Spartan Christianity

The Weak Go Home

Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the well of Harod, so that the camp of the Midianites was on the north side of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley. And the Lord said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ Now therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.’ ” And twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained.
Judges 7:1-3

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Isaiah 41:10

The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.”
Proverbs 29:25

One of the first battles under the leadership of Gideon, a judge chosen personally by God, was the ambush-like assault on the Philistines with a mere 300 men. When Gideon was initially assembling his army, however, the number was much greater. 32,000 men gathered before Gideon prepared to go to war. God told Gideon he had too many men, they needed to reduce the size of the army to prevent the troops from thinking they won the battle due to military strength alone. So, Gideon told the army that any men who were afraid should go home. More than two-thirds of the army left, leaving 10,000. The army would then reduce to 300 based on a combat-survival behavior test.

Moral of the story: There is no place for fear in the army of God. Fear is weakness. The weak are to go home.

You do not see fearlessness promoted in modern religion because it is easy to be weak yet remain in the church. There is no real violent persecution in the U.S. and no accountability for people who are not progressing spiritually. In fact, most people use the church as a convenient social gathering. They walk into the assembly with their worldly problems and thoughts, discuss them with their friends, “worship” for an hour (are angry if worship goes five minutes over the scheduled time), then fellowship while again complaining about their worldly problems and leave to go back to the world. This is the extent of the faith of most men. These are the men who would have left Gideon’s army out of fear, but they remain in the church because it takes no courage to do so.

Weak men have done more to damage the church than the so-called “persecution” facing Christians in the modern world. I argue that fearfulness damages the reputation of Christians and makes it harder to evangelize because fear is anti-masculine.

Secular men do not want to become part of the church because they believe it will require them to become emasculate, effeminate eunuchs.

No man wants to be weak but being weak and effeminate has been popularized by modern religion. Megachurches and evangelists have made faith a matter of emotion, and as a result, have made it weak and unstable. One blow to the “faith” of these men and they crumble. These men have dead-tree faith. The tree still stands upright, but it is dead, and one good kick or a light storm will topple it. Do not be like these fearful men. Reject their weakness and embody the strength and spirit of the Spartan.

“We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men — not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular”.
Edward Murrow

Affirmation

Fear is worse than death, therefore I am fearless.

Application

Consider yourself and look at areas of your life where you are fearful. It is okay to be fearful, but it is wrong to stay that way. As always, our nature requires progress in order for us to be satisfied, so we have to work on reducing our fear over time. At the very least our goal should be to take courageous action despite fear. Because even though fearlessness is the goal, is it truly something that is attainable? The 10,000 men who were left after Gideon sent home the afraid – how many of them do you think were truly fearless? Some perhaps still felt a twinge of fear but stayed out of courageous action.

The way we reduce fear is through training.

Think back to all the times you have been afraid and try to think of the root of that fear. You were afraid about taking a test in school, but by studying you reduce your fear. Through preparation, you increase your level of control over the situation and that reduces the anxiety associated with tests. Or perhaps you are giving a lesson in your church and you are afraid. You can reduce your nerves by rehearsing the speech many times and immersing yourself in the moment of practice.

Training and rehearsing are natural anti-anxiety medications. They force you to exist in the present moment, which is a place that anxiety cannot exist. Think about this, anxiety can only exist in the future because it is a mental prediction of a negative outcome(s). So by involving yourself in the present moment through training or meditation and by preparing for events in advance, you ensure that you become fearless. One day you may even be fit for the army of Gideon. But it is imperative that you train this ability now so that if difficulty or persecution does arise in your lifetime, you will at the very least be better mentally prepared than your peers.

Conduct yourselves like Men.

Complaining – An Anti-Gratitude, Anti-Masculine Attitude

Complaining is the verbal manifestation of the victim mindset. When we complain, we admit that we lack control over ourselves and our circumstances. We complain about the way life is working out for us or what the government is doing on any particular day. Through words, we point our fingers at others to justify why our lives are not the way we want them to be.

