“You have power over your mind—not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” – Marcus Aurelius

think about your day.  

You had a hard day at work

your morning was rough, I mean who the fuck likes to get up at 5am.

So you take 30 more minutes, skip breakfast but some how your ass is still moving slow.

Fuck this.

Not enough coffee, traffic made you late, god damn did they re-time the lights?

rapid deadlines and demands stacked up all day

Everyone in the office seemed to be on their periods.

And you forgot your protein shakes, your meals.

you’re starving. So you hit McDonalds. Not like anyone on Reddit will know.

And one meal won’t hurt.

During the commute you remember you had to hit the hardware store.

On the way out you noticed a cart from the store rolling toward a nearby car.

Unfortunately your hands were full

all you could do was cringe as it made contact against the paint.

You reassured yourself that there was nothing you could do in time.

Besides it wasn’t your car.

You get home. The wife didn’t go to the store

Fuck. Order pizza. Besides the kids will be happy, they love pizza

And as an alpha in training aren’t you supposed make your kids happy?

The wife seemed happy. No cooking so maybe that was a good decision, after all you made it

Maybe you can turn this into getting laid?.

Besides all that other stuff you deserved it, you made the goal weight for this week and early at that.

Pretty soon that despite your presence and brilliant dinner plan the stresses at home take over

You realize all the improvement projects that have to get done, but turn on the TV.

you could get them done but the thought hardly excites you.

Even worse, you realize you still have to go to gym.

Between everything you did today, the things at home piling up

it’s probably a waste of time going to the gym. Besides it fucking leg day. Fuck. That.

It’s not like you could focus and work hard enough to make a difference.

See how the negative decisions start to compound your day? Once you start letting that cycle begin it is very difficult to stop.

At each moment there you had a chance to stop and respond better. Without emotion. There was a choice at each moment. Between the flash and the bang.

In martial arts there is what is called a flinch response. It’s the time it takes for your brain to recognize something until our reflexes take over and act. Everyone has one. The professionals reduce this response time. In the military it’s called flash to bang.

You need to learn this and not float from emotional response to emotional response.

Choose the hard right over the easy wrong.