thing that has you feeling ashamed.

After all, we feel shame towards things and hide them away because we’re afraid of other people's judgement. That fear can only be removed by exposing ourselves to others and realising that it’s either:

• Not as big of a deal as we thought – people won’t judge you and might even sympathise.

• As big of a deal as we thought – people will judge you but you’ll still be alive and ultimately be okay anyway.

Unless you murdered a puppy or something, 99% of shameful problems will fall into the first category. People won’t be anywhere near as judgemental about it as you’re expecting. In fact, you’ll probably be surprised by how many people can actually relate to what you’re ashamed about, either because they’ve gone through something similar or because somebody close to them has.

With all of this being said, we all know talking about this stuff can be difficult. If getting started feels insurmountable, then I recommend finding a good psychologist. They’ll provide judgement-free space and plenty of prompts to kick off the difficult conversations.

However, I want to stress that a psychologist would be a starting point only. If you really want to stop feeling ashamed about something, you’ll need to expose it to more people and get a range of reactions.

It’s tough but ultimately worthwhile.

Move Forward

Getting on with your life doesn’t need to be complicated. Start by asking yourself what actions you could take to start overcoming what’s been holding you back. 

Maybe you need to completely remove yourself from a situation. Our environments have a powerful influence on us, and often a simple environmental change is all you need to begin creating new patterns of thought and behaviour.

Alternatively, maybe it’s something that would be best handled through deliberate exposure – confronting the source and attempting to create new patterns or new ways of handling it.

You’ll most likely have an intuitive understanding of how things need to change as you move forward. And hey, if you don’t then the psychologist from the previous step will be able to point you in the right direction.

How to Own Your Baggage the Right Way – Vinland Saga

One of my favourite fictional examples of overcoming baggage comes from viking anime, Vinland Saga.

For some context, the story follows a young boy named Thorfinn who, after the untimely death of his father, falls into a life of war. As the story progresses, we watch him grow up into an angry vengeful teenager, and then eventually, into an emotionless adult who’s ashamed of everything he’s done. Due to this shame, he’s become empty, aimless, and has given up on life as a form of self-judgement.

Fortunately, certain events begin to knock him out of his prison, which ultimately leads up to this epiphany moment in one of his dreams. Watch the video to see what I mean.

After this point, Thorfinn begins to change. First, by becoming happier and more lively, and second, by gradually becoming more open and matter-of-fact about the sins of his past. They no longer have power over him and he figures out how to move forward.

He becomes someone who’s open about his mistakes but also filled with conviction about how he plans to make up for them.

Pretty badass, right? Use it as inspiration. Work to accept your baggage and then think about what you could do to start climbing. That’s your battle.

In a previous article, I spoke about the importance of optimising the basics. The premise was simple – you can improve your cognitive abilities and performance in everyday tasks by focusing on five key pillars. They were:

• Sleep

• Exercise

• Nutrition and hydration

• Sunlight

• Mindfulness and breathing exercises

And although I stand by them, there’s something important happening beneath the surface that I failed to talk about last time.

It’s neurochemistry.

You see, the above pillars are so effective because they have a profound effect on what’s happening inside your brain. Each of them has the power to kick your cognition into a new gear.

*Disclaimer: I'm not a biologist, neurologist, or any kind of gist. For the following info, I’ll be leaning heavily on information provided in ‘Why the F*ck Can't I Change?’ by Gabija Toleikyte. It's the perfect blend of informative and practical – I highly recommend giving it a read.*

The 3 Levels of Brain

You probably wouldn’t be surprised if I told you that your brain is an extremely complex organ. It has many different interconnecting sections all with different functions.

Thankfully, despite this complexity, the different sections can be broadly categorised into three basic levels: the lizard brain, the mammal brain, and the human brain.

The Lizard Brain (The paleo-reptilian complex) – responsible for vital functions such as breathing, digestion, and heartbeat. The lizard brain keeps you alive but doesn't do much else.

The Mammal Brain (The paleo-mammalian complex) – responsible for the majority of your unconscious mental processes. The mammal brain enables you to acquire skills and habits, constantly tracks potential dangers, and triggers emotions to push you towards certain behaviours.

The Human Brain (The neocortex and prefrontal cortex) – responsible for executive functions such as rational thinking, problem solving, analysing, reasoning, learning new information, creativity, and decision making. Basically, anything you have to think your way through requires the human brain.

From those brief summaries, there are two important things you need to understand.

The first is the energy requirements of each of the different sections. You see, as the sections of the brain increase in complexity, they also increase in the amount of energy required to continue functioning.

This is important because the lizard brain, which is responsible for keeping you alive, has to be functional 24/7. If the lizard brain shuts down then your heart stops pumping and you die. Thankfully, due to the low energy requirements, the lizard brain has no issue working without breaks.

Conversely, the human brain is much more complex and therefore demands huge amounts of energy to function properly. It's for this reason that people often find it harder to think and solve complex problems in the evenings when they’re tired. They’ve already used up most of their energy reserves and need to sleep to replenish them.

The takeaway for all of this is simple. You have more cognitive power at your disposal when you're fresh and well rested. Plan your day accordingly.

The second thing to understand here is that, although most of your cognitive abilities come from the human brain, emotions originate in the mammal brain.

This is because, just like many of the lizard brain’s functions, emotions are critical to survival and need to be available 24/7. Let’s use fear as an example. If you encounter a predator in the wild, being lax and emotionless is likely to get you eaten. Instead, an immediate and powerful fear response will get you to run or hide, which could potentially save your life.

The mammal brain’s lower energy costs allow it to prioritise your survival in this fashion whenever necessary, even when you're exhausted and low on energy.

Now, keeping all of this in mind, let's move on and talk about neurotransmitters.