While I tend to lean conservative, this is one trait that conservatives and liberals both share in common: the victim mindset. Here is the basic flow of thought: if I complain about something I am saying that it is bad in some way. As a result of that thing being bad, my life is not as good as it would be. It is literally the act of blaming my current situation on outside circumstances that I cannot control.

Men must take complete control over their lives.

They must take ownership of everything they are and everything they have done up to this point. If my life is not the way I want it to be, it is no fault of the government, my parents, or society. It is my fault for basing my actions on the ideas and expectations of others rather than forging my own path.

As men, we must get out of the habit of complaining and be better leaders. Many times, people do not notice when we do not do something. They certainly notice when we take action or make mistakes. Everyone knows when someone in the church gets pregnant or has engaged in some other unsavory behavior. And everyone knows when people do good deeds such as feeding the poor or studying scripture with people (mostly because the people who do those things cannot help but boast about it to others). But very rarely is it noticed when some behavior, specifically a negative behavior, is lacking.

For example, how many people notice when someone does not gossip? We certainly notice when they do gossip, but do we ever take the time to appreciate when they avoid that behavior? What about stealing, do we ever notice when people do not steal? Usually not, but we certainly will have something to say about it if we found out they have been stealing from their work or from the church.

The point is that we rarely notice when people are virtuous because of the negative behaviors they avoid engaging in.

We do not notice when people do not complain unless we are actively looking for it and appreciating it. Becoming a man who never complains is often a thankless task. People will not pat you on the back for it like they will for the man who lost 50 pounds. The reality is that many may actually dislike your change because you are refusing to indulge in the effeminate behavior or complaining that they enjoy.

Whenever we as men make a change, it may spark some admiration, but it will kindle a forest fire of envy, jealousy, and backstabbing. That is the unfortunate plot of men and success in the modern, hyper-safe world. We are constantly jockeying for position, for a better place in the dominance hierarchy, so to see other men climbing the ranks touches the nerve of jealousy within us. It should not be this way, as a better-skilled man is worth more to the tribe and to the camp. We should be glad when other men improve their skills and are better able to contribute to the whole. But because the world is safe, there are no wolves outside the camp, and no shortage of food, we become jealous of those men who ascend the ranks of society when we should be congratulating them.

As they climb the ranks, we start complaining behind their backs.

We can talk about their lack of character or their negative personality. Or we can use one of the favorites of the greedy poor which is to say that a man who is becoming successful in the world is doing so because he is materialistic and worldly. “Yeah, I would be that successful too if I were not so busy focusing on the Bible and spiritual matters. If that guy spent half the time that I spent in the bible, he would not have time to be that successful”. The greedy poor love that false logic.

Complaining is the antithesis of gratitude.

The grateful mind is focused on what is going right, on blessings, and on positivity. The complaint-filled mind is focused on what is wrong, what others are doing that is damaging impacting society, on curses and negativity. It is a mentality that the God of War hates. Remember that God has killed his people who complained in the Old Testament (1 Corinthians 10:10, Numbers 11). That should give you an idea of how seriously the God of War takes the evil of complaining. Despite everything He has done for the Israelites, they still found something to complain about.

So, what do we do to change our negative, anti-masculine habit of complaining?

I – Awareness

It starts with awareness. We can never stop a behavior if we are unaware of it. The problem is, like with most of our behaviors, we have put the habit of complaining on autopilot. It has entrenched itself so much into who we are that it has a mind of its own. If we cannot go even a few hours without complaining about some situation outside our control, then we need to cultivate the habit of awareness.

Becoming more aware is as simple as saying to yourself, “I am becoming aware right now”. Or you can set an intention in the morning to catch yourself when you start to complain. It will be hit and miss at first, but over time you will begin to cut off the habit of complaining more frequently. If you continue to command your unconscious mind to become aware of when you are complaining, you will soon build the habit of becoming aware of your complaints rapidly.

II – Replacement

Habit change does not occur in a vacuum. So, what are you going to replace complaining with? As mentioned earlier, the antithesis of complaining is gratitude, so why not start there. Once you catch yourself in the complaint habit, stop yourself and list 2-3 things you are grateful for instead of complaining.

