After attending the awesome Victory Motorcycle ride a few weeks back, I started to think a lot about VICTORY. Not only victory, but the high price of victory…. and I’m NOT merely referring to the cost of the sweet bikes you’ll see featured in this article…

What I’m talking ’bout is the price we have to pay to be victorious in life!

We all want to live the dream; to be successful in every aspect of our lives. We all want the beautiful, loving wife or strong, loyal husband, the luxurious home, the sweet, pimped out ride and the lean, hard physique of an awakened warrior or goddess.

We all want to achieve financial prosperity, raise happy, healthy children, start our own lucrative business doing what we love. We all want to travel this beautiful paradise of a planet, attain spiritual enlightenment and most importantly find happiness and contentment in life.

We ALL want it (or our own version of it)… yet only a small percentage of us will ever make it our reality!

Why do you think that is?

• Is it because the Gods are cruel and enjoy tormenting us humans for their own entertainment?
  
• Is it because the 1% secretly control and hoard all of the country’s wealth and refuse to share?
  
• Is it because we are cursed by our fate and can never rise above the waterline of mediocrity?
  

NO, NO and NO again! The cold, hard truth of the matter is that we are simply too damn lazy and cheap to pay the price of victory! What’s worse is that many of us have developed a sense of entitlement where we unrealistically expect to receive the good things in life without actually having to give anything in return. We think that it should all be handed to us just for being born.

Well, I’ve got some shocking news for you…

In order to live the dream life, to have it all and be successful in your career and relationships; You MUST be willing to pay the true price of victory!

Unfortunately, we’ve all been taught that the price of victory is a lot of seriously demanding, finger-crunching, bone-jarring, mind-numbing, muscle-straining, sweat-producing… HARD WORK!

And hard work is the last thing anyone in the world wants to do. In fact, that’s why we’re working so diligently to create a bunch of robot slaves.

Robot slaves that will eventually turn on us and put us all in human factory farm meat grinders! 😯 Hey, we’ve all seen how it goes down in the movies, but I digress! lol

Most people want to avoid hard work at all costs, yet what they are failing to realize is that nothing worth having comes without substantial effort. If you want to live the dream life you must be prepared to do the work that each of your goals requires. You must be willing to put in the sweat and blood equity by which the high price of victory is paid.

Want to start your own business or career doing what you love?

Be prepared to take on some risk, discover your true passion, face your fears, self-doubts, bad habits, learn finance and accounting, hire people, be a leader, build a team, work your butt off, fail and start over, keep up with your industry, create value, master sales and marketing, business development, file your taxes, invest your profits…. etc.

Want to find your dream lover and nurture a lasting, intimate relationship?

Be prepared to face rejection, develop your communication and social skills, know what you desire in a mate, build attraction, create rapport and connection, dating and courtship, learn to compromise, break some hearts, have yours broken, start over if necessary, grow and evolve, open yourself to love, share your truest self, handle their dark side, be there for them through thick and thin… etc.

Want to transform your physique into the resemblance of a Greek God?

Be prepared to learn about nutrition, eat healthier foods, sacrifice, do a movement assessment, correct posture or imbalances, build a foundation for fitness, avoid common training mistakes and diet myths, exercise and train harder & smarter, learn to listen to your body, stay focused and disciplined, prevent or overcome injury, get plenty of sleep and recovery, become more flexible, push the plate away… etc.

You see, each of our goals has a price tag attached to it. If you want it, you must be willing to pony up the “cash” in whatever form of payment that goal requires.

The Price of Victory is High But So Are the Rewards

“If you believe in yourself and have dedication and pride – and never quit, you’ll be a winner. The price of victory is high but so are the rewards.”– Paul Bryant

Now that you understand that each of our goals requires a certain amount of time, education, commitment and hard work to make it real in our lives, you’ll have to decide how badly you really want it.

• Are you still willing to invest in this goal if the price or risk is high?
  
• Is the desire strong enough to keep you going when the going gets tough or are you going to quit like a little biyatch at the first sign of resistance?
  
• Are you willing to learn, grow, adapt, evolve and overcome anything that is holding you back from achieving what you desire?

I hope so, because In order to meet the price of victory you are going to have to raise your standards of what’s acceptable in your life. As Anthony Robbins states in his book “Awaken the Giant Within”….

“If you don’t set baseline standards for what you’ll accept in your life, you’ll find it easy to slip into behaviors and attitudes and a quality of life that’s far below what you deserve. Any time you sincerely want to make a change, the first thing you must do is to raise your standards.”

We all have a baseline set of standards or quality of life that we’ve become accustomed to. A lot of this is determined by the environment in which we grew up and the mindsets and energy of those that we were around most often. That experience and expectation becomes a set point for your own standards in life.

If you grew up with a wealthy family in a nice part of town, you’re going to have a certain level of standards compared to someone who grew up in a poverty-stricken family on the other side of the tracks.

I’m not making a judgement and saying that one is better than the other (because each situation brings with it its own blessings and tribulations) just that you will have a different set of standards for living space, expectations of service and treatment from others, and overall experience of life.

We all get accustomed to certain standards of living, thinking, income, weight, health, climate, and so on. These initial set points are not fixed and can be changed. However, we first have to raise our standards and hold them at the new desired level long enough for a new set point to be determined. Otherwise we’ll fall back to our default level.

