Surviving Or Thriving?

This week we're talking survival of the fittest. We're talking natural selection. We're talking about success. We're talking about legacies the future, the past, and everything that brought us to this point. Yeah, I know it sounds like a pretty big undertaking, but, you know, we're going to keep it light, keep it fun, keep the ideas flowing, like Mimosa's at Brunch. So last week, if you tuned in, you know, we were on the topic of punishment and reward.

And another super special thanks to our guest, Thomas Williams. He really dropped some gems. If you guys haven't listened in yet, go ahead, get on it. But, you know, I like to piggyback and build off previous weeks to give a sense of continuity. So we were talking punishment, and it got me thinking about a lot of things, about how this country is so quick to cage and contain people like animals, from children to visionaries. And it got me thinking about what it really takes to survive and truly thrive in this world, which naturally led me to this topic. Now, everyone's heard the t

erm natural selection, but if not, I'll break it down. In the simplest terms. It's a concept coined by Charles Darwin in the 18 hundreds to explain how organisms that have better adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and pass on the genes that aided their success as a species. Straightforward enough, right? And sensible. In essence, practical. And i

f you ask me, it's a great lens through which we can more accurately view the growth potential of a race. Although I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that it's also been the basis for quite a few aggressively radical thinkers in this world. Take Hitler, for instance. Sadly, he used an idea similar to that of natural selection and survival of the fittest to support and justify his goal of cleansing what he deemed weaker races from the world. And likewise, many white nationalists and supremacists have followed suit to perpetuate hate over the years. But that's even leaning more into the realm of artificial selection, where humans identify and screen desirable traits themselves. And while I'm in no way downplaying the horror or significance of those events, we're focusing more on the unbiased scientific definition today. So what is survival? What does it mean to you? Well, the word itself actua

lly comes from two Latin words super, which means above, over, or beyond, and devere, which means to live. So we get to live beyond and as much as you hear people talking about their legacy, especially men, you'd be surprised how little we actually utilize the traits that truly aid in our species longevity. We are in a time that affords us the longest projected lifespan in our history. Our brains are literally able to live to about 115. And yet very few of us have found the distinction or balance between surviving and truly thriving in our time on this planet. Now, don't go thinking that this is some uplifting shit about how to thrive and live your best life. That's on you. I'm not your therapist. I'm just going to hit you guys wit

h some real raw facts here the actual factuals, with my not so expert opinion mixed in there. Of course, some will say that thriving today means being successful, having money and power and influence, et cetera. And I mean, they wouldn't necessarily be wrong in saying this. In the past, the idea of the fittest has often been applied to what the highest society valued capitalism and political power. The leaders of that capitalistic world, people like the Rockefellers and the Carnegie's and many more, took hold of this idea and applied it to themselves. A social Darwinism is the application of one interpretation of the law o

f evolution. Those who succeeded in society were superior to those who did not succeed. To be successful and ruthless at business was no different than a tiger killing for food. It was the way of the world. Those who failed to succeed in business were considered unfit and it was reason should be treated as such. They believed certain people became powerful in society because they are innately better. But that's not what we're getting at here. And I hope we all subscribe to the idea that no one is any better than anyone else. Meaning of course, that Gandhi was not a better person than Hitler and you're no better than that homeless man on the street. Now, your circumstances may be better, or one