If you are deep into the habit of complaining as most people are, you will not see any change for a reasonably long time. You will not feel different by practicing gratitude for two days. But given enough time, if you continue to cut off your negative behavior and replace it with gratitude, you will start to rewire your mind. You will train it to be more grateful and thankful for blessings. You will begin to take more ownership of your life and understand that there are things in this world that are completely outside your control. This a mentality of power, not one of weakness. Most men in religion do not have this mindset, so you will be one of the few.

III – Get Away from People who Complain

You have to control your environment. The alcoholic will not recover from his alcoholism if he hangs around alcoholics. The drug user will never dry out if he hangs around his drug-abusing friends all day. Even so, the person who complains will not recover from his habit unless he can put some distance between himself and those who indulge in that negative behavior of complaining.

Do not think you are more powerful than you are. You are subject to the negative influences of those around you. So, if you are trying to fundamentally change yourself, you need to give yourself time away from these people to allow for maximum progress. If you cannot avoid them completely, minimize the time you spend with them and do your best to direct the conversation to positivity or something that they cannot complain about.

Simply talking about the Bible may be enough to cut off their habits. This also may get you uninvited from a significant number of events. Sadly, even many Christians do not like people who talk about the Bible, especially if those Christians are in the habit of complaining. Your spiritual focus is a burning light and makes them uncomfortable.

Controlling this habit is an exercise of self-control. If you can master the habit of complaining, you will be better skilled than most men in religion. You control your life and run your day, not vice versa. Train your self-control by never complaining again.

The Ancient Warrior Avatar

Not everyone is so fortunate to have a mentor. Especially in the modern days when mastering a trade is less frequently accomplished. Very few of us have had proper role models during our upbringing.

Sure, we had a few men who tried to suggest they were good at being men because they were religious, but we understand that is a conflation. Being a good man does not automatically mean you are good at being a man. There are plenty of good men who are not strong, courageous, honorable or have gained mastery in some skill. Yet they will still take the time to tell you that you should be like them or that you should be like one of their equally unimpressive friends.

What is a man to do if he has no mentors? I will give you two options.

The first is simple: find mentors online. There are plenty of masculine men who make and post videos or write articles online. Even though you cannot be with all of them in person, you can still be heavily influenced by them. Many of these men make themselves available through coaching or webinars where you can speak to them face to face. If you have not had a masculine mentor in religion, buying some coaching from a masculine mentor may be well worth the investment.

After all, you were going to spend that money on something else. You might waste it on the ethereal potential of a job offer. By that, I mean that many people waste tens of thousands of dollars purchasing knowledge during their college years only to have nothing to show for it. If you are willing to make that kind of investment in a system that only produces results half of the time or less, why not try investing in some personal training for your character?

Even if you decide not to do that, there are plenty of masculine men on the internet that you can learn from and begin to emulate.

This was my path as a young man. I had no mentors growing up in the church, and I luckily stumbled upon men like Greg Plitt, Elliot Hulse, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and others. By listening to the speeches and advice of these men I was able to integrate their life philosophy. The only philosophy I got in the church was that of blind obedience. I am all for obeying the commands of the God of War (Ex. 15:3), there is no need to have blind faith. If you dig deep enough you will find that the laws make sense, that they are protective measures for our wellbeing so we can live quiet lives and minimize unnecessary trouble.

Learn from the men of the world but remember to still act as a man of God.

The second option is one of my favorites. It is called the Ancient Warrior Avatar. This is a character you create in your mind who speaks to you and gives you instructions. We are already talking to ourselves, so we might as well take total control over what we are saying and make it good and positive. We can do this by using the ancient warrior in our minds.

First, he must be created. This is done by visualizing who you want to be many years down the road. Perhaps 20, 30, 40 years or more. Who will you be and what will you have accomplished? What will your eyes have seen and what wisdom will you have gathered? What perception will you have and what strategies will you employ? Decide who you want to be when you are older and create the image of that person in your mind.

