Mark Bell's Power Project - What We Learned From Steven Pressfield || MBPP Ep. 861

Episode Date: December 29, 2022

In this Podcast Episode, Mark Bell, Nsima Inyang, and Andrew Zaragoza talk about their biggest takeaways they got from the recent Steven Pressfield interview and how they've been able to grow using similar tactics. Steven Pressfield interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6skWdVTQ-Mo&t=4189s New Power Project Website: https://powerproject.live Join The Power Project Discord: https://discord.gg/yYzthQX5qN Subscribe to the new Power Project Clips Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC5Df31rlDXm0EJAcKsq1SUw Special perks for our listeners below! ➢https://hostagetape.com/powerproject Free shipping and free bedside tin! ➢https://thecoldplunge.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save $150!! ➢Enlarging Pumps (This really works): https://bit.ly/powerproject1 Pumps explained: https://youtu.be/qPG9JXjlhpM ➢https://www.vivobarefoot.com/us/powerproject Code: POWER20 for 20% off Vivo Barefoot shoes! ➢https://markbellslingshot.com/ Code POWERPROJECT10 for 10% off site wide including Within You supplements! ➢https://mindbullet.com/ Code POWERPROJECT for 20% off! ➢https://eatlegendary.com Use Code POWERPROJECT for 20% off! ➢https://bubsnaturals.com Use code POWERPROJECT for 20% of your next order! ➢https://vuoriclothing.com/powerproject to automatically save 20% off your first order at Vuori! ➢https://www.eightsleep.com/powerproject to automatically save $150 off the Pod Pro at 8 Sleep! ➢https://marekhealth.com Use code POWERPROJECT10 for 10% off ALL LABS at Marek Health! Also check out the Power Project Panel: https://marekhealth.com/powerproject Use code POWERPROJECT for $101 off! ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code POWER at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $150 Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ https://www.facebook.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbpowerproject  ➢ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/powerproject/ ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject ➢TikTok: http://bit.ly/pptiktok  FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢https://www.tiktok.com/@marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ https://www.breakthebar.com/learn-more ➢YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NsimaInyang ➢Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/?hl=en ➢TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nsimayinyang?lang=en  Follow Andrew Zaragoza on all platforms ➢ https://direct.me/iamandrewz #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell #FitnessPodcast #markbellspowerproject

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That's M-A-R-E-k health dot com slash power project uh you guys will see the power project panel and when you guys check out use promo code power project to save 101 off the entire panel links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes should have asked him how many he sold it's got to be in the hundreds hundreds of thousands right that man has to be a little loaded like the war of art man god actually let me see is this still up is what up i want one second i wonder if uh it's still like on the top whatever oh i see what you mean oh yeah well i just i heard it on rogan and i just i had to get it instantly and then there's a couple of people after i posted saying that they never heard of it and they got it Well, I heard it on Rogan, and I had to get it instantly.

And then there's a couple of people after I posted saying that they never heard of it, and they got it. It was amazing listening to him on Lex Friedman. Did you guys get a chance to listen to any of that? When was that? It wasn't too long ago, but I think. You know, that book was, at this point, it was written like a long time ago. Yeah. And it was many books ago for Steven Pressfield, The War of Art. And so, you know, he told us here on the show, he said that people come up to him, they're all fired up, and he's just thinking about like the next book. You know, he's appreciative of people, but he's like thinking about the next book.

And Lex Friedman, you know, he's super intellectual and gets into detail a lot and he was just so hung up on the word war that he just kept asking questions about war and Pressfield was like, I'm not really the right guy to talk to about war.

He's like, what I'm interested in and what I'm trying to talk about and communicate about is that there's like an internal war going on. He's like, I have researched stuff about war. He's like, I know about war but he's like, I do know, like I've researched stuff about war.

He's like, I know about war, but he's like, you're going to have a way better interview with somebody else, like a historian that knows about war than to try to talk to me about it. And so as they kept going along, because Lex Friedman is, you know, he's a little bit robotic sometimes, right? And Pressfield would go on and on about what he was saying, and trying to drag the conversation in a slightly different direction. He's like, yeah, so I wonder about that in terms of war.

It was really interesting. But it was a killer conversation. I suggest anybody try to find as much information on Steven Pressfield as you can. We were blown away by him. It was amazing to have him here. And the most surprising thing that I thought was shocking was that he said he was 79 years old. Yeah.

