A NEW PARADIGM

by Dr. Bob Arnot

At one critical point in every man's life comes the chance to transform himself into precisely what he's always wanted to be. It may be triggered by a heart attack, career disappointment, divorce, middle-age crisis, job loss, or new challenges. But if he grasps that chance, he can become better than he has ever been---stronger, fitter, happier, and more successful--and remain that way for decades.

Many men have tried...and failed..to change themselves by acquiring pop culture's newest habits and behaviors. They lacked a firmly grounded vision of who they should become. By embracing a bold new vision, you can turn back the clock with surprising ease, joy, and speed.

The greatest advances in medicine and science came from neither slow, methodical plodding nor gradual, moderate change. Great advances came in giant leaps made possible only by completely new ways of thinking about problems. The conventional wisdom in the late Middle Ages was that the world was flat. Columbus could set out for the new world only if he was absolutely convinced that the earth was round and had no edges to fall off of. He did so. In modern medicine, the most dramatic bolt-of-lightning breakthroughs also came from men who understood that dramatic solutions come only from fresh, novel visions in which they intensely believe. This is popularly called a new paradigm, and it becomes a blueprint from which we plan and act. Psychologically and physically, a true paradigm shift is easier to accomplish and leads to far greater success than minor modifications. How many times have you been truly motivated by someone whose only advice is "everything in moderation?"

Moderate changes yield so few positive results that men easily slide back into the comfy lifestyles of their past. But if they make big changes, the changes stick. Why? Because they get immediate results. Rather than making small changes with a promise of good health in the distant future, they make big changes and feel great overnight. In The Aspern Papers, Henry James wrote that people "who achieve the miracle of changing their point of view late in life are intensely converted." At any age, new paradigms create an intense conversion.

I don't advocate the screaming-through-the-halls kind of misconduct that got me booted from my college dorm, but moderation is nonsense when it comes to achieving terrific health. When the Army says be all you can be, they don't mean there's a gentle hiking path down from the cliff you could take instead of rappelling off the edge. If you want to take a politically correct stab at living longer through moderation, then die moderately young!

In the end, any change practiced over just several weeks will seem routine and ordinary. Why spend the time and effort to incorporate little changes when big changes will accomplish dramatically more, but still appear everyday, ordinary, and livable in the long run? Are American men willing to make big changes?

Deepak Chopra wrote in Ageless Body, Timeless Mind: "We program our consciousness to a set span of aging, and our biology responds to that programming." Look at that middle-age spread men get in their forties and fifties. Is that genetically programmed? No way! It is the result of misguided nutrition and physical training. Why? Because the psychologically programmed paradigm for aging is the expectation that we look and behave in a different manner with each passing decade. We're comfortable in the paradigm that urges us to let go of our youth and embrace a sedentary middle age.

Men accept culturally programmed senescence. Society expects us to look, behave, and perform in a peculiar "middle-aged" way in our forties, fifties, and sixties. Many of us just get with the program. We surrender our physique, power, potency, strength, and endurance to the expectations of society.

Recent research shows that for those who have switched paradigms, there is no middle age. By changing the paradigm to that of Teddy Roosevelt, who carried his youth and vigor with him all the days of his life, we can brag to our grandchildren, "We're just a bunch of kids with outdated birth certificates."

As you assemble your new paradigm, try to create a brilliant, guiding vision of who you hope to become. That process is called imagery. You may think of imagery as some New Age trend soon to fall by the wayside, Yet most men use imagery every day. We provoke anxiety, doom, and gloom when we imagine getting fired, being rejected by co-workers, or failing to finish a project. That imagery is so potent it can cause ulcers, high blood pressure, even heart disease. So why don't we use imagery for peacful purposes? No one ever taught us how! Imagery is what ties all the pieces together. Imagery is what allows men to imagine the future, create a plan for it, and live it.

We can envision and imagine catastrophe, but we don't create a bold and imaginative vision of who we think we are, who we think we can be, and what we think we can do.

Try each night as you fall asleep imagining yourself as leaner, more muscular, more graceful. The power of imagination is the ability to recall and use images in real-life situations. When you're pumping iron, bring to life that image of yourself as stronger and leaner.

Build your self-image so you become the new paradigm of youth and vigor.