This is the Ancient Warrior avatar.

He has already seen all the war and trouble of your life and has survived. Now you want his knowledge and assistance. When it comes time to take actions that you do not like, you can step into this character and act like him. When you encounter those situations where you would rather not be disciplined, you have to think about who you are becoming many years down the road. Would you as an ancient warrior fall prey to weakness at this moment? No. It would stop you from becoming that man later in life.

What you are doing here is creating an identity. You are emulating the warrior you want to be, and this makes it far more likely that you will act in accordance with those warrior values.

Whenever you begin to have thoughts creep into your mind, call upon the ancient warrior. Have an image of him in your mind. What does he look like? Does he have a long beard and walking stick? You need to be as detailed and clear in your visualization as possible. Then once you encounter difficulty, visualize the ancient warrior speaking to you.

One of my favorite lines that the ancient warrior uses to me is, “Demonstrate the power of your will”. Then as quickly as I can I initiate whatever action I was avoiding. Whether it is a cold shower, a training session, or some work for my job or the website, I immediately jump into it before my mind can generate any more excuses.

Your ancient warrior can say whatever he wants.

But you need to view him as a part of you but still as a separate entity. A person who can speak to you and give assistance when you need it like an old warrior training up a new generation of fighters. You are that new generation, so make an alliance with your mind. Make an alliance with your thinking and do not allow your mind to be a place of defeat.

One of the benefits of this character is that eventually, you do not want to let him down. If your visualization is extremely clear, you will want to become that warrior all those years in the future, so you will endure the pain of discipline today. Even though he is a fabrication, you still want to live up to his expectations.

Another legitimate visualization exercise is to seek the counsel of this warrior. I know this continues to sound more “woo-woo” and in a way it is. But that does not mean you cannot get benefits from the exercise.

To seek the counsel of the warrior you need to imagine yourself walking down a path towards the home of this warrior. He lives in your mind, yes, but you need a place for him to live. A place you can travel to and seek out his wisdom. So, decide where he will live. Will it be a cabin, a temple, a fortress, a dojo, or some other place? I would recommend that it be a place that represents the intersection of discipline and serenity.

Once you have built your ancient warrior’s dwelling place with as much detail and clarity as possible, you can then travel there in your own mind.

For this exercise, we will say our warrior lives in a secluded cabin in the woods. Imagine yourself walking along the edge of a river that parallels a forest. You continue along until you come to a well-worn path leading directly into the forest. You walk along that path, admiring the oaks and enjoying the scent of the pines, enjoying the deer and other wildlife that run through the trees. To the side, you can hear the sound of a babbling stream that shoots off the side of the river you traveled beside earlier.

In the distance, you begin to see a slight clearing with a cabin in the middle. There is smoke rising from the chimney and hot coals in the forge. You walk up to the door, open it and enter. There is the ancient warrior, sitting comfortably in a chair with complete peace, but you can see in his eyes that he could leap into a warlike frenzy in just a moment. You sit down, and state your problem, asking a question from him. Then simply listen to his answer. Perhaps it does not come immediately, but you will get an answer.

This is just a very detailed visualization exercise with the goal of giving a problem to your subconscious mind for solving. The detail is very important because it tricks the mind into thinking that it is real. You need to have this level of detail in your own exercise. And after you complete it, eventually an answer will come “bubbling up” from the back of your mind, as many great insights do. Even though it seems a little strange, there is no doubt you are handing off a problem to your subconscious mind, which will produce a solution much faster than the conscious mind usually can. All of this can happen through the simple power of visualization.

Become the ancient warrior you visualize and then assist others.

If you did not have good mentors growing up, you have all the more responsibility to be a mentor to other men. Most of the young men around you are growing up with weak, beta male fathers who do not know how to lead. It is going to be your responsibility to make whatever impact you can on those young men. Be the mentor that you would have wanted but were never able to have. This will give you peace, and you will have become the Ancient Warrior.