I had no idea. I mean, I was thinking maybe in the 60s, 79 years old. He got around great, moved around great, looks great. Certainly doesn't look like he's 79. So I was like, man, I would love to be able to figure out whatever he's figured out because he looks awesome at 79 years old i think one thing he's figured out is just keeping like keeping the gears turning a lot because he's he's writing every day he's always doing stuff he's having conversations with people like this all the time um he just hasn't stopped

you know i think there's there's a bunch of things yeah i asked him if it's keeping him young and he was like hell yeah to keep me young yeah yeah yeah uh there's a bunch of things. Yeah, I asked him if it's keeping him young and he was like, hell yeah, it's keeping me young. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's this book, Exercised, that was pretty much talking about some of the things that people can do to stave off aging. And one of those things is this don't stop working on something. You know what I mean? That's why I asked him about the retire aspect. Like when did he decide he was never going to retire?

Because like in America, when you have a lot of certain jobs jobs, it's like, there's a time that you want to retire. It's partially because you don't really like that job, which I totally understand. But when you do that, it's like to keep everything going, you know, and to make sure the body knows, yeah, we can keep vital. What can you do? And he's been doing it. And there's certain jobs where like a teacher, police officer, fireman, military, like you get to a certain amount of years and you get like a pension. And so that makes sense. You retire from a particular career, but he's had many careers. So you retire from one, but then you get working on the next thing. And I think that those things

are important. They keep you young and it could be a hobby that turns into something that you're able to monetize a little bit. It could literally just be a hobby, but I don't think you ever really, I don't think you want to become idle. You know, if you, I, when you get to be idle, you think about like anything, you think about like a, a, a really well-built airplane or a really well-built ship. If they're like, this ship was top of the line, it did this, it did that, this plane top of the line, this, that, and it's never been flown. You'd be like, well, I ain't flying on it. It could cost $2 billion. And you'd be like, I don't want to be on the first.

If that thing's never moved and it hasn't moved in 10 years, I don't want to be on the first if that thing's never moved and hasn't moved in 10 years i don't want to be part of it i don't know why but you would just think that something probably like eroded or something got weird after 10 years even if it didn't move at all yeah i'm weary of just buying a new iphone just because i don't want like all the new bugs and shit let alone a fucking plane yeah right you are a late adopter i know and like everything which is somewhat smart it's smart yeah but then like with the new iphone i'm getting all kinds of weird problems with it oh my god it is no i mean it's it's weird every time i look down at it it's always trying to pay for something andrew's always been an old soul but he's like aged like 20 years yeah yeah since we've gotten

to know him better yeah i always tell people he's getting younger though when uh when i was in elementary school like i hated everyone around me because i'm like dude kids are lame like i just did not get along with anybody i had friends but like i just thought everyone was so like whack i could picture being behind andrew just beeping out the subaru being like man this guy does not fucking care like where is he going driving 40 miles per hour on the freeway yeah what's the rush everyone went and got in a damn hurry all of a sudden taking her nice and easy well andrew steven pressfield coming on was like huge for you gigantic right so like what i guess what were some of your biggest

takeaways from let's see here um i i think uh well obviously the whole think less thing was fucking gigantic you know uh i think he was referencing another author but when he was just saying like nothing good has ever come from thinking i was like dang it like that's why we have this like a whole saying of think less because like it's just huge but just overall do you like again like i didn't expect him to be 79 years old like that was really cool uh the fact that he was – they say you don't want to meet your heroes or whatever. But he was so – not perfect. He was perfect.

It's hard for me because I'm still fangirling a little bit here. But that and then the fact that he said that he didn't really like to write until he started getting a little bit better. And I'm like I have found myself in weird situations like with lifting and stuff you know like early on like fuck dude like this isn't for me like you know like i'm not good at this kept going kept kept getting a little bit better a little bit better and then now it's like dude i can't wait to get back out there or like you know whenever i'm you know not in the gym um so that was like another thing where i was like what like what are you talking about like you're one of the greatest writers ever and you didn't like it we should talk about that for a little bit real quick.

Like, that's huge. Yeah, when he did mention that he didn't like to write, and when we started getting on the topic, like, because in one of his books, I don't know, he did mention, you know, practicing something for a good amount of time to get good at it. It's like, when you do anything new,

whether it's jujitsu, lifting, whatever, you can't expect to be talented, and you can't expect to like every aspect of it, you know, before, before it becomes something that feels good. And even we've talked about when it comes to getting healthier, losing body fat, there's going to be a stage where going and exercising, cause we know it feels good afterwards, but it doesn't, it's not always like that at the beginning. It makes a big difference when you're really good at something too. And, you know, Steven Pressfield, he has gotten to be, you know, insanely prolific as a writer and as a reader. He's mentioned like all the books that he read and stuff like that.

He's written, I think, over 20 books. So he definitely knows what he's doing. But in that process, I think that if you kind of recognize that you're great, I mean, it's probably okay to recognize that you're getting good at it. And it probably feels good when you're in the moment and you're writing and you're on fire and you're putting things together and starting to really make sense. You probably feel really good about it. You're like, I think I really got something here. But you never know until you actually put the thing out. And then you might be humbled and find out that it didn't really do much.

