When asked about his IQ by Piers Morgan, Stephen Hawking said this:

“I have no idea. People who boast about their IQ are losers.”

If that isn’t the time for the mic to drop, I don’t know when is.

Intelligence is a lot more complicated than analyzing your IQ, standardized test scores, or the number that appears on your paycheck. Though it’s difficult to quantify, there are so many different ways to be smart, especially nowadays.

True intelligence isn’t just about being good at maths or physics or knowing who the 23rd President of the United States was (if you’re…

To this day, I’ve never been as excited for a challenge as I was for my first Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world championships in 2016. Before I began training for the tournament, I made a pact with myself to give it my all, no matter what.

It didn’t matter if training was at 5 am or if I was tired or I had a test that day (I was an undergrad at the time), I was always on the mat or in the gym preparing, fueled by corny motivational videos and excessive amounts of caffeine. …

I’m sick of being a rock.

Even worse, I’m sick of the romanticized, Hollywood-inspired expectation that each relationship is meant to have a rock and someone who clings to that rock with all their being. As if finding your “rock” is going to make life’s suffering go away. It’s a load of crap.

Wake up people, the Easter bunny isn’t real, pro wrestling is fake, and your “rock” is probably just as fucked up as you are.

Growing up, my mom was always the rock for my dad, who struggles with depression, OCD, and PTSD. This dynamic goes against the…

Before 22, I considered myself to be particularly unremarkable.

My athletic career — jiu-jitsu and wrestling — had been pretty average, in school I was mediocre, and I had pretty much quit everything else that I did whether it was relationships, business ventures, or artistic endeavors. The grade I would have given my life was a C.

In December of 2019, I had to change the way that I looked at myself because I did something I’d never done before. I did something that was pretty remarkable.

It’s not that I suddenly realized that I was amazing, but I had…

Recently, I read Sam Harris’s Waking Up. One of the key points made in the book is that the self is an illusion. This realization just about threw my world on its head. If the self is an illusion, what does that mean of “self-improvement”?

Why am I trying to improve something that doesn’t exist?

For years, I deeply wanted “self-improvement”, “self-actualization”, and everything else that I’d read about in Tim Ferriss’s books and heard on Joe Rogan’s podcasts. …

I’ve been writing on Medium for just over 5 months. My first story was published in early November of 2020. Relatively, I’m still a Medium baby.

However, in these past 5 months, I’ve experienced just about everything you can on this platform. I’ve had stories published in a wide array of publications, I’ve gone viral, I’ve gotten some “Top Writer” tags (I still don’t know what this means), I’ve been called a delusional idiot (several times) by my readers, and I’ve made a little bit of money.

It’s been a wild ride.

Like just about everyone, my stats have been…

I’ve spent my whole life in wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. In the macho world of combat sports, overtraining doesn’t exist. Fatigue is an excuse, and excuses are not tolerated. This mindset is exactly what makes wrestling one of many sports that consistently breeds cases of overtraining.

For athletes who motivate themselves through competition with others, overtraining is very common. An external drive can push you to places that you otherwise didn’t think were possible. Personally, I’ve experienced the physical and mental symptoms of overtraining a handful of times. Frankly, it sucks.

Overtraining is a common reason that people cite for…

Some of the world’s most successful people suffer from debilitating “imposter syndrome.”

This mental affliction commonly results in a lack of self-belief, constant self-degradation, and a deep internal struggle with self-acceptance.

“Imposters” are trapped in an internal world of pain that is covered by the veil of their success. I’ve experienced this sensation myself. Untreated imposter syndrome leads to unfulfillment, depression, and, ironically, more success.

This is because oftentimes, imposter syndrome is an insane work ethic powered by intense feelings of inadequacy and anxiety.

Yet on the outside, sufferers of imposter syndrome often appear “humble,” self-aware, and even highly successful.

My Story

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