Gorilla Mindset

by Mike Cernovich

To get more out of life, you must get more out of yourself. You must take personal responsibility for your thoughts and emotions. You must stop blaming the system. The days of looking outside of yourself for answers are gone!

We had a mattress in our garage, so I laid down there and cried myself to sleep. When my dad came home from work, he opened the garage door, looked down at me, and with both pity and contempt, he asked me one question that changed my life: “When are you going to get serious?”

The answer to all of life’s most difficult questions resides within you.

“If you talked to your friends like you talk to yourself, you wouldn’t have any friends.”

Gorilla Mindset Shift: Treat yourself like a treasured and trusted friend.

How I View Mindfulness: Mindfulness is freedom from anxiety or fear. Mindfulness is perception, not judgment. Mindfulness is getting out of your head and into your body. Mindfulness is checking in to the present moment. Mindfulness is being in the zone or in flow state. Mindfulness is being present and engaged. Mindfulness is being, rather than doing.

Gorilla Mindset Shift: Check into your body by using self-talk to understand what your body is doing and feeling in the present moment.

Positive outcomes include happiness, financial freedom, free time, a healthier body, better relationships, more travel, and whatever else you desire.

As you develop more focus in your life, you may notice people calling you selfish. People who accuse you of being selfish are twice as selfish as they claim you are.

Gorilla Mindset Shift: Avoid negative situations and draining people, instead choose to engage in life-affirming activities with positive, helpful people.

Start dry brushing. A dry brush (or skin brush) is a brush made with natural bristles, such as animal hair or vegetable fibers. With a dry brush, you massage your skin or “brush” it as much as you would your hair. Brush your skin towards your heart to get lymphatic fluid moving.

over 90% of our body’s serotonin and 50% of the body’s dopamine are stored in the gut.

People who are nervous or worry often, complain about poor digestion. This is because your gut is a part of your nervous system—it “knows” your state of mind.

If there was a Gorilla Mindset Diet and Exercise Program, the program would be based on these few general principles. If you apply them to your life, your health, fitness, and mindset will improve: Eat, blend, or juice 8-9 servings of vegetables and fruit each day. Lift weights 2-4 times per week. Perform cardio 3-5 times per week (can be alternated with lifting days). Do something physical every day (whether it’s hiking, brisk walking, or even a massage). Avoid foods high in sugar, starch, or dairy.

FitDay, a free online food and nutrient tracking program.

Two great books offering detailed training instructions include Body of a Spartan and Becoming the Bull.

I drink beet juice before lifting, as beet juice boosts athletic performance better than any supplement on the market.

Tryptophan is a precursor to serotonin, meaning the body produces serotonin from tryptophan. Results with tryptophan vary person to person, but the average dose is 500 to 2,000 mg daily.

Most of us develop poor posture from using our smartphones. It even has a name, which my friend Victor Pride introduced me to: iPosture — the posture caused by our iPhones.

Money is not just something you want, it is something you need. Without money, it is simply impossible to live. Yet somewhere along the way we were taught that money is evil.

For a great example of how we often use money to attempt to buy status, look at Beats by Dre. By all objective measures, they are inferior headphones. I have the Sennheiser HD280, Audio-Technica MTX-150, and V-MODA Crossfade 100. All three of those headphones offer better sound quality and noise isolation than Beats by Dre.

Have you ever purchased a good or service? Sure, you have. Everyone reading this book is a consumer. After all, you did buy this book. You have always thought about things from a consumer perspective. Think about them from a producer’s perspective. Why did you buy that item or service? What drew you into the storefront or onto the website? Why did you click “Buy Now”?

Ask yourself, “Why can’t I do what they are doing? Mike just sold me a book. Why can’t I sell a book to Mike or someone else?” You can! Whenever you are out shopping or about to make an online purchase, reflect on what processes led you to become a customer. Then recreate those methods in your own businesses.