And that's what he found out for like 30 years. He found that out for a really long time. So he had a couple books that hit later on. And now I'm sure all of his books sell because of the success of War of Art. And it probably just caused a cascade of everything to elevate. But he probably doesn't really need the reassurance of other people telling him that he's good or telling him that he's great. He probably just feels like he needs to still work on his skill every day and he still needs to just get better at it. Because he did mention that on the show. He was like, it doesn't matter what you're doing or where you're at, you can always get better.

And I think that that is something to get out of bed for, like that you can still get, you can always get better. You can always work towards the next thing, regardless of how damn good you are. Yeah. And I also like absolutely adored the fact that when he was talking about the muse or the muses and how like there's this other force around us that we can't see, we can't prove to be true. I know for myself, I definitely believe in something like that. But I think for you guys too, like, you know, Mark, we talked about like the weird feeling at 4am. Like what is it about a 4am workout that's different? It's not just the time thing. It just feels different. And SEMA,

when we talk about certain things, you're like, hey, don't put that out in the world or don't put that out there. Whether it's a good idea or a bad idea, like it's a bad idea, like it's probably going to come true. If it's a good idea, someone's going to take it from you. If you don't put that out in the world or don't put that out there whether it's a good idea or a bad idea like it's a bad idea like it's probably going to come true if it's a good idea someone's going to take it from you if you don't like act on it so that i think is like huge because um there's that and then the resistance thing too like we all have felt resistance we know that there is another force out there that's like trying to keep us down but hearing somebody fairly sane uh you know, has this shit together, talk about this sort of thing. I'm like, all right, cool. That's somebody else that like has the same similar beliefs to me, except like, obviously they're like super successful. So it's

like, it holds a lot more weight as opposed to me just talking about doing breath work and shit, you know? You know, they say fatigue makes cowards of us all, but I also think there's like a lack that can make you a coward as well or feel like a coward or end up being a coward and it's a lack of a skill set you know we see it all the time with jiu-jitsu now you see on Instagram all the time these people that they think they're tough and then they go against someone who's skilled in like MMA or jiu-jitsu and it doesn't end well. It doesn't end well for them. It's real easy to talk a good game,

but if you don't have a skill set, then you can be demoralized. And so I think there's many different ways of being thrown off your game or not feeling comfortable getting into something because when you go into something, you might not have that skill set yet. You might not have eroded away the speed bump that you need to get over first.

And the speed bump that you get over might take months. It might take years. It might be in jiu-jitsu. It might be just going for a walk. It might be in lifting. Every time you go, something might hurt. You might get all excited to go to the gym and start doing some power lifts. And the first thing that happens is your hands get all chewed up in week one

because you did some like dead lifting and your shins get all beat up. Your back is sore and tight from squats and dead lifts. And you kind of got hurt just like in week one. And you're trying, you know, you had this idea that you're going to train for a few weeks and then pick a contest and go to it and stuff like that. And then now you're completely thrown off your game. So it's so easy to get thrown off your game. And I think that Steven

Pressfield has a really strong respect for that, that you can get thrown off your game, even when you're really good. We all know, like if we get hurt, it sucks, man. It really can reduce you a lot. And you can, you can feel really strong. You you can feel like masculine macho and powerful and like all these things and then it can be taken away from you where you're like i don't feel masculine or strong i i'm a little bitch i feel like a bitch i can't even get off the couch right now right you can be demoralized by that shit yeah yeah no the uh when i hurt my ribs i couldn't put my socks on like i just couldn't bend over. I was like, babe, I'm sorry. Like I kept apologizing to her too.

I'm like, I know last week I told you I went too hard. And then what happens? I kind of hurt myself. So I'm sorry. I'm going to have to like be a little bitch for a little bit. Like with that in mind, can you please help me put on my socks?

Cause like, I can't move. Jiu Jitsu's that new mistress that's taking all your energy away. Really? No, don't call her that was it jiu-jitsu again thankfully she was like i don't like i'm not mad at jiu-jitsu i'm just like i wish you weren't in pain i'm like oh you're the best but still like it sucked do you really have to go to practice for four hours it's just Yeah, kind of. You ever been to those four-hour practices? No, I have not.

Oh, I mean, yeah, sure. Four hours every other Thursday. Yeah, Sam, sorry. It's five-hour practices. It's just how it is. I'm fucking around. I'm fucking around.