The Chemicals in Your Brain

Now, let's talk about how all the different sections of your brain communicate. One of the primary ways is via neurotransmitters – little chemicals that act as instructions and bounce between neurons, telling areas of your brain what to do. Pretty much everything you think, feel, and do is in response to neurotransmitter activity in your brain. Pretty crazy, huh.

It’s currently believed that there are over 100 neurotransmitters working in the human brain (the exact number is unclear), each with their own distinct purpose.

But there are five that you need to know about: serotonin, dopamine, glutamate, oxytocin, and GABA (Gamma-aminobutyric acid). Let’s go through them one by one.

Serotonin

Serotonin puts you in a good mood, helps you get decent sleep, and helps mitigate and manage pain.

Much like what we discussed earlier with the human brain, serotonin levels tend to be higher in the morning and deplete throughout the day. If you’ve ever found yourself in a bad mood at the end of a long day, this can probably be attributed to serotonin depletion. This also explains why we often feel better in the morning – a good night's sleep has refreshed our serotonin levels.

Dopamine

The famous one, dopamine creates a feeling of pleasure and a sense of motivation towards things that have previously given pleasure. Simply put, dopamine is what makes eating the chocolate feel so good AND what drives you to go and get more chocolate when you run out.

This motivation can also push us towards things that we assume will result in pleasure even if we haven't tried it before.

Glutamate

Glutamate has a wide range of functions, including: working memory, long-term memory, planning, paying attention, talking and listening, and pretty much anything that’s cognitively demanding.

Oxytocin

Also known as the love hormone (it’s both a neurotransmitter and a hormone), oxytocin creates a sense of attachment, trust, and love towards other people. It’s released when we make love, cuddle, hug others, pat pets, or generally engage in physical contact.

GABA

GABA helps us manage our thoughts and minimise mental overload by dampening the activity of neurons. Essentially, it helps us manage anxiety, see things clearly, and block out background noise. If you’ve ever felt like your brain was scrambled and too many things were happening at once, you may have been short on GABA.

So, that’s a quick outline of some of the key neurotransmitters. This information should help to give you a better understanding of how your brain is working on a day-to-day basis.

But as important as this understanding is, it’s only one side of the coin. You also need to understand how to regulate the levels of each of these neurotransmitters.

After all, it's one thing to recognise that if you're feeling down then you're probably running low on serotonin. It's another to understand how to increase those serotonin levels to make yourself feel better.

Regulating Your Brain Chemistry

Influencing your brain chemistry is actually quite simple. It really just boils down to performing actions that have been shown to increase or decrease neurotransmitter levels.

So, let’s talk through some of the key activities you need to be doing to help you regulate your brain chemistry and improve your cognition:

Exercise – No surprises here. Everyone in the self-improvement space is harping on about the importance of exercise, but for good reason. On top of the physical benefits, exercise increases neurotransmitter levels across the board, reduces stress, and produces BDNF (Brain-derived neurotrophic factor) which supports a wide range of cognitive processes.

Sleep – Probably the most important activity of all, sleep helps your brain repair itself and replenish energy stores and neurotransmitter levels for the next day.

Breathing exercises – These have been shown to increase GABA and reduce stress hormone levels, dramatically lowering stress and anxiety. As for what breathing exercises might look like, I recommend box breathing:

1. Hold your breath for 4 seconds

2. Exhale for 4 seconds

3. Hold the outbreath for 4 seconds

4. Breathe in for 4 seconds

5. Repeat for 2-5 minutes.

Physical touch and relationships – Produces oxytocin, which improves mood and reduces stress.

Nutrition – Neurotransmitters have to come from somewhere and in most cases, that somewhere is our food. If you aren’t eating a broad diet of nutritious foods, your brain won't have the basic building blocks for the neurotransmitters it needs.

Rest / breaks – Something else to keep in mind for the workaholics out there is that our brains aren't designed to go 24/7, at least not the parts that do the heavy lifting. When you keep using the same neurons for hours on end (i.e. working at something without taking breaks), your brain will tire and your neurotransmitter levels will slowly deplete. On top of sleep, breaks from the activity can give your brain time to replenish its energy stores.

This final point should be a key takeaway here. As much as Instagram hustle culture has us convinced, we really aren't designed for constant grinding.

Hard work is important of course, but it needs to be supplemented with a healthy amount of down time. High level athletes know this better than anyone. The very best are remarkably good at switching on for a game and then switching off again when it's time to rest.

That’s one of the things that makes them so badass. Learn from it.

As someone who’s found their way to this article, I’m guessing you’ve got high hopes for your future. How else would you have ended up here and made the decision to start reading?

For many of us including myself, it’s this drive to improve that leads us onto the internet in search of knowledge.

And I’m glad you have that drive – the world needs more badasses after all.

However, as someone on the path to badassery, I’m sure you know that aiming high comes with a price. If you want to have any hope of achieving something big, you’ll need to spend a monumental amount of time working on yourself.

You’ll confront your own character flaws, experience discomfort, and bit by bit, transform yourself into a person you can be proud of.

But life is short. It’s an unfortunate truth. You only have so many hours, days, and years to work with.

That raises today’s important question – If you need or want to make a change quickly, how should you go about it? What methods can you utilise to give yourself the best chance of seeing rapid results?

Fortunately, there’s a simple answer… if you want to change fast, then change your environment.

I know, I know. It seems too simple, or too obvious, or just too ‘something’ to be the solution here, but hear me out.

Human beings are adaptation machines.

We’re remarkably good at adapting to new and uncomfortable situations.

And you don’t even need to take my word for that one. You’ll have experienced plenty of examples in your own life that prove it. Think about the last time you had to make some kind of scary transition. Maybe you started a new job or moved to a new city. Whatever it was, I’m sure it was terrifying while it was happening.

