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Spartiates
I created the group discussed in the thread Hardcore Community. Since I started with some manly cliches, I kept it up, naming the group Spartiates and choosing a fierce image of Clint Eastwood as the group's image and patron saint.
There's a reason for these cliches: The Spartiates showed what a community can do if they decide so. They went beyond norms. Clint Eastwood is a measure of manliness as restraint and discipline.
In his book The War of Art, Steven Pressfield talks about what he calls resistance, the anti-creative force that keeps us doing anything but what we most should be doing. He views every day of writing as a battle against resistance; a fighting to overcome our own distracting of ourselves to do our true work.
Like many ex-military, I have found it harder to overcome resistance as a civvie than I did with cadre of guys and a PT test to look forward to—and our lives on the line. Have you ever been in a situation that seemed to lead to a new mode of existence, where the lame stuff that plagues you just drops away and you have no problem doing just what you should be? That focus, that hardcore focus, is what I'm seeking.
I'm doing a graduate program in geology. I'm working hard, I'm not in my mom's basement. But I'm not who I want to be, not fully. I'm hoping with this group to find a way to challenge myself and others to develop intense daily habits—not to be the next superman, but to do what is possible—and what is possible is so much more than what is normal. In my mind developing some of these things requires daily/weekly work for years, and that's not easy to pull off. I've learned several languages and I teach language, so I know that the rub of learning a language is you have to work your ass off for a year at least with very little to show for it before it starts clicking. You measure language acquisition in years—do you have three years of Hebrew? Four? This applies to other areas as well. How many years have you run every week? How many years have you lifted weights every week? How many years have you written ten pages every week? In my case, outside the military, the answer is zero years. I've done several months of all those, but fell off eventually. I want to change that. A year from now I want to say one year.
I created the group, but it's waiting approval. I didn't make it open to all, it's by invite only for now. I don't intend to get too chatty in this group: it's a space to quickly post every day your goals. If someone wants to join and merely report weekly, that's ok too, but two missed posts (two days running for those committing to daily or two weeks running) will get you evicted from the group. The nature of your goals, your art, your passion, is up to you. For me it will include some intense physical goals, writing goals (working on a dissertation), routine goals (sleeping, rising, eating), and religious goals (reading Torah and prayers).
The group will stand or fall. The one thing it won't do is get flabby and lazy with people joining but not participating.
Let me know if you have questions or suggestions; reply here if you want to join.
Cheers, Chayil.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by knightlion on -
like your' posting. i too am a fan of pressfield, am reading " GATES OF FIRE" right now. i too feel that yearning to raise the bar on myself.To go beyond what is expected of me. so far i'm still searching. good luck with this group . will be watching and learning. STRENGTH AND HONOR.
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Permalink Reply by David F. on
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My only concern on the group is missing a few days here or there due to the weekend or rough days and getting kicked out. but a place to post goals and how it went is of use to me.
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Permalink Reply by Rick Shelton on -
Me 2.
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Permalink Reply by Sean O' on -
This exactly. I work on average of 60 hours a week and working on my degree. I just don't have a lot of time to dedicate to belonging to a virtual men's group
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Permalink Reply by terry sperling on -
Ill ask my mom.
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Permalink Reply by The Original Cody on -
but one must also remember that the Spartans kinda dicks as well.... with their Helots and such...
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Permalink Reply by Sean O' on
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Couldn't this be said of every society? I think the trick is to uphold the ideals and learn from the bad in any culture/society.
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Permalink Reply by The Original Cody on
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so... what could be said well about the Spartans... They fought and trained well?
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Permalink Reply by Sean O' on
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To be honest my history in this area is fairly weak. But I suppose you could uphold the ideals of dedication, discipline, work ethic, camaraderie, etc.
Not to derail things to far, but couldn't this same question easily become "what could be said about the ___________ (French, Irish, Chinese, etc) ?". Every society on the planet has practiced slavery at some time in its history, and several have done some other pretty reprehensible acts even in fairly recent history. My thought has always been that is why we study history.....so we don't have to repeat it.
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Permalink Reply by Will on -
I like the "report on what you did" aspect. Already got that going in my life. Best of luck to those who do it here.
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Permalink Reply by JonEdanger on -
The group will stand or fall.
I'm thinking fall.
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