You're not fucking around. I'm not fucking around. I'm not fucking around. Oh, my God. You know, one thing that was really cool, um, his book,

put your ass where your heart wants to be or put your, yeah, put your ass where your heart wants to be. That's actually how this whole thing came to be. I was thinking that as I was going through that book, I'm like, cause the whole, the whole premise and essence of the book is like,

if you're trying, if there's something that a goal you want to achieve or a career you want to have, well, you need to try to put yourself in the situations in the place where there are people doing some of that same stuff. And that's exactly how like we're all here right now. You know what I mean? Um, you've talked about it before, but me coming down to that seminar in 14 or that podcast in 2014 and you, the photography, like all of these

little decisions that we made were us putting ourselves in the places that we wanted to be at, you know, and it all worked out really well. And we just got to keep doing that shit. Yeah. But like on a, uh, like super surface level, what I meant was, um, cause I had mentioned that about like people talk about like, Oh, I want to, uh uh i wish there was a super training in my area and i was like oh well like steven pressfield says put your ass where your heart wants to be i was like and just come over here so somebody heard that they commented that on one of his posts he thanked me and started following me and then we started dming and that's how i was just

like wait like so uh what are the chances you're gonna be in west sacramento yeah it turns out like his timing all worked out so thank you to whoever that was that was listening and then tagged us and did all that because that's really like how it came to be was like that's that was my like icebreaker to start talking to him yeah it was fucking crazy and mark you did a bunch of that when you well you still do that but i remember you talking about like the seminars you'd go to fucking closets and shit right just to get a bit of knowledge on stuff and there weren't many people there right you know so yeah i've uh been to a bunch of seminars where there wasn't a lot of people there i've been to uh i went to like a louis simmons seminar that had mel siff there and you don't know what these things are. Louie Simmons is already Louie Simmons. Mel Siff wrote the book Super Training.

And so those guys were popular, but Coach House was there. Mark Uyama was there. James Smith was there. J.L. Holdworth was there. And a whole slew of a bunch of other people that ended up being really highly influential. I think Buddy Morris,

who was the Clevelandveland browns strength coach these are guys that that ended up being strength coaches in the nfl for 10 plus years and these are people that were highly influential in uh in the space and jl still has his gym and gyms uh in ohio and he's still kicking ass and so you don't know what a lot of this stuff is for i've always kind of looked at it as um the, the word sacrifice is a big word, but, um, you're kind of sacrificing for the unknown. You don't know what's going to come of it. You don't know what's going to come of it. When you go to those jujitsu classes, you don't know what's going to come of it. When you spend extra time helping somebody in jujitsu and then they turn out to be a world champion or they turn out to

be a black belt that kicks everybody else's ass. You don't know. It could be something simple. You give the guy a bucket of your protein powder or something like that and he gets into it and he loses weight and you just don't know who you're talking to and you don't know what situations are going to elevate the people around you or you don't know what situations are going to elevate yourself. to elevate the people around you or you don't know what situations are going to elevate yourself and so you've got to try to when you're positive and as he was kind of putting it uh feeding the muse type thing um you're you're going to get constant growth pitched back to you the unfortunate thing there is like it just might take a might take some time might take a while took him three decades

is that wild guys though insane yeah that's fucking crazy yeah and that's what like uh when i asked him he said he never discourages anybody from their goals and when i heard that i'm like i get it i really get it you know because like some people it's their timeline no matter what they're heading towards. But there's still something in the back of my head was like, like, you know, man, you really still going for the NBA? Like five, six. You know, like just certain things. That Olympia stage is still calling me.

But you never. But I get it, though, because you do never want to discourage anyone. I wouldn't have wanted anyone to discourage me from anything there were people who did but i'm happy that i didn't follow that that attitude or that discouragement right so i don't know it that was really interesting yeah yeah it is hard to navigate that look at some of the great like actors and some people that you see on tv or that have like made it, made it like a, I don't know what Kevin Costner's career, what, I don't know when he started, you know what I mean? But from what I recall, he was always like, it wasn't like he was 17 when I remember seeing him in movies. Um, it seemed like he started later Harrison Ford, Morgan Freeman. Yeah. All these

different, all these different people that you can think of and you're like, they probably had 20 years, 30 years on this planet before they really ever hit anything. And there's people that have had even more, 40, 50, 60 years of just not a whole lot going on. They always held on to their dream or maybe they didn't have a formulated dream. Maybe they didn't know what they wanted to do for a long time. And then as they got better at something, the dream probably started to take shape over time yeah i don't remember the story of the author of uh harry potter but wasn't something similar like that jk rowling yeah we're like she right yeah it's like 11 she got like publishing companies or something like that yeah the book was dog shit and trash isn't that crazy yeah that is fucking crazy yeah what do you guys think about the um like no no plan b like that was i i yeah i i really like that

you know like not having a plan b but at the same time it's like what if the nba doesn't work out right like it's tough i mean i would say that're, you're probably going to always have, you're going to always end up with something anyway. So, uh, but you know, you do hear or an income of some sort you need some sort of financial support in some way um but while you're doing that you could also be in the background kind of working on a fortune that's more of like what gary v would preach but he's preaching something different he's preaching like fuck it just you know try to you know go all in i don't know what that meant for him exactly but people do need to like figure out a way to make something make some money to but i think if you're tied up in that too much then it can be a restriction towards you going towards plan a he gave an example one of

his books about a writer that did have like a i forgot the name but they had a nine to five a normal job and then every single day they just make sure to write like two hours. Like they just make sure to write two hours every single day. And that added up to them being able to write two screenplays and a whole book, right? After in the span of two years. But it's, you know, all of that can be done. It's just, can you put the time you need towards it? And then there's also an aspect of it where there will be sacrifices made.

