The following post was sponsored by Mike Cernovich and written by Winston Smith
I recently had the pleasure of reading Mike Cernovich’s new book Gorilla Mindset, and wanted to share a few things that I learned.
Gorilla in your mind
A governing concept of the book is the dichotomy between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset. A fixed mindset, or one that believes innately in its own limitations, seems all-too-common among the millennial generation of instant gratification and participation trophies.
Mike starts right off by forcing you to take accountability for the way your life is progressing, since how you have chosen to frame your world affects your ability to improve it. On the matter of negative internal dialogue, he writes:
If you talked to your friends like you talk to yourself, you wouldn’t have any friends.
Self-talk is one of the important components in developing a growth mindset. Mike walks you through the steps necessary for many visualization exercises that can have an immediate impact. However, being a down-to-earth human, Mike knows when he’s telling you something that sounds corny or may be a bit embarrassing, so he makes sure to provide ample justification and the real-life examples to start habits that you may initially find strange, but will soon be indispensable parts of your routine.
One of my favorite parts of the book emphasizes how to connect with other people, a lost art in a world where people spend hours a day looking at their phones and increasingly little time really interfacing with other people. Mike writes:
To make deeper connections, you want the person you’re talking to feel like the only person in the room. Mindfulness is helpful. When you feel distracted during a conversation, you can help yourself check in by using these two powerful mantras. I use them regularly, especially when there’s a lull in conversation.
- There’s no place else I’d rather be.
- There’s no one else I want to see.
When you tell yourself this, you actually believe it. When you believe there is nowhere else you’d rather be and no one else you’d rather see, the other person can feel it. You will make deeper, longer-lasting connections through this mindfulness technique.
Unlike other books in this genre, Mike focuses first on the internal benefits of rewiring your thought process. This isn’t a
“Get motivated so you can squat 500 pounds and make a million dollars!”-style book. However, if you’re willing to make a small time investment to gain tangible improvements in the overall happiness and quality of your life, the chapters about fixing your mental processes are a perfect fit.
In this section, Mike also touches on the modern state of people in a permanent ADHD, where most of us can’t peel our eyes from our phones for a few minutes. One of the most helpful parts of the book was the exercises that promote living “in the moment,” which both reduce anxiety and make it easier to concentrate on the goals at hand. I won’t spoil the specific techniques here, but they are quite useful.
Gorilla in your lifestyle
Branching off of the mindset exercises, the next segment of the book takes you through ways to improve your external lifestyle and habits. Mike covers his how-to list for sleep, willpower, warming up your mind in the morning, contrast showers, and many other things you’ve read about here and there on the internet, but distills the reasoning for them into a fast-paced and readable format.
For example, do you think of yourself as just another guy who’s going to sit in an office all day? Mike makes the convincing case that you should prepare yourself for your day-to-day life the same way an elite athlete prepares for a competition.
Gorilla Mindset shift: “My day is a serious athletic endeavor that requires me to actively warm up my body and mind.”
I’ve tried Mike’s warmups for the last few days. In short: they work. By adding this quick tip to my lifestyle, I have been more productive at work and feel more centered throughout the day. This doesn’t even mention the valuable information about how to improve your willpower.
Gorilla for your body
The focus of this section is upon principles and how-tos rather than repeating tired dogma. Mike’s tone is not “you must eat the paleo diet,” but rather “here are studies that suggest how you can improve blood flow.” Not just “you need to breathe more,” but rather “here’s an explanation of the value of breathing and a few exercises to accomplish it.”
Mike writes in the same no-nonsense tone that you will recognize from his other sites, but strikes a useful balance of advocacy while avoiding proselytizing. He also includes helpful interviews with subject matter experts to give the book an even more authentic feel and a couple of different voices. My favorite part of this segment was the full section devoted to improving mood (and testosterone levels) with posture exercises, which I have found myself referring back to several times.
If there is one modest criticism I could levy at Gorilla Mindset, I would be that you may see some of the content as a review if you have strong familiarity with Mike’s past work. However, even if you’re Mike’s biggest fan, Gorilla Mindset will pay for itself in the hours it saves you from filtering through Mike’s prolific online presence spread across 100+ podcasts, at least 5 blogs, and thousands of solid Twitter comments.