However, after a day or two, it started to feel a little more manageable, right? Fast forward a few weeks and it had probably become a new normal.

That’s the point – we adapt quickly. The discomfort of a new situation is temporary. Even large life transitions are unlikely to be uncomfortable for more than a month or so. Your brain will recalibrate to help you function optimally in the new environment.

This is a big deal, not just because of how it helps you survive in those big life transitions, but because of the implication.

Think about it – what’s stopping you from using environmental adaptation to your advantage?

What’s stopping you from proactively placing yourself in situations and environments that will recalibrate your brain in a direction you want to go?

Examples

Example 1 – If you want to become more extroverted, you could put yourself in situations that demand you spend more time with people. Maybe that means moving into a sales job (*shudder*). Or maybe that means finding some extroverted housemates.

Example 2 – If you want to become more productive during working hours, then leave your current environment and start working somewhere with fewer distractions. If coworkers distract you, find a quiet meeting room and put some giant fucking headphones on to discourage interruptions. It really comes down to understanding the cause of your poor productivity, and moving into a new environment that nullifies that cause.

Example 3 – If you want to improve your sleeping habits, you could remove distractions and bright lights from your bedroom. Remove the TV, dim the lights, put your phone on charge in another room, and place a book on your bedside table.

The point is simple. If you want to grow and change, you can and should change your environment in a way that supports that growth.

Conversely, remember that this isn’t something you have the luxury to ignore. Your environment WILL shape you one way or another. You can be proactive about the direction, or you can ignore everything you’ve just read and leave it to chance. But odds are, your current results are a direct result of the environments you’re spending time in. And, well… you’re here looking to make a change, right?

Always keep in mind how a given environment might influence you.

If your working environment has too many distractions, your scatterbrained ways and lack of productivity will continue (and likely get worse).

If you live with people that have unhealthy eating habits and keep junk food in the house, you’ll naturally eat more junk food as a consequence. All of that time spent in the gym becomes an uphill battle when it doesn’t need to be. 

The message is clear – the environments you spend time in determine who you are and who you become. If you have a vision for who you want to be, you need to change your environments to match that vision. 

The power of environments in the long term.

If you’re still not convinced (seriously, how??), then look at this through a long-term lens.

Imagine two identical people. They have the same character traits, the same lofty ambitions, but they live in different environments.

One lives in a house full of healthy food, books, workout equipment, minimal distractions, and people with similar mindsets. The other lives in the complete opposite – a place filled with distractions and temptations.

Even if the environment is only responsible for 1% of their results, imagine how that looks over 5 years. For almost 2,000 days, the first person is in a house that pushes them to be 1% better every day. The second is in a house that pushes them to be 1% worse.

Those days will add up. At the beginning, it’ll be small, but by the end of 5 long years, both of these people will be in completely different places in life. That’s the power of your environment.

And for the record, I believe your environment to be far more impactful than 1% improvements.

So, what are you going to do about it? Are you going to change your environment into one that pushes you towards badassery? Or are you going to stick with the status quo and hope for the best?

The choice is yours.

As human beings, we tend to get very wrapped up in external accomplishments.

This isn’t our fault – it’s how we’re wired. From an evolutionary and survival perspective, it’s in our best interests to pursue resources, sex, and status. These are the things that keep us alive, and help us produce the best offspring.

Naturally, if you don’t manage to get any of these things, it’s also in your best interests to feel bad about it. After all, feeling bad is the only thing that’s gonna get you up off your arse and working.

I think this is as true today as it was 20,000 years ago.

However, as many of us have learned through experience, focusing entirely on those external rewards can be dangerous. This is because failing to achieve a goal after putting your all into it can smash your confidence and self-esteem.

It’s then necessary, when pursuing your goals, to find a way to detach from the outcome. This is growth mindset in a nutshell, but it’s also easier said than done.

Which is ultimately the point of this article – to provide a useful reframe; a way of thinking that can help you pursue your goals without being overly attached to the result.

And that reframe is simple:

The real reward isn’t what you’re aiming at. It’s the strength and focus you build while you’re aiming. It’s who you become in the pursuit of your goal, not the goal itself.

It’s not about landing a gorgeous girlfriend. It’s about becoming the kind of man who can charm a random stranger he meets in a cafe.

It’s not about having the biggest biceps in the gym. It’s about becoming the kind of man who consistently puts in hard work towards his goals, regardless of the pain and difficulty he has to endure along the way.

It’s not about becoming rich. It’s about becoming the kind of man capable of becoming rich. It’s about the skills and character you build along the way.

I think this framing can be helpful both when you encounter obstacles and when you find yourself running low on motivation.

We all know from experience that external rewards are temporary. They make you feel great for a moment, but that feeling soon fades and you’re back to being your regular old self. Fortunately, this idea should show you that being your regular old self can actually be pretty awesome.

If you’re able to keep the real prize in sight – who you become along the way, rather than the money or the success, then the obstacles won’t seem so large.

After all, the reward is now practically a guarantee… as long as you keep grinding.

Now that’s badass.

Regulars around here will know how important I think it is for men to learn how to fight. It’s probably not something I need to convince you about. After all, what man doesn’t secretly fantasise about unleashing his inner warrior and kicking some ass?

But just in case you aren’t convinced, let’s run through some of the super awesome benefits you’ll get to experience:

• Self-defence – the obvious one, learning to fight will better prepare you for all the dangerous scenarios you might end up in while living out your badass life.

• Physical fitness – another obvious one, martial arts training is strenuous on the body and will get you in fantastic sharp insanely fast.

• Mental toughness – when it comes to developing grit, there’s nothing quite as effective as getting the shit beaten out of you.

• Good ol’fashioned testosterone boost – due to the physical and confronting nature of combat sports, training will lead to a boost in your testosterone levels, which in turn will make you even more badass in all the other areas of your life.

