Election Day is tomorrow. It's going to be chaos. This is the most contentious and emotionally charged election in modern US history. No one knows what's going to happen, except that mental illness will rise across the country, maybe for good reason.

There is something you can do to protect yourself: do a PR on a big lift. That may sound like a dodge, but think about it like this – you can do nothing about the election as an individual, but as an individual you have absolute control over your personal affairs, those things within your purview as a free human being. When faced with the important consequences of events beyond your control, it is good for you to assert some measure of autonomy.

Strength is important to you, and a PR is a measure of your strength. It means that the things you focus a lot of your time on have been productive, in a way that voting can never be. I'm not suggesting that you not vote tomorrow, but rather that you retain some perspective: if your candidate is not elected, it is not your personal fault – likewise, if your candidate is elected, you can't take credit. History is being made here, and history is big.

But so is your PR. It is the culmination of choices you make weekly, monthly, and yearly, and it is within your control. If you honestly believe that Donald Trump is going to institute an authoritarian dictatorship the day he is elected, you don't know very much about authoritarian dictatorships. Likewise if you believe Donald Trump can lower the national debt without the help of a whole bunch of people that don't want it lowered, you don't know much about how we got $35 trillion in debt.

Your PRs are similar to the national debt, in that they accumulate over time as the result of seemingly insignificant events. A 5-pound PR on a deadlift may seem insignificant, but training is a process of accumulation, just like “borrowing” money you never intend to pay back. The big big difference is that you're directly responsible for your PR and you're not responsible for the national debt, but you're responsible for the national debt anyway – isn't that cute?

So tomorrow go to the gym and do something you can be proud of: PR your squat/deadlift/press/bench. Then go vote, having cleansed yourself of the stench of passive involvement in a process that's probably not going to turn out your way. I think you'll find a sense of moral superiority in having done so.

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