I'd like to welcome everybody to Happiness Isn't Brain Surgery with Doc Snipes. Today, we're going to continue talking about causes of depressive symptoms and ways to address them. In this section, we're going to review the causes, consequences, and possible interventions for lack of motivation and apathy. Now, these are symptoms that are common to a lot of things, and you may not be depressed, but you may just have one of those days or weeks where you're just like, I just don't care, I'm feeling blah about everything. And I often tell people, you know, think about Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. He was kind of apathetic and just went along, not a whole lot of motivation. This is kind of what I'm talking about here. So whether you're depressed or not, if you're experiencing a lack of motivation and apathy, we may have some tips for you here. Apathy is defined as a lack of motivation due to a lack of energy and or a lack of pleasure or reward. So you just don't care. It's like, whatever, I have no desire. Motivation is a feeling that can best be described as a desire to get up and go. So if you've got motivation, then you don't have apathy. They're kind of flip sides. You cannot get motivated without being able to experience pleasure or reward. When you do something, there's a reward for it. That's basic behavior modification. We do the things that have the most reward available to them. So when we're talking about increasing motivation, when we're talking about getting up and doing something, we're talking about what's the reward. We're going to choose the best option. You know, I'm sitting on the couch, I'm watching a Netflix marathon and I'm looking around going, you know what, I really need to mop the floors. What do you think I'm most motivated to do? What's the reward? Watching the Netflix marathon or mopping the floors. Fortunately or unfortunately, in my case, it's mopping the floors because I'm a freak about floors. But you're going to choose the one that's probably most rewarding. So if you've got to do something that's not too rewarding, you're going to have to figure out how to make it rewarding. And I do have some tips for you there. Dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin are all involved in pleasure and reward. So if they're at a whack, then you're probably going to have difficulty feeling motivated and experiencing reward for things. Now dopamine, for example, is and serotonin are prominent in prominently, what's the word, manipulated when somebody takes opiates. So it's not just depression. It could be a medication side effect that's causing lack of motivation and apathy. After the dopamine system kind of gets out of whack, if you don't have that substance in there to keep the levels up, then you may not feel quite so good. And in balance between any of these three chemicals is believed to contribute to the lack of ability to feel reward or pleasure, which is why a lot of people return or relapse or reuse certain drugs because they're not feeling, their neurochemicals are out of whack and without that drug, they're not feeling happiness and reward. Inbalances can be caused by addictive behaviors. And I say that really generally. We're talking about everything from sex addiction to opiate use. Anything that causes a rush that gives you an extreme sense of pleasure, that's letting the dopamine floodgates open, which means your body has to make more and rebalance everything. And there's a whole presentation on what happens in addictive behaviors with your, with your neurotransmitters. Just be aware that addictive behaviors of any kind can cause an imbalance in your neurochemicals. Now the good thing is after a period of not engaging in those behaviors, your brain chemicals generally balance back out to what they should be for you. Now, whether that's normal or happy, I can't say. Now some people started using because they were self-medicating because their brain just didn't make enough of certain neurochemicals. And if that's you, then after your brain balances back out to where it should be, then you can start finding ways, working with your psychiatrist or your doctor to get those neurotransmitter levels where they should be. But we can't tell anything until after your brain has recovered from being exposed to addictive behaviors. Chronic stress, mental or physical also alters your neurochemical balance. Remember, I talked earlier about how serotonin goes down in the presence of cortisol. So understanding that if you're under chronic stress and it can be physical as well as mental, if you're in pain all the time, it's going to be hard to feel pleasure. And most people can think back to a time when they were mentally stressed or when they were physically sick or in pain and then you can go, yeah, you know, it was real difficult to find anything really enjoyable at that point in time. So the whys are less important than understanding that that's what happens. Lack of quality sleep causes neurotransmitters to get out of balance. Poor nutrition. Your body makes neurotransmitters and recovers and repairs from the food you eat. If it doesn't have enough building blocks, you're probably not going to feel optimal and hormone imbalances. As we age, as we get sick, when we take certain medications, your hormones can get out of whack. So it's important to pay attention to that as a possible cause of apathy and lack of get up and go, if you will. The nice thing is hormones can be measured and most hormones can be measured in blood tests. So that's something your doctor can easily look at and go, yes, there's a problem or no, there's not. Your thyroid hormone is one of the ones that's easiest to test for. So if you're hypothyroid, you're probably not going to have a lot of get up and go. So let's talk about motivation killers here. There's 10 of them. Lack of purpose. If you're getting up and you just don't see the point to doing something, you're not going to have a lot of motivation. So it's important to identify those people, things and goals which are important to you. And whenever you're getting ready to do something, go, okay, how is this helping me get closer to the people, things and goals that are important to me? And once you identify that, you're going to be like, okay, it's worth getting up and working on. Poor diet. Make sure you're eating a healthy diet, including adequate water. You don't have enough water. You're going to feel foggy, fatigued, exhausted. And regardless of anything else, when you're feeling that way, when you're feeling sluggish, your motivation generally will wane. You want to get quality proteins because those are the building blocks your body needs. And good sources of B vitamins and magnesium. Why B vitamins and magnesium? Because they're needed for the chemical reactions that break down the proteins to make the neurochemicals and the hormones you need to keep going.  