• Confidence – training leads to becoming capable, and being capable makes you confident. It’s science.

But let’s address the elephant in the dojo – the question that any aspiring martial artist has had to face at some point on their journey… where should you start?

More specifically, which martial art should you learn? After all, there are practically a million options:

• Karate

• Boxing

• Jujutsu

• Tae Kwon Do

• Krav Maga

• Wrestling

• Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

• Kickboxing

• Tai Chi

• Aikido

• Kung Fu

• Kendo

• Muay Thai

• Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)

• Judo

• Wing Chun

• Sumo

• Sambo

• Seeing red

• Capoeira

• Jeet Kune Do

Each martial art has its own strengths, weaknesses, teaching styles, and level of popularity.

Fortunately, we can use the last one to really narrow down our options as there’s likely only going to be a certain number of gyms in your area. Most cities and larger towns will have somewhere to learn the more popular martial arts like boxing, but finding a place to learn capoeira could prove challenging.

An easy way to figure this out is to search for martial arts in your area on Google Maps. You’ll get an immediate idea for what gyms are nearby and can easily click through to their website to see what they teach.

Something worth mentioning at this point is the increasing popularity of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). It’s a martial arts style that blends together multiple other styles in the attempt to make something more practical and effective. For example, somebody who’s mixing martial arts might learn both boxing and wrestling and then practise using them in combination.

This is important because now that the UFC has exploded in popularity, there’s an MMA gym opening up on practically every street corner. These gyms offer classes in multiple styles and generally have more modern teaching methods than traditional martial arts schools.

For example, early on in my martial arts days, I spent some time learning Wing Chun (a form of kung fu) at a local school. Although I got a lot out of it – it was great for footwork – the teachers actively discouraged learning and experiencing other forms of martial arts, believing their own methods to be superior.

Fortunately, this kind of closed-mindedness is rare in MMA gyms, so they’re generally where I recommend.

Choosing Your Style

When it comes to choosing a style, only you have the answers. 

This is because it depends totally on where your priorities lie. As I mentioned earlier, each style has its own strengths and weaknesses, so you’re best off choosing a martial art that has strengths which line up with what you’re hoping to get out of it.

So, have a think about what you’re prioritising here. 

• Is it about self-defence?

• Are you inspired by Bruce Lee and his traditional eastern style?

• Are you hoping to compete in MMA?

• How do you feel about sparring/getting punched in the head?

• Do you generally just want to look like a badass?

The point I’m making is that there are many different metrics, and only you can work out which are most important.

However, I made a promise in the headline and need to deliver. So, for the purposes of this article I’m going to pick a simple metric.

Which is the best martial art for beginners?

And when it comes to beginners, I think practicality is important. Just like with any skill, you want to see it working and being useful. Otherwise, it becomes hard to stick with it, especially when the learning process involves getting beaten up.

Luckily, when it comes to practicality, MMA has already answered the question for us.

The Four Kings

In the world of MMA, there are four martial arts styles that generally reign supreme. These are:

• Boxing

• Muay Thai (Thai Kickboxing)

• Wrestling

• Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ)

Everyone knows what boxing is (if you don’t, please find a new home away from that rock you’ve been living under), but I’ll give a brief rundown of each of the others here. All of them could be considered the best martial art for beginners in their own way.

Muay Thai – a form of kickboxing from Thailand. As well as kicks and punches, Muay Thai practitioners learn to throw strikes with knees and elbows. It’s one of the most brutally effective martial arts there is.

Wrestling – no, not WWE/fake entertainment. Wrestling as a martial art is all about grappling with and taking your opponent down to the ground to control him.

BJJ – a grappling martial art like wrestling but with more of a focus on defeating opponents through choke holds and joint locks.

The best MMA fighters in the world are widely skilled at all four styles, although most do generally have a speciality – one style that they started with and have trained the most.

Ultimately, all four are good choices so it comes back down to the factors we spoke about above.

If you want to look like a badass, you can’t do much better than Muay Thai. However, if you want to reduce the risk of brain damage that comes with getting punched or kicked, both wrestling and BJJ are great options.

Don’t let the lack of striking fool you, they’re brutally difficult. A hard sparring session (or rolling, as it’s called in BJJ), will have you questioning all your life choices.

Now, if you backed me into a corner and forced me to pick the best martial art for beginners (how dare you), I’d suggest Muay Thai. It’s versatile, difficult, satisfying, and highly effective in both competition and real world scenarios.

Of course, if you’re interested in training multiple styles, that works too. Most MMA gyms will offer classes in all four of the styles above. You could do a few Muay Thai classes per week and then add in some grappling to make yourself a well-rounded menace.

Whatever you decide to go with, it’s worth diving in head first and giving a few different styles a try. You may find you enjoy the training of one style more than another, which will make the decision easy.

Now go, my badass apprentice. I’ll be expecting a shout out in your post-fight speech once you become UFC champion.

The journey to become a badass is a long and exciting one, but it’s also very difficult. It involves facing discomfort head on and battling challenge after challenge.

And on that path, one of the challenges you’ll eventually bump up against is actually yourself – or more accurately, your personality.

You see, as much as some of us like to think we’re perfect, none of us are. We all have strengths and weaknesses. We all have aspects of our personality that help us, as well as aspects that hinder us.

To complicate matters, strengths and weaknesses can also change from moment to moment or situation to situation.

Being highly extraverted might be a strength when you’re out at a party, but it can create problems when you need to lock yourself away in your office to finish a project.

Even without the nuance of the situation, personality is already a deeply complicated topic. Combine the two and we’re left in muddy water with no clue which way is up.

But all is not lost – psychologists are working hard to clear the mud away.

The best attempt psychological science has made at simplifying personality so far comes in the form of The Big 5 Personality Model. Let’s run through it quickly.

