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• Categories: Awesomesauce, Essentials, Lifestyle Tags: actually cool, badass, not douchy.
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Complete, utter, total, über bad-assness is why we train, right? Sure it’s nice to have a healthy heart and to know we’ll probably outlive Glen in the HR Department, but living in the right-here-right-now moment, we want to be badasses. We want to wake up in the morning, smile a badass smile, put on some badass clothes, walk out of a badass apartment, go to a badass job, and live a badass life. Cause THAT’S winning. And we train to win.

Great. Glad I got that out there. But, the fact is, this isn’t earth shattering. Who wouldn’t want to be a badass? 

So then the question becomes…how do we become BADASS? 

Well, in my (not so) humble opinion, what used to make a badass simply doesn’t make people badass anymore.  The rules are changing and if we want to earn/keep our badass card, we need to evolve as well.  Old v. new – let’s compare the rules:

The old rule – A badass separates himself from the pack

The new rule – A badass makes everyone around him better

“Dog eat dog?” “Mano y mano?” Nahh. The best of the best recognize that you must go out of your way to help those around you because it’s the quickest way to get better yourself. It takes a good dose of confidence, especially if you’re surrounded by other badasses, but it’s the only way to achieve the highest level of success. A badass will literally go out of his way to help those around him.

The old rule – A badass looks like a dreamboat / Thor

The new rule – A badass isn’t about what you look like

Don’t get me wrong. A badass looks good. But it’s almost by accident. Does a badass lift? Hell yes. Does a badass run? Damn right. Can a badass swim and climb and throw? Of course. But a badass trains to make his life better, not better looking. He trains because we live in a physical world and you need strength, speed, and agility to navigate it with ease. He trains because neighbors sometimes need you to lift heavy shit and buses sometimes need you to run after them and buddies sometimes need you to carry ‘em home from the bar. And badasses do those things and make ‘em look easy. But looking good while you do them just happens to be icing on the badass cake.

The old rule – A badass makes a boat-load of money

The new rule – A badass isn’t about how much money you make 

Badasses can be successful. But they’re successful BECAUSE they’re badass, they’re not badass because they’re successful. There’s a big difference. Money can’t buy badassness. If you’re anything like me, you know some rich dudes who are pretty far from badass. Their money defines them. They’re the type of people who neglect human relationship in the pursuit of the almighty $. They’re the polar opposite of badass (see also: douchebag). BUT…a badass. A badass knows better. He works towards something he believes in. He connects with the people around him because, at the end of the day, that’s really damn fulfilling. At the risk of sounding trite, he wants to make the world a better place (there’s no way to say that without sounding trite). And if he can do that and happens to become a millionaire in the meantime, well that’s just damn skippy.

The old rule – A badass commands attention

The new rule – A badass is just as happy in the spotlight as on the sideline

Yes, a badass often has to take charge because when you ask your friends where they wants to go out to dinner, they usually say, “You pick.” And a badass can pick a classy restaurant. But a badass doesn’t HAVE to. A badass can bring a room to tears with his best-man speech, but is the first to recognize that it isn’t, in fact, HIS wedding. Allowing others their turn and/or encouraging other to TAKE A TURN is in the generous nature of the badass.

The old rule – A badass is a man

 The new rule – badasses come in all shapes and sizes – with testicles and without

Infact, my Grandma is one of the toughest badasses I know. And while a badass is the epitome of the American male (that’s why all of my pronouns have been “he”), I must be very clear on this point – teh ladies can be badasses as well.

*To clarify – Thor IS a badass, but not because he’s 6’3” of pure manhood…it’s because he SAVED THE HUMAN RACE. Saving the human race = badass.

YOU KNOW WHAT WOULD BE BADASS? IF YOU LEFT A COMMENT. 

WHAT DO YOU THINK IS BADASS?