The person you want to become can only be actualized through the obstacles that you overcome.

There’s a common trap that I’ve seen a lot of people fall into, including myself, in the past. They think they can decide on a goal, implement a few new habits, and magically become a new and improved version of themselves. And while this works for very small and shallow objectives, it won’t give you any significant leap in personal development.

If you want to level up, increase your quality of life, and become the best version of yourself, it will take setting difficult objectives that force you to evolve. And this evolution takes place through the obstacles that you have to conquer.

You need to understand that obstacles shape you into the person you want to become. Without these obstacles, it would not be possible. It’s inevitable to find yourself dealing with new challenges on your journey of self-actualization. 

Throughout all of my life, this has been the case, but I wasn’t able to realize it until probably the past year. Whether it was business, relationships, or just overall personal growth, I would set my eyes on a future outcome that I wanted to achieve and every single time, I was faced with new challenges that I never had to deal with before.

They were new because I was stepping into unknown territory, and the only way that I could win these battles is if I increased my knowledge so I could then develop a strategic plan of attack.

This new knowledge was the weapon that helped me level up and claim victory for myself. Then, I was able to add this new knowledge and these new lessons to my mental arsenal.

These experiences allowed me to deal with similar situations when they came up again with little to no difficulty because I was now the type of person who could handle it. All of this was necessary to become the new version of myself that I had envisioned.

Even if I didn’t know who I wanted to become, I knew what I wanted to accomplish, and the only way that I could accomplish it was to level up.

Now, I’m not sure what causes this to take place. Maybe it’s the universe or just the fact that I was pursuing new things that I did not have experience with yet, but it’s a fundamental truth that we need to understand.

\Your growth will become stagnant until you set your eyes on a new objective and start taking action to make it a reality. Then you repeat the cycle of challenge, growth, victory.

This is why most people remain stuck in the same place throughout their entire life: They see the obstacle and admit defeat instead of taking a step back and figuring out what they need to do to get to the other side.

This is what separates champions from victims.

The champion looks at the mountain and starts to climb with a mindset of unwavering positivity that he will eventually get to the top. He doesn’t necessarily know how he’s going to get there, but he knows that he is capable, and he starts moving forward. When he reaches the destination, he is now better because of the effort that it took to get to the top.

The victim sees the mountain, allows negative self-talk to take hold, and then turns around and walks away. He doesn’t believe in his ability and never takes the first step upward, which stops him from experiencing growth for himself. So, you have to make a decision on which one you are going to be.‍

‍This will be the most important decision that you ever make in your life, because it will dictate your entire future. You can choose never-ending growth, or you can choose stagnation.

Now, I have no interest in helping people reinforce their victim mindset. So, today we are going to talk about crafting your inner champion. We are going to build this new version of you step by step. This way, you can eventually get to the top of the mountain and claim victory for yourself. Then when you get to the top, you’re going to see an even taller mountain that you’ll be eager to tackle next. This is what allows for constant evolution, which is infinite.

There are three principles to crafting your inner champion. ‍

Principle #1: The champion understands that there is no finish line.‍

He doesn’t walk into the gym and think, “I’m just going to lose 30 pounds and quit working out”. There will always be more work to do because growth is never-ending, and this is a process that you have to fall in love with.

Luckily, it’s fairly easy once you start stacking victories and begin seeing results for yourself. You will become addicted to leveling up, and from there, it’s just a matter of keeping the momentum.

You can think about it like this…

If a rocket were to just suddenly stop as it is transcended upward, it would lose momentum and fall back to the ground. You can look at your personal development in the same way. You will start to see that you are capable of achieving so much more than you originally thought through continuous action.

I call this raising the ceiling.

You’re raising the ceiling on what you can accomplish for yourself, and this constant progression forward fills you with the energy to continue dominating life.

The reason that you find yourself in states of depression is because you are not living up to your full potential. There is a part of you deep within that we will call the true-self who knows that you could be doing better.

Your true-self is frustrated that you are wasting vital life energy on things that serve no value, and you are so distracted with meaningless new-age bullshit that you can’t hear it screaming at you. Simply put…

Humans are a goal-oriented species. This is a curse and a blessing.

Every other creature on this planet lacks the consciousness to make them aware of anything other than basic survival. Because of that, they are content with simply existing. They are unable to comprehend anything else — it just doesn’t exist in their reality.