Like some people will lose relationships. Some people will lose friendships. Like that loss of friendships things does happen and it's if there is a big goal that you have you might have to drop that there might have to be some people that are dropped off on the way and it's just that's just kind of how it is as sad as it is it's just that's how it'd be sometimes yeah that's kind of that was my route like after i read the war of art um i would clock in for work, clock out, and then every second I was clocked out, I would just be working on photography. Yeah. And then my no plan B was more of a mental thing.

In my head, I thought that I wouldn't have made it or I wouldn't be happy unless I was a full-time photographer. So I don't know if that's better or worse but i just in my head i was just like i'm not gonna be clocking in and out for the rest of my life i'm not gonna do anything other than photography and you know i'm doing something different now but in my head that was my like i don't have a plan b like i'm going all in on this and there's nothing that's gonna you know shake me off this plan you're not bringing a second suit you guys remember that actually that was in the shack documentary too but it was in the last dance what i still haven't seen the shack documentary

oh you gotta watch it i know you finished it uh yeah it's amazing what it's on hbo hbo fooshnickens fooshnickens shaquille o'neal and fooshnickens the rap group i didn't know that yeah when he was rapping with them back the push nickens would do like the rule like tongue twisty like that like back and forth and like super fast back in the 90s yeah he was sick perfect family how's it going now we've been talking about taping your mouth shut when you're asleep forever we used to use this really cheap 3m micropore tape but we've partnered with hostage tape because it is the most comfortable mouth tape on the market, even if you have facial hair like myself and my friend Andrew over here.

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Yeah, Mark, when you had asked him about like, can people be tormented by their dreams? We talked a little bit about it, but at what point does somebody kind of start getting tormented? Like when is it like a healthy thing and when does it become unhealthy? I think some people are tormented by them like right away. And they like are upset with themselves or they're thinking that they should be further ahead than they are.

And you end up kind of in a delusional spot because you're like, no, you shouldn't be further ahead than you are. Why would you be further? Why would you be further ahead than you are? Why would you have more followers now than like you have the amount of followers that you should have? You have the respect and admiration

that you should have. You have all the things that you have currently. Those are things that you worked for and worked towards. And you're Bill Parcells, famous coach for the New York Giants. All the things that you have currently, those are things that you worked for and worked towards. And your Bill Parcells, famous coach for the New York Giants, he said, you know, you are what your record shows. So if you're five and five as a jujitsu guy, you lost five times, you won five times. That's where you're at. And yes, it does matter who you went against.

Kind of matters what tournament you went into. But you're at. And yes, it does matter who you went against. It kind of matters what tournament you went into, but you're 500. You are the byproduct and result of what you're getting. And I think that can be torturous for some people because it's hard to have a good perspective on it because you're always comparing yourself to other people. And if you're like, I don't really care that I'm five and five because wait until you see, like, I'm working really hard. I'm getting better all the time. Those first five losses, those were my first five matches. And I've,

I'm on a five game, you know, five fight winning streak. And now watch what I'm not going to lose again. Like I'm going to make sure that I do everything. And maybe you will, but now you're on a different, a different course. So you can, you everything. And maybe you will, but now you're on a different course. So you can let the dreams torment you, but I think you have to be realistic about how much time you're putting into it, and you also have to be realistic about what it is you want. I think that a lot of people aren't really sure of what it is that they actually want, where they want to be. I think most people are just like, I want to have a lot of money, and want to be ripped. And it's like, that's cool. But like, why? Because once you get

there, it's not going to really matter to you that much. And just look at pictures of Christmas. Just go on people's Instagram and look at people's kids opening presents. Look at people having a good time at dinner. Is somebody exponentially having a better time than somebody else because somebody's leaner? Is somebody exponentially having a better time with their family because they make more money? I don't see it. It doesn't look that way to me. You know, my friends that send me pictures and videos, I showed you those girls dancing and stuff. Uh, my friends, friends, like seven or eight-year-old girls or however they old, maybe one's like five or something.

