You Don't Need Passion, You Need to Go to War

Wanting life to be calm is a fatal human error.

Image Credit-Midjourney

Big goals die when you’re passionate or interested.

The cemetery is full of lukewarm people full of regrets who never did sh*t in their lives because they fell for this lie. They “#tried” instead of obsess like a maniac and make it happen by being high agency.

Passion is disgusting, it’s criminal.

Writer Zach Pogrob has a going-to-war mantra he suggests people who want to be successful should follow. I’m going to dissect every detail for you.

Daily routines need war

What’s misunderstood about true success is it sits on the knife’s edge of calmness, focus, present-moment awareness … and chaos, fury, anger, frustration, and rejection.

I’ve chased this path for 10 years and it’s nearly broken me multiple times. But in those moments my mindset shifted and I became someone new.

The world is never at peace.

We’re always on the edge of nuclear war. Some small war in Europe or the Middle East could easily blow up into World War 3. We need this chaos to have the relatively peaceful times we’ve seen in the world since World War 2.

Nature doesn’t function in calmness.

We need the snakes to kill the rats and bite the humans. We need the floods to clear the land and drown people to make room for new life.

Wanting life to be calm is a fatal human error.

Every day you’re meant to fight a war of some kind. If you’re not you’re leaving your potential on the table. You’re drowning in piss-weak self-care and work-life balance that will slowly poison your dreams and goals.

If your habits are cookie-cutter and without chaos, you’re probably on the path to mediocrity, sorry to say.

Add war.

Schedule discomfort

If your life feels good you’re probably one step away from rock bottom. Or complete and utter meaningless that’ll bore you to tears. Success and discomfort go together like a Big Mac and fries.

Wake up early. Like, I dare you to wake up at 4 AM and witness the beauty. I dare you to go to the gym at 7 AM on a Saturday like I did last week. It’s in these moments you realize there’s zero competition.

People hate discomfort. Their loss is your opportunity.

You don’t need to be better. No. Just different.

Different could be embracing discomfort. Or doing an intense workout every day for a year. Or spending more time on your goals than feels healthy or #normal. Or missing every social function for the next 90 days. Or daring to email Netflix and cancel your subscription – and Amazon, Disney, and whatever other entertainment.

Going without entertainment is uncomfortable. Eating beans and rice with a drink of water feels uncomfortable, too. After a while the discomfort becomes normal. Pain turns into pleasure. That pleasure becomes obsession and drives you to insane results.

Fall in love with “enjoyable torture,” says Zach Pogrob.

“Chaos gives you clarity, in a way peace never could”

Zach nails it with this line.

When I was at peace in a banking job back in 2021, I found I didn’t have a lot of good ideas. I was sleepwalking through life like a zombie. I had no real reason to grow or change. Life’s incentives were stacked against me.

The worst that could happen was I’d get laid off. But that came with a 6-figure payout and 90 days before I’d be out the door.

So the motivation to evolve was still zero.

When I left and started my own business I witnessed terrifying chaos. No day is the same. There’s no guaranteed income. One day I could get hacked. The next day I could be banned from LinkedIn. And the day after that I could get a surprise tax bill for $200K and not be able to pay (all of this happened).

With the wrong mindset I initially thought these situations were curses. Now I see them as opportunities.

2021 Tim is dead.

My personal rate of iteration back then was so slow, that I now evolve at least three times faster than before in as little as a few months.

The chaos gave me clarity. It forced me to see my blind spots. I had no option but to work on them or go broke, then woke, and end up back at a job.

Reduce the gap between idea and action

In the old world I used to have dreams.

• “When I retire at 65 I’ll buy a caravan.”

• “When the kids are grown up Ill buy that black Mercedes.”

• “We’ll save up and buy that dream house with the extra bedroom one day.”

• “Just a few more years and we can take 3 months off to travel around Europe.”

The gap between those ideas and taking action is gone. I no longer sit down and ma$turbate as most people do about what I’m gonna do like old man Sam. Nope.

I just freaking do it.

I have an idea and within an hour I’m already implementing it. I don’t wonder anymore. I let myself take action and let reality shape my views.

99% of people spend their whole lives dreaming and putting things off. When you adopt this go-to-war mindset the thinking time vanishes. You finally start to live life.

Do hard things

Sounds cliche as hell. All the bros are saying it. Damn hustle culture knobheads.

We hear this hard things phrase more and more because it’s true. Society has become soft. The bat virus taught us to stay at home all day in a bubble of comfort and fondle ourselves to Instagram super models while wearing our nicest silk pyjamas.

Going to war is hard. It requires a mission, direction, radical self-awareness, risks, and the ability to back yourself despite what every grandma in your life says about your idea.

“Don’t do that, it’ll never work,” they say. These same people have never done anything and wanna tell you that you can’t be anything. What a joke.

This quote from @ isabelunraveled comes to mind:

"I didn't realize yet that the only definition of smart that really resonates with me is: the ability to get what you actually want in life."

If you’re not already getting what you want out of life, then your advice means nothing to me. And you should adopt the same mantra in your life.

Going to war is about being on a different path.

It’s one where other humans can’t infect your brain with their comments, rejections, opinions, and values. It’s one where the culture war is turned off and politics is not even on your radar.

The hard thing isn’t dreaming big. The hard thing is waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat when the dream turns into a nightmare. – Ben Horowitz

Final Thought

Passion is a sign of weakness. Stop being fooled.

When you go to war and embrace the chaos everything in life gets better. Success doesn’t sound like a lottery ticket or a pick me, pick me, pick me Hollywood dream guarded by gatekeepers who require s3xual favors. No.

The path to success becomes obvious. It’s a lonely path because most people self-select themselves out of it. So the idea of competition is gone.

It becomes you vs. you. That’s the hardest war you’ll ever fight but you also have the most control. It’s a battle you can win every day.

Choose war, not passion.

Tell me which of these ideas you loved the most and why in the comments.

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