How Most People Self-Destruct Their Inner Citadel
- Original Professional Hustler
- Mar 25
- 7 min read
It is easy to say you are mentally strong but how do you actually know?
HELL & BRIMSTONE
“My life is full of setbacks, adversity and struggle. The moments of triumph are the breaths I take before the next wave. Does your life feel like this too?”
THE INNER ARCH
It may sound contradictory to hear it out loud, but did you know an arch gets more stable as you add weight to it? Through pressure and more load the arch becomes unmovable. This is the opposite of what we are taught in society.
Society wants convenience.
I scroll through social media, and I am bombarded with ads. They advertise things like: “Get your business on track fast!”, “Learn to Life Coach with 3 Easy Steps”, and my favorite, “Do this one simple thing to be successful”
Does anyone honestly believe this?
One thing for certain in life is we will experience hardship. We will be blindsided. We will be unpleasantly surprised. Life will derail us at some point. We must leave the delusion we can prepare so meticulously we can avoid the pressure which comes from pain or suffering. We must build our foundation on the firm foundation that pain and suffering is an inevitable pressure of life.
Much as the arch becomes unmovable with added pressure — we become resilient from the pain and suffering of life through small measurable self-pressure.
LACK OF INNER ARCH
People Without An Arch Say: I am not sure if I can handle the pressure. My world is falling apart right now. I can’t carry on.
How They Approach Life: There’s no way I’m staying somewhere with no A/C. I want to take the path of least resistance. Let me make sure I don’t get stuck in traffic.
Lack of Struggle: These people consistently design their life around comfort, convenience and effortless service. There is no struggle in Amazon Prime, there is no discomfort in only five star hotels and ordering take out every night teaches one only the lack of simple effort to feed oneself.
How It Illustrates:
Present Situation — “The only workout time available is between 430AM and 530AM before my kids go to school.”
Present Response — “I have no time to workout. I’ll be too tired throughout the day if I wake up that early.”
What This Response Does:
It weakens your willpower and resilience. Like a muscle you must train it every day in order to be strong. If you never walked again your leg muscles would be too weak to stand. Just ask astronauts who stay in space too long.
You tell your mind subconsciously not to experience the temporary discomfort of being sleepy for the benefits of long-term health. You are conditioning your mind to make poor overall decisions for your overall health. We need no citations here to know that exercise is good for you. Exercise lowers your chances for every disease imaginable.
You train yourself to make excuses instead of searching for solutions. By making an excuse not to do something which benefits you learn lack of solution is fine. When life confronts you with any adversity you are learning to throw up your hands and not find your way forward.
The Importance of Building An Inner Arch
Through small measurable challenges you increase the mental load you are able to bare. Three tons is not automatically placed on a single block. Perfect symmetrical blocks of measured weight are placed one at a time in successive order. As time passes the weight the base stone supports increases. When the Capstone is placed it holds nearly the same stone as the first stone. The difference is the first stone bears the weight of all others without being crushed. If placed immediately the stone would crumble. Similar, of your base (mind) to hold the weight of so much starts with increasing small loads of voluntary discomfort over time.
Three Small Stones To Add To Your Arch (Use Them)
Early Morning Wake Up. Begin by waking up earlier than necessary. The point is to create a routine where at some point you will have modest fatigue throughout the day. This allows you to deal with a minor inconvenience and push through it. This is important because you need to push through hard things in life.
Take Time To Do A Manual Process. You can do something as simple as make coffee with a French Press. You must wait patiently to boil water and then slowly press the grounds down. This small action teaches you that real life does not always happen immediately. You learn patience. You also learn to value the process versus only desiring results. Pressing a single button and walking away does not teach you about process. Life is not like that. You must go through a process in life. There is no push of a button and wait for it to take care of itself in life.
Regularly Maintenance A Small Item. Take the time to purposefully select something which requires you to care for it in order to maintain its attractiveness. For instance, you care for a small indoor plant. To ensure it stays alive you must water it and give it proper sunlight. This requires you to make sure you take care of something and plan for it accordingly to survive different seasons.
The Value of This Philosophy
Early rising enhances productivity, supports cognitive health, fosters a deeper connection with nature, and contributes to physical health. (2)
Doing chores encourages people to develop into thriving people (especially children) and shows increased participation in workplace productivity. (3)
Research suggests that active interaction with indoor plants can reduce physiological and psychological stress. (4)
Your 7 Day Hustle Challenge
Day 1–5: Randomly wake up early between 5–6 AM. Train your body to increase its productivity by challenging yourself to fill in a schedule where you were once asleep.