may possibly be better at certain things than another person, but there is no one among us who is superior. While this fact may be unsettling for some, I tend to find it rather liberating. I also found freedom in the fact that many people, myself included, do not require power to be successful. Many of us can thrive without it. A success to me simply means more. More happiness, more love, more life. But you know, in the physical sense, the first thing that comes to mind when I think survival is fight or flight. It's a basic instinct that has benefited both humans and animals alike since the beginning of time. You know, it's that internal stress response that senses danger and readys us for battle or tells us to get the hell out of dodge. And there are many situations that may arise in our lives today that require us to make use of that innate skill. Yeah, just thought I'd spell that out because a lot of you guys out here today might be unfamiliar considering toting guns shooting up public areas, subsequently missing your target and then rapping about killing each other like you haven't has taken the place of traditional hand to hand combat. Like whatever happened to fisticuffs? You know? Gentlemen's, duels Nick is just don't square up no more. And if we're being honest, females be quicker to fight today than guys, which is a whole shame. Do better. I know I said I'm not your therapist, but y'all watch less reality TV. It's literally poison. See no evil, you know? Come on. Anyway, while obviously none of us are fighting to the actual death out here anymore many people do have to wake up every day and fight for their lives in one way or another. And then you still have those people who simply view life as a competition and a vicious one at bat. The true test often lies in how we handle these situations. Which of us will stand up and face it, embrace it and which of us will run away from it? It's like if you watched Mean Girls and if you haven't, what the fuck are you doing with your life thus far? But Katie saw high school as a jungle, right? And she was spot on in a lot of ways, life is wild. Many see it as sink or swim, kill or be killed. And it's funny, but I like to look to animals as a great indication of what it takes to survive in unforgiving or less than favorable circumstances. After all, animals are what Darwin was initially studying but the concepts are universally relevant in my opinion. We can learn so much from animals. They're so intuitive with people, with their surroundings. You know how they can sense when a bad storm is coming? Yeah, like that. Now, side note, that doesn't mean I'm a vegan or a vegetarian. I tried it, but I'm sorry. I like my red meat. Don't kill me. Kill the cows. Whip yourself up a burger to take the edge off if that offended you. And if that did offend you, fight me. I'm bullshitting. Y'all. I'm not ashamed to say that in many instances throughout my life I find myself leaning more towards flight than fight. Not because I'm a punk, not because I'm pussy. But because I often find the situation can be solved simply by keeping a level head and removing yourself from the equation. Now, don't get me wrong, we can definitely take it there but I'm too pretty to fight. Might fuck around and break a nail. Speaking of breaking points, that leads us to my next point. Survival, at its core, is all about adaptation, right? Adaptability, flexibility. And for the most part, I think most of us don't have a problem adapting to new normals. This, of course, is, for a number of reasons, the most obvious of which being that change is a constant in this world. But there's another interesting way to look at this sidebound. You guys ever heard of conditioning? No, not your hair. You know, like training. You give a dog a treat when they do something good, spritz of water when he does something bad, something like that. And that tactic is obviously used for animals, though shit, it may work on your significant other too. Spritz a nigga with some water next time you want to do something stupid and tell me how it turns out. Abstract audio is not liable for any ass whippings you may receive. But as far as human conditioning goes, I feel that in reality, we create the conditions that in turn condition us. This meaning a few things to me personally. One, that we are all, one with the universe perpetuating a never ending cycle of lend lease that has often been deemed the circle of life. And two, that because of this, instead of working or fighting against or around our environment to survive, those that work with it and use it to their advantage tend to get further. In other words, no one has to necessarily be smarter, stronger than another person. They have to be more flexible. Don't work against the system to thrive, work with it, make it work for you.

Of course, that's often easier said than done, especially when it comes to black people or minorities. They say we always need to try harder than our counterparts. Work five times harder, be ten times better, because we were set at such a disadvantage from early on. So of course, our view of success is often limited and is very nuanced.

But regardless, the changes that we introduce into our environment, that alter the environment, feed back into ourselves as we're influenced, affected and shaped by that new environment. Take for instance, how quickly the Internet became our new normal. We created, then adapted to that environment. Or an even better example, the pandemic. If COVID taught us anything, it's that normal is subjective, it's also relative, and it's leading, as is life. Even though, in my opinion, COVID was staged and planned also, as is life. Of course, for some of us, it also served as an eye opener, gave us all a lot of time to think, forced us all to sit with ourselves. But what I also found interesting about the experience and of course I can't speak for everyone here, but it tested our limits, right? Our mental resilience. For many, it became about learning from experience, experimenting with new tactics, approaching new situations with a growth mindset, and then applying these lessons in real time to new situations. This is something animals can do quickly. And if they don't, what happens? They die out. Same with us.