Think about trying to start a lawnmower. And you've got great gas in the lawnmower. The lawnmower itself, you know, pretty functional. You go to start it and it just won't turn over because the spark plug is not there or because the spark plug is dead. Well, the same sort of thing happens in your body. If you're not providing it, the proteins are like the gas and the vitamins are like the spark plug. So you can have great proteins in there, but if you're not getting a good balance of vitamins, your engine ain't going to go. Quality sleep. I know we went over this last time. We're going to spend a little time here. I use the acronym Shades. This might help you remember it. S stands for have a sleep routine, an hour and a half before bed. To help cure your body, it's about time to go to sleep. H stands for hydration. Reduce it three hours before bed so you don't have to get up and go pee throughout the night. A stands for alcohol. Avoid it. You want to make sure that your blood alcohol is 0.000 at bedtime. So you're not processing alcohol when you're trying to go to sleep. D stands for darkness. Use blue light filters on any of your electronic devices to help you get to sleep. If you have a television on when you're going to sleep, then make sure to set the sleep timer so it goes off shortly after you drift off so that's not interrupting your sleep. E stands for ergonomics. Have a good pillow and a good mattress so you're not waking up with a sore shoulder or a crook neck. And S stands for stimulants. Avoid them. Cut back on your caffeine. Make sure you cut back on your, if you use any nicotine products, two hours before bedtime. And be aware that decongestants are stimulants and will impact your sleep if you have to take them. But you want to try to avoid anything that's a stimulant several hours before bed. Other motivation killers include being overwhelmed. You need to prioritize. Make a list of everything you got to do. And I say got to do because most of us think we got to do everything. Then you want to prioritize the must-dos from the can weights. And I have a list of got to do's a mile long. But there's probably only about 15 of them that I have to do or there's going to be significant negative consequences. The rest of them are can weights as energy allows. Make a list of the things on your must-do list and try doing one thing a day. Start knocking them off one at a time instead of going, well, I've got to get all this done this weekend. Identify two or three things. And then next weekend, two or three more things. Ask for help and delegate things that can be delegated. You can mark some things off your list by having the kids help out, your neighbor, your spouse, best friend, whatever. Simplify.  If you normally spend an hour and a half cooking dinner every night, well, that's wonderful. But if you are short on time and you are overwhelmed, meals can be simplified. There are, what are those things called? Frozen dinners that you can put in. You can order out. Do you want to do that every single night? No, probably not. But can you simplify if there's a week where you just feel like you've got 16 million things going on? Sure. Cleaning's the same way. Yes, ideally you would dust and vacuum and mop and do all those things on a regular basis. But in the big scheme of things, if you are pinched for time, what has to be done in your mind as far as cleaning goes? And leave it at that. If you can skip laundry for a week, then maybe you can. Set and maintain boundaries with other people. A lot of times we get feeling overwhelmed because we've said yes to too many people. Somebody asks us to do something, and we say yes. And we have a bunch of other stuff going on, but we don't want to bother anybody by asking for help. One of the important things in health and happiness is finding balance, being able to say no and being OK with that. And if you can't, look at the reasons why. Are you afraid of rejection? That might be something else you need to deal with. Obviously, you don't want to say no in a mean way. But being able to say no and stick to your guns and say, no, I've really got too much going on right now, maybe next week or two weeks from now, we can set a time to go out and hang out or something. Setting and maintain boundaries is really important to keeping from being overwhelmed. The other part of that is being able to ask for help. When you've got too much on your plate, being able to go to one of your friends and say, I really need assistance with this, would you be willing? And they can say yes or no. But those boundaries are there to help you know what you can and can't do and know when you need help. If you set boundaries that tell you that when it gets to this point, I really need to reach out, that's going to help you be happier and healthier. Circadian rhythm disruption is also another motivation killer. Aim for five to 10 minutes of sunlight in the morning and evening. A lot of us get this going to and from our car. But if you don't, maybe you can sit by a bright window when you're drinking your coffee in the morning. I mean, ideally out on the patio. But you don't have to be in bright sunlight. Obviously, you don't really want to do it between the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. when the UV is the strongest. But you do want to get bright light that cues your body that, hey, it's morning. And throughout the day, so your body knows that it's time to be awake. Keep a similar daily schedule. And during dark weeks or seasons, use daylight bulbs at least 14 hours a day. And like I said in the other presentation, daylight bulbs are not