I see a lot of happiness and a lot of joy out there regardless of people, whether they hit their main target yet or not. So I think the main thing is to figure out how can you be excited and happy every day? Yeah. I saw this Instagram post literally yesterday. It's this Japanese concept called,

I'm going to say it wrong, but it's ubaitori, O-U-B-A-I-T-O-R-I. It pretty much means never compare yourself. Everyone blossoms at their own different time in their own different ways. Don't judge yourself by someone else's path. And it makes so much sense. Like when I see things on social media, I have changed my perspective to get pumped from it instead of immediately looking at it and

being like, whoa, they've grown so much or, oh my God, like, wow, they have all this success and they're only 20 years old. Right. They're younger than me. They're taller than me. They're easy to do. It's super easy to do it's it's super easy to do especially when your first instinct is to compare where you are currently to where they are right now but like instead what i like to do and this is why i think social media for me is like a great tool is when i see some really cool shit or someone doing real something really awesome my instinct now is to be like, oh, snap, how did they get there? Or what did they do to get there? Or what did they learn? What did they read? What

are some things that allowed them to do this at this point? It's more so of an inspiration because the cool thing is now we have access to be able to ask people questions. Whereas in the past, because there wasn't social media you had to go find things for yourself well now you have people who've been able to achieve certain things and there could be a chance like you message steven pressfield and you got him on the podcast there could be a chance for you to actually just message this person and get some information from the source to speed your progress up i look at it as like like, God, this is a great tool, but I get how it's tough when you're, when you have the perspective of just comparing yourself and seeing the lack

of what you have. It's tough, but you can shift that shit. Yeah. With yourself, dude, like you've seen a lot of, well,

you've seen a lot of success, whether it be like in bodybuilding, um, now jujitsu, powerlifting, um, in it on the surface, it looks like you picked up a lot of them pretty quickly. You got some wins pretty fast. So like, how have you been able to, I'm going to say a word that gets used way too much, but like been able to kind of stay humble in

seeing somebody else have success in a similar amount of time and and view it that way because i just feel like for somebody who might be able to like i'm thinking of a younger person who like let's say they're always the best player on the baseball team in juniors or whatever the fuck then they go to majors and all of a sudden now they're like the weakest person and it's like they get jealous or they don't want to do it anymore for you. So for yourself, how was there something that changed to where you like, maybe at one point you did kind of see somebody doing something really well. And then you were like, fuck,

why is that not me? And then now it's like, Oh, what can I take from him and now improve myself? Uh, I think I've, I was lucky with my upbringing. Okay.

Yeah. That's good. We get, my upbringing was my mom I was lucky with my upbringing. Okay. Yeah, that's good. My upbringing was my mom always encouraging the work I did, not like, and not saying, oh, you're so talented or anything. It's always like the work that I put into something that was like shown to be, okay, this is good. So I also started lifting at a really young age. So when I got into natural bodybuilding, when I was like 21, 22, 23, right, I had a base. That's why I was able to get my pro cards early on and compete as a pro because I've been doing it for like almost eight, nine years. So it's not like I had success super quick. Um, it's that I've actually, I was just doing it for a long time. And what that did is

it helped me to understand that if I can do something for a long time, I can get good enough at it, which is the same thing with jujitsu. When I started at 23 and everyone's kicking my ass, I just knew that I just need to keep going to practice and keep getting my ass kicked because at some point it's going to be different. Right? So as far as social is concerned, I mean, there are so many people. I remember when I got on social media, Russ, Russ Swole was just getting on social media too at the time and a bunch of other people that are killing it. You did a bunch of stuff before social media too, right? Like social media wasn't like huge yet. Am I right? Yeah. Social media wasn't huge. Like I did my first bodybuilding show before Instagram was really a thing. MySpace or something. Yeah. It wasn't a huge friendster.

I was doing, I was doing a bodybuilding before there was the ability to create content online right so or for that i had the ability to create content online maybe you would have got lost in that maybe a little bit yeah and content showing people how to do stuff from those yeah but like when i when i because i started youtube stuff at like two in 2013 or 14 uh on my old youtube channel all that shit's still there. But the thing is, is like, I, I, the, the internet for me and social media was just a way to get information to speed up everything that I was doing. You know, that's why I started working with Alberto Nunez and started learning about all that type of stuff. It's just, it's free information. So it's tough because like, I do get how easy it is to compare your situation to other people and get down about it. But it's like that, like a lot of stuff can just really speed your progress up.

