It happens. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
THE EVOLUTION OF AVERAGE
If you consider—as we do—that every great change you make in your life is an adventure, then the starting point for your journey is your Ordinary World. It’s a world that you know, whether it’s tame and sane or chaotic and destructive. However, it’s a world you also want to leave. That’s why you have this book. If you were happy with where you are, you would not seek change; if on some level you didn’t crave that change, you would not be reading these words right now.
But it’s good that you are—because change is exactly what Engineering the Alpha is about.
We want this book to do more for you than just help you get in shape.
Don’t get us wrong. We’re happy to pack ten pounds of muscle onto your body, drop you to less than 10 percent fat, and make your sex life almost too much to handle. And these changes will happen. We’ll teach you why optimizing your hormones is the key to everything, and we’ll share the science and real world results that make this an undeniable truth.
But more than anything, we want this book to serve as a blueprint and a guide to creating your own version of the Hero’s Journey. Remember, the goal of all of this is to engineer you into the Alpha version of you . And in order for that to happen, you must reach a moment of Apotheosis—one of the late stages of the Hero’s Journey—which is when you achieve, even if only for a second, the highest level of self-awareness.
Remember, these things don’t just apply to mythology; this is an essential psychological process that you need to go through in order to reach your goals, and apotheosis is one of the most important steps in that process. It’s the moment when you become who you were meant to be.
Your hormones make these improvements possible, but the biggest hurdle is learning how to navigate the journey and not fall victim to the traps and barriers that sidetrack the ordinary man.
By avoiding those, you’ll unlock your truest and highest levels of potential. And when that happens, no dream scenario—whether it’s for your career, your body, or your personal life—will be untouchable.
But none of this is possible until you realize that you need to pave your own path and stop jumping around from one program to another, taking an ADD approach to changing your life from the inside out. You need to go big . Invest in your search for the truth and play out your hand with confidence so that you can see what happens when you make a gamble on the only investment that always pays out: yourself.
BACK TO THE GAME: ARE YOU ALL IN?
The pot was now at just under three grand. Could be a good haul. But now that Adam had brought me back into the debate, I was focused on Campbell.
“I think,” I began, just as the dealer laid out the next card, “it’s relatable if you explain it correctly. It’s not just about myths. It’s about being a hero, being more than you are. Evolving. It’s about—”
“Becoming the Alpha,” Adam finished with a smile. “It’s to you, by the way.”
The action was to me, that is. Another card had appeared on the board; Trucker Hat had checked, passing the action.
I watched him, sitting in a state of anticipation and self-satisfaction. It’s funny, sometimes, watching people. You learn a lot at a poker table. I glanced down at the final card to have hit the board—a two of hearts. It didn’t change anything.
Shrugging, I pushed my remaining chips toward the center of the table, totaling $6,680. “All in.” Sometimes you have to give them what they want.
Trucker Hat jumped out of his chair and called, pushing his chips in without hesitation. In poker, this is known as snapcalling or instacalling. His chips brought the pot to $10,300ish.
Adam took a deep breath and asked, “So what part of the Hero’s Journey are we at right now?”
“This would be the Ordeal—the climax, the big showdown. The
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