The Year of Mental Dominance
2024 is the year of the dragon. Or so they say. To me this is good news as a dragon is by far one of the coolest creatures, real or not. I looked up what it meant & got:
“The Chinese horoscope predicts that the Year of the Dragon in 2024 will bring luck, wealth, and power, with strong leadership skills and attractive personalities.”
To a man aspiring for many great things, this seems to hit the nail on many heads, no? Which is ironic because before I knew what animal 2024 will be I decided that I was going to do something drastic. Something that will permanently have an effect on me. I thought about what could be done to impact all other facets in my life, in terms of efficiency. Work on a business? Get another girlfriend, different hair color perhaps? Find new friends? Move to a different country? Get even stronger, faster, more lethal, more handsome, more witty, more humble? No.
You see, the thing that impacts every single one of these, no matter the skill level is the thing that can differentiate superior genetics and consistent work. It’s what you will never find a champion lacking. Nor a conqueror or a king. Nor a playboy or a wealthy businessman.
It’s your mental strength. Your mindset. The way you naturally frame a bad situation into a powerful one that propels you further than any one else would’ve managed in that same spot. And I thought that if you were to train your mental strength to a point that it seeps into your other facets of life, like an overflowing river into a beautiful lake, that every thing else would fall into place. Or worst case, you become more mentally resilient, sharper, fast-witted, confident, and proud. Pretty good lineup.
What’s even more interesting is that I had these original thoughts on pursuing these mental strength challenges on a whim, and then somehow came across a term the Japanese coined.
misogi
A Japanese Shinto tradition of purifying the body under water, generally cold and running, like a waterfall. Over time it got modernized into doing a very difficult challenge that not only rivaled you physically, but predominately mentally. The misogi is a mental challenge that will have you face your own trials and tribulations within your subconscious. Through the pain and difficulty, you will be tempted to quit and give in to temptations of “you did well enough.” That is the basis of training your mental strength. The fighting of the mind is a pure 1v1 against yourself. The way you’d sit down in front of a chess board and play both sides. If you come out a victor, it means you messed up somewhere, understand?
The best mental warfare is when you come out with the challenger’s scalp in your hands and your elevated, leveled-up mindset at peace. And that is what this post is about. Challenging your mind into leveling up well-past its limits that ordinary life doesn’t just cut it. It’s easy to just pass by in life without truly seeing phenomenal progress because humans are very comfortable with being comfortable. As long as we’re getting paid, have some cooze on the side, a few friends to grab drinks with, we’re chillin’.
And that is exactly how the majority of normal people go about life. And if you’re a follower of the Raw Manifesto you will know how I feel about that.
So to avoid this, we put ourselves in difficult situations to feel alive. To feel the burn of the cheeks from the rushing of blood . To feel the bumps on our arms as we await our fate. The butterflies. The sweaty palms. The weak knees. Whether you like to admit it or not, we all crave a challenge. And whether we willingly go out to find one or not, it will always present itself. So you might as well be the one knocking rather the one being knocked on.
In this post I’m going to give you a list of mental strength challenges that will you develop you past your limits. To the point that after it, you will have a different look in your eyes. Confidence to approach a girl with ZERO hesitation because you’ve done things that anticipated hesitation, and you killed it. The fear of failure will dissipate because you will attempt challenges that few have completed, and even fewer have even attempted. The issue of consistency will be no more as you have attempted things that would require the highest levels of discipline it becomes engrained.
These thoughts I’m spitting out at you was my exact thought process. Which led me to believe that the mind has different ZONES of strengths and weaknesses. These zones are to be trained in their own specific way to get a specific result the same way sprints train explosiveness and weighted pull-ups train your strength.
One of the freest and easiest ways to start training your mental strength today is through the physical. There are multiple zones of mental strength that can be targeted through different physical challenges.
What are these zones and how do we train them?
Zone of Impulse
Zone of the One
Zone of Restraint
Zone of Consistency
There a few more obscure ones. We can call them micro-muscles (zones) of the mind, but these are the four essential zones that when targeted and strengthened, reap the most value that lays into your personal life whether that’s business, dating, keeping relationships, depression, mental stability, confidence, etc.