Day 5–6. Get an indoor plant and care for it. Do some research on the plant and make a list to confirm you are doing what is necessary to not neglect the plant.
Day 7: Reflect: Do you notice your mood improving during the day? Have you found you are more informed prior to making decisions? Looking back over the course of the week how many things did you accomplish during the extra time you allotted yourself?
IN CLOSING
I do not wish my personal circumstances on anyone. It is for this reason that now I am the ultimate authority on what not to do. My much-anticipated new book “Turning Indictments To Dollars” talks about how to avoid the pitfalls I suffered. If you are accused of something you know you didn’t do — this book will offer you the path which grants you success. Trust me you will want to Sign up for free during the pre-release period to take advantage of unique $0.99 pricing on launch.
Sign up for free to listen free of charge to my chapter in “Many Paths To Profit”. You can pick up a copy of my international best-selling and award winning book, “I Made It Then I Didn’t” as well for a deeper insight.
The concept I teach in this article is free. Some of my personal stories are not free of charge as everything costs something. The techniques I discuss in this article I use. Resources tend to increase our capacity to eliminate what we call inconvenience. In truth, these things are not inconvenient. They are powerful lessons which ensure we are strong enough to deal with life. By eliminating all your manual processes, you might be eliminating the foundation of your inner citadel. An immovable arch is made by placing small measurable incremental weight.
No wonder most people crack under pressure. They have one single stone to support all the weight life will put on them. Don’t be the rock which cracks under ordinary pressure. Add the small stones of discipline discussed in this article to ensure you are not crushed by life’s inevitable load of adversity.
To Your Knowledge Success!
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Sources
1) The life of Christopher Knight Lopez a Professional Hustler turned International Best Seller and Published Author of “I Made It Then I Didn’t”.
2) Integrative Psychology. “The Benefits of Waking Up Early: Enhancing Mental Health and Overall Well-being”. Web Link: https://www.integrative-psych.org/resources/the-benefits-of-waking-up-early-enhancing-mental-health-and-overall-well-being#:~:text=Waking%20up%20early%2C%20specifically%20between,and%20contributes%20to%20physical%20health. Accessed 25 March 2025.
3) Brown University. Child & Adolescent Behavior Letter. “Chores: Why They Matter, How to Engage Children and Developmental Benefits”. Richard Rende PhD. 2021.
4) J Physiol Anthropol. “Interaction with indoor plants may reduce psychological and physiological stress by suppressing autonomic nervous system activity in young adults: a randomized crossover study”. Min-sun Lee, Juyoung Lee, Bum-Jin Park, Yoshifumi Miyazaki. 2015 Apr 28;34(1):21. doi: 10.1186/s40101-015-0060-8.
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Not a form of investment advice. Please consult a professional registered to give you advice about your individual circumstance. This article is for educational purposes and entertainment purposes only. Please do not email the author about advice on investing or strategies on making investments.
About Christopher: Christopher Knight Lopez is a Professional Hustler turned International Best Seller, Award Winner of the December 2024 prestigious International Impact Book Awards — a premier award program dedicated to celebrating and recognizing the exceptional work of authors around the globe and Published Author of “I Made It Then I Didn’t”. He is also a Co-Author with Kevin “The Shark” Harrington “Many Paths To Profit”. Christopher has opened over 7 businesses in his 15-year career. Christopher’s purpose is to take advantage of various market-driven opportunities. Christopher is a certified Master Project Manager (MPM), and Accredited Financial Analyst (AFA). Christopher previously held his Series 65 securities license examination and was a Master Financial Planner (MFP). Christopher also held his General Lines — Life, Accident, Health & HMO. Christopher has managed a combined 286mm USD in reported Assets Under Management & Assets Under Advisement. Christopher has work experience in 33 countries, raised over 50mm USD for various businesses, and grossed over 13.0mm in his personal career. Christopher worked in the highly technical industries of: biotechnology, finance, securities, manufacturing, real estate, and residential mortgages. Christopher is a United States Air Force Veteran. Christopher has a passion for family, competitive sports, fishing, martial arts and advocacy for entrepreneurs. Christopher provides self-help classes for up-and-coming entrepreneurs. Christopher’s passion to mentor comes from belief that entrepreneurs need guidance. The world is full of conflicting information about entrepreneur identity. See more at www.christopherklopez.com.
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