I’m going to break ranks and talk about the latest viral video, Super Saiyans are real. If you haven’t seen it, all you need to know is that a young man who’s been a fan of Dragon Ball Z cartoons makes a video. Long story short, he wants to be like the main hero, who appears to be inspired by Shaolin monks. Instead of going through the years of mental and physical training it would take to actually become a Shaolin monk, the young man hopes that by believing with all his heart and soul he can “go Super Saiyan” on his first try. He says:
This is something that’s been in my heart for a long time. All I ever wanted to be in life with a Super Saiyan…I just feel like when I see superheroes—why can’t we be that exciting and awesome? Why can’t I I wake up and if I’m late for school just teleport there and be on time? During that time of meditation and thinking about it I realized something: all of that is possible and more. It’s all in here. It’s all in your mind.
Think about anything you ever tried to do. You thought to yourself, “Man, I could never do that.” But then when you practiced, guess what? You got better at it and you actually achieved it, didn’t you? It’s the same thing when you look at super powers. Of course it sounds absurd when you first look at it, but if you actually set your mind to it and believe, you can achieve it. I saw a Chinese man set a piece of paper on fire with just the power of his hands. You’re going to tell me that was fake? No, it wasn’t fake! He channeled that energy from within. He channeled that energy through the creation of his mind…
I feel like anything you set your mind to, your mind can create that force. Your mind is just a powerful machine. Whatever you set it to and you believe and work towards achieving, you can do it. You can do it. And I believe I can be a Super Saiyan. This is my first time exposing this side of me to the world, and I know a lot of you are laughing…I’m going to attempt to go Super Saiyan on film.
All joking aside, the kid is onto something. What you think and what you believe will ultimately determine who you are. If you want something really badly and you put your mind to it, in many cases your preparation and persistence can mold reality to your will. Over the course of a lifetime, those pictures you create in your mind can become a physical reality. If this young man applies that very same mindset to his schooling and professional life, he’ll go rather far. Taking off his shirt and screaming in the workplace wouldn’t be a good idea, but overall he has a very inspiring message.
Where our young Super Saiyan erred was in thinking that he could take a short cut to success. There are no short cuts. In many ways the reality he sought to create DID happen—he now IS “Super Saiyan” to well over 475,000 people! Unfortunately, it’s not quite the reality he imagined because he didn’t put the time and effort into going about it the right way. Just as I wouldn’t walk into a gym and try and bench 300 lbs. without proper training, one shouldn’t delve into realms more closely associated with Shaolin monks and Buddhist masters without doing their homework.
Looking at the “likes” and “dislikes” on Youtube, it doesn’t take long to figure out why so many people enjoy the video. Deep down, you can’t help but like a guy who believes something with every fiber of his being. He wants to believe in Super Saiyans, but others want to believe in love, the ideology that guides their life, religion or any number of things. As we get older we tend to get more cynical, and it’s nice to see someone with youthful innocence in a society that seeks to strip it from children at an earlier and earlier age. I’d be willing to bet the meanest comments left on the young man’s Youtube page are left by people who have given up on themselves. The nicest comments probably come from people who know that the kid’s mindset won’t allow him to break the laws of physics anytime soon, but that it will come in handy when he graduates from college and enters the real world.
Keep practicing, kid. Keep your shirt on and tone it down a bit and you’re going to go far.
Douglas Ernst Blog 