the same as light therapy. But they will help if you use the broad spectrum daylight bulbs and keep it bright in your environment about 14 hours a day. Another motivation killer is a lack of reward. Some goals are long haul. It's not something that's going to be fixed in a week. Depression recovery, going on a diet, anger management, those are all things that are probably going to take several weeks or even a couple of months to really see significant improvement. If you don't get a reward until several weeks or several months down the road, you're probably not going to stay motivated to keep working on it. So identify daily and weekly sub-goals that you can give yourself credit for. So for example, in depression recovery, if you go an entire day without crying, that might be a big milestone for you. So give yourself some sort of a reward. Note the small steps. Note the small progress that you've got going to keep yourself moving forward. Don't take for granted a job well done either. So if it's something that's long haul, like depression recovery or getting in shape, don't do it and go, well, that's what I was supposed to do. Do it and look back at it and go, I did that. Give yourself credit for making progress. Give yourself credit for how hard it is to actually change a way of thinking or a way of acting or a way of being that has characterized you for quite a while. So give yourself credit for and even for the small things like mopping the floor. Look at it and go, that looks good. Instead of got that done, moving on to the next thing. Positive rewards too often, even with other people, the only time we say something is when it's negative. We don't give positive feedback unsolicited. We don't walk in and go, hey, you did a really good job getting your chores done today. I know I try to do that more with my teenagers when I come home instead of just taking for granted that, yep, they did their chores. I try to make sure that I give them positive feedback so they know that I noticed. And they know that I recognize that it took effort for them to do their chores. You have a lack of get up and go. One thing that I learned when I was working on my dissertation was the principle of do 15. Sometimes it's really, really overwhelming to get started. But if you think, you know what, I can do anything for 15 minutes. So I would get on the computer and I would say, I'm going to work on this for 15 minutes. And after 15 minutes, if I'm still miserable, then I will do something else. I can't think of a single time that I got on the computer to do 15 and got off after 15 minutes. Usually once I got started, it wasn't so bad. It was just getting up and getting started. So the do 15 principle helps. Pair it with something else, like watching TV. When I fold laundry, I watch TV. When my son was little and even sometimes now when I'm doing it without my son, but we made a game out of it. We would pair socks and we would have buckets for everybody's socks. And we would see who could make the most baskets. And it was a game. I have horrible aim. So it's always, you know, a reward if I actually make it into the bucket. Little mind games that you can play with yourself can make it more interesting or amusing. Call a friend. If it's something you can do and talk to a friend at the same time, sometimes that makes it go faster. Or listen to music, put on your headphones and just rock out while you're doing whatever it is. Misery loves company. And, you know, you wouldn't think this would go into motivation killers. But if you've got something that you've got to do, like maybe you don't want to go to the gym. You hate going to the gym, but you really want to get in better shape. If you can find somebody else who's a friend that wants to go to the gym with you, whether they love it or hate it, it doesn't really matter. The two of you can go together. And it's easier to do something that you don't want to do if you've got some social support doing it. It's one of the reasons I go to the gym. I like being surrounded by other people that are pushing themselves. Congratulate yourself and appreciate the work when it's done. So just like I said before, whatever you're doing, instead of going, all right, got the laundry done, moving on to the next task. When you're finished, look at it and go, wow, I just did four loads of laundry. Good for me. Time for a break. Congratulate yourself. Give yourself a little 15 minute break and then move on to the next task. Another motivation killer is fear of failure. So what does failure mean to you? If you fail, why is that a big deal? Some people look at failure as an opportunity to learn. Other people look at failure as a mark against them. So what does failure mean to you and about you? Once you figure that out, then you can start addressing it. What do you do when you fail?  Find a failure slash success mantra.  If you haven't failed, you haven't tried as one of my favorite because a lot of times failure means we're getting outside of our comfort zone. We're getting outside of doing the things that we know how to do and do well and we're trying something new. And it means it's okay to not get it on the first time. We've got to figure out, come back, regroup and start again. It doesn't necessarily mean anything bad about us. In some cases, it means that we were courageous enough to try something that we weren't guaranteed on getting correct the first time. Another motivation killer is a lack of attention to your temperament. Extroverts prefer active environments.  