Zone of Impulse
The muscle of the mind that urges you to act. See that beautiful girl? Feel like a dick for not approaching? That’s the zone of impulse being taken over by fear. A strong-minded, healthy man would listen to that impulse and go over, immediately. After all, you are a respectable man who’s accomplished enough to subconsciously signal that you’re worthy of a hot chick’s attention. This zone is a crucial one that impacts you in many ways and is actually quite easily trained.
The zone of impulse is one of the biggest tenets of masculinity, being a man who goes for what he wants. The way conquerors wanted land, so they assembled armies and marched forward. All on a whim of “I want it.” You may want a Porsche 911 or an S63, so your zone of impulse kicks in, and pushes you towards making enough money to purchase your dreams. So here’s how you train it with these challenges:
Cliff diving or sky diving.
You know that feeling of fear you get right before jumping off? Making multiple run-ups, then slowing down, and peeping down to see what’s there? That’s the same feeling you get when you don’t listen to your zone of impulse. You allow your fear to take over. We will train ourselves to not allow fear take over the urge of want. You want something, and you fear of the consequences of attempting to get it. But you want it much more than you fear the consequences. So you attack.
Not every one has a cliff in the backyard nor a helicopter they can charter to skydive off of, I know this. But I never said these are things you can do in your bathroom. Certain training sessions will require you to make a trip, an expedition. If armies could march for weeks at a chance of being slaughtered the moment they got there, you can plan a cliff-diving trip.
Do it. Then do it again. Do it once more. Notice your fear of jumping decreases every time. Your zone of impulse gets more refined. This will carry over in life as you will walk with a confidence that cannot and will not be faked. Very powerful.
Alternatives to cliff-diving/skydiving are:
Jumping into a pool of near-freezing water. This is good because the brain tells you not to do it (fear/protection)
Snowboarding/skiing/biking down a scary, steep mountain.
Surfing a big wave you see coming
Remember that you can always do the actual thing you’re worried about doing, let’s say approaching chicks in this scenario. That will be enough to shock your system. But this Raw Manifesto is moreso for extreme measures to truly lock in that leveled up mindset. All in all, you should now get the point of the zone of impulse. Train it by doing things your subconscious scares you out of doing.
Zone of the One
This is one that I will be training tomorrow. And this is one of the most powerful zones. It’s the zone of being the one and only to have done something extreme. If your subconscious idealizes that you have achieved an accomplishment very few ever have, let alone even attempted, it will carry over into all facets of your life. From strong confidence to a strong, proven ego. The ability to walk into a bar knowing that you have done something that no one here ever has, should set the bar for your mind that you are capable of greatness, and practically any thing else you want that someone else has accomplished. Capiche?
Here’s a list of ways to train it:
Run an ironman. Or an ultra marathon.
Do 1000 pullups in a day (I am doing this one tomorrow, no prep)
Snatch 225 lbs.
Find a spot in the wild and successfully camp out for a weekend (don’t die).
Paraskiing down a mountain.
Wingsuit flying.
Win a sanctioned fight.
Win a shootout (don’t die).
You get the point. Doing something that is very unlikely any one in the room has done besides you does untold things to your confidence. This will allow you to have the balls to take the world for what it has to offer. Conquer. You are destined for it as is seen by accomplishing and training your Zone of the One.
Zone of Restraint
In life, especially in modern day, we are doused with an abundance of things to bog us down and keep us occupied with trivialities that not only don’t matter, but detract and impede on our true progress of being that guy. The zone of restraint trains our mind to resist the temptations that every single John and Mary seem to be doing. So much so that they’ll gawk at you for not partaking in social media scrolling or caring about who the fuck in celeb-world got married or caught cheating (why in the world would you ever care about who Billie Eyelash broke up with again)? The zone of restraint is the part of the mind that knows you want something, but realize you do not need it and will not partake. Train this well enough and you will feed yourself dopamine from restraining. But be careful. The Raw Manifesto does not condone monk-life. We endorse vices that enhance the taste of life to increase the savory flavors. But to get to that level of living well, you must practice the zone of restraint. Here’s how:
72 hour fast (drink water/add salt to it for electrolytes, but no food/coffee/tea). The point is to hear your stomach go through peristalsis, go through pain, only for you to realize that pain is momentary. And your mind is capable of soothing the pains by letting it wash over. A 72 hour fast is also not the easiest task as most people have never done this (sorta hits Zone of the One here).
