In the World, But Not Of It

I skipped class to chase an idea.

Orange leaves streamed past my face while cold wind blew against my chest. The rusty chain of my vintage 60s road bike rattled as I rode over the crevices of my campus sidewalk. The 9:30 notification on my watch reminded me that I had just skipped my bio class to swim laps in the campus pool.

I spent this morning in a state of flow. One of those periods where nothing else matters.

My body was swimming, moving, getting ready for class but my brain had endless ideas. Each lap in that pool felt like peeling back another layer—organic clothing, holistic performance supplements, retreats, events, soaps, candles. All of it swirling around one word that kept surfacing between breaths.

Ancestral.

That bike ride back was when it crystallized. Not as a business plan, but as a philosophy I’d already been living without naming it. The cold air on my chest, the burn in my legs, the clarity in my mind—that was it. That was the feeling I’d been chasing without knowing what to call it.

Here’s what I realized: Most ambitious men are trapped between two versions of themselves. The one numbed by the world’s cheap dopamine, and the one pursuing something greater. Ancestral is the framework for choosing the latter—physical excellence, mental discipline, and spiritual understanding in pursuit of purpose.

If you’ve ever felt that pull toward something more, you already know what I’m talking about.

What Exactly Is Ancestral?

Ancestral is my approach to life physically, mentally, and spiritually. It’s consistently being refined through experience but breaks down into three pillars:

• Physical Excellence

• Mental Discipline

• Spiritual Understanding

Together they form the pursuit of something greater than ourselves—the pursuit of purpose.

This isn’t about perfection. It’s about direction.

But here’s what I’ve noticed: There are millions of guys like us out there with big dreams who are being held back. Not by lack of talent or ambition, but by the world itself. High stimulus activity, greasy foods, pornography, endless scrolling—all of it designed to keep us comfortable and complacent.

A pastor once said something that stuck with me:

“You can always tell when someone has fallen to the world—their eyes lose clarity, charisma weakens, and they lose faith in themselves.”

I’ve seen it in friends. Hell, I’ve felt it in myself.

But the solution isn’t to check out completely. It’s about being in the world but not of it. It’s about finding that spark again—the one that made you believe you could do something meaningful.

That spark returns when we choose to keep our minds pure. When we stay away from the habits we’d rather do behind closed doors. When we commit to something bigger than comfort.

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
—John 15:18–19

This isn’t about judgment. It’s about recognizing that choosing a different path means you’ll stand out. And that’s exactly the point.

Pillar 1: Physical Excellence

Let me be clear—I’m not the best version of myself yet.

I am hyper aware that there is a version of me that is:

Stronger.
Faster.
Leaner.
More flexible.

But that version isn’t some unattainable dream. It’s in the future—because it’s the result of what we do day-to-day, right now.

Physical excellence isn’t about being physically excellent. It’s about the act of moving toward it.

Strength training. Conditioning. Mobility. Proprioception.

It’s about falling in love with the act of movement itself. No more jumping from fad to fad, but real training designed to keep you feeling like the best version of yourself—for as long as possible.

That morning in the pool? That was it. Not because I swam perfectly, but because I showed up and moved. Because I felt alive in my body instead of disconnected from it.

If movement builds the chassis, nutrition is the oil.

The world is filled with diet fads. Ketogenic, carnivore, animal-based, paleolithic, fasting—all these trends designed to make you think you’re missing something. That there’s some secret you haven’t unlocked yet.

Here’s the truth: they all work because they’re based on similar principles. It’s the principles worth understanding. The practice is just a result.

Stop chasing the latest diet your coworker’s brother-in-law’s ex-girlfriend’s dad used to lose 20 pounds. Instead, be confident you’re eating real fuel daily. Whole foods. Protein. Vegetables. Water.

And yeah—still enjoy a lovely pastry with your coffee and a treat after dinner.

Life isn’t about restriction. It’s about building a foundation strong enough that you can actually enjoy the good stuff without it derailing you.

At the start, this requires mental discipline. The second pillar.

Pillar 2: Mental Discipline

Discipline is the key to freedom.

