Why you should Study the Past

Lessons from Your Heroes

I remember as a kid, I was fascinated with history.

The larger-than-life characters detailed within it would inspire me to also go above and beyond. But somehow, as I began to age, that fascination with the past and the men and women who walked the Earth before me dimmed.

And so did my inspiration for change and improvement.

They say as we age and discover ourselves, all we are actually doing is going back to who we were as a child, the core qualities that composed us.

So going back and lighting that spark of fascination with history is the one I will do today.

I'll show you why you should study the past, and most notably, the men and women who lived it before us.

Study the Age of Heroes.

Why it matters

As stated earlier, studying the figures of history – Caesar, Alexander the Great, Napoleon and Theodore Roosevelt – you'll begin to notice a pattern.

All these people studied historical figures who lived before them.

They studied figures who achieved and became larger than life.

So why did these people who achieved greatly study people before them?

I hinted at it earlier; as we rediscover what made us a child, we'll realise that imagination is key.

And as they studied those previous to them, inspiration and imagination came forth.

If you want to achieve a certain goal you are craving, studying how someone before you achieved said goal will give you the belief necessary that you too can do it.

If one man can do it, so can another.

How it changes you at a core level

As I said earlier, the inspiration that arises is unmatched from anywhere else.

We all know from behavioural psychology that the people you spend your time with most imprints onto you.

Whether for good or for worse.

Studying the men and women of the past is a way you can actively take control of who you spend your time with.

In my own personal experience, I found that the more I listened, read and watched stories of my heroes acting valiantly in the past, I was also inspired to act in a similar manner in my own life.

Whether that be when I was studying Isaac Newton and his many inventions, I too felt inspired to create and work on my own technical projects.

Or when I was reading about Ernest Shackleton and his explorations of the Antarctic oceans, it too inspired me to explore the boundaries of my mind and body through strenuous feats.

So to implement this process, you don't need much, but curiosity is a must.

How to Implement the process

Implementing this process is extremely easy.

Go through the history catalogue, or if you want to start immediately, ask an LLM about historical figures who match your description of the sort of life you want to live.

What I did was ask ChatGPT to list the names of explorers and intellectuals, and I got a list of them.

Then I went and did my research on one of them at a time.

First, I started with Theodore Roosevelt and studied him through watching documentaries and listening to audiobooks.

From there I wrote those key notes about him and lessons I can learn from him.

As you follow that process, you'll begin to realise things you can implement from the lives of others and just how much you can improve and how high the ceiling is.

So find the person who matches your description, read books that they wrote or books about them as an individual, listen to audiobooks, watch documentaries, and take down notes about them.

Follow that process, and you'll start to be inspired by these larger-than-life people.

And you'll start to be influenced by the right set of people, people you look up to and can emulate in your own right.

Start your journey today.