Whether you're Christian, Buddhist, Protestant, Muslim, Jew, Agnostic, Catholic, Atheist, or WHATEVER— be it ALMIGHTY BRODIN, it's your choice.
FAITH IS POWERFUL!
This is not news for those who have faith in a higher power and actually PRACTICE their faith.
They experience its effects every day.
The warmth of belonging to something bigger than yourself, the strength to push through adversity that only attaching meaning to the gift of life can provide.
It teaches you to be humble and grateful so you can persevere through whatever trials you might face with dignity.
Dignity... hahaha, that's almost a forgotten virtue these days, no wonder so many young men think that being jacked and pimpin' hoes is a sign of manhood.
In case you're already rolling your eyes, let me try to explain where I'm coming from.
I was blessed with a strong father figure up until my teens— a cool, disciplined, intelligent, fun, and loving father— but he was brutally murdered for his car, took a shot to the head and survived, but the dudes came back and threw him in a lake to drown.
I was so hurt that I simply chose mayhem.
I spiraled out of control in a self-destructive quest of drugs and violence— in every sense, 'cause right when I was transitioning from a teen to a young buck, I put my hands in a couple of books freshly published by Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens, often referred to "The Four Horsemen of New Atheism.", and I was ready to go TO WAR against any type of faith that I encountered.
I was a HARDCORE atheist— as passionate about it as a vegan is about its diet.
I would absolutely CRINGE whenever I saw my favorite fighters praising their gods after they won— 'cause at that time MMA was the only sport that I cared about— like, WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? The guy just won a cage fight for the sole purpose of making some money at the expense of the health and physical integrity of another human being, money that came primarily due to gambling revenue, and has the audacity to PRAISE GOD for winning it!?!?
OH DANG— talk about delusional hypocrisy.
But would have they won, if they didn't have that faith?
I truly believe that they couldn't have ever achieved their goals without having OVERWHELMING levels of faith.
Would have they trained every single day whilst enduring poverty— something more common than not, as Mike Tyson says, the best fighters always come from the gutters, from where you have no choice but to fight.
Would have they even believed that such a preposterous proposition as becoming a professional cage fighter is even realistic.
Imagine putting your blood, sweat, and tears towards a fever dream— training literally your entire life, so that one day you might travel to a country you don't even know the language, sign a contract that you have no education to understand, just that already requires uncanny levels of faith in your friends, your managers, your lawyers— and then wait in line to fight KILLERS, just as insanely committed as you, for a shot of potentially making a living off of it one day if you happen to have beaten so many of those killers, that you caught the attention of the UFC and now your life is pretty much set.
And in case you're a casual, or not interested in MMA at all, and you heard that fighters in the UFC are paid poorly— if you ever fight in the UFC, especially as a foreigner, but also applies to an American with 2 working neurons and the tiniest ability to understand business.
ONE TIME, you've earned your stripes to a point that you can go back to your hometown, open a gym, and earn a ton of students based on that status alone, build a strong social media presence based on that, travel around doing seminars, hell, even have almost carte-blanche to fight in pretty much every other organization that "pays more".
It's like owning a Harley Davidson, now you're cool HAHAHA— but BACK TO THE INITIAL ARGUMENT.
Faith directly improves their odds success— and in case you're a Sam Harris devotee, and you happen to believe there's no free will and we're just a bundle of cells reacting to its environment.
Even if you're the most deterministic person in the entire universe— within that bundle of cells you call a brain, having faith is ADAPTIVE, it moves you upwards in your odds of SURVIVING— hence natural selection built structures within your brain that improve all aspects of performance based on rituals and narrative.
Studies show that when people BELIEVE that they can do something, their performance automatically improves— that when they have structure and rituals to reinforce that belief, that enhancement is CONSISTENT.
If you're looking for something to enhance your performance, start having faith, even if it needs to be only on yourself.
I personally know, that every morning when I'm dreading entering my cold shower, which could be a topic for tomorrow, in case you're interested comment down below.
My little prayer of gratitude gives me the courage to put my head under the water— wisdom to distinguish right from wrong— and the strength to choose the right answer.
HAVE FAITH, MY BRUDDAH— what it takes is already inside you.
STAY ON THE IRON PATH.
Big KISS
THE POTATO MAN.
Dude, I just commented on your other article. So I’ll keep it short here. The faith and philosophy you have been talking about is golden. The workout advice is good, but realistically you can find that anywhere. I didn’t know the direction you really wanted to take the channel. I really think these types of articles are great. Maybe it’s because I was a crazy addict too, but you just articulate things I’ve been thinking about so good. I really hope this reaches the audience it deserves.
Thank you Mr.P...Great post my man. I know I've thanked God many times for getting me outta bed, getting too, and getting through my workouts.