15 Things I Believe – Part I

In the spirit of the new direction of this blog and to welcome many of the new readers I thought I’d put together a little post about some of my core beliefs. Whether you agree with me or not is up to you, but these are the things that my upbringing, education, life experience, and most importantly my gut tell me to believe.

So here’s Isaac Wilkins in the raw. Agree or disagree, leave some comments below! As a note: Well thought-out dissenting opinions are appreciated. Mindless douche-baggery posts will be deleted. Deal.

1. We (specifically Americans, but generally all “First Worlders”) as a society are becoming fat, weak, and lazy. It used to be that if you didn’t work or contribute to society in some meaningful way then you starved. Thanks to a semi-socialist government, our new-found Prozac-chewing mentality, and the most politically correct society ever to waddle the earth we’ve been lulled into weakness and complacency.

Competition is not only considered unimportant nowadays, it’s frowned upon. Yes, I’m one of those dinosaurs (at age 29) who believe that score should be kept in T-Ball games. I’m that jerk. Hell, most of our kids are too lazy to play T-Ball nowadays.

You know who’s fault that is? Parents. As I’m not a parent I’m not going to throw a lot of rocks on raising children, but if you can’t figure out that it’d be better for your kid to be outside playing (with other kids, no less!) than stationed firmly on their already fat ass in front of the TV or computer for over half the day then perhaps you should have thought a bit more before you decided to spawn. Congratulations on breeding a newer, lazier, weaker American.

2. Eat and live Primally; it’s what we were built for. So, whether you believe in evolution or creation (actually, I feel that they can coexist just fine if you want to go that route), it’s hard to argue with living the way that the human body used to before the “advancement” of our industrial society.

Humans used to eat food. Real food. Meat, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, etc. Very little grain. Very little sugar (a little honey and some fruit). Some food was raw, some food was cooked. Some was clean, some was dirty. And you know what? Pre-farming humans were big, strong, lean, generally healthy, and fast. When we started farming is when people got small, weak, fat, and chronically sick.

Our daily activities used to consist of some roaming (low energy movement), heavy lifting and carrying, and sprinting like hell (after dinner or avoiding becoming dinner). The rest of the time consisted of fairly low levels of inactivity. This is what our bodies are built for: Lots of light, general activity in all directions with brief moments of severe and stimulating activity.

The life spans were shorter than they are now as some of the big risks were: Starvation, exposure, falls/accidents, and bigger, stronger, and faster things with pointy teeth. Our society has pretty much eliminated the vast majority of those dangers. So why wouldn’t we want to use our superior security and technology to maximize our genetic/evolutionary make-up rather than mess with it by doing a bunch of crap (eating highly processed food, overmedication, hours of computer desk time, and pounding away with long duration, intense cardio) that we’re not designed to do?

3. Strength, while it has many meanings, is always better than weakness. Being weak is just that; Weak. In turn, being strong is something that allows you to be better. Being strong doesn’t always mean physically strong, and it doesn’t always mean being stiff, rigid, and immobile.

Be physically strong. If you become physically stronger than you are now you’ll look better, feel better, be able to do more, and live a much more productive life. Period.

Be mentally strong. Life throws a lot at you. Sure, you can take the abuse, turtle up, and just let everything roll you up, hoping that someone strong comes to save you. That’s weak. Or you can meet life head on, accept that things are going to get tough sometimes, get back up when you’re knocked down, and keep progressing towards your goals.

Be spiritually strong. I don’t mean religious. That’s your choice. What I do mean is developing a strong sense of self. Have you ever really sat down and thought about your life, your place in the Universe, and what you’d like to do and be a part of? No? Why not? As Socrates said:

“An unexamined life is not worth living”

Be a strong personality. Nobody likes a fence sitter, so why are you so worried about offending people that you become one? I’m not telling you to be a jerk, but since you’re an individual person you must have thoughts, stances, and opinions, right? Are your opinions and ideals not worth standing up for? This blog post is part of my journey to explain and flesh out my thoughts and opinions, and I’d love to hear yours.

4. God helps those who help themselves. Oh snap, I just said the “G” word! Whatever your spiritual or religious beliefs may be I want you to take a look around. There are tools and opportunities for success all around you. If you’re facing some problems, there is a solution available. Find it and use it.

Have you ever noticed how once you get started on fixing a problem, even if you don’t really know how you’re going to do it, that things seem to “fall into place” a lot? Whether that’s divine intervention, coincidence, or some sort of “will of the Universe”, it doesn’t matter. There’s no way just sitting there and bitching about it was going to be any better, so get steppin’ and keep making positive improvements.

5. If you want unusual results then you need to do unusual things. In every gym there are a few members that all of the other members want to look like. They’re in shape, work hard, and do “crazy” workouts. They tend to be the most intense people in the gym, the strongest, and the most focused.

Everyone wants to look like them. Do you want to know, given that I’m a professional trainer, how to look like that? DO WHAT THEY DO. Seriously. Get stronger, stop yapping on your cell phone on the treadmill, and don’t spend 20 minutes rolling around on a mat insisting that you’re “stretching” and expect to suddenly look like a Greek statue. It gives me a headache to talk to people and be told “I want to look like XXXX, but I don’t want to do all that crazy stuff that they do!”

I actually feel a headache coming on right now just from writing that down, so I’m going to stop thinking about it.

We’ll take a break now from my soapboxing, but I’ll be back tomorrow with some other things I believe. In the meantime, feel free to digg, stumble, tweet, or share this post with anyone that you think might be interested and comment below!

To check out the next part of this series, check it out here!