To develop a Spartan Mindset, an indomitable spirit, you must challenge yourself through Spartan Workouts. You must train AND live in a way that keeps you dangerous, in your own mind and in the mind of others.
This is a Lifestyle, a way of life, NOT just a Spartan workout where you push yourself for an hour and then never apply these lessons to your life.
The ultimate mistake is living your entire life in comfort.
In turn, you become something that must be avoided your entire life:
- It is when other men stop seeing you as dangerous.
Do you recall the letter Chief Dave writes to LT Engel’s son in the movie, Act of Valor.
It starts in the beginning and becomes the voice over to end the movie.
Ironically, many of those words were spoken to me in the Summer of 94′, in bits & pieces, by a man who went on to become a Navy SEAL.
Here is the letter from Act of Valor:
Before my father died, he said the worst thing about growing old was that other men stop seeing you as dangerous. I’ve always remembered that–how being dangerous was sacred, a badge of honor.
You live your life by a code, an ethos. Every man does. It’s your shoreline. It’s what guides you home, and trust me, you’re always trying to get home. Your father was a reader–Churchill, of course, but also Faulkner and books about Tecumseh.
He loved artists who painted people with bodies that looked like boxes. I’d give him hell about that. He’d just say you gotta look harder.“Look harder,” your father would say. I always knew he wasn’t just talking about those boxy abstract paintings.
There’s threats everywhere in a world that’s draped in camouflage. Your father’s grandfather gave up his life flying a B-24 in World War II. He kept the Liberator aloft just long enough for everyone to jump and then he went down with the plane. That’s the blood coursing in your veins…
Your father was a good man. Growing up without him is going be hard. It’s going to hurt. You’ll feel alone, out to sea with no shore in sight.
You’ll wonder “Why me?,” “Why him?” …Remember, you have warrior’s blood in your veins. The code that made your father who he was is the same code that’ll make you a man he would admire, respect.
Put your pain in a box. Lock it down. Like those people in the paintings your father liked, we are men made up of boxes: chambers of loss, of triumph, of hurt and hope and love.
No one is stronger or more dangerous than a man who can harness his emotions, his past.
Use it as fuel, as ammunition, as ink to write the most important letter of your life. Before your father died he asked me to give you this poem by Tecumseh. I told him I’d fold it into a paper airplane, and in a way I guess that’s what I’m doing–sailing it from him to you.
So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours.
Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people.
Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place.
Show respect to all people and grovel to none.When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself.
Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.
When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.
Train in a way that pushes you beyond the norms, beyond what other “normal” men would do. If you’re wondering WHY I keep training the way I do and why I am always driven for more, it comes back to being dangerous.
Being dangerous for myself and for my family.
When I see what is happening to other men my age and even younger, I can’t believe what I’m seeing. People are letting themselves go. The call of the couch and comfortable living is greater than their call to hard training and hard living.
In these videos I explain how I get comfortable being UNcomfortable, not just in my workouts, but in all aspects of my life.
Being a Spartan must go beyond a hard workout.
Sure, you can argue we are NOT Spartans…..That is obvious. The world of today is not the world of the past, but no man can afford to be weak in mind, body or any aspect of his life. NO man.
Times have changed, and regardless, if you are loving the soft life, the easy life, you will pay the price in some shape or form: your health, your success in career / life, your ability to be a STRONG Man, your ability to care for your family. The list goes on.
Take my tips below and put them to work. WORK is the key word. No BS with “2 tricks for ripped abs” – you’re training to be Dangerous.
In the Videos below I share insights into how my son and I did 2 workouts in 1 day, how we faced adversity and emerged stronger and how I use the physical training to empower the mind.
You will love these tips.
Get after it, below:
Video # 1 is filmed right after my son and I took our Mountain Biking trip together…..
[youtube width=”666″ height=”366″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO0UOf_6PdU[/youtube]
Video # 2 is filmed during my 2nd training session of the day.
You’ll note how it changes my son’s attitude and how excited he is, these things do NOT happen when you fall prey to soft living.
[youtube width=”640″ height=”360″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NoT9VsmDz0[/youtube]
How / What are you doing to live a STRONG Life?
Drop your comments / answers below.
Live The Code 365,
–Z–
The Underground Inner Circle
Details HERE
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Absofjckinglutly!!
Love the message your’e sending to the “older” crew Z! I get together early Sunday mornings with a group of guys, all 40+, and we get some Spartan training done. Here was yesterday’s workout:
3 Rounds of:
100yd Bear Craw
100yd Crab Walk
600yd Shuttle Run (5,10,15 x 10)
10 minute AMRAP of:
Leg Lifts
Also, love how you’re involving Ethan with your training. Let’s get together with our boys and mountain bike soon!
Jay! We go Sundays, brother!!!! LMK and we’ll hit a ride. We keep it EZ as he is only 7 but man, he is tough and gets after it.
We ride for 90 minutes usually.
Awesome! I’ll be in touch…
I live every day ready to defend my family! I have done that for decades.
Whether it is against a terrorist or a punk thug here at home.
No one gets to my family while I have breath in my body!
Same here Mr. Frank. You sound like you would do more than defend your family. Like Mack says, “do I defend myself when someone comes into my house or do I say “How dare this MF come into my home and then Take them out”.
I like that the Undergrounders are like minded.
In Strength,
Mike G.
Hi Zach…thanks a lot for the morning motivation. This is your best article I have read so far
Vidhu, hellz yea, thank you!!