Honestly, this sounds kind of nice... but it also slows down their rate of evolution. Every other species is pretty much the exact same as they were thousands of years ago. There hasn’t been much change physically, mentally, or spiritually.

Humans, on the other hand, have the ability to think outside the box and create their own reality. This is what allows us to experience tremendous growth rapidly, and it all starts with a vision inside our minds. 

From there, we can start to bring those visions into the physical world through action, and through action, we are filled with the energy to pursue even more for ourselves and our tribe.‍

‍That is why we feel so damn good when pushing ourselves to new heights.

Nature has made us in a way that we reap massive rewards for stepping out of our comfort zone.

Most people nowadays never experience this, though, because they choose a life of comfort and complacency. They think they are happy with doing nothing for themselves because they have never experienced anything different.

The champion knows that there is no limit to what he is capable of achieving. He has tasted victory and has an endless hunger for it now. He is always in pursuit of conquering more for himself by continuously stepping into the unknown.

Which leads me to the second principle…

Principle #2: You must develop a mindset of unwavering positivity.

You have to fully believe that you will persevere no matter what comes your way. This isn’t just one of those things that you can repeat in the mirror and expect it to take hold.

It’s built through action, repetition, and awareness of events unfolding in front of you.

Whether you are aware of it or not, you have overcome difficulties in your life.

Some people have had to deal with more than others, but no matter your level of struggle, you would not be here today without putting forth some effort to problem-solve and persevere in the face of adversity.

It’s important to realize this because it’s the first step to building belief in yourself.

For some reason, people like to perceive themselves as weak instead of acknowledging their strengths. I’m not sure if it’s because they get attention from others for feeling weak or what, but it’s very real.

So, they block out the obvious signs of their worth to maintain this self-limiting belief, and they search for proof of their shortcomings in order to come up with excuses for their inability.

This is an absolutely awful way to live, and you need to reject these thoughts if they ever pop into your mind.

Realize that you are at constant war with negative influences, and often, the biggest enemy is your own mind.

Through years of allowing your mind to spit out garbage, it has now taken hold of your life and identity. But you can change this if you make the conscious decision to put an end to it once and for all.

Now, it’s not going to happen overnight, but every time you fight back, you are weakening its grip and eventually, it will catch the hint. Your internal dialogue will become one that actually serves you instead of limiting you.

I want you to prove to yourself that you are capable of climbing to the highest peaks of personal success and that no matter what obstacles you encounter, you will find a way to overcome them because you were not put on this earth to live a mediocre existence.

The blood of your ancestors runs through your veins.

These individuals dealt with unimaginable difficulty with the end result being you. Don’t take this lightly. Use it as fuel to make the most of yourself. That way, you can return the favor for someone else hundreds of years from now.

This is the purpose of life. It is why we are all here: to become the best version of ourselves so future generations can prosper.

And you will die knowing that you made the most of your time here, which is the greatest end result possible.

So, the way that you build unwavering positivity and confidence is through action. You don’t build it by repeating the same shallow activities every day. You do it by always pursuing more for yourself.‍

‍This will lead you to seek out even more for yourself because you know you can win no matter what.

Alright, so there is one more principle that will help lay the foundation for crafting you into an absolute champion…‍

Principle #3: You absolutely must build discipline.

Discipline is the highest form of self-respect. People think it’s just about building habits, but it goes far beyond that. Discipline is choosing actions every single day that move you forward instead of ones that set you up for failure.

Discipline and habits are what shape your identity. Habits are the bricks that build you into your ideal self. They are the characteristics and daily actions that shape you into who you want to become.

The best starting place for building discipline and habits is through visualization. You have to craft the future version of yourself inside your mind.

Paint a mental image of how this person shows up in the world on a daily basis. How does he walk, talk, and act? Make a mental blueprint of the habits that allow him to be this type of individual.

Now, write all of this down and develop your plan of attack to make it happen. Because here’s the fact of the matter…

And considering that most of modern society lacks overall ambition, self-respect, and is probably the lowest form of human yet, I suggest choosing the latter.

The best way to change the world is to become the best version of yourself possible.

So, decide on who you want to become and start taking action today. Remember that the only limit to your potential is the one that you put on yourself.

Become the champion of your saga and make sure it ends with the most triumphant conclusion possible.

Continue raising the ceiling, adopt a mindset of unwavering positivity, and develop the discipline to become your ideal self.