When I used to study, I'm an extrovert. I would prefer to go either to a coffee shop and study or to the library. Now I'm not talking to people, but I'm around other people and there's hustle and bustle and energy. Those are the environments that I thrive in and I was more motivated to study in those environments. Introverts on the other hand, just want a block of uninterrupted time where they can sit and be alone for four hours or however long it is to do their thing and then they can come out. So an introvert is not going to be motivated to go to the library where there's going to be interruptions and chaos. Sensors want widgets. Sensors want things that they can move around. They want facts, they want details. Anything that's big picture or broad is not going to be real motivating for them because they want something they can manipulate. Intuitors, on the other hand, need to see the big picture. So we need to see why is it that we're doing this again? So I can do the small detail stuff. If I can see the big picture, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm an intuitor. I'm not big on those small details. I would rather not deal with them but I can get motivated to work with them if I can see the goal. I can see what's at the end. Thinkers need to know why it's important and necessary. Remember, they tend to go from a good bad lens where feelers need to know how it will help harmonize people. How will it help everybody else be happier? How will this work to helping me be happier? Judgers need structure and planning. So if you're working in an environment where it's very spontaneous, judges are going to get worn out and stressed out really easily and it's gonna be hard for them to get motivated. Perceivers, on the other hand, need flexibility and work best with a deadline because they can get a little too loosey-goosey.  They're gonna feel stuck and not have the room to kind of spread their wings and be spontaneous. So going back to either kyrsi.com and doing the kyrsi temperament disorder or going back to the presentation I did on strength needs, attitudes, preferences, and temperaments. Figure out what temperament dimensions you align with most closely and pay attention to those. If you feel a lack of motivation, go, what is it that I need to help get me excited or get me more motivated to keep going on this particular goal or activity? Chronic stress, it kills motivation.  It happened. So holding onto that, carrying it around like, 250 pound bags of dog food in your trunk, it's gonna really weigh on your gas mileage. You wanna get that stuff out of your trunk, figure out how to deal with it. Develop a healthy support system. We all face stress, like I said earlier, there are inevitable stressors. Healthy support systems are there to lend a hand or at least emotional support during those periods of stress and those things that are just unavoidable. And pick your battles.  And the little image here is the little dog from, dog from up and he says, I've just met you and this is crazy but and he's getting ready to pour his heart out to this guy, which is important for him to nurture that relationship but then he sees a squirrel and he gets all distracted. When we are under chronic stress, when we don't pick our battles, it's too easy to get distracted by every shiny thing that goes by or every irritant that goes by. We wanna be able to say, you know what? Not worth my energy. I want to use my energy over here. You need energy to be motivated. You need energy for get up and go. So pick your battles. Lack of motivation and apathy is called by an imbalance in neurotransmitters, which can be caused by a lack of purpose, poor nutrition, poor sleep, poor time management, circadian rhythm disruption, lack of reward, lack of get up and go, fear of failure, not paying attention to your temperament and chronic stress. So there's a lot of stuff that you can start looking at before you even start thinking about, you know, maybe I'm biologically, something's going wrong. Look at all these other things and see what sort of lifestyle factors are contributing. Now you may not have a natural ideal balance of neurotransmitters or certain hormones and your physician can help with that but 80% of people in the US have lifestyle factors that are contributing to their imbalance of neurochemicals. So look and figure out which lifestyle factors you have that you can address. Pick one at a time, start addressing it and remember improvement in one area is going to produce improvement in every other area, most likely. If you like this podcast, you can subscribe on your favorite podcast app. You can join our Facebook group at docsknipes.com slash Facebook or join our community and access additional resources at docsknipes.com.


We just made these super quick and super easy Independence Day at Decor and we'll show you how we did it right now. What is up? A welcome back. Do you like to do a building to make it? Great that's what we do here. And this week we're making some last-minute Independence Day at Decor. Kim what did one firecracker say to the other? I don't know what. My pop is bigger than yours so I'm making giant firecrackers. And I'm making a tabletop sign. We're just using two boards. We had a scrap two by six laying around and then we went and bought ourselves a four by four. Step one. Make all your cuts. We made all of our cuts. Leave me a cut list down below. It's like 10 total cuts or 12. I don't know something this easy. Step two. Paint. Get this party started. All my stuff is getting painted white. Yeah. First it's getting a base. It's getting a base coat of white. Step two. We're gonna add our stencils and our tape. Start making our designs. But for me I think I'm done painting. Just going to distress. Kim's just distressing. All right and now I'm gonna use some Oracal 651 vinyl letters and put those on the front. You with me? These are my letters and I'm gonna put a little transfer tape and transfer it to my wood block. A three. I'm gonna paint all my red. I'm gonna make it say something else on the back. What's a bra? All right now my America's done but guess what? We're gonna put another word on the back. So let me start that. What word? Freedom. You sing it. Freedom. Yes I don't know the words. You're splashing red paint my friend. Yeah. Is that F straight? Is that F in straight? Step six. Let's remove all the tape. We're gonna put a little half inch hole in the top of the firecrackers so you can put a wick in it. Who are E6000? Probably either one. Let's do E6000 since the hot glue goes on. Oh my goodness they're so cute. Two little making crafts. They look so great. Looks good babe. That was pretty quick. That's pretty quick. All right a four by four and a two by six.  If you like today's project go ahead and hit that like button. Leave us a comment down below which project you like best which one you think you're gonna do and go ahead and give us a share and subscribe if you're not yet subscribed and we'll see you guys next week.