The Big 5

In simple terms, The Big 5 Model is the idea that an individual’s personality can be summarised based on where they sit across 5 key traits. These traits are:

• Openness to experience – How open the individual is to new experiences

• Conscientiousness – Orderliness, industriousness, and attention to detail

• Extraversion – Sociability and how much the individual is drawn to external stimuli and environments

• Agreeableness – The ability to understand others and empathise with them, as well as the desire to keep them happy

• Neuroticism – Emotional volatility and the tendency to worry

Disclaimer: the above are quick and dirty definitions, designed to give you a general sense for the traits. I recommend reading the book I’ll be mentioning a little later in the article. That’ll give you a more complete definition along with examples. Anyway, moving on…

The idea is that each of the above exists on a spectrum. Take openness to experience for example – it’s possible to be anywhere from extremely open to new experiences, to not at all. It’s also entirely possible that you sit in the middle and find yourself somewhat open to some new experiences but not others.

To provide a more personal example, I sit roughly in the middle for extraversion. I often find myself wanting to leave my house, talk to people, and engage with the world. However, the introverted half of my personality also frequently demands that I take some quiet time to decompress.

This is where the Big 5 Model works – the nuance is built in. There’s no binary system categorising you as either an introvert or extravert. On all traits, most people are likely to be a shade of grey; somewhere between the two extremes. Find out where you sit by taking the test HERE.

But this is all just some necessary context. The point of this article is less about the traits themselves and more about how you might be able to change where you sit on the spectrum for each. Assuming you want to, of course.

This idea came from one of my recent reads, ‘Be Who You Want’ by Christian Jarrett. Throughout the book, he talks about how people can change, within the context of the Big 5 Personality Traits.

And one of the most profound ideas I took away from it was that research supports not only that our personalities can and do change over time, but also that we can direct how they change.

Luckily, Jarrett covered some methods for how to do this throughout the book – I’ll talk through one now but I highly recommend reading it yourself for a full breakdown.

My hands down favourite method was quite simple: changing personality is possible by being deliberate about how they spend their time. The idea being that how we spend our days dictates who we become.

It sounds obvious as I write it out… and it definitely is, but that raises the question – why aren’t more people using this to their advantage?

Why aren’t people who wish they had a stronger work ethic deliberately seeking out situations that demand they work for longer periods?

Why aren’t aspiring extraverts forcing themselves out of the house into high-stimulation environments?

And that’s really the takeaway here – who could you become if you were more deliberate about changing your personality?

With that in mind, take some time to think about these two questions:

• How would you like to shift your personality over the next 12 months?

• How should you be spending your time to support yourself in changing personality?

Have a think about these and then start changing up how you spend your time accordingly. You’ll have a badass personality in no time.

Artificial Intelligence (henceforth known as AI) has been the hot topic for a solid year or two now and for good reason. It’s developing rapidly and seems likely to create radical change in our day-to-day lives.

But naturally, due to the nature of technological advancement, there’s a lot of uncertainty and confusion about what to expect. Some people are terrified of the robot uprising, while others have more modern concerns – how will AI affect the job market?

Both of these are important issues and things that should stay on our radar. However, I don’t think it should all be doom and gloom. There are positives to look forward to as well.

For example, I expect AI will eventually help each of us in the same way having a smartphone with internet access has helped us. 

After all, the phone and internet combo has placed huge amounts of information at our fingertips. This can stretch anywhere from today’s weather to instructional videos for useful skills.

Although the information might not be in your brain, your phone has made you functionally smarter by supplying access to pretty much whatever you need on-demand. Because of this, you’re better prepared to function in your day-to-day life.

To really understand this, all we have to do is look back 100 years. Think about how different life would be in a world without GPS, instructional videos, and instant messaging.

Locations and directions had to be remembered, unless you had a physical map handy. Learning new skills required finding and often travelling to a capable teacher – and good luck finding one if you’re in a rural area with a low population. On top of that, something as simple as communicating with your friends would only be possible in person or by letter, which of course would involve weeks of delay.

These are just some of the gaps that technological advancement has allowed you to leap over. I’m hoping and expecting that AI will lead to similar jumps. It may well be the next leap in functional intelligence, supplying each of us with more processing power to solve problems in our lives.

Whether this ends up being an intrusive chip implanted in our brains remains to be seen. Personally, if that does happen, I hope it’s a long time away

Something that seems a lot more likely, at least in the immediate future, would be AI assistants. We’ve already started to see this with Alexa and Google Home helping us manage simple tasks around the house.

Imagine something similar, but able to travel in your pocket and handle more complicated tasks.

In the same way that ChatGPT has become a simple, imperfect tool for writing computer code, conducting online research, and creating articles like this one, AI assistants may be able to take over many of the simple tasks that you'd rather have off your daily to-do list.

Things like:

• Responding to emails

• Creating spreadsheets

• Writing shopping lists

• Updating your calendar

• Household chores

Of course, just as with previous technological revolutions, there’ll almost certainly be changes that we can’t even imagine.

Outside of the last 20 years, nobody predicted that we’d one day have little bricks in our pockets that allow us to access the world's knowledge and communicate with friends across the globe.

It’s exciting stuff - whatever the changes wind up being, they’ll be there to help you live a more effective life.

Most importantly, they’ll free up your time for the more important things – Building knowledge and skills that matter to you. And that’ll make you that much more of a badass.

The idea of ‘pursuing discomfort’ is one that gets thrown around a lot in the self-improvement space.

And it makes sense – when followed, it’s a principle that leads to a disproportionate amount of growth, at least when compared to other ways you might spend your time.

However, something that often gets glossed over is the why. Why should you be pursuing discomfort? What do you have to gain?

