“Whoever will be free must make himself free. Freedom is no fairy gift to fall into a man's lap. What is freedom? To have the will to be responsible for one's self.” - Max Stirner

“You know, I tell my kids in [and out] the weightroom, especially my oldest, you are 100% responsible for everything that happens to you. That motorcycle accident [I got into] you know whose fucking fault that was? My fault.” - Jim Wendler.

If you want to be free you have to be willing to be responsible for everything you do.

The people you rely on own you. What would you do without your boss's paycheck? Or that chick whose assignment you wanted to copy off of? That coworker that usually does your work for you? You’d be screwed. You need them and you need what they have to offer; they own you. Every interaction you have with the people you rely on is doused in the fear of losing what you need from them.

You really think a slave is gonna piss off their master when the master is the one feeding them scraps?

If you want to own yourself you have to primarily rely on yourself and your judgment, but I’m not idiotic enough to assume that you can just do everything by yourself, so on top of this you need to have options. Ever wonder why we preach abundance here? Yeah, that concept applies to more than just sluts, buddy. The more options you have the less shit you have to take from people who really don’t give a fuck about you. You get to keep the one thing most people lack; pride.

You have to link everything good and bad that happened directly to you to a choice you made. Let me give you some examples.

You need to constantly have your own back in case your tribe lets you down, and even if they let you down it’s your fault for forming a tribe with them in the first place. You should have done a better job at choosing and forming a tribe to be around.

At the time of writing this, the COVID-19 virus shut down my gym. Even though this happened to me (and others) it was my fault for relying so much on the gym to stay and get strong. Instead of sitting on my ass doing nothing and crying, I adjusted my diet and began doing whatever I could with what I had. I stopped praying for LA-Fitness to get their shit together and I stopped eating like a fucking pig because I knew I wouldn’t be lifting as heavy. I should have been smart enough to invest in my own home gym, now I gotta look in the mirror and reminisce about the days when I actually looked strong. Now I just look fit and small.

I had a girlfriend that cheated on me. I looked in the mirror and realized it was my fault for trusting her in the first place regardless of all the signs. How could I have been so naive? It was my fault for living in fairy tale land and not reality.

I once had a professor in college that straight up couldn’t teach. She was horrible. Nobody cared and neither did she. I still passed the class. I realized that waiting for her to actually do her job would cost me my grade, so I did a shit ton of work outside of class. I’m thankful I got my shit together because she wouldn’t.

The instant you’re willing to take responsibility for everything that happens to you is the instant you take your life back. You stop relying on external shit to change your life, you own your life and firmly grasp the reins of control.

Our actions are a reflection of our mindset. If you have a “woe is me, I need help" mindset, your actions are going to reflect that bitch mentality. If you have a “fuck it, this is my life” mentality, your actions are going to reflect that.

So for those of you that are relying on everything but yourself and putting all of your eggs in one basket; stop. You’re dancing with the devil. Try your best to work for yourself, but if you can’t, get multiple sources of income, get multiple women, get options but always rely on yourself primarily.

Own your life. This is all you have.

tldr; If you want to be free you have to be willing to be responsible for everything you do.