Should more Asian men strive to be a warrior in the garden versus a gardener in the war? And what does that even mean? It means that too many people are not listening to Musashi, but rather focusing on Churrasi. Oh They traded the sushi for the samurai. Anyways guys, let's talk about this David because there was a Viral thread on Reddit and it has to deal with Asian masculinity, by the way This video is about essentially Asian masculinity and I guess where does it take the conversation? Oh, man It took it all over the place all the way from me You know Musashi Miyamoto to two lamb the modern Ronan to Sun Zulu the art of war Tao Tao versus Confucius. I mean long story short before we get into the ancient esoteric stuff Andrew We got to verify is this true though? Do Asian guys need to up their warrior mindset level potentially to be more effective in the West because I mean anecdotally I would say if there's like non-Asians walking on the sidewalk and they're taking up most of the sidewalk and an Asian Guys like walking in his rightful lane I would say more oftentimes and not they're expecting the Asian guy to be submissive and get out of the way Yeah, I mean I think the reason why this question was posed is because generally and we all know this that a lot of Asian guys not all But a lot get tend to get underrated Under respected, I guess disrespected in America. Why'd I say under respected? It's disrespected in America and I guess like a lot of Asian guys are wondering like what can I Realistically do about this and what should be the philosophy moving forward if like a group of Asian guys could operate as a group And move forward together right and of course Andrew if you are a six foot four tatted up triad They're probably gonna move for you on the street, right? But we're just talking about like averages and generalities here Yeah, yeah, so we're gonna tell you what we think about this quote do Asian men Need to be more like warriors in a garden versus a gardener in the war Well, please hit that like button check out other episodes of the hot-pot boys as we get into this He opens up by threat the thread by saying a harmless man is not necessarily a good man The blatant harmlessness which unfortunately disguises itself all too often quite successfully as gentleness Should not be seen as a good virtue Andrew not that we say and we agree with everything he says But what this is actually what Jordan Peterson Joe Rogan, etc. Etc. Yeah, I think a lot of the guys who do Martial arts a lot of like the Western thinking bro. We types But I want to say that after doing a lot of research. It's it's like it's not that the east Didn't have this philosophy by the way guys So there's a lot of philosophers and war generals that were very intellectual that essentially are warrior poets and we're gonna get more into that Later a harmless man with no power has no power to do good or evil. He's ineffective So we should train ourselves to have power but choose to use it for good and the defense of our own It's like a nation with a strong military. They shouldn't use it to bully everyone But they should use it to seek diplomacy and stability Mmm, and then also he goes on to say and this is of the words of the OP the original poster stop trying to push Asian men into some new soft gentle masculinity box because you can't just Redefine masculinity how you want these people who say this and do this are not acknowledging human nature. Whoo Fiery words man and his last poetic sentence Andrew. I got to read it how we said it He said someone who believes they are totally incapable of doing harm isn't choosing to be good or evil They are simply existing they have little agency and are not capable of good or evil on their own It may be risk of a being manipulated and wielded by somebody else to do good or evil a man who cloaks Infectiveness and fear as some manifestation of his own virtue was a person who in his deceit only harms himself Contrast that with a man who has power the potential to be dangerous and knows it But chooses it and not only not be cruel, but uses his power to combat evil when he sees it. Yeah, so I guess Before we get into the comment section I mean I would say based off the things that stood out that he said was I did think it was interesting how he was like Wow, a lot of people try to say that Asian men just represent a new masculinity that this is that we're gonna Redefine masculinity because you can be a soft gentle masculine guy. First of all you can I do think there's a range of masculinity But I also don't think you can completely redefine masculinity either that has a definition Right and and we should stick by some traditional Sense of that that definition if you want to be a soft gentle guy just say that that's not wrong But maybe don't try to redefine masculinity. There are some good basketball players in the NBA Andrew They kind of have a soft reputation But that soft reputation is accurate Ray Allen was one of my favorite players of all time He was kind of soft.  Yeah, so true. That's a good point, man Andrew real quick some quick thoughts. Why do you think there's so much disagreement on this? I mean, it sounds like pretty solid logic But I guess it depends because people grow up in such different fish bowls in nowadays in modern society Even though in my opinion America for how rich it is a dangerous country when you compare it to like Japan, right? We did with as a similar economics, you know per capita or whatever very much way more dangerous in Japan But I'm saying that why it seems like you still have that ability to isolate your fish bowls in America Where you seem free from this thinking, right?  