Well, the obvious answer is that pursuing discomfort helps you expand what you’re capable of. As you engage with your discomforts, you gradually become more comfortable with them and more competent overall.

It’s true but I think it’s missing a key ingredient, something which is perfectly summarised by Joseph Campbell’s famous quote: 

I’ve underlined the word “treasure” because I believe that to be important here.

It’s not just that pursuing discomfort enables you to expand your capabilities. It’s that the capabilities you improve while pursuing discomfort are the most important ones – your treasure.

Another way to put it is that pursuing discomfort will lead you to the growth that you want the most. Any other pursuit would be superficial by comparison.

To use a fear of heights as an example, reading a book about overcoming the fear might help, but the real progress lies in direct confrontation – exposure to heights in person. Your treasure lies at the end of the hard path, not the easy one.

And all of this makes sense.

After all, the areas you’re most afraid of are inevitably the areas in which you most need to improve because you’ve been avoiding them, and probably for a long time.

You’ve continued to grow in other areas but have remained stagnant in areas of discomfort. And the more uncomfortable something makes you, the more true this probably is.

This might sound disheartening but don’t worry, it gets better.

Because you’ve remained dormant in these areas, they’ve become low hanging fruit – areas where you’re likely to develop quickly. This is because when things are underdeveloped, they have the benefit of playing catchup and can move faster as a result.

For example, when you’ve gained experience building muscles in the gym, building an underdeveloped muscle becomes quick and easy. For one thing, you have the knowledge and experience. You know what exercises will work, how hard to push when training, as well as when to rest. On top of that, your body also understands the assignment – it’s built muscle before. The end result is a muscle that builds strength rapidly in order to catch up to the surrounding muscles. 

Keep this comforting idea in mind – when you engage with discomfort, you grow significantly faster than you otherwise would.

Closing Thoughts

Ultimately, this article has become a warning against complacency and overpreparation.

The odds are good that reading one more book isn’t going to be the thing that gets you to your desired destination. 

Instead, it’s likely going to be taking that uncomfortable step. The thing you already know you should be doing but have been shamefully delaying.

For most, this will mean confronting a fear of social judgement.

Maybe it’s asking a girl out, while accepting that she might reject you. 

Maybe it’s forgetting about the 5-minute home workouts and going to the gym, while accepting that random strangers might look at you funny.

Or maybe it’s just picking up a new skill and accepting that you’re practically guaranteed to look silly at the beginning because you have no clue what you’re doing.

Whatever it is, remember that engaging with it, however uncomfortable it might be, is exactly how you’ll find your treasure – the growth that you’ve been after.

It’s how you’ll become badass.

Becoming a badass takes work. Most of you will already know that. It requires hours in the gym, hours locked away at work, and time spent looking closely at your own weaknesses.

It’s a difficult process, and as a natural consequence, can be difficult to maintain over time. In fact, finding motivation can be one of the biggest challenges that men encounter on their journey.

After all, it’s normal for motivation to come and go. Add a whole bunch of difficulty, and motivation levels can bounce up and down like a kid on a trampoline.

And we all know how difficult things can be when motivation hits a low point. Simple tasks like getting off the couch can feel overwhelming… forget about hitting the grind.

But this is exactly why developing the ability to find and maintain motivation is so important. If you want to squeeze more out of life, finding motivation needs to be a skill that sits in your back pocket ready to be used at all times.

But before we talk about how to do this, there’s one small thing that we need to cover – discipline.

Whenever motivation is brought up in the male self-improvement space, the response is generally something like: “Forget about motivation, focus on discipline.”

And there is a valid point here. After all, motivation doesn’t matter if you’re able to convince yourself to do the thing anyway.

With this point in mind, I want to make it clear that discipline is absolutely a vital skill and something you should be continually working to build. 

However, people often use the ‘discipline trumps motivation’ argument as a reason to ignore motivation entirely. I believe this to be a mistake.

It’s a mistake because beating brain chemistry is difficult. Yes, it’s possible. That’s discipline in a nutshell, after all. You’re convincing yourself to act in spite of brain chemistry that’s pushing you not to.

But wouldn’t it be easier if your brain was on your side?

Picture it like a river. Discipline will get you in the river but motivation determines whether you’re swimming with or against the current. Finding motivation when you previously had none will transition you from swimming against the current, to speeding along with it.

So, without further adieu, let’s look at a useful tactic that I’ve found for finding motivation in the moments when I really need it.

Story Time - Finding Motivation Through Astronomy

A few months ago, I finally got around to watching Interstellar. Yes, yes, I know - about time, right? That’s what all my friends said. 

The verdict? It’s as incredible as everyone said and I should have watched it way sooner. Big surprise, huh?.

To me, the more surprising outcome was how captured I was by the space and interplanetary themes. I’d never been a sci-fi guy… I stand firmly on the opinion that Star Wars is overrated. But I couldn’t help but feel awe-inspired and curious about everything shown to me in the movie.

So, I did what any curious young man does. I started researching it. I grabbed some books, put together a YouTube playlist, and generally immersed myself in all things outside of our atmosphere.

Eventually, I found myself at my local park in the middle of the night, looking up at the stars. Now, equipped with a stargazing app and a cheap set of binoculars, it’s developed into a slick little hobby.

And you know what? It’s been an effortless process. There was never a lack of motivation. In fact, motivation wasn’t even in the equation. Curiosity was driving me to pursue my interest from one stage to the next.

And that’s the point of this article.

Curiosity is a Powerful Force

Curiosity is powerful for two simple reasons.

First, it shows you what you’re intrinsically driven towards, and second, it supplies you with an endless amount of motivation. Pursuing curiosity is like driving a car that doesn’t need fuel, as long as you continue driving in the right direction.

Most importantly, as you pursue your curiosity, you’ll often be pulled out of your everyday existence. You’ll be reminded of just how incredible the world truly is and how lucky you are to be alive. 