Isolate and Annihilate

When the Romans were laying waste to the Gallic tribes around them, they frequently utilized an important strategy. It was the strategy of “Divide and Conquer”. We will learn about another strategy: isolate and annihilate.

Now when we hear this phrase, sometimes we do not think of it the way the Romans would have thought of it. We hear “divide and conquer” and think about splitting up a task and working together with our team to finish it. We think it means to separate our forces and send them in all directions.

What the Romans meant was that the enemy must be divided if they are to be conquered. So, when it came to the tribes of Gaul, the imperative of the Romans was to split them up. Cause them to break their alliances or fight amongst themselves and they could be destroyed one by one. The Romans would cause internal division so that their enemies could be more easily defeated.

Today I propose to you a slightly different idea but with a personal development application. I call it “Isolate and Annihilate”.

What it means is that we are going to list all the faults we want to eliminate in our lives and start attacking them one at a time. We will split them off from each other, not viewing our faults as one giant mass, but instead as tiny individual parts adding up to a pseudo-powerful whole.

This may seem simple, but the classic religious approach to personal development has always been the “flash in the pan” method. Apply a massive amount of effort for approximately four days and then give up and remain the same for the rest of the year. It is the New Year’s resolution of the church.

This is why year after year, people in the church make no progress on themselves. Think about it: how many people in the church do you know who have actually improved areas of personal weakness in their lives? Perhaps 2%?

While there are plenty of people who talk and preach about changing themselves, in reality, no one is willing to put in the effort to change.

It is an element of human nature, and change is expensive for the human organism. Just as most people are not interested in the general concepts of self-improvement, most people are also not interested in spiritual improvement. They are interested in it enough to talk about it, but not enough that they take action.

Here is our protocol for actually making improvements in ourselves. Isolate and Annihilate.

I – Identify the Enemy

It is hard to fight an enemy if you do not know who the enemy is. War is difficult if the enemy is dressed like civilians and you cannot tell the two apart. You need to have a firm idea in your mind of what you are trying to improve before you can actually start to improve it. Most people make mistakes right here! They go to war with the vapor and are surprised when they get lost in the fog.

Perhaps they want to get in better physical shape, so they just mindlessly start exercising and “eating healthy” with no real direction and end up going in circles. They have not identified specifically what their problem is. Is it a lack of muscle, excess fat, or lack of heart health? It could be any number of things, but without identifying exactly what the enemy is, every attempt at change will be ineffective at best and will fail at worst.

To correct this, we need to make a large list of all the faults and undesirable character traits we currently have.

Write down everything from character flaws to sins you are at war with. Make this list exhaustive; leave nothing out. You are going to total war, and everything must be considered. Do not be alarmed if your list seems massive and unconquerable. That which can be identified can be destroyed, and you have just identified every enemy you have.

Draw a line down the center of a blank piece of paper. On the left put character flaws and, on the right, put sins. The right side should have more behavioral components while the left should have personality components.

Just by making this list, you are ahead of the majority of people in the world. Because now you have a written list of enemies and by virtue of that you have a written list of goals. Once you have your list, move to part two of the protocol.

II – Avoid Taking on Too Much Change at Once

As mentioned before, the classic error of most people is attempting too much change at once and burning out. When it comes to their health, they try to change their diet, weight training, cardiovascular exercise, and sleep habits all at once. They do this even though in every one of those areas they have not practiced discipline for years. The result is that they burn out, quit everything, and are back where they started.

What we want to do is select just one behavior, flaw, or sin to focus our efforts on. So, on your list, take a pen and circle the biggest bottleneck trait or behavior. Circle the most prominent character flaw or sin you are dealing with. This should be the one that, if crushed, will have the greatest impact on improving your overall character. Most men have “that one thing” holding them back from being truly excellent. It could be gossip, a bad temper, or a drinking problem. They may have many other smaller level evils, but there is always one behavior that is so prominent even the people around him can see it.

After circling the biggest problem, put a box around the smallest problem.

This can be some habit or behavior that is annoying despite being quite small. If you fix it, it should give you a certain sense of pride and confidence that you can change other aspects of your life.

