Have we lost our edge?

Many of us are living in countries where physical survival pressures have disappeared.

There’s not a compelling need to gather firewood for the harsh winter. We’re not concerned about finding drinking water. In the desert, we’re not even concerned about wasting water to support artificial lawns. That’s how far we’ve come.

But have we lost our edge?

Let’s look at the word pressure. In the way I’m using it in the phrase ‘survival pressure’, it’s the feeling of stressful urgency caused by the necessity of doing or achieving something.

Pressure: “I better collect a lot of firewood, or else I’ll freeze to death this winter.”

Why Survival Pressure Helps Us

Survival pressure activates the deep, deep resources we have lurking within us. It’s the “Oh, shit! I might die” mechanism that releases amounts of energy previously unknown. It reminds me of the time that I got attacked by killer bees on South Mountain in Phoenix, AZ. When I heard the swarm coming, I bolted, sprinting at top speed over rocky, uneven terrain.

The next day I was sore all over, exhausted, and thankful that that type of thing didn’t happen everyday—yet simultaneously glad it did happen so I could feel my latent potential.

Have you had an experience like that? Where you’ve felt your latent potential? Where you felt the energy and power within that only occasionally gets unleashed? Doesn’t it feel great?

I’m grateful to live in America where my basic needs are met and exceeded. But, I also feel like we’ve lost our edge. Many of us have occupations that allow us to get by on autopilot, with only a few moments of daily conscious intervention.

Pressure is a good thing. Pressure was a thorn in our side goading us to create an environment like we have here in America and other first world nations where basic needs (food, shelter, clothing) are a given for most.

Having exercised for over 15 years of my life, consistently, I can tell you: the times when my training was most intense (times when I was nervous before my workout!) were also the times when I was most successful in life. I was putting myself at the mercy of pressure.

We Need to Create Our Own Pressure

But unlike the survival pressure, which is forced upon you, the will to exercise intensely and to live intensely has to come from an internal pressure. It has to come from something we create within ourselves, an unbreakable pact to be intense, the ability to consistently apply copious amounts of pressure to ourselves and to be as hard on ourselves when we fail to maintain our standard as nature would be had we failed to collect firewood for the winter.

I think that by exercising intensely we can experience that pressure in a training environment and learn what it is like to endure and eventually enjoy it. It sucks while you’re going through it, especially at first. But, at the end, you feel amazing. That feeling gives you the confidence to tackle things in your daily life that you previously shied away from.

We’re fortunate that earlier generations discovered ways to minimize the pressure for survival. But, it’s a double edged sword. Survival pressure was the thing that got us here in the first place. The motivation to build something better comes from the pressure and pain that the current situation creates. We’re coming to the mental age. We can’t rely on the physical survival pressure to goad us into action anymore. We have to create the pressure in our mind—and recreate it, again and again.