Because of the sheer volume of information it may be one you reread many times even if you are familiar with Mike’s brand, and for this reason it is a good purchase for everyone on the spectrum. The book is available in Kindle, print, and now audio (with two chapters free).
Conclusion
Perhaps the strongest takeaway message in Gorilla Mindset is that of personal responsibility. Even if you don’t remember all of the specific breathing techniques, diet tips, psychological hacks, and potentially life-changing perspective shifts, the book still leaves you with an overwhelming sense that you control your own destiny.
In a world that constantly deprives us of our sense of possibility and agency, that alone is worth the price of admission.
-Winston Smith
Click here to buy your copy of Gorilla Mindset
But how does a Gorilla Mindset work with kratom?
You have to stack them with 1000 mg of phenibut.
No bananas??
I did 1500mg of phenibut last night before bed……I woke up after 12 hours of undisturbed sleep but addicted to regular Toblorones ala Alan Partridge….. is this common?
A-haaaaaa
My understanding is you pound Test with it and fuck the anti-estrogens, because real man-gorillas have bitch tits.
Forget the Femibutt ans Krackunt that’s kid’s stuff. Use the real thing-100mg Viagra and Methadrine cocktail injection. You’ll be fucking like it’s 1999.
Without Kratom its indecipherable.
with this one weird trick
I tried this trick once, now scientists hate me.
You will have to use Mike Chang’s shortcuts.
I glad others are asking about the kratom. 3 posts in a row, what can kratom do for me?
I took Kratom and now my son is gay.
Was he not “born” with your cock in his mouth like all fudgepackers?
yes
Ask Mike Chang. He knows all !
Has any one read ‘The gorilla Mindset’ book? I also just bought one of Rooshes older books ‘Bang’ for my kindle…are they worth it at all?
I haven’t read much of Gorilla Mindset (admittedly, it’s only been out for a short time), but it looks like Cernovich has it right. Feel free to explore his blog (“Danger and Play”) before buying.
Gorilla Mindset is definitely worth it. Essentially it’s a no bullshit guide for actual self improvement that doesn’t involve blaming other people and is geared toward men.
(Disclosure: I’ve met mike Cernovich in person and he is the real thing.)
well said.
i’m looking at the rest of the crap negative comments here and thinking “when did ROK’s disqus turn to trash?”
‘Talking to yourself’ – – isn’t that what writers do constantly when they’re formulating their subject matter? I’ve noticed that people who write nothing also seem to never lead in conversation either. I guess they’re not talking to themselves enough so as to be warmed up to assertively talk to others.
Years ago I saw a lady once walking around talking into her cell phone and when I got close enough to ask her for a light, it turned out she had no cell phone but was holding one of her slippers and talking into A SHOE of all things. She didn’t respond to me and kept jabbering away. I would gamble that she was a tad schizophrenic. But nowadays everyone has a device and can go about mumbling to themselves unnoticed. Before the days of cell phones, it used to be that you could spot the crazies in the cities as they walked alone talking loudly to themselves, unless they inadvertantly happened to walk beside each other appearing as a pair, lol. But now most people are alone with their devices and in doing so are already half way talking to themselves anyway. Strange.
Please tell me you took the shoe away from her…
No I let her be. Her one bare foot did look nice. Nice painted toe nails. I went through my rolodex of bullshit opener things to say that were foot related. Like ‘barefoot skiing’ or something Piscies related but something in me said ”no, you better not man”. ”Don’t do it. You’re a dumb motherfucker if you even think that this head case can be fixed” and I had more important things to do than try to out monkey her antics or try to figure some circus show where she would fit in or provide ‘do wop’ back up for me. . So I let her be. I’ve learned the hard way while pulling out of a silly chick after dumping the load that it’s not over. That ain’t the end of it. No, that’s when the silliness REALLY begins.