The real key principle or takeaway here to me, though, is that while none among us are more fit in terms of inset superiority, I noticed over the years. That true. Leaders in this life need to first be learners, even in the most challenging circumstances. And I feel the pandemic played a big part in sorting the leaders from those who just feel more comfortable being led. There's no fittest by traditional terms anymore. We all just exist. But there are leaders and there are followers. One is no better than the other, just different. Like, there are those that go the extra mile and those who are all right with the bare minimum just getting by. There are sheep and there are wolves.

Despite this fact, it's really the focus aspect that truly worries me in terms of our collective futures. Like, animals can lock onto their prey, right? They can stop them for hours, even days at times. They can be in the present and alert in the moment. But this is where humans seem to be lacking the most these days. It seems like we can't go five minutes without checking our phones. We suffer from that short term escapism. That attention span deficit is holding us back. We allow our brains to drift into the past or the future, but we rarely place focus in the present, the now, and it's killing us. Like, the average attention span in 2023 is just shy of like, 8 seconds. It's been declining slowly from like, 12 seconds in the year 2000 to 8 seconds in recent years. And to give you some context there, the average goldfish's attention span is about 9 seconds. And of course, we did it to ourselves. I mean, or rather, I should say they did it to us. Regardless, that concentration of attention or effort is something many of us find more and more difficult to accomplish. But in truth, they want us distracted by any means necessary because focus is so vital. It's the gateway to all thinking, perception, creativity, memory, learning, reasoning, problem solving, and decision making. Without good focus, all aspects of your ability to think will suffer. Here's a simple fact it's reality. You can't focus effectively. You can't think effectively. They want us distracted by any means necessary because focus is so vital. It's the gateway to all thinking, perception, creativity, memory, learning, reasoning, problem solving, and decision making. Without good focus, all aspects of your ability to think will suffer. I mean, not like we as humans were thinking so effectively before. You know, they say we only use about 10% of our brains. And because of this, our instinctual brain actually takes over more times than we'd like to admit. That caveman brain kicks in a lot. For instance, if we're on the topic of brutes, why do you think humans are so fascinated by, say, mass murderers if their actions are considered so universally evil and vile? I mean, we watch murder documentaries, listen to murder mystery podcast about serial killers, and chat about them over coffee. We watch beheadings on YouTube. We stare at bad car accidents way longer than we should stand by while people kill themselves on the regular. We're endlessly fascinated by it. It's like we can't look away. These things hold our focus and attention because we want to know the conditions. And perhaps that interest is formed from a place of education or self preservation, maybe hoping we'd be better equipped to handle life or death situations such as these, should they arise? Or have we all subconsciously accepted the kill or be killed? Only the strong survive mindset? Or do they just appeal to our most primal animalistic of senses?

Either way, in today's world, regardless of where you fall on the survival of the fittest scale, primal is typically disregarded as a degenerative way of being right, though I don't agree with that at all. I think some of our best instincts are savage, primal ones that aid us in the progress of our species and our personal progress alike. At the end of the day, surviving is doing what's necessary to live. Thriving is not being satisfied with just surviving, but reaching above this to make continual progress. People that thrive today utilize a lot of the innate skills the animals that Darwin studied all those years ago did. They were just trying to survive and adapt to their surroundings like we all are today. The difference is, now we live in a time where our senses have been dulled, our sensitivities heightened, our kids are given participation trophies just for showing up rather than for excelling, when in reality, we should be teaching them that a thriving mindset is defined not just by doing the bare minimum, but by continually challenging yourself. Challenging yourself to have a better career, being more fulfilled, being more rewarded or be happier, focusing, being engaged, seizing the moment, trusting the flow of life rather than always needing to try to control it or fight it. It's true. Survival of the fittest implies that the strong will succeed and the weak will perish, that the fittest will be successful and they shall rule the weaker because they are the most fit to do so. But in today's brutal world, you no longer have to be traditionally strong or powerful or even rich by societal standards to survive. But if nothing else, we must have a strong presence of mind if we're expected to truly thrive.