I got a comment on my Instagram post titled “Secrets from a 70yr old looksmaaxer” that got me thinking - our brain is our best friend and often our worst enemy. Our huge brains are why we have been so successful as a species, the problem is, sometimes our brains are too smart. One of our brain’s jobs seems to be to make us feel good about ourselves and the decisions we have made so that we can live happy lives and pass on our genes to following generations. Its almost like AI chatbots have emulated our brains with their sycophantic tendency to constantly reassure us that we are smart and doing the right thing even when we are being true idiots. If something is wrong with our life, both AI chatbots and our brain reassures us that its not our fault and that its either bad luck or someone else’s fault.
Lets look at this commenter who is a great example. He wrote:
“He can’t stand still for a minute without excruciating pain this guy is a case study of why to not looks max”
What he is referring to is the fact that I have scoliosis and spinal stenosis. Because my father and grandfather had these issues, I have been aware of it since my teen years which is why I have never done things like squatting, deadlifting, or anything else that puts a compressive load on my spine. So lets look at how I suspect this guys brain was working overtime to keep him feeling positive and feeling really good about his life and the poor decisions he has made. He has probably let himself go physically and is weak, obese and on all kinds of medications for heart disease, anxiety, and depression. He knows that most of this is his own fault but his brain has buried that truth so deep that he can no longer access it because its simply too painful to acknowledge that his physical problems are his own damn fault. So what does his brain do? It comes up with the narrative that exercise is bad for you and that nutrition doesn’t matter. 30 year old triathletes die of heart attacks, see, exercise is bad for you. People who eat strict plant based nutrition has a stroke, see, it doesn’t matter what you eat. The best friend from high school who never smoked, drank, or did drugs dies of cancer so its perfectly justified that I drink and smoke heavily. The bodybuilder needs a shoulder replacement, see, the Germans are right! “Sport macht mord” (exercise kills you). “Healthy habits” kill you so you might as well enjoy life and life for today! The brain helps reinforce this narrative. Its not your fault and there is nothing you can do about it!
Its a waste of time to exercise and eat healthy!
The tough thing about this is that the brain is so smart that it covers its tracks. The people who have been convinced of false narratives believe them to be facts as solid as E=MC^2 or F=MA. How can you succeed at building a healthy, athletic physique when you are convinced that its a waste of time, dangerous, or impossible? Its tough but you have to question yourself something like this:
What’s my goal? Lets say its to become lean, strong, and healthy.
What’s preventing it? Make a complete list:
I don’t have time
Losing weight wont make me live longer anyway
Lifting weights causes joint problems
Avoiding alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs wont make me live longer anyway.
For each obstacle, be that troll commenter and say “references please!”
For a week, log every activity you do and for how long. At the end of the week tally up the totals and see if you can say with a straight face that you “don’t have time”. How much time was spend watching shows? How much time was spent scrolling?
Losing weight won’t make you live longer? Ask ChatGPT the following question: “All other factors being equal, what is my life expectancy with a BMI of 20 vs my life expectancy with a BMI of 35?”
Lifting weight causes joint problems? Again ask ChatGPT: “Is the overall effect on health from a sensible weight lifting program positive or negative?”.
About the alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs - do you really need to ask ChatGPT to know that these things are bad for you?
It’s now impossible to buy a house!
After doing this little exercise you will realize that what you thought previously was incorrect and that you CAN become lean, strong, and healthy and that it is a very good goal to have. Now all you need to do is come up with a plan to make it happen. Of course, this is a very simplistic example where pretty much anyone can see right thru their own BS. Real life is a lot more complicated. Lets take the following: “I will never be able to afford a house”. Every media source and every influencer is saying the same thing:
Interest rates are at record highs!
House prices continue to skyrocket!
It’s impossible to save a down payment!
Its so much harder now to buy a house than it was 40 years ago!
Unlike the above fitness example where its pretty clear that every excuse is BS, everything here on this list about housing unaffordability seems legit. The partial truths here are very convincing which is why everyone is so convinced that “its impossible to buy a home”. Again, lets take these one at a time and question our assumptions.
“Interest rates are at record highs!”, well lets look at that.
Well, clearly this is false. Interest rates are NOT at record highs, in fact, by historical norms they are still less than average. The 30 year mortgages peaked in about 1981 at 17%. Not only that, there are first time homeowner programs thru FHA and national builders like Horton, Lennar, and Toll that provide sub market rates for qualified buyers.
“House prices continue to skyrocket!”. Well, its called inflation and in a solid economy, things slowly move up in price. In the case of America, the Fed has set the target at 2% price increase per year. Lets see if housing prices have “skyrocketed”
Well, I wouldn’t call it skyrocketing but what is definitely true is that the price of a single family house has gone up in price faster than inflation so this concern is 100% valid.
“It’s impossible to save a down payment!”. Well, houses have appreciated at a rate faster than inflation and you do need a 20% down. 20% of the median priced home today is 411k so that means 82k which “nobody” can save, right? Not so fast. First of all, that 20% down is waived for first time home buyer programs thru the FHA. Although most private sellers will not deal with the paperwork for a first time buyer to do this, the nations big home builders will gladly do the paperwork for you to get you into one of their new homes. A first time home buyer only needs a 3.5% down payment which means 15k - amazingly low down payment by historical averages.
“Its so much harder now to buy a house than it was 40 years ago!” This is the most interesting question of all. When I bought my first house in 1985 my interest rate was 12% and it consumed over 70% of my salary. It was certainly not easy for me! I have hinted at what we need to do here to truly get an answer about affordability of a house purchase. You can’t look at interest rate alone, price alone, or inflation alone but rather you have to put them all together and compare the inflation adjusted mortgage payments! Here is such a chart:
This shows the real picture. The least affordable time to buy a house in the last 50 years was in 1981, about the time I bought my first house. In 2023, unaffordability had another peak but not as bad as 1981. Since 2023, housing has continued to get more affordable because although interest rates are going up, the housing price is dropping faster than the interest rates are going up.
So, do you still think that its impossible for people to buy their first home today? Historically speaking, its neither the best time to buy a home nor the worst. Just a reminder here that even buying during the worst time can workout really, really well and I am a perfect example. As I mentioned, I bought my first condo in 1985 for $125,000 with a 12% loan that forced me to literally eat beans and rice for years plus required that I get 2 roommates to make ends meet. After I moved out, I rented it until I sold it 39 years later for 1.5M. I bought at pretty much the worst time in the history of the real estate market and I still sold my $125,000 house for $1,500,000 39 years later. (watch video)
Question your assumptions!
The whole point of this post is that we all need to question our assumptions. Ask yourself how you “know” something. Did you just hear it? How sure are you that it is true? Look at the data and decide for yourself!
Same can be said of solving emotional issues, too. Not just clinical diagnoses; if you ARE clinically depressed or mentally ill, EVEN BIGGER REASON to question your assumptions, to doubly doubt what your bent-brain is telling you!