But when you step out of that you're in the real world because like maybe those places aren't dangerous There's not a lot of aggressive people go to boba shops That's not a place where a lot of crimes happen not a lot of robberies happen Let's be honest, but you still live your life in America and to me America is not a garden I think Tokyo Shanghai Hong Kong these big cities are like more like garden Singapore is more of a garden If you look at this statistically speaking low crime. Yeah, low craziness I would say America is almost more like Brazil than it is like Tokyo Okay, that's great. Yeah, that's a hot take but I'm just gonna say America is definitely more like a force or a hike Yeah, at least yeah, um and moving on to our own personal experience Andrew Our dad is a scholar right oftentimes people put scholars and warriors Separated, but it wasn't always that way. That's more of a modern archetype because our dad was a at one point What 200 210 510 almost pure muscle low body fat He was like a mini Arnold Schwarzenegger Enthusiast bodybuilder in his PhD program. Yeah, no, he was definitely a buff nerd but he was very strong and I do think like even I guess from a Son standpoint seeing a father at least that was physically strong. You know, I mean, I think that he was the bolo Every immigrant father has their drawbacks and maybe it's the way they communicate or whatever their adaption to Western life But at physically at least dad was strong and wouldn't he get treated differently than some of our relatives who looked like this Like no, it's true. Sure, especially in Western society where everybody's got the barbarian scanner with the little Dragon Ball Z power levels and everything people are judging you on your physical appearance all the time Subconsciously more than you would want them to it's true. Yeah David you think some Asian cultures might teach the idea of being a warrior better than others Yeah, I think in general Asians have this archetype that they're not really like that compared to Western hemisphere people But um, yeah, for sure There's a variance if your dad did mandatory military service certain countries, you know Taiwan South Korea, Singapore has mandatory military service There may be because because of the mandatory military exposure, right? Right, right, right for me I think the word warrior and I think that a lot of people are getting caught up on a physical warrior Like a warrior is only someone who's very strong and very dangerous and knows how to do the the way of the blade And you know can can knows how to shoot guns and stuff like that I don't think that's definitely part of it But that's like on an extreme end if you're thinking about war. I'm yeah to lamb perfect example Whatever an Asian navy seal what a special ops or a red beret whatever you want to say these guys, right or uh, yeah Wolf warrior for example like always always funny to point him out, but I think like You just have to be effective in a time of need and like being effective can mean so many things It doesn't mean you're gonna try to beat everybody up because literally that might be impossible You can't beat up three thieves, you know necessarily, but what are you gonna do? That's effective How can you affect the situation? How can you help the people in need? How can you help save yourself and the people you care about in your community? And I think that and in self it could be you know, it could be I think about the Boston bombings, right?  So you're saying he was still able to heavily impact the situation in a positive way He was courageous, although he didn't have to hit him. Yeah, you know I'm saying yeah I know what you mean. There's the concept of the warrior poet in the East and it seems like the Japanese They leaned it to it particularly as far as writing goes and it seems like to be honest Andrew I got to be honest. It seems like Chinese leaned out of it even though it still exists in Chinese history For some reason the Japanese lean into this whole like Ronan samurai thing. I'm not saying there isn't China There's Tao Tao who conquered a lot of northern central China I think specifically to adjust the Chinese situation because I guess a lot of people would say Chinese guys Need to hear this the most. I don't know on a ratio basis I would say there's an over-emphasis on Kong zi who is a Confucius not saying he's not good, but you know, there's mong zi Zhuang zi Tao Tao and of course Andrew, you know who else was a great Chinese philosopher Sun Zhu the art of war war general. Yeah, but how come we only just Keep her head in the books Looking like this guy. You know, it's funny. I think a lot of Chinese martial artists Studied Sun Zhu a lot more than like your average Chinese person And actually it's funny because a lot of military American military guys all war generals in America have read that book. It's a requirement. Yeah So American military guys are reading it Chinese martial artists are reading it But somewhere in the middle the average Chinese guy kind of missed the art of war. No, we're just reading mongas anyway We're getting into the comments section Andrew. Somebody said man to put it more simply It's really about being able to just defend your boundaries assertively And that is just a huge pain point for Asian guys just living a corporate lifestyle Maybe they're not in the streets or ever exposed to anything street.    It's more about just verbally and in your spirit being confident in yourself Seems like people really enjoy testing Asian guys boundaries. Yes Asian guys will get tested So you have to be ready and you have to be trained It's not about exploding all of a sudden and going super saying on the guy who asked you to move Right and was slightly rude to you. That's not what being a true warrior poet is about right right right? It's almost like you're you're keeping a steady pace rather than just like exploding out of nowhere because that's a little bit like Not as calibrated right right right somebody said man How can we learn to do this when I was growing up in high school? Everybody was picking on me because of my race saying I was small and that little did you know a classic Asian guy Stereotype no peepee and my dad told me to just ignore them and that just literally was not good advice Yeah, basically this guy saying like some Asian dads obviously not all them give the kids bad coaching even though Maybe it's not meant to be bad. It just is like ineffective in the moment, right? Oh, yeah, it's not the worst advice, but it's definitely not great advice I would say like there's definitely an in-between between Just ignore them and focus on your studies and then