From Chaos To Order: Victory, The Arnold Way
Chaos is a crucial component of order. Why you must learn to cooperate with chaos.
Hi everyone! Before you read on, I just want to say thank you so much for taking the time to click on this article. To those of you who have subscribed and interacted with me over the last 10 weeks on Substack, an even bigger thank you! Words can’t describe how much I appreciate the support. Writing is changing my life. It’s the most fulfiling thing I’ve done in my 27 years. I never expected to be doing this. Every time someone takes the time to subscribe, comment, interact, or like a post, it puts a huge smile on my face.
So without wasting more time, I hope you enjoy the article!
Who do you want to be with?
Where do you want to live?
What do you want to do?
While the questions above are really hard to answer, they are major decisions that determine the direction of your life. Your life is going to be chaotic. There’s really no way to avoid it.
Chaos is a crucial component of order.
You have two choices.
Embrace the chaos and give it the attention it requires.
Or, ignore it. Let it get to a point where there is so much pressure in your head that your brains eventually explode all over your bathroom wall.
Life Will Be Ordered If You Embrace The Chaos.
I’m reading a book called The Kybalion. I had to start over twice because I had no clue what was going on. It’s a tough read.
One thing I’ve learned from reading the book is The Principle of Polarity.
It explains that everything has two extremes, two poles, a pair of opposites. Order and chaos are two extremes. Chaos represents disorder, unpredictability, and confusion. Order represents structure, predictability, and clarity. These two forces blend into one another, and you can’t have one without the other.
You can’t describe life as orderly if it wasn’t disorderly before. Anyway, when does something shift from disorder to order? There’s no precise point. It flows.
When life is chaotic, it’s crucial to cooperate with the chaos.
Don’t be scared of it.
Don’t resist it.
Lean into it.
Love it.
You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star — Nietzsche
We have to cooperate with the chaos because it can help us find our dancing star. Everyone has a dancing star somewhere inside them.
Many of our stars have been asleep for a very long time.
Some of us are not even trying to find it.
We’d rather it remain dead.
If you’re reading this, and you say your life isn’t chaotic, great. But are you springing up out of bed in the morning feeling like a dancing star? If not, the chaos is there. It’s going to appear sooner or later.
Confront the chaos.
Cooperate with it.
That’s the only way you’re going to bring your sleeping star to life.
Without Selective Interest, Experience Is Chaos
Chaos is merely order waiting to be deciphered — José Saramago
Chaos is common if you are trying to do 4,571 things at once.
From experience, I’ve learned that trying to do too many things is bad for my mental health, motivation, and my ability to learn. More importantly, doing too many things at once means I’m barely getting better at anything. I don’t spend enough time delving into one specific skill or topic.
has a great article on the topic of Skewed Balance. (I linked an article of his a few weeks ago as well, I promise he’s not paying me).But that’s not to say you should specialize in one area.
Your dancing star has ten sides for a reason.
It’s possible to order the chaos in your life by tackling one thing at a time.
How Arnold Lived A Chaotically Ordered Existence
While writing this article I thought of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Arnold the bodybuilder.
Arnold the movie star.
Arnold the politician.
He wouldn’t have been able to do all three of these things at the same time. If he did, he would have probably started bench pressing Donald Trump while holding an AK-47. All while thinking he was filming The Terminator.
It would have all got very confusing for Arnie.
The point is that Arnold didn’t try do everything at once. He was selective with his interests.
He dedicated himself fully to each task.
He took them one at a time.
He ordered the chaos.
Many of us want to accomplish many things. But there are only 24 hours in a day. What do you want to work on in the next 6 months? Be selective with your interests. Otherwise, the chaos will overwhelm you and you’ll feel like crap.
Sixty Second Summary
Chaos is not a bad thing.
It’s a necessary aspect of life.
You must be aware of it. You must take action to manage it correctly.
Disorder into order. Confusion into clarity. Dark into light.
Cooperate with your chaos.
You can’t do everything at once.
Order the chaos in your life by focusing on one thing at a time.
Otherwise, the progress you make in each area of your life will feel slow. You’re more likely to give up because you’re not seeing results.
And your star won’t be shining or dancing.
Your star will be as flat as a starfish that’s found its way onto a motorway and got run over by Arnold zooming past on his Harley Davidson Fat Boy.
Attend to one thing at a time. You’ll see results faster. You will stay motivated.
Push your interests sequentially, not simultaneously.
There can be no order without chaos.
Order the chaos in your life.
Great article as always Stefano! I learnt some new things, I tend to always strive for perfection, for perfect order in my life. But I need to learn to embrace that chaos, to learn to Iove that chaos, to confront it, and to cooperate with it. It'll definitely make it easier to deal with.
Also, I really appreciate the shoutout, again!
Much love brother.
My son, you did me proud! 👍✌️👏
I can sense so much improvement in your mental stability n confidence! 💪
Be determine but relax, keep forging ahead but rest is required too! 🙏😊