3 min read
Introduction
Not too long ago it feels like, I never assumed I would ever watch anime. It just wasn’t meant for me. It seemed cartoonish, foolish, and especially, immature.
Clearly I had never set my eyes on an anime before. Only people who have never watched anime before have ever said anything like that.
Shift to today, I must say that I’m glad I stepped foot into new territory, land where anime surrounded my future watch-list.
For me, One Punch Man stands on the top of that list. I haven’t really watched that many, and am in the process of watching Attack On Titan at the moment, and it’s really good too. The purpose of this post however was to illustrate a crucial principal about human growth and progress that I’ve never seen any other anime ever really demonstrate. I guess you could say solo leveling, but it wasn’t as inspiring as OPM was.
Thanks for stopping by, I promise that it’ll be worth every second.
The Most Valuable Lesson from OPM
When I started watching back about a year ago (as I said, not very long ago), I had been waiting to watch the show for about a year and a half. I never really got around to it, and was too busy watching Stranger Things, Loki, TWD, and some others. Besides, I was already being bombarded with other responsibilities beforehand, so it only made it more difficult to get around to it.
But the reason I wanted to watch it in the first place was because of the all the motivational edits I had seen of it, depicting some normal guy named Saitama who managed to become the strongest hero of all not because of magic, a curse, or anything that sounds like science fiction, but rather because he trained himself to his absolute limit. He pushed himself so far that he shattered his limit, and could only grow exponentially stronger.
To me, that was good fiction. That sounded like fiction I was willing to watch and binge, because, it didn’t seem like other animes. There were real goals, motivations, and life lessons in the show that I’ve never seen from any other show. Whether it’s an anime or non-anime (I would say “physical” but that doesn’t make sense).
Limits
Every person within this fictional universe has a limit. Whether you’re a human, natural creature, alien creature, space warrior, or other high-level entity, everything has a natural limiter. Without it, there’d be chaos and no control. Therefore, it must exist for there to be at least some peace in the universe.
This doesn’t mean however that every being is forced to live under a particular limit for the rest of their life. No, absolutely not. Of course, every creature has a final limit that cannot be surpassed, but in order to get there, you have to firstly shift your limit dozens or even hundreds of times. This is where the topic of this post comes in.
Although you, in this real, non-fictional universe, might be under a certain limit right now, you can always move that limit just a little higher (and do it more times after that). You see, although every one of us has a final limit, only reached after endless devotion, it takes forever to get there. Realistically, no one will ever get there. And also realistically, just like in the OPM verse, you have to just narrowly evade death multiple times and still get back up on your feet right after.
It’s a major ask that simply no one is willing to step up to. And you really shouldn’t ever have to. It shouldn’t even cross your mind.
Realism
What I appreciate about OPM are its realistic factors. Although most people see Saitama (protagonist, as least kind of) as just a gag character in the anime community, he’s always meant more to me than that.
He was the symbol behind strength, endless determination, endless courage, and the hand-carved epitome of never giving up, no matter the cost. Even if his life was at risk, or even if he could’ve lost everything just for some meaningless goal of “becoming stronger”, he still did it anyways. I know the focus of this post has to do with Garou, for those of you familiar with him, but I felt like adding some additional opinion of mine.
The Hero Hunter (the perfect example)
The Hero Hunter, also known as Garou, is one of the most well-known characters from the anime for his epic standoff against practically the entire hero association, and finally, Saitama.
What I admire most about Garou’s character is his relentless motivation to grow stronger and establish new limits for himself. With every day that passed, he would progressively get stronger and win every battle he was pushed into.
Although his intentions weren’t always the most thoughtful, it could’ve been significantly worse.
Garou was the prime example of what would happen if despite being pushed, shoved, crumpled, and beaten so bad that you struggle to get up, you still stand up on both feet anyways, your potential has no limit.
It took me a minute at least to write that sentence, so take your time reading it because I know it’s confusing.
Your Real Limit Is Nowhere In Sight
When Garou ultimately went full monster, he had pushed the boundaries of what his limits really were. Although cosmic was only possible through divine intervention, Garou still became as strong as he did through sheer will and spirit. His supply of courage was endless, and it never seemed to escape his soul because that’s what he bled and breathed.
The truth is, most of us can actually replicate what Garou did. Even in the real world, near-death experiences are what make the strongest and toughest people. The statement “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” has an origin of course. For Garou, it was the ultimate serum to his strength. Except, this wasn’t a real, liquid serum that heroes like Steve Rogers used to acquire his strength. Instead, it represents Garou’s indomitable spirit.
Of course, don’t take that literally. Our world isn’t like OPM, and there are distinct differences our universe and OPM’s fictional universe. For virtually anyone, the key to getting where you want to be is not through near-death experiences but rather other brute-force techniques for establishing new limits. This applies both to physical and mental aspects.
Saitama’s so-called “secret to his limitless strength” was his intense workout routine. It consisted of 100 pushups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and a 10km run. Sure, it’s not the workout routine you’d expect from someone capable of leveling galaxy-level threats, but it built him the most important layers of his foundation that he needed for his potential to explode. Without it, none of what he ended up accomplishing could’ve been possible.
You Can Be Just Like Garou
At the end of the day, you don’t need to live in a fictional universe to do more than people expect of you. In reality, it doesn’t take anywhere near as much. Although your life might feel bombarded with a million things, and you feel like your time just swallows you whole, it’s with your intervention that your life can be made easier. And by easier, I mean after having gotten over with the hard part.
The truth is, you should feel limited. You are SUPPOSED to feel that way. People will step over you, push you, and make you lose balance and train-of-thought. However, this is exactly what you should want. You can only get stronger and achieve higher and higher limits by enduring hard situations and overcoming them.
Hard Times Are Non-Negotiable
Just like any character from OPM, no one will ever set new limits for themselves if they aren’t they ones to take action and put themselves in scenarios they don’t want to be in, and push them to their very limit. Only there can you really spark.
Real-World Application
“So, how do I apply any of this to my life?” Great question, fellow reader.
I’ll just make this pretty direct and straightforward.
If you want to get physically stronger, say for sports or martial arts, you need to train a specific area. Do it repeatedly, and do it so much that it overwhelms you. Feel free to take rest days if you’d like, but remember that the strongest emerge from the worst and most brutal conditions possible. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable, but also not too comfortable. Because that would ruin the fun.
If you want to increase your applicable intelligence, say for solving problems and acquiring new skills faster, you need to tackle problems that get harder with time and practice. With generative AI models, this is more than possible nowadays. This means tackling new problems everyday; problems so insanely challenging that you can’t find a loophole around it. Yet, it turns out there was. You just didn’t see it.
If you want to make more money or simple increase your monthly cash flow, you need to see money as a byproduct of real work. In other words, work so true in itself, that it gives birth to new opportunities just in the presence of great minds. To keep it simple, you need to learn how money works down to its core, rather than being spoon-fed the idea by everyone around you that it comes from hard work. There’s more than that.
If you want to increase your SAT score, despite having struggled for months or even years trying to improve it, you need to do more than memorize problem formats. Instead, you need to see the SAT as nothing more than a game; a competition where everyone hits a boxing machine with the most force they can.
Conclusion
We all have limits. They prevent us from creating a world of imbalance and disorder. However, the limit you probably see is nothing more than a temporary limit, only controlled by your belief that it represents your true limit. In reality, it’s a thick and super-dense wall that stands in your way, with its only way of being broken being your own determination. Only you can crack a hole in the wall, and burst through.
And if your specific solution still isn’t clear, create one yourself. Be the creative thinker that was always inside of you. If you want to grow, you have to fight. Fight.