Has Gorilla Mindset any section on hardcore meditation and/or temporary celibacy ? Have been hearing lot about this on Mike Cernovich’s blog..But I need a modern Visionary who can combine meditative non-dual awareness with mastery in any worldly pursuit like Mathematics,Research,Coding or Engineering..Not unlike Samurai warriors like Mushashi Miyamoto..But that Warrior Spirituality has to be translatable to a life for a coder or an engineer..If somebody can open up the discussion regarding this..I will be grateful..and thumbs up and a lot of thanks to Mike Cernovich for working a lot to bring out a manifesto for Masculine Self-Development..
Mate I think the basic philosophy is basically just to do it without dwelling on terminology. Do what must be done and cut out everything else. Each time you have an option or a choice available, pick the one which leads to the goal and discard everything else.
So what does this have to do with gorillas?
Kratom.
Being a regular reader of D&P, I ordered it 2 days ago. Looking forward.
I got it a few days ago. I’ve begun reading but trying to take my time. Really feels like a workbook (a good thing) rather than just anecdotes or a bit of good advice. Quintus Curtius has a good review of it on his blog: http://qcurtius.com/2015/06/28/book-review-gorilla-mindset-by-mike-cernovich/
I once played for a little league team that was horrible. We got 4th out if 4 teams, yet still recieved a trophy. I was ashamed of the trophy, but my mom still felt the need to display it. Eventually I took it and threw it away to end my shame. I got it in the mid 90s. I really do think that if I truly felt joy of ranking on a 4th place team I would have kept it, but if you’re not 1st there is no reason to display your inadequacy, unless you’re in a product competition such as wine, beer, food, so some type of product.
Modern day scouts are roughly the same with their pins and badges. An Eagle gets an extra stripe automatically upon joining the military. A General with full bars and pins on his chest is undoubtably a pathetic yes man to his overlords.
I was a scout but my troop fell apart before I left first class. I know some guys who are eagle scouts and the general analogy sums it up.
Boomers were real Scouts.I was promoted from Tenderfoot even after I accidentally cut my buddy’s finger off with an axe. They just said ‘well accidents will happen be careful next time’ It wasn’t like today where some Libtard would demand that all axes and knives be banned from the Scouts.
As a member of the Air Force for 33 years, you NEED to understand that wearing your rank and decorations is appropriate when wearing your dress uniform. This applies to all BRANCHES of the military!!! Jerry Airheart, SMSgt, USAFR
Nothing like a losers medal to make you feel shame.
Indeed. Shame is a healthy feeling in my opinion. It tells you what happened was not correct.
I agree but only in specific circumstances. So if you royally fuck up and people call you on it, sure. But some people suffer from non-specific shame (generally linked to childhood abuse) which is not healthy at all.
Of course.
Dude I’m so Gorilla Redpill PUA Alpha Beta Omega-3 White Knight Mangina Phenibut that I stock my man cave with bananas and white bitches. Buy Kratom and inject it into your dick. (Bill Cosby is innocent.)
Why no black or Asian bitches? You racist or something?
He’s a troll. A beta troll at that
Sounds interesting, will check it out. Always on the hunt for a good read which is hard to find in todays hipster culture (unless the book is 40 years old).
Try Answered prayers
Gorillas are pretty dumb and limited animals… You would have better success in life if you would try to emulate a cat.
I find this to be an odd statement. It carries the absurd implication that people are mindlessly staring at their phones when in actual fact they are interfacing with other people on their phones!
A phone is communication device! Irony of ironies it is derived from the Greek words for voice, sound and “to speak” or tell.
This is a terrible error to make in an article where you are trying to explain to people how to communicate with others and betrays a peculiar fear of technology and change. You are looking backwards while the world moves forwards. Better would be, in addition to teaching people how to communicate in person, to teach people how to communicate in the modern world. Young people today communicate via phone primarily prior to face-to-face meetings and in addition to.
People need to stop being scared of technology. It is unmanly.
When I was your age we read the newspaper when we wanted to ignore people!
I use the newspaper to collect cat mess.
