The Dwayne Johnson Football Dream

If you know anything about today's movies then you've likely heard about Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Before Dwayne Johnson was an actor and wrestler he was someone that wanted to play in the NFL but ultimately failed to do so. Fast forward to 2020 and Dwayne Johnson now owns the XFL - a Football league that, while small, has plenty of potential to grow.

What this tells me is that Dwayne never let go of his original dream of being involved in Football. Sure, he never played professionally but he did some acting related to it and now owns a league. I doubt owning the XFL was part of Dwayne's plan in his youth since the league wasn't around then but when you stick to your goals the world seems to create opportunities for you.

“If you want something you've never had

You must be willing to do something you've never done.”

-Thomas Jefferson

Not many of us have dreams that we work towards and, from those that do, even less continue on after hitting failures. It may have taken Dwayne a few decades to achieve his dream but the important thing is that he did. How many of us can go through decades before eventually getting our dreams? Most of us can't even wait until our food is done in the microwave - let alone wait decades for anything.

Never loose sight of your dreams.

Where's the Valor?

Valor is an incentive most often attributed to military focused societies as it is a quality one gets from exhibiting great courage in battle. 

With the rise of technology one has to wonder where is the Valor today? Our wars haven't stopped but the way we fight has changed. Some people don't even need to be physically present on the battlefield anymore. How can a soldier, who is taught that great deeds on the field of battle brings valor, earn valor when he's placed in a situation where he can't exhibit great courage as he's fighting in-front of a monitor rather than the trenches?

Valor has inspired soldiers for thousands of years but technology seems to have taken it away from them. If valor is no longer attainable for a soldier then what other moral incentive is used to inspire? 

After reading a few books on Alexander The Great, there are plenty of times where valor, or battle recognition, was the sole motivator of the soldiers. After all, the Greeks were military focused. If this is what inspired the soldiers then... what inspires them now?  Is the career soldier more of a job nowadays than anything else? There's definitively still recognition to be found as a soldier but, like most everything else, it changed.

We Should Be Better Than the Spartans

You can probably tell that I've been reading about Greek history based on my few recent blog posts. Who ever read about Greek history likely learned about the reputation of the Spartans. For those of you who haven't, the Spartans were a Greek military society who's military, and fitness, prowess are forever remembered as being the best of its time.

If I was in charge of a nation I would make it like Sparta - not from a military perspective, as I'm not a man of war and I believe that the only war we should be fighting are the ones found withing ourselves, but from a fitness perspective.

Wouldn't it be great to live in a society largely focused on fitness? It's kind of weird to live in a society that understand the various issues the body can have if it's not treated properly and yet we "fix" those issues via medicine rather than lifestyle changes.
The Spartans didn't know anything about heart diseases, cholesterol and high blood pressure but they understood that being fit meant that they performed better on the battlefield. We know more about fitness, dieting, diseases... than the Spartans did and yet so few seems to be taking advantage of this knowledge. With all the knowledge we have we should be remembered as the fitness civilization in history but there are far more people overweight than people that are fit.

"Without knowledge action is useless and knowledge without action is futile."

-Abu Bakr

The knowledge to be fit is available to us all but few are consuming it and even fewer are applying it. You don't need to understand everything to get some good results you just need to start. If I had any degree of control over a nation fitness is definitely something that I would promote. Vote for me?