Gyms are full nowadays though, as it became another self improvement related, consumerist and narcissistic business. Most of the big guys who go there do nothing interesting with their lives and escape pain and responsibilities like the rest. At the end for anything to be meaningful, you need to have suffered and learned from it, like Mishima. Suffering needs to come first (Buddha before enlightenment, Christ before resurrection...). Great subject, balls hardening stuff.
Physical training is often used for vanity, to impress other people. We are seeing the worst of it in modern bodybuilding culture, which openly promotes steroids purely for materialistic status signalling.
Training should be practiced to build mental resilience by doing something uncomfortable - this is a trait that is severely lacking in our society. An added benefit is, of course, the significant health improvement, which is important so that we are physically able to take action.
The problem with standard "self-improvement" is that it always boils down to doing something that will arbitrarily add to your person, usually to increase your appeal to society in a very quantitative manner (increase net worth, increase income, increase lean mass, etc).
I prefer "self-mastery" as that is focused on taking charge of your life and living it intentionally. You should never stop developing as a person, because that is what this is all about. Most young men, however, only strive towards misguided goals like getting rich quickly to own a product of corporation XYZ.
Great essay
Gyms are full nowadays though, as it became another self improvement related, consumerist and narcissistic business. Most of the big guys who go there do nothing interesting with their lives and escape pain and responsibilities like the rest. At the end for anything to be meaningful, you need to have suffered and learned from it, like Mishima. Suffering needs to come first (Buddha before enlightenment, Christ before resurrection...). Great subject, balls hardening stuff.
Physical training is often used for vanity, to impress other people. We are seeing the worst of it in modern bodybuilding culture, which openly promotes steroids purely for materialistic status signalling.
Training should be practiced to build mental resilience by doing something uncomfortable - this is a trait that is severely lacking in our society. An added benefit is, of course, the significant health improvement, which is important so that we are physically able to take action.
The problem with standard "self-improvement" is that it always boils down to doing something that will arbitrarily add to your person, usually to increase your appeal to society in a very quantitative manner (increase net worth, increase income, increase lean mass, etc).
I prefer "self-mastery" as that is focused on taking charge of your life and living it intentionally. You should never stop developing as a person, because that is what this is all about. Most young men, however, only strive towards misguided goals like getting rich quickly to own a product of corporation XYZ.