there's also on the far extreme. Well, just punch them in their face You know, it's not there's like an in-between of like Why are you going to defend and stand up for yourself knowing that and knowing if you're prepared to is a lot more important That's why I wouldn't just tell a random kid to go punch that person in the face because I'm like I don't know if you're trained to deal with what comes next if you punch them in the face, right? So you it's actually a whole process of Training and walking through the different scenarios and being able to like gather yourself together and staying calm so that you can defend yourself Yeah, it's very interesting situation because when you're around Asians everybody is like so non-confrontational And more harmonious and then when you come to the West man It could get so contentious But it's tough to like morally be against that when you're just trying to rise up the Western ladders and be effective Right, right, right.  It's all cultural What would Speaking softly and carrying a big stick in like the workplace mean because like I know in the streets If you literally have a weapon on you, that's technically a big stick If you got a gun on you got a knife or if you really know how to throw a punch then I guess you have a big stick boat I guess it would be maybe like Looking confident chest up being verbally dominant being really clear with your ideas and really clear what your boundaries are If somebody's trying to throw some work on one of your team members, but they need to work on your project being like hey Stop asking my team member to do work for your project. Like do you think some of Asian guys like lack of training or like lack of ability to do this some Asian guys lack of ability to do this Is it like kind of attributed to like maybe identity crisis? Like if you don't fully know who you are Then you don't necessarily know how to fully portray yourself and act. Yeah. Yeah, I think that it goes back to like what that original Author of this reddit post said so poetically where he was like saying do not mask your Infectiveness as like your gentle virtue. You know what I mean because he's like is it really? Yeah Hey, why don't you speak up at the meeting? You know, I'm just just one nice guy give other people the floor, you know, cuz I write a lot of emails Come on man Somebody said it is better to be feared than love from Machiavelli. Yeah I'm sure this sounds dubious and some pipe people might feel like he's devious or he was tortured But I think he probably just saw the truth raw truth of human nature Machiavelli Andrew Tupac a Bronx tale Sonny said it too. Um, what do you think man? Is it better to be feared than loved? I'll tell you this it's certainly more effective because it is true this I'll tell you this people do hurt people that they love but people rarely hurt people that they fear I always thought that that was actually true.   Some people said did it change from the 1970s and why does it seem like everybody perceives Asian guys in 2023 unless they're like a super thug You know, that's like big buff and tatted or whatever to be Harold from Harold and Kumar's character You mean there is a there's the comment saying that it seemed like Asian men were much more Protective and violent back in the early 70s. I think right you're saying was the Bruce Lee archetype Yeah, I think it was a harder time I think that immigrants were coming back were coming from a harder situation back then I do think that it was kind of like this was before like a lot of the Asian communities really developed and before they Really entered to be honest like high positions in corporate America.  Was this before all the sad boys synth wave pop? It's yeah, it's going crazy right before the raves to way before the the split bang haircuts way before the Let me just say this man I think Keshie and Joji sound good on a late-night drive to but that just does not remind me of warrior music Or testosterone for music. I don't know you tell me you wouldn't listen to it if you're March, I don't know where you march somebody said, you know It has to do with Nietzsche Nietzsche was a famous Western philosopher He's talking about master and slave morality from the Greeks and or there was Aristotle He said the strong will do what they will the weak suffer what they must it's a hawks and doves in game theory What's the morality of a hawk eating a fish because obviously a fish is a prey a hawk is a Bird of a hunter. Yeah. Yeah, right. Um, somebody said you got to read Miyamoto musashi Mmm, and I just said man, how come everybody's just focused on churrasse's Miyamoto musashi was a guy who had 66 duels back in feudal Japan Andry was the samurai became a ronin and he ran he wrote like a bunch about life Isn't Miyamoto musashi also opening up at New Omakase in New York City. Yeah, I'm just kidding.  I don't know if everybody's gonna be like this crazy like Guy and he they could lead people to have the swenjalum pendulum swing too far in the other direction What about flavors of strength and standing up for yourself that are frankly more in the middle are more effective? Yeah, so I think the truth is it's like it's not about just learning to be more aggressive You can notice that we didn't focus on the word aggressive today. That's not the key to this It's actually like training and more understanding Where and how you're gonna defend your boundaries and your body and your mind, right? It's and it's understanding why you're doing that not just exploding and having this rage of aggression That's not necessarily good. That's toxic that can turn into easily domestic abuse You can hurt someone you love you can hurt someone that you don't love but on accident You know, that's where the fear of toxic masculinity comes in a play, right?  