I think it's good to look at that as like resistance too and work on the reframing of it. So let's say that you hear that, you know, some 25-year-old guy has a supplement brand and he's making $50 million a year. You know, you hear something wild. You're like, I think the immediate reaction is, uh, if you're a business person, you're probably thinking like, well, that's not really take home for him. He probably has investors. Like, but as soon as you think that way, to me, those are kind of like negative thoughts. Like you should just think, Hey man, like that's awesome. Uh, it's cool that I know this guy. I want to ask him like how he's executing because

$50 million like worth of product. Like that sounds awesome. I have questions, you know, I want to kind of ask him, uh, maybe I can learn from him. Maybe I can go and check this person's place out. Maybe there's somebody on their team I can communicate with or maybe fuck man I don't want to be left out like what's so special about these supplements I'm going to order some you know but a lot of times it's easy to look at the person that's uh doing whatever thing it is well of course that guy won the tournament like no one showed up there that was any good you know so it's easy to talk all this shit but just just be like, wow, that guy went to his first tournament and he beat, you know, I don't know how many times he fight in one day or whatever, but he beat three fucking people in one day. He's brand new.

Like that's shit, man. I can't wait to talk to him about it. I'm going to ask his coach, like, what's he doing in training? Because that's awesome. Yeah. That kind of stuff. Yeah. One thing that definitely for jujitsu has, I mean, it's in the moment or as it was happening,

it was like I was pretty upset at it. But like here at ST, I was always the weaker guy. I was always the smaller guy, the skinnier guy. So I don't know. I don't want to say I've built a complex, but like I look up to you guys. I look up to a lot of people. When I'm lifting with somebody, I already understand that I'm going to be the weakest. So I'm going to go first and then everyone's going to go behind me.

So I've had the same mentality of like, I have a lot more work to do than everybody else, which means I have the most progress to make. So when I walk into a jujitsu school, I still have that same mentality, which fits perfect. So in the moment it sucked, but now it's a huge blessing because it's forced me to have the similar mentality to you like oh shit that guy tapped me like damn he's so light how can i be that you know what i mean like that sort of thing or this brown belt is so tall and lengthy i couldn't touch him i want to emulate his style because i'm tall and lengthy you know for this sport now over here i'm still the guy, but in weight class or whatever,

it's like, oh, wait, I'm actually kind of like a pretty good size for this. Like, all right, cool. Now we're getting somewhere. But I wouldn't have that same mentality and I wouldn't have the same patience unless not getting my ass kicked, but like unless I got my ass kicked here at the gym for so many years, you know, and still making progress and still seeing the progress. But now it's like, I understand like like it's just gonna take a little bit longer and when i do get my ass kicked it's not a bad thing it's a learning experience yeah that's that wipeout mentality dude yeah like i just i try to keep the mentality that i don't know shit like really because like if you can just if you can keep that then that'll allow you to have the open enough mind to continue learning more.

Because once you get to a point where you're like, oh, yeah, I got this. I got this shit on lock. And you feel like you know it all, you're fucked. I think it's really helpful to go into some tough environments. If you're doing jujitsu, go into a new gym. How are you going to act in a new gym? Like, are you going to act foolish in a new gym? Are you going to act like, you know, throw your weight around, especially if you're newer?

Like, probably not. You're probably going to be like, yes, sir. Oh, okay, we got to wipe our feet off over there. Okay, I'll get in line and I'll do that. And you just do everything that everybody else does because there's like a gym courtesy, right? You go to West side barbell you go to some of the stronger gyms and you see the way that those people act and you treat everybody with respect and you you learn a particular way to kind of do things but then you also

can learn other stuff from these people and you can learn uh how they are able to learn from the other people around them and how they're able to grow so much and have different perspective and different mindset. And there's people that are just there that are like, this is just a matter of time before I'm as good as this guy or close to being as good as this guy. And that is a little comparison game. But I think in certain situations, it's okay because you're like, this is a byproduct of the work and I'm going to be where this guy is at if I just continue to work. And it might take me three years or five years

and maybe by the time I get there, maybe that guy will be long gone and he'll be way better than he is now. But if you can stick with something for a while, there's so much to be learned from it. And if you get in some of these kind of hostile environments, you'd be surprised at what you can learn. And I think when you start to think about traits

that other people have, I think the best athletes in the world, I think they kind of just like know they got it. Like they know they have like an it factor. And of course they'll work for it and they'll do like other shit to get there. But like Tyreek Hill, like Tyreek Hill's just like,

I'm the fastest in the NFL. It's not even close. And there's other people in the NFL who are like, he doesn't know what he's talking about. But he has that belief in himself that he's going to beat whoever it is. And maybe somebody has better

literal track times and stuff like that. But he's like, I'll smoke that guy. Or Bones Jones. Bones Jones, when he fought DC, he's like he's like i'll smoke that guy or or bones jones who bones jones when he fought dc he's like i don't know if you guys saw what i saw but he's like i downloaded his abilities and i used them against him and i fucked him up it's like wait what did you just say damn but like imagine just like what a cool mindset that is that you can take someone else's game and have it kind of input it into your head if you believe that way and you think that way, that you can take someone else's game and have it kind of inputted into your head.

