Title: The Spartan Way (Eat better, Train better, Think better, Be better)

Author: Joe De Sena

Hi all,

this week I have an exciting new read for you.

It’s called ‘The Spartan Way’ and was written by the author who has also started the popular obstacle races for Spartan runners.

In this book he discusses the 10 Spartan principles you should apply in your life for any achievement you wish to make. Whether it is for work, your health, or something else, these steps can be applied in multiple areas of your life. However, to gain the ultimate benefit, try and use them to enhance your health, as living a more healthier life can have good repercussions on different aspects of your life as well.

The Principles are the following:

1…Self-awareness (knowing yourself)

Before you start anything you should have a clear idea of where you wish to go. You should know whether what you are doing will bring you towards the direction of your goal. Otherwise, you will simply wander aimlessly around.

• Arnold Schwarzenegger called these people floaters since they don’t have direction in their lives.

Also, before you can use any of the other principles, you need to have this principle in place, because it lays the foundation for all the others.

He also calls this principle “finding your True North” (i.e. your calling/purpose).

2…Commitment (be dedicated)

Only once you have discovered what you want to dedicate your life towards can you take the next step and make plans to achieve your life’s purpose.

A dream is only something you wish to achieve, but never materializes. A goal is long term and has some plans in place to achieve those goals. However, once the goal is achieved, you need to find yourself another goal. A life’s purpose is forever, and therefore requires effort to be continuously fulfilled.

3…Passion (for your purpose)

When you are doing something you feel truly passionate about it will come a lot easier to you to make time to do something that helps you achieve that purpose. Every moment you spend on working on it won’t feel like work, and you won’t become demotivated after a couple of hours.

Having a passion for your True North makes achievement much easier.

4…Discipline (practice diligence)

Because you will start something new in your life, you might become demotivated in the beginning to continue due to other problems you are facing on a daily basis. This is where you need to enact inner discipline to stay focused, and not become distracted.

5…Prioritization (put your house in order)

Since every goal and plan will require time and effort, and we are already busy with many things, this may result in us not making plans to incorporate plans to achieve our purpose properly, and eventually we lose interest.

To avoid this you need to set a schedule, to determine what are all the tasks in your life that you need to do, then fit in time for your purpose somewhere so you don’t find an excuse not to follow through on it.

A tool the author makes available is the Eisenhower Matrix below. Use this to allocate all your different tasks, and make a plan so your purpose also features high on the list.

6…Grit (push your limits)

You may have started implementing your purpose in your schedule, and are pursuing it, but then life will throw multiple curve balls towards your way. They may come in many forms, and they will always come, you cannot avoid them.

Such obstacles may tempt you to no longer dedicate some of your time to some tasks, because now this obstacle is more important.

However, don’t let this temptation hinder you in any way, but see it as just another task that needs to be dealt with, and keep going to pursue your purpose.

7…Courage (face your fears and failures)

Most things we do in life are to reduce the amount of adversities we can come across. If we could, most of us would eliminate them entirely, and live a comfortable life.

However, when you reduce your exposure to face adversities, you don’t learn how to deal with it when you come across it. Therefore, the author urges you to step outside your comfort zone and face adversities, try new things.

8…Optimism (look for the positives)

We are wired for instant gratification. That’s why most of us give up early with new tasks when we don’t see the positive results in the short run. This may reduce our willingness to continue with doing what we did to achieve our purpose.

Here willpower becomes extremely important, because even though you don’t see the results yet, you need to motivate yourself to keep going. That’s where a strong passion for the goal comes in handy.

However, if you want, you can also include some external motivators, like doing the exercise with your friend so they inherently motivate you to show up at the gym because they will be there and you wouldn’t want to let them down. Another way could be to keep track what you have already achieved and measure your progress, and identify if you are on track or if you need to make some adjustments so it fits your plan once again.

9…Integrity (act honestly)

A Spartan acts honourably.

The purpose you are working to achieve is your own. Whether you achieve it or not, that is entirely up to you. You are only accountable to yourself.

• If you tell people you did a 10 km run, but never did, you will have to live with the fact that you never did your life.

So don’t lie, be true to yourself, and work to stay on track to achieve your goal, and life’s purpose.

10…Wholeness (live as a Spartan)

If you achieve and live your purpose you will experience a wholeness, transformed into someone completely different because you are living the true Spartan Way.

Summary:

The book provides a very good step-by-step guide what is understood with each Spartan principle, how this is to be achieved, why this is important to you, and how others have exercised this principle themselves.

I must admit that it is probably one of the best books that doesn’t try and sell a quick-fix, but truly wishes to help the reader to transform their lives to their ultimate best forms. For this reason the book will receive a rating of 5/5

Happy reading, and stay safe!!! 🙂