No social media for 2+ weeks. This one can be difficult if your work revolves around this but I’m sure you, a Raw Manifesto subscriber (you have subscribed at this point, surely) can figure out boundaries you can set on yourself. Perhaps deactivate your personal socials but keep business ones. Catch yourself mindlessly scrolling off-topic and putting that to a stop. Either way, in today’s age, this is a very good task to assign yourself.
Say no to hot women you shouldn’t be with, especially if they disrespected you. Delete their contact, don’t respond back to their texts. You are worth far more than a girl’s hot but fleeting looks. Personality matters more and if she treated you incorrectly, you must put yourself well above her. Say no to her invites.
Hike up to the top of the mountain and meditate for a total hour while seated overlooking the view. Battle your thoughts from disturbing your mental sanctuary. Let it soothe over you as you go back to peaceful mindlessness. Take away all your pressing thoughts and restrain yourself from delving in them.
Train your zone of restraint and you will have the monk-like reserve to avoid what’s perilous in your journey while doubling down on what’s good. A double effect of positive momentum.
Zone of Consistency
Success boils down to this one because if you have all the tools and expertise but zero dedication to the mission in mind, you’re done. This part of the brain must be trained and is analogous to discipline over time. Whereas Zone of Restraint is discipline of restraint. Zone of the One is discipline of tenacity and resilience. There are different forms of discipline and the Zone of Consistency trains the one over time. Here’s how:
Every hour on the hour, you do a specific task that shouldn’t take you longer than 5 minutes. We will make it physical as this forces to body out of comfort, so:
25 pullups and 50 pushups, every hour for 20-24 hours. This will seem easy for the first few hours but then life will hit. You will have just eaten so the itis kicks in. You will be sleepy and feel like taking a nap. You got into an argument with your girlfriend about not loving her as a worm or your friend who paid the restaurant bill behind your back. You must complete it at the same hour, every hour.
Another one is doing something once a day for a number of weeks in a row. Within 30 minutes of waking you do 25 burpees to start the day. Every morning for 4 weeks straight. Or you must sit down and write for 30 minutes every single day, even if it’s garbage you set out to do it. This will train your Zone of Consistency because like mentioned above, there will be days where you won’t feel like doing it but you will man up and finish the task regardless how you feel.
Some closing notes for you. This post is meant for harsh shocks to your mindset. There aren’t meant to be easy. Matter of fact, they’re meant to be extremely difficult. Some of the most difficult tasks you’ve ever attempted even. With that in mind, I recommend doing these sparingly. The misogi was done once a year and that was considered enough to purify the body, mind, and soul. I am going to do a strenuous mental task once a month to truly hone in on my mindset this coming year. If you even take on one of these, it will take you to a higher level for at least a few months. So jump into one after analyzing which zone you need most work with depending on what external issues you’re dealing with. Approach anxiety? Zone of Impulse. Gluttonous? Zone of Restraint. Confidence issue? Zone of the One. Lazy or lack discipline? Zone of Consistency. Again, I can’t hold your hand for ever and through everything. A big theme of the Raw Manifesto is that you idealize your true raw form and have it run your life into the highest echelons of whatever life you are destine yourself to live. This is just a guidepost, I can not make you do anything. Use common sense and act with intent. Everything will flow to you once you do, even if unsuccessful at first few tries.
Lastly. Momentum. An extremely strong and undertalked about concept that I will one day write a long post on. How to build it and how to keep it going. Why it’s vital for the Raw Individual. Once you complete one of these mental strength challenges, you must ride that high and do things you haven’t done before. Things you feared. You can and will do it because you are no longer your old self. You burned it off. You purified it with toxic sweat, blood, and tears. Kill that old self and ascend as a new one with a darker-shade sword. Fly and don’t worry about the sky. The moon shines on brightly for us to pave the way towards Elysium.
The host with the most.
The aristocrat, the gangsta cat.
Russian pirate with a black mink hat.
-RK