Yeah, and you know why people explode is like I don't know if this is exactly how volcanoes work But it's because they like hold it in bottle it up And then the volcano shakes and weights and weights and then something tricks And then it blows up into this huge eruption versus, you know the little Volcano that's constantly steaming or always spewing out lava You know what I mean? Like I don't know like There's an everyday way to deal with things instead of bottling up and then it turning into rage Which is actually what you don't want. Yeah I think that that happens when you have a simplistic view of it And that's why there was all these people in this thread saying read the art of war Read Miyamoto Musashi and all these check out two lambs channel modern Navy seal guy Anyway, let's just get into our takeaways overall. I'm gonna go ahead and say this Andrew all in all I guess it depends on what fish bowls what industries how you want to shape shift your life Overall, I think in America this is just true. What's true? No, the guy's assertion that it's better to be a warrior in a garden than a garden in a gardener in a war But yeah, like you said, I don't even know if America outside of a few protected pockets like Irvine, California Is a garden. I don't think America is a garden. I think Cities in East Asia like Tokyo Shanghai Hong Kong Singapore those are gardens Those are like very like low crime very little to worry about Statistically a guard less aggression like just period but a lot of people they come from those places and They bring that garden like attitude to America, which America is definitely maybe In certain parts of the jungle, but also I would say most of America's at least a hike or a forest Right. It's not a garden. Anyways, I would say, you know As an Asian guy myself like how does one become more of a warrior in my opinion? Like I said, like, you know, I do think training martial arts and not just wanting to fight people But actually wanting to train is a good way You learn a lot about yourself and you learn how to deal with Adrenaline rush and things like that also I do think people do need to like play a sport like basketball or something with a lot of like tense Situations that could pop up where you deal with them constantly you Yeah, you have to be able to yell at each other and have this type of communication in the midst of a competition or war Right, so you have to train yourself by doing that type of thing Yeah, and then I would say, you know, those things would make you more confident in life Yeah, let us know what you think of This general statement in the comment section below and what do you think are some good recommendations? If it's true how people can sort of sink into this thing I'm actually gonna look more into the Miyamoto Musashi stuff. That's cool Yeah, let us know in the comments down below what you think the easiest way is for a man to become a warrior Is it to take a knife fighting class to take a Krav Maga class of MMA Muay Thai? What you got to go to the gun range at the fire of the sheet. Oh blade. Yeah, or go become a sushi chef I don't know what it is. You let me know what you think is the best way Do you believe that Asian men in America especially should try to be more warrior like and what does that mean? Let us know. Thank you so much for watching the hot pot boys Hopefully that conversation was helpful and until next time we out. Peace


Hello and welcome to the channel. So I'm just having a peek inside my grow tent today and as you can see it is pretty empty. I don't have a lot going on yet. I've only got two things growing in here right now and one of them is my cucumber. This is a diva cucumber that I started from seed. I think it's been over two weeks, three weeks since it's sprouted and as you can see the roots are going crazy already. So this is in the crack key method. So I have nutrient water and just have the hydro balls growing or covering up the container here to keep the light out. I started in a piece of rock wool and it's starting to get to that four leaf stage so it's coming along nicely and over here is my tomato plant that I had taken a cutting from a garden tomato this fall rooted it and then set it up also in crack key and when I was having a look here today I could tell things were not looking very good with this plant so I was wondering what was going on and then had a look here into my container and this poor plant is almost drank up all the nutrient water. See if you can see there there's just a little bit left in the bottom. So that's something to think about when you're doing crack key is making sure you're checking your water levels.  So I mixed up a new batch of nutrient water using the measurements for the aggressive growth level that's on the chart on the container so it's got a little more of the grow a little less of the micro and even a little less of the bloom. So it's still focusing on growing the plant even though I do have a little bit of blooming going on I went with that. I also added five mils of calmake so it's getting some extra calcium and magnesium and then all I do is just top this up and I usually fill it about about halfway full. So with the cracking method you always make sure that you those roots are getting air. They need air to breathe and to grow so you don't want to fully submers those air roots under the liquid or they will drown and kill the plant. So I filled that about halfway full and I'm sure if I come back tomorrow this will be perked right up and these leaves will be looking healthy again. So just something to remember once your plants really start growing aggressively that they will drink that water up very quickly. I always make sure I have a jug of nutrient water mixed up and then I can just top up my plants as they need it. My cucumbers you can see still has lots of water in here but as this cucumber grows and starts spreading and blooming it will drink down that water a lot faster.  I personally do not worry about dumping out the whole container and you know filling it up with a whole new batch. I just used the top up system. I've been doing that for the last few years and it has worked pretty good for me. So today I'm going to be planting up some more vegetables to add to my grow tans. I've been doing some more tomatoes, green pepper and maybe a strawberry if I can find some seeds and so stay tuned for those videos coming up on the channel. If you haven't already done so please hit that subscribe button. Leave me a comment and we will see you on the next video.