The “interaction” part of interacting is lost when you communicate via text/e-mail. It becomes a medium to pass information, more than a way to actually interact with other people. I (and many others, I’m sure) use technology as a way to wall myself off from others. And yet, as I type this, I have 2 Skype conversations going and an e-mail half composes that ROK is making me divert from! All “interaction” methods. But on MY TERMS. If I don’t like a part of the communication, I can just ignore it. That’s the beauty of technology. But it’s also the problem; people feel they are being “social” when, in fact, it’s anything but. I’m a serious introvert and generally hate being around other people, so, this works for me. But, make no mistake, technology reduces our real social interactions with others, it does not improve them. If anything, it’s like a cat/dog is to a couple without children; it’s a surrogate for real human interaction.
Speak for yourself. I find technology enriches and supplements face to face meetings. Thanks to smartphones I am able to easily speak to people all over the world.
ROK is not making you do anything. You are making a decision not to focus on those other things because at this moment in time, this is what you prefer to do.
Speaking to someone via text is a real human interaction. There are humans at both ends of the conversation. The benefit is that I can more easily communicate with people with whom without the smartphone I might not interact with at all.
I find that practicing text game with girls online is a good way to polish social skills, even if it is largely a waste of time.
Only a waste of time if there is no purpose. I only text with girls I am fucking or will be fucking.
Einstein predicted that improved technology would make people stupid and lazy!! Guess what ? He was right on!!
Einstein had no idea what he was talking about.
English bob – Step out of your cave once in a while, you ever noticed how OBESE Americans have become???? Does the word LAZY come into your mind, WORKING OUT AND NOT WORKING OUT Did the technology based gyms help all the lazy obese people. Two weeks ago the Los Angeles Unified School District announced that they have less than 50% graduation rate and they had to lower the GPA to 2.0 in 2016. the LA school spent over 1 million dollars for apple laptops!! That technology! Read about it Bob! Einstein was a flipping genius and you know it!!
LOL! I am the proof that men once lived in caves. Yes Einstein was a genius but the missing link here is food. People get obese because of food not because of technology. Animals follow the path of least resistance so he has a point there but technology does not make you what you already are.
More to the point, I am of the view that technology can make you smarter and more productive. Einstein seems to be taking the view that cars make people crash.
LOLenglish bob – I believe that improved technology makes “smart people smarter” not old people who mostly fumble with PC’s, tablets, cell phones and not the Darwin waiting room crowd! As an ex-Los Angeles County Sheriff I have met my share of the challenged crowd. Did you know that 80% of the accidents on California highways involved texting! Dumb or risk takers with advanced technology!
Makes sense. I never understand people who just… can’t… wait to respond to a text. Tech is a tool. It can be used intelligently or for gross stupidity.
Did you try Kratom?
I want a Gorilla. I will name him Kratom and have him wrestle Mike Chang. The winner gets a Steve Harvey appearance.
LOl!
I’m 100% certain there was an Ice Cube song about a gorilla.
Update: and here it is gentlemen. For your inner Gorilla.
Is there any particular reason why the gorilla in the logo has to have an illuminati pyramid and All-Seeing Eye of Horus on his forehead?
OK, if a tiger and a gorilla had a fight who would win?
If he goes straight ofr the Neck then Tiger..A Bengal Tiger weighs 235 kg while a male gorilla around 190-200kg….UFC Heavyweight champions are 120kg
That would be a highly intense battle. I’d have to go with the tiger if he was accurate in landing his bite to the jugular. If the gorilla had an opportunity to use a downward strike to the tigers spine, then he might have a slight chance.
Lights out! Gorilla Radio!
Turn that shit up!
Rage have been singing the truth for years.
Do I have to eat my own poop?
No, just fling it.
Gorillas: 900 pounds of muscle and two inches of penis. Fuck, no wonder they’re angry all the time. I think I’ll pass.
WAT DAT SHIT I wanna to be a Pharaoh not a munkey lolzlololz
Interesting. An all-seeing eye and three triangles, adorned with rays of light.
I’ve read it. Quite dissapointing. Chapters on health and money are good, rest is pretty much bullshit.
gorillas have 1 inch long dicks so i think this is a very accurate plan of most of the gentlemen that use this site
lol – Agree on the gorillas 1 inch. I am more of cheetah thinker myself. Frggn gorilla don’t stand a chance against me.