Lessons From An A******e

And Me.

Read time: 2 mins

Welcome to The Brain and Body Warrior.

A blueprint of lived lessons to help you understand your brain, conquer your body and develop your warrior mindset.

On today’s menu: Lessons from An A******e (And Me)

The Warrior

“It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.” - Tony Robbins

One time, I worked with an a******e.

He was racist. Combative. Rude. And f******g miserable.

He was just the worst.

All day long he would complain about how much he hated living and working in China.

(oh did I mention this was while I was living in China, that’s kind of important for the story).

And, despite all of this, he’d lived there for eight years. Eight f******g years!

One day, with a wistful sigh, he told me how much he would have loved to have lived and worked in Japan.

I remember thinking:

Why don’t you? You could literally do that tomorrow.

But he never did. He probably still hasn’t.

I thought he was just an oddity. Then it happened to me.

You see, for years I was addicted to my phone. To endless social media scrolling.

I went overseas for adventure. To live life. Instead I spent much of it glued to a tiny blue screen for 6+ hours every day.

The damage I did to myself was frightening. My health, and my mental health in particular, suffered.

Sometimes, I still wonder how I made it through that period of my life.

But, whatever I felt, I was still choosing to do it every day. I was voluntarily harming myself. Voluntarily making my own life worse.

I had become like the a******e I had worked with (minus the racism and complaining thankfully).

Well, s***.

But it only took one decision to change my life. Ironically, it came from watching a video on Youtube.

At the time dopamine detoxes were all the rage. And the guy I watching was trying one. No social media. No junk food. No music. No videos or movies. One week.

I thought, “I’ll try that”.

And I’ve quite literally never looked back. One week became two. Two become four.

Eventually, I spent 4 months without ever watching a video or scrolling through social media, something I never would have thought possible before. That was four years ago now.

What I learned was this:

One decision, with a clear goal of action, is all it takes to turns things around.

Sometimes, as people, we tend to overcomplicate things. Our brains don't help either. They always prefer to stay where they are. Change is an anathema, whether good or not.

But in reality, real and lasting change, whilst obviously not easy, is easier and more possible than we often paint it out to be. You just need to decide and act.

The alternative?

You can continue to do the things you know you shouldn’t, that don’t work for you, and make yourself miserable like a my aforementioned co-worker.

My advice:

Don’t be an a******e.

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