*For anyone experiencing déjà vu, I spoke about similar ideas in my article about novelty. I don’t think the amount of overlap is a coincidence.

Anyway, if you’re finding yourself lacking in motivation, it’s time for a reframe. Give the following exercise a try.

Exercise - Reframing What’s Important

While it can be used for most motivation-related issues, the following exercise is particularly useful for overcoming procrastination. To keep things simple, I’ve broken it down into 4 simple steps.

Step 1 - Forget.

Think about whatever it is that’s been getting in the way of your motivation. Often, this will be an unappealing task - e.g: you’re having trouble dragging yourself off the couch because you really can’t be bothered writing that email or washing the dishes. In other cases, it might be due to stress, or lack of sleep, or <insert human problem here>.

Whatever it is, recognise it and then put it out of your mind. Yep, that’s right. Totally forget about it. It can wait until later.

Step 2 - Embrace curiosity.

Now that you’ve free’d up some mental real estate, it’s time to choose something new to think about. 

Think through the things that have been occupying your mind over the last few weeks. Has there been anything exciting? Anything you’ve found yourself curious about?

If you can’t think of anything, think about your interests. What’s something in your life that consistently excites you? That’s your new focus.

*Two important restrictions on this one:

1. Don’t choose something that’s an obvious distraction. This isn’t an excuse to boot up a video game. Choose something that you’d potentially benefit from learning more about.

2. Try to avoid choosing a topic that you’re already largely familiar with. It’s easier to generate excitement when you’re encountering something fresh.

Step 3 - Dive in.

Once you’ve chosen your topic, set a timer for 30 minutes and start Googling. You’ve got full permission to immerse yourself in this new topic. Watch YouTube videos, read articles, dive down the rabbit hole.

The whole point of this is to follow your curiosity and allow the excitement to build up. If all goes well, you’ll hit the end of the 30 minutes filled with wonder and with a fresh perspective.

Step 4 - Back to work.

As soon as the 30 minutes is up, pivot immediately back to whatever you were meant to be doing. If the previous steps worked, you should find yourself with enough motivation to start whatever activity you were delaying. And starting is half the battle.

Anyway, hopefully this exercise works for you as well as it works for me. At the very least, play around with it. Through exploration, you might find certain activities that consistently have an exciting and motivating effect on you. If you find something like this, you’ll always have it in your back pocket whenever you feel your motivation drop. And that’s a badass tool to have.

As aspiring badasses, we all want to become capable. It’s part of the recipe, after all.

And becoming capable means you’re constantly learning and improving. You’re building skills. You’re accumulating knowledge. You’re sharpening your mind and body.

Unfortunately, there’s one huge mistake that I frequently see people making in this learning process.

It’s starting without first establishing their learning goal – the thing they’re going to aim for.

And look… I get it. The starting point for learning something new can be a fun and exciting place. With all the new books in front of you, it can be easy to get carried away and forget to think about what you’re actually hoping to get out of the process. 

I’ve often gotten so caught up in this pre-learning phase that I’ve ended up wasting huge amounts of time focusing on the wrong things.

Get Clear on Your Learning Goal

When it comes to learning something new or developing yourself in some way, step 1 should ALWAYS be to define your desired destination.

Who do you want to be once you’ve finished?

What do you want to be capable of?

What do you want to have accomplished?

Answer these questions with as much specificity as possible.

Doing this will guide your learning process and help you avoid the pitfall outlined above. You’ll know what’s important and what isn’t. What to spend your time on, and what to forget about.

For Example…

Several years ago, I started a list of things I want to learn - mostly skills to acquire and topics to research. Since then, I’ve added more and more to that list to the point that it’s gotten very out of hand – many of the items haven’t been touched despite being on my radar for years.

One such item was computer programming. It’s something that I’ve had a cursory interest in for a while but have only recently convinced myself to pick up.

However, it was destined to be a more complicated process than anticipated. After starting my research, I quickly learned that you don’t just ‘write computer code’ in a generic sense.

In reality, computer code or programming are just umbrella terms and include a bunch of different programming languages, all with different writing styles and purposes.

Much like spoken languages, there might be some overlap but each one must be learned separately. For example, learning Spanish might help you learn Italian (they have the same Latin roots and similar word structure) but it won’t allow you to speak Italian fluently – each must be learned on its own.

In the same way, each programming language has its own unique purpose and writing structure. Some are more complicated to learn than others and some are used to create websites while others are used to create mobile apps.

Given each programming language serves a different purpose and must be learned separately, I was forced to think about what my purposes were for this project.

Once I thought it through, the answer was clear. I needed to learn the programming languages that are used for web design, to help me with this site and other web projects I’m working on.

As a result, instead of learning how to write code in the generic sense, I started learning how to write HTML and CSS, two web-focused programming languages.

The Takeaway

I was fortunate in the example above. Due to the nature of the specific skill I’d chosen, I was forced to get clear on my learning goal.

If I hadn’t been, I may have ended up wasting weeks of time researching the skill and bouncing between programming languages, without ever really picking up any usable skills.

And I think this is an important thing to keep in mind during your learning time. Personally, I feel like I need the reminder every 6 months or so. Hopefully you don’t.

Stay badass.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably on your way towards becoming a badass. You’re grinding away, reading books, and trying to level up.

But are you going about it the right way?

Anyone who is on the grind towards badassery knows that it really all comes down to self-improvement. They know that they need to be capable and that being capable requires an impressive skill set. 

They also know that this skill set is only built through effective learning.

The complicated part for most people is knowing what to learn and where to start. Going on a self-improvement journey or a grindset or whatever the fuck kids are calling it these days can sound super enticing. But starting is a whole different matter.