If you believe that way and you think that way, then maybe you can actually do that. That can be done. Or maybe you can come close to it. Maybe you can download some of the traits that somebody else has. It's just a really, really cool mindset to have. That too, right there, downloading the traits that somebody else has. I mean, I know it's cool to, like, you mentioned something like you have the answers, right? But there, you know, you can learn a lot of different things from high performers, like the aspect of the way you speak to yourself.

Because I think one of the first places to start is the way you speak to yourself. There are some people I've heard at a high level that, like, you know, they're like, I'm not shit, blah, blah, blah, and that's a thing. But I think if you can change the way you say things and about other people and about other now help a lot too that takes a lot of maturity yeah it takes years like when you're younger you're like fuck that guy fuck this guy you say fuck everybody all the time and you have excuses on why they're doing good but as you get older you can get better at that but that's huge like change the way you speak to yourself and then changing the way you look at and speak about other people i mean real time like we don't that makes a difference i'm just gonna stop there that makes a big fucking difference but also on the aspect of

like the that white belt mentality and doing new shit like you've been running for how many days now yeah like 127 or eight or something straight up days and this is a thing it's like you've been running for how many days now yeah like 127 or eight or something straight up days and this is the thing it's like you've picked up something that you were new at that you were bad at and now you're pretty like okay you're you're not like the smaller marathon you're not a zach bitter but for a guy that's 240 200 something pounds you're running 10, 15, whatever miles a day. That's huge. Yeah, you can make big changes in days, not just like weeks, months, and years.

Nice swish there. That was easy. That was a big, big, you know. That was perfectly easy. Take us on out of here, Andrew. One more thing. Uh-oh. One more thing.

From the book Turning Pro, I wish I was able to mention this to Stephen or ask him about this, but it was something that I thought was just so fucking huge. There's a part of the book that he said that addiction replaces aspiration, like addiction to distraction, sex, trouble, and money replaces an individual's aspiration. And if you think about that, it's like feeling about things that you just waste your time on

that were addictions that probably took away from the true things that you knew that you wanted to do and actually spend time on. That's a real fucking thing. I think out of all his books, Turning Pro was my absolute favorite. And if you guys can get it, you should fucking get it. But I think that – I've never heard that put it that way. It was pretty cool. And from what he said on other podcasts is that he had a previous failed relationship, I think, due to some shit that he did. He didn't say exactly what it was, but you can kind of read between the lines on what he says on a bunch of different podcasts. That's why I didn't really ask him a ton about that when he was here because he doesn't – I've never really heard him dive deep.

Maybe in this book uh government cheese uh which is a memoir maybe he does uh dive into it a little bit deeper but i think that's really valuable to learn from someone that made a lot of mistakes because it wasn't too long after his divorce that his life was kind of just uh spiraling downward where he kind of hit bottom and just recognized like man i what I, what am I, what the hell am I doing? And it took him a couple extra times after that for him to say that again to himself and again to himself over and over again. Then he started recognizing over time that when resistance would pop up,

when he would kind of lean into it or when he would be able to dodge it in some way or go through it in some way with just getting up and doing his writing or getting up and exercising that he got better and better and better. And he did it slowly over time. And that could be a big reason on why it took him three decades is because he was probably self-sabotaging himself for so many years. So he might have been able to make it. Who knows? He might have written a great book when he was 20 himself for so many years. So he may have been able to make it. Who knows?

He might have written a great book when he was 20 years old, you know, but he, he may have tripped himself up a bunch, which is common. It happens to all of us. We all have a tendency to fuck ourselves over quite a bit. Yep.

Cool. All right. Well, take us on out of here. Yeah. Thank you everybody for checking out today's episode. Stick around for Smelly's tip before we get out of here. Let us know what you guys think about the Steven Pressfield conversation, whether on that video or maybe this one,

either or. Let us know what you guys think. And for everything podcast related, powerproject.live. You guys can pick up this dope-ass think less hoodie. Hell yeah. Make sure you guys are following the podcast at MB Power Project on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. My Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter is at IamAndrewZ. And Seema, where are you at? Get government cheese by Steven Pressfield. I'm going to read that. And Seema Inay on Instagram and YouTube. My Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter is at IamAndrewZNCima. Where you at? Get government cheese by Stephen Pressfield. I'm going to read that. And see me ending on Instagram and YouTube. I didn't see me yin-yang on TikTok and Twitter. He said this was like the first one. Yeah, yeah.

Because he was like, oh, we didn't send you guys one. And Diana was like, no, they just got delivered to our house. So this is the only one. First one. So yeah. Amazing. Smelly's tip is don't give up on who you are because of how things are going currently. I'm at Mark Smelly Bell.

Strength is never weakness. Weakness is never strength. Catch you guys later. Bye.