“Do you hear that Mr. Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability.” – Agent Smith, The Matrix
Whether it’s the Matrix, Terminator, or just about any comic, inevitability is a pretty awesome plot device. But it’s also a whole lot more than that.
Without you realizing it, “inevitability” can govern our lives, and become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Fortunately, we get to choose the ending of this prophecy:
Person A: Blah, I’m just going to end up fat and sad and have blood pressure problems like my dad. It runs in my family and I’m going to become him. No wonder I keep failing.
Person B: I’m going to break this cycle. My kids are going to be the first in my family who grow up with a healthy dad and healthy habits. It’s gonna happen.
Person A: I’ll just fail at losing weight like I did the last dozen times. I’m stuck at this weight and I’m not going to win against my genetics. Why bother. What’s the number for Voodoo Doughnuts?
Person B: I’m going to get healthy. This is a long journey and I’m going to hit some rough patches, but my success is mine for the taking. I know that as long as I put one foot in front of the other, I’m going to get to where I want to go.
If you associate more with Person A, today we’re going to take the first steps towards making you into Person B.
After all, it’s inevitable, so you might as well just go along with me 🙂
The power of inevitability
I remember seven years ago, I had just stumbled across Tim Ferriss’s Four Hour Workweek. I read it in a few days, and for some reason in my head, I told myself, “Hey, if he can do it, I can too. I have no idea how, but I’m going to create my own business helping people get healthy, and along the way I’m going to have epic adventures…maybe even become a real life James Bond.”
I then bought NerdFitness.com, and with more than a few speed bumps and leaps of faith along the way, here we are seven years later.
When I started Nerd Fitness, I knew I could make it work. But why didn’t I know when it came to getting big and strong?
I thought the inevitable was that I would never get big and strong, that my genetics wouldn’t allow it. Like I was swimming against the current and there was nothing I could do but fight an uphill battle.
Not surprisingly, my results never seemed to stick. When I found out I had a spine that didn’t line up, it was a relief: I can blame my lack of progress on genetics! Personal responsibility is no longer needed!
Then…I spent the past seven months proving myself wrong, becoming antifragile, and my mentality has completely shifted. If I keep doing what I’m doing, I’ll reach my goals. I’ve had more success than ever over these six months, and it kills me to think where I would be if I only started with this mindset of “positive inevitability” – knowing you are going to do it.
What kind of relationship do you have with yourself?
“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
Yes, I realize you’re probably saying, “Okay Steve, you’re starting to sound like one of those quacks who want me to make a vision board, read The Secret, and just sit around and wait for people to help me.”
Ok, skip the vision board and the book, but ask yourself this:
Are you the type of person who consistently looks for things to go wrong, or waits for things to go wrong, and then says “See, I told you so!”
Or are you the type of person who assumes things work out for the best and that good things are on the way…and takes action to make the best things more likely?
Whichever one you believe to be true, IS true. We all know that pessimistic person who seems to have all of the bad luck, and conversely we all seem to know the person that has the golden touch and can’t seem to lose.
YOU get to decide which inevitability you’re working towards!
We see setbacks as speed bumps, not roadblocks. We know what we want, and we know we need to work hard to get it, so we do so. While everybody else is waiting for luck to find them, we’re out making our own.
As Winston Churchill famously said: “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”
Each failure is one less speed bump that can block us from that inevitable success. Like scientists proving a hypothesis wrong, each failure is a chance to get closer…NOT a reason to give up.
We expect to win. We expect to succeed. And then damnit, we bust our asses to prove that eventuality correct. We have a personal responsibility to our inevitability.
Prove it to yourself
I realize simply “expecting to win” or “feeling more positive about yourself” is only half of the equation.
Whether you sit around waiting for good luck to strike, or waiting around for bad luck to kick in, you’ll get the same result: nothing.
As we learned from Andy in The Shawshank Redemption, “Hope is nothing without action.”
In the AMAZING book Unbroken, Louis Zamperini endured the most incredible set of setbacks and never once gave up hope. He consistently did what he could to prove to himself that he was fighting and enduring for a reason.
The best way to prove to yourself that your positive inevitability (the leveled up version of you) is waiting around the corner is to achieve small wins.
Want to be healthy? Prove to yourself you CAN change with 30 straight days of walking for just five minutes.
Want to build a business? Make ONE dollar or help ONE person. After that, its simply a matter of hustle and scale.
Want to run a marathon? Run for one minute. After that, it’s simply finding a way to run a bit further than the day before.
Identify that future version of you, that Level 50, and then take one step in that direction.
Make a change, no matter how small. With each additional change and each additional small victory, that “eventual” future becomes more and more concrete.
And before you know it, “eventually” becomes a reality.
Expect the inevitable
I bet we have a lot of rebels who fall on the dark side of inevitability, and I want to help you get over to the light. After all, we’re Rebels!
Regardless of whether you’re trying to lose weight, run a marathon, or put on some muscle, stop waiting for shit to go wrong and start expecting things to go right.
Here’s the truth:
You’re reading Nerd Fitness, which means you’re a pretty smart person.
You’re surrounded by awesome people who are here to help you get healthy.
You know what you need to do, and every day you’re taking a tiny step closer.
You deserve this. You deserve to be happy. You deserve to be healthy.
Every day is a chance to get closer to that eventual success, or a chance to delay it.
I’d love to hear from you: If you were somebody that consistently saw the negative side of inevitability, how have things shifted since you became more positive? Was it a gradual shift? Did you have to prove a win to yourself first before you started to believe?
Leave a comment and share your story.
-Steve
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photo pin: Kristina Alexanderson: Troopers in the sunlight, Kristina Alexanderson: Farval – Goodbye, Stathis Stavrianos: infinity, sergio venuto: agent smith, Benjamin Staudinger: victory
