and you might say well of course you know what's that that underestimates the degree to which there's systemic oppression etc etc and and the and the vagaries of fate it's like it doesn't over underestimate it it's not the point the point is your best strategic position is how am i insufficient and how can I rectify that that's what you've got and the thing is you are insufficient and you could rectify it both of those are within your grasp if you aim low enough one of the things why do you see the that's another thing you
keep saying aim low enough have a low enough bar why do you why do you mean that well let's say you've got a kid and you want the kid to improve you don't set them a bar that's so high that it's impossible for them to attain it you take a look at the kid and you think okay this kid's got this range of skill here's a challenge we can throw at him or her that exceeds their current level of skill but gives them a reasonable probability of success and so like I'm saying it tongue-in-cheek to
some degree you know it's like but if you're but I'm doing it as an aid to humility it's like well I don't know how to start improving my life someone might say that and I would say well you're not aiming low enough there's something you could do that you are regarding is trivial that that you could do that you would do that would result in an actual improvement but it's not a big enough improvement for you so you won't lower yourself enough to take the opportunity incremental steps yes and so this is also what is
achieved through exercise it's one of the most important well what do you do when you go and lift weights you know going like if you haven't been stressed before you don't put 400 pounds on the damn bar and drop the and drop the bar through your skull right I know you think look when I started working out when I was a kid I was I was weighed about 130 pounds and I was 6 foot 1 it's a thin kid and I smoked a lot I wasn't in good shape I wasn't in good physical shape and
I went to the gym and it was bloody embarrassing you know people would come over and help me with the goddamn weights here's how you're supposed to use this you know it was humiliating and maybe I was pressing 65 pounds or something at that point you know but what am I gonna do I'm gonna lift up 150 pounds and injure myself right off the bat no I had to go in there and strip down and put my skinny goddamn self in front of the mirror and think son-of-a-bitch there's all these monsters in the gym who've
been lifting weights for 10 years and I'm struggling to get 50 pounds off the bar tough luck for me but I could lift 50 pounds and it wasn't fair very long until I could lift 75 and well you know how it goes but and I never injured myself when I was late lifting and the reason for that was I never pushed myself past where I knew I could go and I pushed myself a lot you know I gained 35 pounds of muscle in about 3 years in University I kind of had to quit because I
was eating so god damn much I couldn't stand it seeming like six meals a day it was just taking up too much time but there's a humility in determining what it is that the wretched creature that you are can actually manage aim low and I don't mean don't aim and I don't mean don't aim up but you have to accept the fact that you can set yourself a goal that you can attain and there's not going to be much glory in it to begin with because if you're not in very good shape the goal that
you could a could attain tomorrow isn't very glorious but it's a hell of a lot better than nothing and it beats the hell out of bitterness and it's way better than blaming someone else it's way less dangerous and you could do it and what's cool about it there's a statement in the New Testament that's called the Matthew principle an economist use it to describe how the economy in the world works to those who have everything more will be given from those who have nothing everything will be taken it's like what's very pessimistic in some sense
because it means that as you start to fail you fail more and more rapidly but it also means that as you start to succeed you succeed more and more rapidly and so you take an incremental step and well now you can lift 55 pounds instead of 52 point 5 pounds you think well what the hell is that it's like it's one step on a very long journey and so it's it and it starts to compound on you so a small step today means puts you in a position to take a slightly bigger step to the
next day and then that puts you in a position to take a slightly bigger step the next day and you do that for two or three years man you're starting to stride
