Archived post from the last NOPMO war:
Let me start off by giving thanks and appreciation to the founder of Conquered Self, Pierce Franklin, who is no doubt spending countless hours and dollars to help those in need. To work for others by forgetting your own wellbeing is the definition of leadership. His leadership has given you soldiers a safe place to call home on this vast expansive battleground called the internet. Personally, he has given me a place to write and hopefully a chance to shout at some good natured souls who need it.
This final war post is also an apology. My apologies go out to you all who thought I might hang around more, post more or even get involved with the chat more. I think my work in real life increases by the day and I have to decide where to put my energy. Taking from my day-to-day work wouldn’t be fair on the dozens of families and youth that I help each week in person, on skype or over the phone, and attempting to write half-hearted posts on CS wouldn’t be fair to you, the young soldier seeking to become better.
Now we get to the heart of the matter and the reason we are all here, to get better. Nothing in life can define your purpose more completely than that of getting better. The difficulty in achieving the will to succeed at our endeavors is what has brought us together as an army and our ongoing struggle with weakness is the enemy to which we must all face. Each war is another attempt to rise above weakness so that we may live as free men. Know that whatever tactic you end up choosing, life is waiting for you on the other side. It has bigger problems to solve, greater joys to experience and a vast array of unborn ears waiting to learn from your survival.
Along our journey together we must learn foundational tactics in order to win and it has become clear to me that once the foundation is set the student then can build his own experience and one day become the teacher. What was once taught to every child from his father is no longer happening, so it is up to those who know to teach. The following is a set of basic skills for all to build on:
In order to live well we must raise our mind well.
Once the mind is set with upstanding morals our body must follow suit.
Training the body and mind become basic and we can work to contribute to society.
Becoming a member of society, we stand to uphold our values and become an example.
Gaining experience builds knowledge, that knowledge used in the right way and the right time becomes wisdom.
These 5 principles are how I see the way forward for each and every individual. Each man must have these internalized for contentment to spring from within. Without such basic understanding man can become lost, angered, frustrated, confused and miserable. Today most youth appear to miss one of these principles, either due to external fascination of the passions, or from simple-mindedness. Possibly a lack of education mixed with poor role modeling from the parents and you have a walking, talking instinctive bomb waiting to explode.
The desires of the body are what brought us here together. In fact this one weakness makes you a part of the human race, since all men eventually fall prey to this one issue alone. Do not think for a moment that you are somehow unique and that you are the only one to experience this type of pain. Every man has been where you are now and every boy will likely, at some point for some amount of time, be intoxicated by his body’s passion. There is a way out.
Learning the foundational ideas of solid living is really the best tool you have. Once you grasp the fact that you need to understand where you want to go and how to get there, the rest is up to you. The key is to avoid pitfalls by listening to the wise. The ones who have been there and have left it all behind for greater virtues are the ones who have the little tricks up their sleeves, all you have to do is find them, study their work and try. Over the years I have collected maxims that successful and powerful figures in history have used. After much study is done one can sense a pattern and a theme begins to build. The following are some of those patterns:
Enduring suffering
Resolving the fear of death
Enjoying time alone
Seeing the good in the difficult
Avoiding the overly comfortable and pleasant
Using self-talk, talking to oneself
Reading autobiography and studying human trials
Seeking the difficult instead of the easy
Once you know what to do and start to face challenges in an honorable way, you will continue to fail. We don’t become leaders just because we know what a leader is. Nor do we succeed at conquering our mind just because we try. Indeed we must fail, over and over again, in order to have resolve. Failure coupled with right knowledge, mixed with struggle, defeat and an unstoppable will is the equation to answer the problem. We must fail, we must know the pain and be drug through the mud of fear, worry and doubt, and even darkness, to know that the light is worth fighting for.
This isn’t some epic battle between demons and saints, this is you driving to work on time; this is about you raising yourself as a man to one day be a father or spouse; this path is about changing your body from flab to fit; this is also about what you eat, say, hear, react and respond to your mother, father, brother, sister, boss and friend. This is about increasing your responsibility so that you cultivate patience, trust, will and love. We are talking about becoming an effective human being for society to thrive.
My sincere congratulations and salutes go to those who survived the war. Knowing you had urges yet decided to detach from them enough and wait out the storm shows you have a purpose to get to and you WANT to get to it. You decided enough was enough and change went from a future goal to the ever-new splendor of right now. Well done Man, well done. Of course your own success is just beginning. Each day will express itself with growing challenges from your ever increasing list of duties. With this new flow of energy you can be sure that old matters will appear anew, and you can focus on mastering the different parts of your mind, body and will. The sunrise will now appear fully for you.
Eventually there is no suffering or challenge too great to handle once we learn to endure. Avoiding the comfortable and pleasant for the long, steady path of discipline brings contentment in time—and it brings with it the ability to stand all odds. No longer will the normal appear as it always has. Nature becomes the canvas on which your eyes paint strokes of swirling color like an artist envisions his next piece. Your steps become strides, your clothes become armor and your words are the strike of a well-tuned sword as it pierces through confusion and creates harmony. That is what lies ahead if you choose to begin.
For now and all future wars I beg you to endure. Know that the suffering is of worth, your will is a testament to it. We Men hold within us insurmountable possibility, only to be tested—ironically—in the greatest of difficulty. It is when the moment is most unbearable that our insides show through and the kind of man we are can express itself. Do you react with cries? Are you rolling over and giving in? Let that be a sign of you that what lies inside is weak and needs training. Forced harsh conditions will toughen up your insides. Any man can do it, every man has it within him to succeed.
In today’s world you won’t be given a noble mission whereby great battles will take place. You won’t likely be tested for manhood or coming-of-age and there is no tribe waiting to induct you in their circle of hunters. You must make your own war. You must make your own mission and you must become a tribe of one. The wall that you either climb, dig or crush through must be built by you and you alone. That’s what fitness is, that’s what concentration is, that’s what strict and unending discipline is. You are making your own mind a battleground and declaring war on all fronts.
This is what Conquered Self means and you all have already begun making war, now you must claim what’s rightfully yours.
I will end with the words of Miyamoto Musashi,
“Fighting isn’t all there is to the Art of War. The men who think that way, and are satisfied to have food to eat and a place to sleep, are mere vagabonds. A serious student is much more concerned with training his mind and disciplining his spirit than with developing martial skills. He has to learn about all sorts of things—geography, irrigation, the people’s feelings, their manners and customs, their relationship with the lord of their territory. He wants to know what goes on inside the castle, not just what goes on outside it. He wants, essentially, to go everywhere he can and learn everything he can.There is no end to the path of discipline.”