I have a secret. It’s about you and your ability to physically transform. Some of the questions people ask me are about HOW to make the magic happen. How do I build muscle? Lose fat? Do a backflip? But there’s also a different kind of question. One that I’m asked (or so it seems) more often. Some [...]
I have a secret.
It’s about you and your ability to physically transform.
Some of the questions people ask me are about HOW to make the magic happen. How do I build muscle? Lose fat? Do a backflip?
But there’s also a different kind of question. One that I’m asked (or so it seems) more often.
Some people want to know IF it’s possible to make the magic happen…usually included with such question: a scapegoat footnote.
I want to look better, but I’m skinny-fat…but I’m an ectomorph…but I’m Frog from Chrono Trigger…but I’m <insert something negative and self-defeating here>. Can I even build muscle? Can I even lose fat? Or am I doomed? Do I have bad genetics? Should I even try?
I want to trick, but I have no experience…but I never did gymnastics…but I clipped my fingernails yesterday…but I <insert something negative and self-defeating here>. Can I learn anything? Is it too late? Did I miss my window? Should I even try?
I can poo poo on questions like these all day. Look at the negative scripts! The excuses! Pssssshhhhh! How can you even talk like this! How can you even THINK of yourself in this way!
Bbbbbuuuutttttt, the truth…? You want the truth? You sure?
Alright.
(Last chance to back out. No? Fine.)
I asked these same questions not long ago. Sometimes I still ask myself these questions.
I get it.
You want to know if the juice worth the squeeze. If there’s no hope, why waste your time? Or you want to know if you can blame something else for a lack of progress, something beyond your effort, something like your eating, something like your training program (a la Master Roshi).
To these matters (and more): the secret is your guide.
Muscle gain? Fat loss? Jumping higher? Learning acrobatics? Being aerodyamic? (I should just wrap all of these into one unifying concept: what it means to be an aerohead.)
You’ll see all of these things, all of these aeroheadisms, from a new lens…
…in about, ohhhhh, two sentences.
You’re wondering about your potential to change, and, well, I got something to tell you.
I already made you change.
How’s that for irony?
See the title of this letter? I have a secret.
Your eyes changed when you read the word “secret.”
Yeah. The black holes of your eyeballs. They dilate (get bigger) when you see something that’s of benefit to you. (Here’s a list of more dilation triggers from PsyBlog, if you’re interested.)
There’s an old cliche about the eyes being a window to the soul. All signs point to Mr. Cliche getting an A+ on his report card.
Changes in your eyes predate decision making [sauce]. So if you’re creepy enough to stare into someone’s eyes as s/he thinks, you’ll be able to predict the decisions s/he’ll make based on how the eyes react.
I want you to think about this for a second.
Your eyes are ALWAYS changing.
But you never think to yourself: GO GO GADGET EYEBALLS!
The changes happen without your conscious control, which is why some poker players wear sunglasses. Your eyes can sabotage your secrecy.
And guess what?
Your eyes weren’t the only thing that changed when you read I had a secret. Your body’s wizardry didn’t stop there.
A secret about physical transformation?
Back in my skinny-fat days, my body would be mailing all sorts of excitement through my marrow upon hearing such a thing.
An answer to my physical prayers, wrapped in one nifty little secret! Gone will be the days of having my moobs dictate what kind of shirts I wear! Gone will be the days of me being afraid to try flips! Gone will be the days of <insert something negative and self-defeating here>.
(Some things never change.)
A secret about physical transformation is pupil dilation worthy news. And with the dilation and anticipation comes other physiological responses.
If I was a betting man, I’d say your breathing quickened. Your heart rate sped up. You upped the concentration of cortisol in your body. The same stress response you’d go through if you were being chased by a dinosaur. (Cortisol is a hormone released during the stress response. It breaks things down and gets your body ready to mobilize.)
Changes. Under the hood. Without your conscious thought.
Crazy.
But there’s something even crazier to this story.
This massive physiological response is at the mercy of a select few letters of the alphabet being arranged in a specific order.
So…
CREETRS.
Ohhhhh! Ahhhh!
Trigger me timbers! It’s the same letter tally as SECRET. 1 S, 2 E’s, 1 C, 1 R, 1 T. Queue mass physiological response within!
Right?
Errr. No. Not quite.
Your body doesn’t respond to CREETRS because it’s not about letters.
It’s about information.
And the INFORMATION tucked inside of the specific arrangement of a select few letters of the alphabet makes all the difference.
And there’s something even crazier than the last crazy.
(I know.)
If you never found this website and you never read the word “secret,” all of the pupil, heart rate, and hormone stuff wouldn’t have happened.
Think about THAT for a second.
Something in your environment — words! — triggered mass physiological and psychological change inside of you.
And it ONLY happened because you fed your body some information.
Now, for the icing…
You are forever changed because of everything that just happened. Your body went through one more stress cycle than it otherwise wouldn’t have. Your brain is imprinted with information it otherwise wouldn’t have.
Think about THAT for a second…or two seconds…or three seconds.
The psychedelic reality of all of this is creeping into my head, so it’s time to stop.
I’ll tell you what all this means next letter.