- Let me ask you a question, have you ever felt powerful? And if so, when was the last
time you felt truly powerful? Like your steps have extra weight to them. You have a steely-eyed focus. The decisions that you make have clarity. Obviously, it's impossible to
feel like this all the time. Life will throw a plethora of things that will knock you off the
straight and narrow path. It will make you feel
powerless, or humiliated, or anxious, embarrassed, nervous, but hopefully we're able to come back to that feeling of empowerment,
that feeling of strength. If it's been a while since you've felt this
feeling of internal calm and power and presence, then in this video, I want to talk about
a strategy that I have for converting the situations of life, as various as they may
be, into internal power. And I know that sounds very woo-woo, but hopefully by the end of this video you understand where I'm coming from, so you can use it to your advantage, so that you can feel more
powerful, more often. You can truly be Giga Chad. I'm sure Giga Chad feels like this 24/7. He is the spirit of this
internal, benevolent power. And in order to feel this way, we need to beware of snakes and ladders. (ominous music) Now, in life, it's no surprise that there
are lots of places to go, things to see, things to do, but if we are not aware of what's a snake and what's a ladder, we'll do certain things
and go certain places and partake in particular activities that will either increase
our power or decrease it. The things that increase
our power are ladders and the things that decrease
our power are snakes. So how do you identify
a snake and a ladder? In order to properly identify what's a snake and what's a ladder, we need to figure out a little bit more about our psychology. Now, our brain has many chemicals, chemicals that make us
feel very different ways. The present oriented
chemicals include oxytocin, endorphins, serotonin
and endocannabinoids. These brain chemicals
allow us to experience and savor the present moment, what we have right here and right now. Dopamine is concerned with
what we don't yet have, it makes us desire things we can attain in the
immediate or distant future. It says, you should do this thing because you will get a reward. And it's important to realize that these two types of brain
chemicals work in tandem. Usually things are some
degree of satisfying and some degree of tempting, but the weird thing is some
things are extremely tempting and we feel a huge urge
to do these things, but they're not that
satisfying, this is a snake. We live in a culture that creates activities that
are lopsided in construction, front loaded with so much dopamine, so much intrigue and
temptation to do them, but the satisfaction is usually all right and it expires quickly. Snakes make you lose power. They waste your time, energy and attention on things that give you a net
loss return on investment, desire without satisfaction,
intrigue without resolution. The goal is to find activities
that have the right balance, dopaminergic enough that
there's incentive to do them, but satisfying and enjoyable enough that they give you a
feeling of empowerment and fulfillment in return. You have a deep sense of
feeling like it was worth it. It gave you something that you
can take forward into life, things that make you feel
better about yourself and your life after having done them, these are the ladders. So before you dive into any
activity that you usually do, ask yourself, is this a
snake or is this a ladder? How can I tell? Well, how do I feel before I do it? Am I very tempted to do it? Is there this magnetic draw to do it? How do I feel while I do it? And how will I feel directly after I do it and later in the day after having done it? And maybe even a day after I do it and a week after I do it? If that is all cohesive, if that feeling is good,
good, good, good, good, then you found yourself a ladder, but if the answer is I
find myself drawn to do it and it feels good when I do it, but I feel like crap after
I do it, that's a snake. That is a serpent. Okay, pop quiz, you're absolutely famished after a hard days of working
on the field, that was English, plowing, seeding, cutting the grass, and you come into the door and you smell the savory
smell of mama's nectar. I don't know what that is, but let's just say it's a meat stew. You smell the garlicy, beefy goodness as you walk in the front door, and you find yourself extremely tempted to go and gobble it down,
pour it down your throat, is that a snake or is that a ladder? Well, it's probably a ladder
because you are working all day and you need a high
protein, home cooked stew that will nourish you and
help you recover your muscles and you can take that
nutrition onwards in life, it's just a win-win all around. There is both temptation and a deep sense of resolution and satisfaction and nourishment, that is a ladder. Another quiz, you're at the gym, busting out a set and some absolute dime piece walks across your field of vision. You catch a glimpse and you
say, "Wow, that is crazy." So let's just say, noticing
is a moral neutral, but you're confronted with a choice. Continuing to stare, is
that a snake or a ladder? Well, it's obviously a snake because unless you're using
the beauty of this person to motivate you to go form
a genuine relationship that is mutually beneficial, that's the only situation
that it would be a ladder. But 99% of people in that
situation choose snake, they look for the angles, they try to bounce their vision
off of 16 different mirrors to get a glimpse of the assets. But why is that a snake? Well, what is it doing for you? It's making you want and desire with absolutely no resolution. It's telling your brain that
there is value over there that I don't have, and
I still don't have it, and I still don't have it, and I want it and I want it and I want it. Attraction is a tool,
just like anything else, but it's a tool to form connection, and if you're not actually doing that, then all you're doing is teasing yourself and you're subconsciously
signaling to yourself that, "Wow, there is beauty in this
world and I don't have it." Do you think that is
an empowering feeling? Let me leave you with this. In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus didn't strap himself
to the mast of the ship because he was afraid of feeling good, he was aware of the siren's call. He was aware that the temptation
would've been too strong because whatever satisfaction it promised was just not going to be worth it. He was aware of the snakes, the sirens, the dopaminergic temptation. If what the sirens offered
actually felt good, gave them something of value that empowered them on their journey, there would be no resistance. But the wise man knows that the siren offers
unfathomable pleasure, but doesn't deliver. It's a sham. Quite literally the definition of disorientation and disintegration, a distraction from the mission. So if you look at the bigger picture, accumulating this sense of power has nothing to do with avoiding pleasure. In fact, it's quite the opposite, it's about avoiding the cheap and false proposition of pleasure. It's not falling for the sirens, who make things sound very
exciting and very tempting, but don't actually give
you something in return. If you look at life with
a broader scope like this, then climbing as many
ladders as you can in life, actually offers you more
satisfaction and enjoyment, both in the long run and often right now. When you're doing something that you know you're supposed to be doing and you submit to it, you submit to your destiny
and to your calling, that feels good here and now. When you're finally writing the paper that you've been
procrastinating forever and you're sitting there in a flow state, that feels existentially satisfying. You just want to melt into that moment and ask yourself, "Why aren't
I doing this all the time?" That feeling of calm and duty is power. Power is this feeling of integration. The person that we want to be is the person that we are being. Welcome to the Ikea
Furniture Building session. Holy smokes, I look super tired
with this top down lighting. I'm not using any fancy lighting, so this is what I look like in real life. I look 68 years old. I wanna take a second to thank today's video sponsor, Audible, and also recommend the audio book that I've been reading recently, which is The Millionaire Next Door. Now, if you guys have been
struggling financially, then there is no financial
book that I recommend more than The Millionaire Next Door. This book goes hand in hand with what we are talking
about in this video. It helps shift your mindset from chasing the snakes
in your financial life, slithering your money
away on frivolous things, and help shift your mindset
towards genuine wealth building, so you can use your money to
do more satisfying things. So give it a listen using
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