Ever lose weight, only to gain it back?! That is what I am talking about.

Once you level up to a higher standard you must be vigilant about continuing the behaviors that will sustain what you’ve achieved. In the example of weight loss, you must keep exercising and choosing healthy foods. It must become your new lifestyle!

Taking this concept to the next level, you must consider your standards for attitude, behavior and energy level that you’re bringing into life and towards the accomplishment of your mission. If you’re not operating at the highest level you’re capable of then this will be mirrored by the results and rewards you receive from the world.

As Anthony Robbins explained: Your results are NOT in exact proportion to the standards you maintain. Meaning that if you have “good standards” one might expect “good results”… well, unfortunately, that’s not how it works dude.

Poor Standards = Zero Results
Good Standards = Poor Results
Excellent Standards = Good Results
Outstanding Standards = Excellent Results

 

In order to achieve “excellent results” you have to be OUTSTANDING! This is the high price of victory! The good news is that YOU can become outstanding when you truly decide to. Just UP your game!

You can raise your game to the next level by cutting off the fear, doubt and negativity that this insane world is constantly feeding you. You can raise your standards to the highest level by choosing to feel good right now, by believing in yourself, and by persisting through any obstacle you face.

Continue the journey towards unleashing the power of your ultimate potential. Keep walking the Path of Self-Mastery and never look back!

True Victory is Victory Over Oneself

“True victory is self-victory; let that day arrive quickly!” – Morihei Ueshiba

Take an honest look at your life right now! Are you living the life that you truly desire for yourself? If not, what is holding you back?

Sure we can always come up with a ton of excuses to rationalize why we haven’t achieved victory in our own lives… yet, in the end, these excuses are all a bunch of bull sh!t that we tell ourselves so we don’t have to face this dark, immutable truth!

The only thing holding you back in life is YOU! Your inability to conquer your inner demons and transcend your ego is what is truly holding you back from victory.

Look, we all develop bad habits and addictions, get stuck in our ways and routines, have troubling fears, anxieties and insecurities, get trapped in limiting beliefs and negative thought patterns, and a dozen other self-induced and self-perpetuating delusions. Sure they seem SO real and SO insurmountable… but they are just that: Self-Delusion!

The founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, often spoke of “Masakatsu Agatsu” as a guiding principle for his students. This translates as; “true victory is self-victory“.

Then he often liked to add “let that day arrive quickly!“

As O’ Sensei explained; “True victory” means unflinching courage; “self-victory” symbolizes unflagging effort; and “let that day arrive quickly” represents the glorious moment of triumph in the here and now. 

Stated differently, to achieve true victory means to have the necessary courage to take persistent action in the present moment until you succeed.

So at its essence, True Victory is the attainment of Self-Mastery or the power to control one’s own actions, impulses, or emotions.

You see the mind is a powerful tool and creative entity that humanity has let run amok. Left unchecked the mind begins to take on a life of it’s own and we become its slave rather than its master.

In fact, it has so deeply entrenched itself into your life that you actually believe you are your mind! But you’re not. You are the consciousness beyond the conditioned mind or what some call the witnessing presence or observer.

“Let me ask you a question can you be free of your mind whenever you want to? Have you found the off button? If you are constantly focusing on the past or future, you are not using your mind; your mind is using you. You don’t even know that you are its slave. It is almost like being possessed without knowing it.”
– Dr. Robert Anthony

You see, as Dr. Robert Anthony explains in The Secret of Deliberate Creation, your mind has been conditioned by everything you’ve experienced in your life up until this present moment in time. If you let your mind run your life, then you will always be limited by the experiences of your past conditioning or neuronal wiring.

Your mind’s overriding goal is your survival, to keep you safe, free from harm and protect you at all costs. And so it clings to what it knows and vehemently resists change.

Unfortunately, the ability to adapt to change is what evolution is all about and so you can see the paradox of this predicament.

Your mind is set on your survival, so it resists change and is afraid of the unknown. Yet, ironically, your survival really depends on your growth and evolution, which is contingent on your ability to boldly embrace change and to adapt to life’s ever fluctuating circumstances.

True Victory will always elude you… unless you take back possession of your own mind and direct it to whatever goals and desires you choose. In other words, you must not let your mind hinder you from taking the inspired action towards your heart’s desires.

True Victory is about awakening to your heart’s desire and your mission and purpose in life. Then taking inspired action in this moment until it becomes your reality.

Victory Belongs to the Most Persevering

“It is not the critic who counts; nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and, who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Well, I think that quote about sums it up!

Thanks for reading and be sure to let us know your thoughts, questions or which bike is your favorite! 😎

Peace,

Brandon

P.S. Since we are talking about “Self-Mastery” and “Taking control of your mind”, I want you to go check out this program called, “The Psychology of Strength” by Mike Gillette. It’s an awesome video program I purchased to help us build Mental Toughness.

Since I grew up as a military brat, it was really interesting to hear Mike’s amazing story about how he triumphed, overcame his fears, domestic abuse, drug addiction, and all of the massive adversity he faced growing up.

Mike went on to become an army paratrooper, SWAT commander, martial artist, counter-terrorism consultant, bodyguard to Fortune 500 executives, and a record-setting strongman. I can’t think of a better or more qualified person to help one develop the ‘Warrior Mentality’ needed to meet the high price of victory. Check it out here if you have the desire to be such a bad ass!