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A Hero’s Origin Story

“Man is born free, but he is everywhere in chains.”

– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Introduction

Homo Sapiens has lost the way.

Despite the illusion of freedom today, Homo Sapiens is in chains.

We are ever more anxious, scared, depressed, unhealthy and fragile. Forever on a quest for external validation. Enslaved by immediate gratification. Desperately trying to alleviate our restlessness by spending money we don’t have on things we don’t need.

Despite our best attempts, the hollowness inside of us persists.

Being a Sapiens Maximus is about breaking the cycle. It’s about conquering Homo Sapiens’ ailments and metamorphosing into a formidable force of nature.

Vexing The Dim Sea

A Sapiens Maximus vexes the raging, dim sea

Being a Sapiens Maximus is about being able to deal with the brutality of life. Being fired from your job, going through bankruptcy, becoming destitute & spiralling into the deep dark pits of failure. It’s about losing loved ones. Falling prey to our fallible human nature and betraying the trust of those who most deserve it.

It’s about failing to take care of those who are dependent on you. Venturing into the unknown, and falling flat on your face. It’s about making that one decision that you think is irreversible; that one decision you think you have to suffer from and struggle with for the rest of your life.

Being a Sapiens Maximus is about going through all of these things, and surviving. It’s about becoming better not despite of them, but BECAUSE of them.

Being a Sapiens Maximus is about vexing the dim sea. Becoming UNBREAKABLE in mind and spirit.

Growth Mindset

Being a Sapiens Maximus is about reaching your full potential.

While it is essential for you to be impervious to life’s whims, it’s just as essential for you to have a growth mind-set. Pay attention – let it sync in: a Sapiens Maximus does NOT believe that our capabilities are static in any meaningful sense.

Our abilities, and more practically our quality of life, are subject not only to change – but to change of a drastic nature. Sapiens Maximus knows that it is possible to mutate, to improve, to grow.

Reinventing oneself is not only a possibility, but a necessity.

Ever healthier, ever stronger, ever more capable.

Our Deepest Fear

Even the least creative among us are astoundingly inventive when it comes to building up fears and anxieties. These concerns invariably revolve around potential harms to us or to our loved ones.

Our deepest fear, however, is of a surprisingly different nature: it is NOT about illness or poverty. Humiliation or failure. Betrayal. Shattered dreams. Our deepest fear is realising that we have control over what matters – despite whatever dreadful circumstances we find ourselves in.

While this realisation is liberating on some level, it also makes people uncomfortable. You might think this is bullshit – deeply unfair. You might be telling yourself that I don’t understand – what you have been through, how insurmountable your circumstances are. That you don’t have options.

This inner dialogue is perfectly normal. Now more than ever, we are defining ourselves by reference to our problems – real or imagined.

It’s all about the shit hand we’ve been dealt.

A Binary Choice

Whether your excuses are legitimate or not almost makes no difference. You are faced with a binary choice: you either accept being a victim of your circumstances or you strive to be a Sapiens Maximus – a warrior on a quest. You either give up control over your life … or you don’t.

Even in the direst of circumstances, the great Stoics have taught us that we still have power over our minds even if we don’t have power over outside events. Viktor E. Frankl brilliantly puts it in Man’s Search for Meaning: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

What are you going to choose? Empowerment or victimisation – the choice is yours.

The Single Greatest Challenge

A Sapiens Maximus focuses on conquering himself, instead of conquering a thousand men in battle
A man who conquers himself is greater than one who conquers a thousand men in battle.

While a Sapiens Maximus has all sorts of external challenges, quests and conquests, a Sapiens Maximus focuses first and foremost on self-mastery. Conquering oneself yet being unconquerable. Having a growth mindset. Choosing empowerment over victimization.

These things are not easy, especially when we have embraced a lower version of ourselves for so long. We have even rationalized making peace with it. We have built intricate narratives and have meticulously crafted bubbles to shield our ever fragile selves from challenges – and tragically, self-actualization.

Being a Sapiens Maximus is about shattering narratives that prevent us from pursuing the greatest challenge of all: conquering ourselves.

Steven Pressfield shared an interesting fact in the War of Art: “The ancient Spartans schooled themselves to regard the enemy, any enemy, as nameless and faceless. In other words, they believed that if they did their work no force on earth could stand against them.

This is you on your journey. You master yourself and metamorphose into an absolute weapon – mentally, physically and psychologically. You embrace whatever life throws at you, knowing deep down that you are prepared. Knowing that you will emerge triumphant – one way or another.

A Hero’s Origin Story

Joseph Campbell summarized the basic structure of a hero’s journey as follows:

The usual hero adventure begins with someone from whom something has been taken, or who feels there is something lacking in the normal experience available or permitted to the members of society. The person then takes off on a series of adventures beyond the ordinary, either to recover what has been lost or to discover some life-giving elixir.

This is your origin story. It’s your call to adventure and the life-giving elixir is self-actualization. It’s time for you embark on your journey of self-exploration and improvement.

Sapiens Maximus’ Labours

A Sapiens Maximus pursues self-actualization: the toughest, most challenging set of mountains he'll ever have to climb
Self-actualization: the toughest, most challenging set of mountains you’ll ever have to climb.

Hercules, one of the great mythological heroes, had to undertake twelve labours during his lifetime. From slaying the nine-headed hydra to capturing the hound of Hades, he became who he was destined to be through trials and tribulations.

Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, the two iconic hobbits from the Lord of the Rings, had to leave the gorgeous Shire on a perilous yet fantastic journey of dragons and demons. More importantly, one of self-discovery and transformation.

We intend to provide you with the knowledge you need to venture on your own journey. Our articles offer you practical tools that you could implement in your daily life – from cutting edge science to ancient philosophy.

While having access to relevant insights is invaluable on your hero’s journey towards becoming a Sapiens Maximus, you need to commit yourself to putting the knowledge to use. This is CRUCIAL so make sure you let it sync in. Each article is a labour by itself because you are supposed to put the lessons learnt into practice, wrestle with them, and ultimately get one step closer to your version of a Sapiens Maximus.

Gain Easily What We have Laboured Hard For

Socrates’s advice was that you should employ your time in improving yourself by other people’s writings, so that you could gain easily what others have laboured hard for.

Use what we have worked incredibly hard to offer you. Absorb it. Experience it. Put it into practice.

We will equip you with powerful weapons on each one of your quests – from building an iron mind-set to crafting a healthy body and beyond. It is up to you to practice day in and day out. The quest to transform yourself into a formidable version of yourself – a Sapiens Maximus – is not an easy one.

Be prepared to fight.

Conclusion

We wish you good luck on your journey to strength in adversity, calm amidst the storms, relentless resilience and uncompromising health.

Your self-proclaimed family,

The Sapiens Maximus team

Sources & Further Reading

The Hero with a Thousand Faces – Joseph Campbell

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success – Carol S. Dweck

Man’s Search for Meaning – Viktor Frankl

The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles – Steven Pressfield

Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds – David Goggins

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