So, in the end, you should have two flaws identified: the biggest and the smallest.

III – Attack One Flaw at a Time

Do not try to tackle your whole list at once. You need to systematically destroy one fault at a time. What would have happened to the Roman legions if they have tried to conquer every single tribe in Gaul at once? It would have been a disaster. They would have needed to spread their troops so thin that they would have been overrun at every battle.

Rather, they needed to systematically break down the oppositions so they could be crushed. You must do the same. Forging your character is a systematic process that will take time and persistence and will not work if you attempt to change everything about yourself at once.

IV – Choose the Dragon or the Wasp

Now you get to make a decision: do you attack your largest or smallest fault first? While you can do what you want, I would encourage you to try attacking the small fault first, especially if you have never tried to change yourself in any major way up until now.

The reason for this is that once you crush that small, annoying part of who you are, it will fill you with a small dash of confidence. The net value of your character increases and you begin to think positively. You start to believe that you actually do possess the power to change yourself, and that belief will lead to even more change.

Begin to work your way up the list of personal defects that you made earlier.

Systematically crushing them one at a time from weakest to strongest. All along the way you are building confidence and positive pride in your character. You are developing the inner belief that is going to allow you to face the dragon with a ferocity that you did not even know you possessed. You will have built the strength of character by forging your own path and improving yourself. Once you get to the dragon, it will not even be a problem. Through the strategy of isolate and annihilate, you have demonstrated the power of your will.

Of course, you always do have the option to attack the dragon first. I think for a great many people that would simply be too much to ask. They cannot muster the willpower and long-term discipline to stay focused on an enemy for that long. They will begin to break down, lose focus and doubt themselves. Then they will question why they even tried to change in the first place. Finally, they will quit on themselves, because they had not developed that level of inner strength necessary to face the dragon.

I will not deny that if you can attack the dragon first and crush it, it will do wonders for your mind. Then you can enjoy an easy descent as you systematically crush your character flaws in reverse order, moving from the strongest to the weakest.

Continue repeating this process until you have the character you want. Truthfully, you will likely never be where you want to be. You will never believe you have arrived, but that is okay. It does not mean you should not work to improve yourself. The rewards of wisdom and character that come from correcting your behavior are valuable beyond measure.

V – Hold the Line

After your character is established, when you are finished with your isolate and annihilate strategy, it needs time to solidify. You do not want all your hard work to fly out of the window. Yet how many people lose fifty pounds for a wedding just to gain it all back over the next year? How many men quit smoking, drinking, using drugs, or looking at pornography only to fall back into that pattern of behavior time and time again? To avoid this, we need to hold the line.

Holding the line is primarily mental. The reason is that most people relapse into their old behavior because they think, “Well, I’m in shape now so that means I’m good to go! No need to keep training and managing my nutrition”. That attitude is a recipe for disaster, but it is the most common attitude in human beings. We like it when things take care of themselves after we have done our part. Unfortunately, character will always require some degree of upkeep. It will not be a large amount of upkeep, but it will still be required.

I submit a different mentality to you today. Once you correct your behavior, you should double down on your discipline. Become even harder and more aggressive about your training. Become more militaristic about your self-discipline. Not in a self-flagellating type of way but understanding that this attitude allows for the maintenance of gains.

For at least a few weeks, you need to train the mind to never let its guard down.

You are at constant war against the enemy, and he is waiting for you to look away or fall asleep at your post just for a moment so he can strike. Prevent this by being hyper-vigilant and intense.

Maintenance is mental, simply do not let your guard down until you have made your new character or behavior completely automatic. You need time to establish any new behavior as a habit. Once you are automatically performing the way you want to, then you can slowly begin to transfer your attention to the other parts of yourself that you want to change.

To isolate and annihilate is to split your overall character into small components, select the areas that need change the most, isolate them and crush them. Through this practice, you will gain limitless personal control and strength.

