Simple Life Lessons To Be Learned From One Punch Man

One Punch Man is a masterpiece when it comes to simplicity and depth.

Somehow it manages to do both, without compromising on either element. And that’s why the life lessons are deep, even if simple and easy to understand or learn from.

I won’t bore you with how great One Punch Man or Saitama is as a character.

So let’s get straight into the lessons I’ve learnt personally from OPM, and how you can learn from it as well.

The Best Life Lessons From One Punch Man:

1. Success is simple when you break it down

Let’s talk about the concept of success. You can define it as achieving a goal or hitting a target you intended to hit.

Saitama starts off as a regular character in the One Punch Man universe. And even though he’s intentionally a comical character, one day he decides to train so hard for 3 years straight.

Doing simple things like:

Sit ups.
Jogging.
Lifting.
Cardio.
And exercise.

And after 3 long years he becomes the world’s strongest fighter. Capable of destroying his enemies with ONE PUNCH. At the cost of losing his hair, of course 😉

And he gains some muscle, while drastically improving his physical health in the process.

It’s so simple that Genos can’t even believe it when Saitama explains how he “became so strong”, and success is often the same.

What’s this got to do with success?

The point I’m making here is: success is basic, and It all comes down to doing the fundamentals before anything else.

Losing weight requires intense training, with tons of consistency.
Becoming a doctor means studying for 5 or so years without making excuses. And no slacking off.
Maintaining a relationship is about communication, fulfilling each others needs and supporting each other.

And yet we make these simple things so complicated by getting overly emotional, overthinking it, making excuses, blaming someone else or doubting our own abilities to get the job done.

Success is simple, we just over complicate things

If you wanna lose 10 pounds, that means you’ll have to exercise pretty hard. No pills, no shortcuts or any of that bullsh**.

The same is true with becoming a pilot, or even running a business.

To achieve something, break it down to the basics. That’s mostly all you need.

The complicated stuff is overrated and not as important as we make it out to be.

2. No matter how good you are, people will doubt you

Saitama goes through a test to become a hero in the anime series. And since he’s incompetent when it comes to education, he struggles a little bit. But he pulls it off.

Each time a battle plays out during his “hero” missions, people doubt his abilities. Despite the guy being so fu*** powerful and absurdly strong compared to every other hero.

Even some of his “fellow” hero’s don’t think too much of Saitama in the beginning. Mostly because they’re caught up in their own hype and fame.

Life is the same way

It doesn’t matter how good you think you are. Or how good you actually are. People will doubt you, even belittle and look down on you as if you’re lesser than they are.

And even after you prove yourself and it’s clear you know what you’re doing, some people will still doubt and deny your talents.

Or whatever it is you’re recognized for.

That’s just how some people are in the world. It’s nothing to do with you.

Some people just aren’t accepting of other people’s differences, especially if you’re perceived as a threat or you break their preconceptions.

3. Not everything you do will get recognized

Saitama knows this better than anybody.

He’s the world’s strongest hero, in a literal sense. But he’s not recognized as the world’s strongest hero.

A lot of his efforts when defeating and destroying villains goes unnoticed.

Other hero’s take the limelight either because they’re famous or because they have more “fame” than Saitama in general (which makes sense based on his personality, but still).

Harsh but true

Sometimes someone else will try to take advantage of your hard work, and “shortcut” their way to success and popularity. Built entirely off your efforts alone.

Or in spite of your obvious hard work and achievements, someone will do whatever it takes to derail it and make it seem as if what you’ve done isn’t worthy of praise.

Other times people just won’t acknowledge it, and that’s all there is to it.

But in the end: not everything you do will get recognized, but you don’t need everything to get noticed anyway.

4. When things are too easy, life becomes meaningless

It’s a strange thing to say, since “easy” is something we all strive for in one way or another.

But the fact is: when life isn’t challenging anymore, and you’ve accomplished the goals you’ve set out for yourself, if you don’t do anything beyond that… things start to get depressing, and you feel empty.

Saitama was unsure of himself. Even depressed at the thought of never coming across another person strong enough to challenge him, and push him to use his strength and take a battle seriously.

After all – if he can defeat his enemies in one punch, the novelty of winning wears off. That’s why Saitama came to a standstill, dumbfounded about what to do next.

Life is the same way

What’s life without challenges? The moment you don’t feel challenged, life starts to deteriorate and things become less interesting.

It’s just like a video game.

Once you’ve mastered it and defeated all bosses on the hardest difficulty, eventually you get bored of it. And buy a new game.

So the lesson here is to find ways to challenge yourself and make life more interesting.

5. Change is possible

Saitama was just like everybody else. Or most people in our society.

Miserable.
Indifferent.
Disinterested.
Robotic.
Doing things he didn’t want to do.
Unmotivated.

And then a day comes where a kid is in danger of being killed by a villain. And Saitama (while he still has hair) steps in and saves the kids life from danger.