Without it, we fall for the cheap tricks. The easy food. The impromptu rest days. The arguments. The breakdowns.

“He who cannot obey himself will be commanded. That is the nature of living creatures.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche

If you cannot create your own purpose, you will be assigned one. If you can’t create your own freedom, you’ll be assigned someone else’s.

Mental discipline is what gets you up when the bed is warm. It’s what makes you eat the vegetables when there’s cake in the fridge. It’s what gets you training when your body is sore.

For those of us who want to pursue something bigger than ourselves, it’s absolutely essential.

We can’t be on the pursuit of purpose if we keep leaving the pursuit to chase comfort instead.

Though that being said—the mind wants to wander. We struggle and then we excel. We chase and then we are chased. That’s part of being human.

I’ve learned that discipline isn’t lost in the act of falling. It’s found when we pick ourselves up.

As a core pillar of my life, discipline has been the only thing reminding me to get back up when I fall. But by myself, I’d keep falling. It’s only through spiritual understanding that we choose to get back up knowing we’ll fall down again—and that it’s worth it anyway.

Pillar 3: Spiritual Understanding

I’m a Christian. It’s a fact I don’t intend on hiding.

Truthfully, it’s only through my faith that I find the strength to pick myself back up again. But even before I was baptized, I felt something bigger than myself pushing me to be bigger than who I was.

This is the core idea behind the pursuit of purpose.

If we all had our needs met financially, romantically, and physically—if we had everything we thought we wanted—we’d find that laying around doing nothing gets incredibly boring after a while.

Eventually, you feel the push to build something. Help someone. Create the exact thing you feel like the world is missing.

It’s the top of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It’s the core root of all religions. Inherently, when we aren’t in survival mode, we understand that there is more to life than food, work, and sex.

This is the largest cog that turns the gears of ancestral.

Without it, training, performing, and creating become results of our ego. It becomes vanity. Purposeless and used to gratify ourselves or impress others.

With it? Everything changes. The training becomes worship. The discipline becomes devotion. The pursuit becomes meaningful.

You don’t have to share my faith to feel this. But you do have to believe that you’re here for something bigger than comfort and consumption.

The Reality of It All

I’m writing this knowing that I fall. Knowing that I haven’t achieved my ideal version of myself yet.

But I’m also writing this because I know there are people out there like me. Like my community.

People who want more from life.
Who don’t settle for mediocre.
Who know—deep down—that there’s more out there.

If that’s you, you’re not alone.

The foundation of what we’re building starts and ends with community.

We can create all the products we want. Host all the events and retreats around the world. Tell as many people as possible to live ancestrally.

But if we don’t move them. Inspire them. Remind them. Bring them together.

Then all we’ve built is another conglomerate. Another tax vehicle. Another dot in the sea of businesses that talk about purpose but don’t actually create it.

That’s not what this is.

What to Do Right Now

The secret isn’t in the “how.” It’s in the “when.”

And the when is now.

There’s an opportunity in each and every one of our days to improve our three pillars. To move, stretch, pray, skip the junk food, compliment the stranger, call the friend, kiss the wife, and become better versions of ourselves.

Here’s what that looks like today:

Morning: Skip one scroll session. Do 10 push-ups instead. Make your bed. These small acts aren’t nothing—they’re proof that you’re choosing different.

Afternoon: Eat one meal of real food. Not fast food, not something processed—actual fuel. Call one friend you’ve been meaning to reach out to.

Evening: Move your body for 20 minutes. Doesn’t matter how. Read for 10. Pray, meditate, or sit in silence for 5.

These aren’t life hacks. They’re reps. And reps build the person who’s capable of pursuing something greater.

Tomorrow: Do it again. And the day after that. And the day after that.

Not because you’re perfect, but because you’re committed to the direction.

If you decide to stop being of the world and start being in it with intention—join us.

We’re building something here. A movement of men who refuse to settle. Who choose the harder path because they know it leads somewhere worth going.

For the pursuit of purpose.

Welcome to ancestral. Science-backed performance, fueled by nature. Subscribe to stay updated.