Get the fuck up

The greatest skill anyone of us can possess is the skill to have mental strength. There is nothing bigger or better than having an insane amount of mental prowess. All my life I've been an underweight guy but I have never shied away from any physical tasks. I was as active or energetic on any trek/trip as my other friends who were in far better physical shape than I ever was. I do acknowledge that a healthy body leads to a healthy mind but having a strong mindset is something that can easily turn the tides in your favor. I've spent a crazy amount of time building my mental strength from a logical and moral standpoint. I have spent countless hours reading and listening to the amazing feats of great men. We don't even realize but piece by piece we start picking things from their personalities and start making them part of our lives. I truly believe that the world we are living in right now is majorly unsuitable to make us appreciate personal growth and motivation to be morally strong. If someone wants to build mental strength, they have to look beyond their family and friends. It's a rarity to find mentally strong people around us and one primary reason for that is that we have been raised in extremely comforting environments. Comfort makes us feeble-minded and morally weak. One thing to note here is that I'm not talking about being intelligent, I'm talking about mental strength, the ability to stand in the face of crisis, and not giving up when life hits you hard. Without suffering or constantly engaging with the idea of moral/mental strength, it is almost close to impossible that one will turn themselves into a great man. Pick any great individual from history and you will see that every one of them was extremely strong-headed and refused to give up in any kind of situation. The worst of the situations brings out the best of the great men. 

Now coming to the people around me, let's see what are the things they spend their time with or what are the ideas they constantly engage with. Among my peers, probably 20% or more of their free time is spent wondering about girls and sex (but how did I reach this number, it is from the average time dedicated to conversation among my social circle). The next 30% is spent on social media consumption and watching others' Instagram and stuff. The next 30% is purely dedicated to entertainment from movies, series, gossiping, bitching, and other small stuff. And the remaining 20% of their time is spent merely wondering about their life choices. Few lucky ones will spend their 20% on their health by going to a gym and thinking about building abs and biceps. The proportion presented here might be a little here and there as it is tough to validate this through any peer-reviewed data. But if you will see around yourself, you are very likely to find similar results. There are only a handful of people around us who invest their time and energy in self-growth and self-reflection. Most of us do whatever is asked of us not what we desire or should do in order to become our ideal self. It's never a lack of time, resources, or anything, it is always and always a lack of mental strength to pursue hard things in life. Just ask yourself, when was the last time you pushed yourself when there was no sword hanging on your neck?

At the start of this blog, I wrote about me being underweight, I mentioned that thing in order to draw your attention to the things which I have achieved recently in the last few months. I still look thin, but the amount of physical fitness I've gained is crazy, with a dedicated schedule, nutritious food, a good amount of sleep, and a little bit of exercise I have been able to achieve crazy results. On average, I run 2.5 km every day and lift weights for 5 mins. And within 3 months, I've done crazy things with my physical body and it is almost because of a strong mindset and a will to do and achieve things. At present, I can do a 1 km split in less than 4 minutes and 30 seconds. While averaging  5min/km for 3-4 km. I can run straight for 2 hours, covering more than 10 miles without any breaks or water. Believe me, all of this is beyond my physical capabilities but only because of a strong mindset am I able to push myself much beyond my earlier perceived limits. Another crazy feat that I did recently was cycling 102kms with 1 in-between break. I averaged around 24kmph and finished the ride in 4 hours and 30 mins. And another crazy detail was my 1km split in 1 minute and 1 second. A few months ago this was beyond my imagination. I can bet now that none of my friends can do 100 km cycling in this much time. 

Let's dig deeper into the psychology of achieving such feats for an average-built guy like me. After running for 40 mins your body will go into a state where it will become extremely painful to continue further. This is the point where mental toughness comes into play, now you can either channel all your angst and force your body to continue in pain or stop to give it a rest. This is the deciding moment that makes or breaks your feat. Sustained effort is much tougher than a single shot effort because in that you have many chances to give up. But if you don't give up at that moment then the level of confidence and self-awareness you will develop about yourself will be crazy. These are the moments that truly test your character. In my last 102 km ride, I almost started crying in pain and agony after 85 km. Every cell in my body was asking me to stop but I had already made up my mind and there was nothing that would have stopped me. I went way beyond my physical capabilities and spend around 3500 calories on that trip. After coming back my entire body was in pain, I got so exhausted that I even got a fever but what did I get from it, you ask? It's the knowledge of mental strength and my capability of pushing beyond my limits.

"Get the fuck up, or just shut up"~Unkonwn.