BE THE VILLAIN IN YOUR STORY

If you observe almost any human, you will note that they are “the hero in their story”.  This phenomenon refers to the notion that, when we consider our lives (and hence, our story), we see ourselves as the main focal character of said story.  Hell, who is going to see their lives and consider themselves to be a bit-part, an extra, an NPC, a throwaway character, etc.  WE are the star of the show, the world revolves around us, everyone ELSE is the side character to OUR story, etc etc.  But not only that: we are the HERO of the story.  We overcome adversity, triumph in the face of evil, beat the bad guy, save the world, etc.  But that’s the thing: to have a hero, one must also have a villain, and in that regard the villain gets EQUAL billing to the hero in the story.  So why not instead choose to be the villain in your story?

And if your story is full of villains, be the craziest one

The villain is CLEARLY the superior choice if you were going to pick a character to be in a story.  The villain has ALL the advantages.  Otherwise, they wouldn’t be a villain: they’d be the comedic foil, just some slapstick bully that gets punked early in the story.  No, the villain is all powerful from the get go, and may even continue to grow in power as the story progresses.  The hero, on the other hand, starts disadvantaged, because rising up from below as an underdog story is ever so inspiring.  Wanna know why it’s inspiring?  Because it’s not SUPPOSED to happen, and in life, it rarely ever happens.  99/100 times, David ends up a smear on the bottom of Goliath’s sandal, Rudy gets a concussion, Rocky gets knocked out in the first round, etc etc.  The villain is SUPPOSED to win: that’s what makes a hero’s story so dramatic.

And BECAUSE the villain is supposed to win, they are MUCH more self-assured than a hero.  Heroes ALWAYS inevitably end up in some melancholy soul-searching montage where they are forced to wonder if they’re REALLY doing the right thing, if they’re on the just-path, if they’re making the right choices, etc etc.  SNORE.  A villain KNOWS from the get-go that they are doing right for THEM, and anyone that gets in their way better watch out.  They will rip-off bookies, poison water supplies, and sacrifice their own kin to advance their agenda (for those of you playing along at home, see if you can spot the references).  And once again, this allows the villain to work SO much faster and amass so much more power than the middling hero, who ventures out on wobbly legs taking on the big-bad world.  Yes, that’s a better story, but it’s an unrealistic one.

This is why magic is for chumps

Along with not needing to justify their actions beyond the simple fact that it advances their agenda, one of the main benefits of choosing to be the villain is the ability to engage in depravity.  Heroes have rules.  They have morals.  They have codes of ethics, codes of honor, codes of valor, etc etc.  “Noble villains” that have these things are really just pandering to the reader for the eventual transformation of the “villain” into an anti-hero (I’m looking at you Vegeta) but a real dyed-in-the-wool bane-of-all-that-is-good villain is a totally irredeemable monster, possessing no qualms with taking actions that would give any other reasonable individual pause.  When you see yourself as the hero of your story, you limit yourself: you’re forced to walk the straight and narrow path which is, in turn, straight…and narrow.  LIMITED.  But man, villainy has all SORTS of potential to it.  There’s no telling just WHAT you can accomplish with enough evil, depravation and sin, and none of those pesky morals to hold you back.

Alright, before I go any further, let’s remember that this is a blog about getting bigger and stronger.  This is NOT a call to go rob jewelry stores and stage military coups.  What I’m saying here is that, when you start thinking of yourself as the villain in YOUR story, you open yourself up to so much MORE success than when you keep thinking of yourself as the hero.  When you picture yourself as the hero, you develop the “hero-complex”, and you have to go right the wrongs and do the good deeds.  In the training world, trainees make themselves heroes by refusing to give in to the “temptation” of training like all those people out there getting results.  There the hero is, surrounded by villainous “bros” in the gym, fiendishly hitting their muscle group splits and doing isolation exercises all in pursuit of the inglorious large, impressive muscles, but not the hero!  Oh no: he is on the good and noble one truth path of only compound exercises, heavy weight, low reps, and full body.  …what are you, nuts?!  Go train like those guys that are out there getting theirs!  Go train like a villain! 

Way to go, hero

Go self-destruct in the pursuit of power: like a villain!  Don’t be the coy hero that holds back until he really needs it, because guess what: doomsday already happened and you missed your chance.  You’re living in the aftermath: you’re dead and don’t even realize it.  Instead, give IN the hubris: keep pursuing greater and greater power.  But at what cost?  Probably some injuries, maybe even a surgery or two.  But remember how Goliath laughed at David?  Do you know why?  Because he was the Philistines’ greatest warrior: he had slaughtered scores of other, much more WORTHY warriors.  Pride may have been his downfall, but he EARNED that pride by BEING such an accomplished villain.  All the way up until the moment he died, he lived a life of opulence and greatness because he was something so fantastically great that nothing else could compare.  Pride was the downfall, but in order to have a DOWNfall, you have to be UP at the start.  Be villainous enough in your own story that when the hero of the story comes along, you’ve amassed so much power the narrative changes.  This is no longer an action-fantasy: this is a tragedy. 

And in tragedy, the villain gets to win.