We’re living in a time of mental warfare.

Endless notifications, fake news, and cheap dopamine threaten to steal our attention.

Our minds are under constant attack.

People are more stressed, lost, and confused than ever before.

But there’s opportunity in this chaos…

The Invisible Enemy

Most people don’t know what they want, what to think, or what to do. So they resort to living life on autopilot — subject to whatever happenstance crosses their way.

They don’t know what they want they want, so they take the default path. They don’t know what to believe, so they adopt the beliefs everyone else believes. They don’t know what to do, so they engage in cheap pleasures.

The problem?

Your uncertainty becomes your prison.

As the saying goes, “Indecision is a decision.” Inaction is an action. If you’re not sure what you want in life, others will define it for you.

When I say there’s a mental war being fought, it’s not against the “puppet masters”, government, or big businesses that many people like to scapegoat.

At the end of the day, the mental war is against yourself. Everything else: the economy, the stock market, inflation, all of it… can’t be controlled.

But what can you control?

You can control how well you prepare yourself for any situation. Are you building the foundational skills, honing your craft, and becoming an articulate human being?

Are you constantly improving? Constantly upgrading your physical hardware (your body), and your mental software (your mind)?

Are you learning new perspectives, challenging your mind, and pushing the limits of your understanding?

As Robert Greene once said, “You must declare unceasing war on yourself.”

It’s you vs. you.

It’s you vs. your mind.

How do you ensure victory?

This is the best way I know how…

The ARC Method

I. Acquire Knowledge

Imagine you just started playing the game of chess — and you wanted to get really good. What would be the first thing you do to improve? Obviously, you would study the game. You’d learn the rules, analyze the greats, and probably watch a few tutorials, right?

Now switch back to your regular self. Nearly everyone wants to be successful in the game of life. Yet few people take the time to acquire the necessary knowledge it takes to be successful.

The first step to preparing your mind is to become a student of history. In other words… read more.

Yes, the piece of advice every teacher has once preached to you is true. Swap out mindless consumption for intentional knowledge acquisition. Immerse yourself in the mental reality you’ve created for yourself. Hunt for useful ideas, and you’ll gain a newfound sense of clarity.

With the same inputs, you’ll end up with the same results. But with better inputs, anything is possible.

II. Reorganize Your Mind

As you read, and gain insight into the perspectives of others, take note of the ideas that stand out to you.

Ask yourself: “What do I really think about this? Do I really believe that? Or is that what I think I’m supposed to believe?”

The goal isn’t to collect ideas, it’s to connect ideas. Essentially, you’re having a conversation with both the author and yourself.

• What does this remind me of?

• How is this different?

• What's a metaphor for this?

• What story supports this?

• What story contradicts this?

• What does this make me feel?

h/t: PJ Milani for those connection questions

Note-taking is sense-making. It’s reverse engineering powerful ideas and gaining a deeper understanding of what you believe. Not what others have told you you should believe.

This is the backbone of everything else you do.

• What do you believe in?
• What do you value?
• What’s your POV?

You are recreating your lens and worldview. If it feels hard, or you feel like there’s tension… good. There should be. Because you’re reconstructing your idealogy.

Reorganizing your mind is hard. Having a disorganized mind is harder.

III. Create Clarity For Yourself (And Others)

The antidote to a chaotic mind is creation.

In other words, you must become articulate.

ar·tic·u·late: having the ability to communicate fluently and coherently.

There are two parts to becoming articulate:

1. The thinking (internal)

2. The communicating (external)

Acquiring knowledge, taking careful notes, and reflecting on your thoughts will help you become a clearer thinker.

Many people focus on mastering communication before they know what they think about a topic. This results in a world of copycats, parrots, and “commodity creators”. You must introspect before you project.

Once you know what you think about a topic or problem — then focus on delivering a compelling message.

You improve your communication through deliberate reps. To get better at speaking, speak. To get better at writing, write. To improve your communication, you must constantly communicate.

Of course, there’s more nuance to both thinking clearly and communicating effectively. But for now, focus on the 20% that produces 80% of the results. Focus on the fundamentals of articulation.

In short…

1. Learn to gain inspiration

2. Strategize to gain clarity

3. Execute to gain understanding

The ARC Method doesn’t just apply to your mind.

It applies to nearly every domain of life.

If you’re building a business, you need to learn, strategize, and execute. If you’re writing an article, you need to learn, strategize, and execute. If you’re playing chess, you need to learn, strategize, and execute.

You don’t fight back by getting angry, cursing the enemy, or drowning yourself in self-pity.

You fight back by acquiring the necessary knowledge, reorganizing your mind, and creating clarity for both yourself and others.

Mental preparation is hard, but losing the war against your mind is harder.

“Nobody can save you but yourself, and you’re worth saving. It’s a war not easily won but if anything is worth winning — this is it." - Charles Bukowski

Jay “Save Yourself” Yang

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