If you want to become a badass, you need to get self-improvement right. And that means learning the things that will actually help, instead of Googling the best self-improvement books of the past decade…

I never did that, I swear… ahem, moving on.

The point I’m making is that the world is full of distractions. There are millions of topics to learn about, thousands of skills to learn, and hundreds of new habits to develop.

Worrying about them all would take a lifetime. If you want to become a badass before you’re in a nursing home, you’ll have to prioritise. You need to be clear. You need to understand what to learn and why. And the best way to do that is by constructing your own personal learning syllabus. Let me explain.

The Learning Syllabus

When you hear the word ‘syllabus’, you probably think of school or university, right? Did you start daydreaming about sitting in a classroom trying to mindlessly download a 2-hour lecture’s worth of information? Yeah… me neither.

In any case, this is a helpful example. The syllabus for a course will list out all of the different topics that a student would need to learn in order to be successful. That’s exactly what we’ll be going for here too but it’ll be applied to your badass education instead.

But before I dive into the details, I want to talk about the inspiration for this idea – The Count of Monte Cristo. 

For those who aren’t familiar with the story, it’s about a young, potential-filled man named Edmond. He’s charismatic, engaged to a beautiful woman, and appears destined for a successful, happy life. However, unfortunately for Edmond, some god-damn haters become so jealous of him that they decide to frame him for a crime he didn’t commit. As a result, he gets locked away in the deepest darkest dungeon they could find and is given almost no hope of escape.

After many years in prison and multiple attempted suicides, a fellow prisoner breaks into Edmond’s cell. The prisoner ends up being a wise old man, not to mention a total fucking gangster. He asks Edmond to help him dig a tunnel underneath the prison and in exchange, offers to teach him everything he knows about the world. 

Ultimately, they spend many more years together in prison, grinding and hustling away. They dig, and Edmond learns everything on the syllabus – philosophy, mathematics, economics, multiple languages, chemistry, and even how to fight with a sword. He was learning everything necessary to become a strong, capable man.

This is only a small portion of the story but I won’t say any more as I highly recommend all aspiring badasses go and watch the movie. The book is great too but it’s a long, difficult read and won’t be for everybody. 

Now, let’s move back to the idea of the learning syllabus. Most of us aren’t going to be locked in a dungeon with the perfect teacher… and thank god for that. But it doesn’t mean there isn’t something here for us to take away.

I think the idea of the learning syllabus as it was presented in The Count of Monte Cristo is perfect. The old man defined for Edmond exactly what to learn to become a better man, and then methodically taught him each topic.

Let’s jump into what that might look like for you.

Step 1 – Define who you want to be

Before you start listing out all the cool topics you want to master, you’ll need to tackle step 1 – defining your destination.

There’s no point listing skills if they don’t actually get you closer to where you want to be. While in prison, Edmond was learning the skills necessary to transform him into a great man. Can you imagine if he’d spent the time learning to knit or memorising the names of the Kardashians instead? I assure you, the rest of the story would have been much less badass.

To make this feel more relevant, let’s use a modern example. Becoming a professional athlete will require a different skill set to becoming a billion-dollar entrepreneur. One will require lots of time in the gym and a theoretical understanding of a specific sport, while the other one will demand business knowledge and effective decision making.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you don’t necessarily need to define who you want to be by a career title or a role within society. Perhaps your definition is more about character and how you make the people around you feel. That’s fine too. 

As long as it gives you a target to aim for. This is what’ll help you define which skills are important to learn and which aren’t.

Step 2 – Construct a list of necessary skills

Once you’ve defined who you want to become, you can start listing out the things you’ll need to learn or work on to get there.

To do this, you’ll need to ask yourself a bunch of questions and pay attention to the answers that pop up:

• What will I need to be good at to become this ideal version of me?

• What skills will I need?

• How will I need to spend my time?

• What topics will I need to understand?

• Will I need qualifications? (i.e - doctors and lawyers will need these)

• Will I need to be mentally strong? How much?

• What barriers might get in my way?

• How will I overcome them?

By answering these questions, you should be able to start constructing a list of skills you’ll need to learn, knowledge you’ll need to have, and habits you’ll need to develop. It can be as long or as short as you want but I’d recommend starting with between 5-10 things. You can always add more later as you learn and develop.

Once you’ve got a solid list, you’ll need to order them based on priority. Again, I’ve provided some questions to help you think this through:

• Are some of these more important than others?

• Which will be easiest or take the least time to learn?

• Which will be hardest or take the most time to learn?

• Which will provide the most benefit once learnt?

• Which will provide the least benefit once learnt? Is it still worth keeping this on my list?

Step 3 – Start.

Once you’ve got your list sorted and prioritised, it’s time for the most important part – starting.

Don’t get caught in the perfection trap and waste weeks overthinking it. Start working on the highest priority skill straight away.

Aren’t sure where to start?

No problem – Google it. The best part about living in the internet age is there’s practically guaranteed to be resources available to help you out.

Look for books, articles, and YouTube videos and keep in mind that when it comes to skills, there’s no substitute for doing the thing itself. You can read as many books on boxing as you want, but the real progress comes from getting in a boxing gym and hitting the bag.

One final note before you go – remember to keep the bar low. Learning can be a slow process and getting through your list will realistically take years. Remember, as appealing as 2-minute training montages are, Edmond was in prison for over a decade before he finally made it out a changed man.

Focusing too much on the size of the journey can deter you from taking any steps at all. Just worry about what’s immediately in front of you. Think about that next class or that next writing session. Reward yourself for showing up and try to avoid punishing yourself if you don’t become an overnight prodigy.

As an aspiring badass, you’ll need to respect the fact that improving takes time. In fact, letting that sink in will actually speed up progress because it makes it easier to show up each day. And ultimately, showing up each day is exactly how you’ll become a badass.