Become The Strongest Link in The Chain

Strength must be built alone. Whether it be physical, mental, or emotional strength does not matter. All that matters is that you do the vast majority of your training by yourself. I talk about this often because to become the strongest link while you are alone is so critical to becoming a powerful man.

Most people make the mistake of always training with and around others. When they do this, they may be able to build strength and perhaps even perform better with the help of their friends. But that is not true strength. It is not true strength because it is borrowed strength.

If I strength train with a partner and feed off his energy, I am not solely responsible for my strength gains. Because I needed to borrow his strength to perform because I did not have the strength to do it myself.

Now there is nothing wrong with getting that type of help on occasion. But If I only ever train with partners and with teammates, I will never develop my own strength. I will get into the habit of borrowing their strength instead of developing my own.

This will not be a problem in the present moment and maybe not for months or years, but eventually, it will be a problem.

Eventually, I will find myself in a situation with the team where I am the weakest link. I am the weakest link because even though I improved my strength in training, I was using borrowed strength of my teammates. And as a result, I never developed my own inner strength of mind.

The cure is to train alone. The only way to be the strongest link is to build your strength in isolation. When you have no choice but to rely completely and entirely on yourself in training, you develop far more than your physical strength. You develop the inner strength of the mind. You develop the valuable asset of self-reliance. This is vitally important because you cannot rely on anyone in this world, not even on your Christian brethren. The church preaches teamwork, but the Adversary never attacks you when you are at your strongest. He never attacks you when you are with your team. He waits until you are alone and have taken your armor off, and at that moment he strikes.

See Mark 4

Who are you in those moments? Who is the man you see in the mirror when you are all alone? Do you see a man who has built his own strength from the inside out or do you see a man who is weak but has created the illusion of strength by constantly training around strong people?

Make no mistake about it, it is useful to be around teammates, to train with others, and to rely on their strength especially during difficult times. But it is equally important to develop your own strength. Religion does not teach you this so I am telling you about it now, hoping that you will begin to learn the importance of solo training.

How do you apply this principle?

It is quite easy, but something no one does. Train alone. 80% of your training time should be done alone. This ensures that you build authentic strength of character. This means you are never the weakest link in any situation.

When you are doing your exercises, you need to do them alone. Does this make training more dangerous? Absolutely. What is life without a little danger? But it also guarantees that you will give a much greater effort than you would if you were training with someone else. Or even if you would give the same effort, at least you are relying on yourself instead of borrowing your partner’s strength. When there is no one there to help you, you have no choice but to give maximum effort or injure yourself.

I know this may be beginning to sound like an absurd, isolationist philosophy. But I assure you the only purpose of this is to motivate you to spend more time developing your own strength by yourself.

If all you ever do is train around teammates, their strengths can cover your weaknesses.

Because of this, you may never even know what your weaknesses are much less improve them. Getting away from the team puts you in a position where you are forced to take inventory of your physical, emotional, or mental strength, look for areas of weaknesses and begin to fix them.

I continue to use the physical strength analogy because it is easy to understand and relate to. But these principles apply just as much to mental and emotional strength. You cannot always rely on others for emotional or mental strength. Those people will not always be there for you. You need to be training for a worst-case scenario. And in every worst-case scenario, you are completely alone. So, train alone so you can be the strongest link. Do not mistake group strength for individual strength. Who cares what two people can do while working together? Tell me the story of the man who overcame the odds all by himself and did something spectacular.

Tell me the story of the man who becomes the strongest link by training in some isolated dojo for years.

You will not always have allies to form a shield wall with. You will need to be confident enough in your own abilities that you have no fear should you have to walk alone.

Fearlessness in walking alone is developed by first training alone. Then by improving alone. And finally, by mastering yourself alone. You have to strengthen yourself before you can help others. All help, whether physical, emotional, financial or otherwise can only come from a position of strength.

So, put yourself in that position, give yourself that strength by training alone. Then once you have become a great warrior or mind and body, then rejoin the ranks of the team. At that point, you can contribute far more to the team than you could because, because you have become the strongest link. Train alone so you can be more powerful when you train with others.

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