|
Issue #13 If you had told me a year ago that I'd be writing an article titled "The Power of Positive Thinking", I'd probably tell you to stop sniffing glue. Unbelievably, I'm putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) to talk about just that.
Before you think I've gone off the deep end and undergone some Bill
Phillipsesque transformation, let me tell you that I wouldn't be writing this if I didn't sincerely feel that it could have a positive impact on your life. Have you ever sat down and really thought about how people achieve greatness? I'm sure we all measure "greatness" with a different yardstick, but whatever your definition, there is a common thread that runs through everyone that has the ability to achieve goals of significant magnitude. That is, they all have the ability to remain focused and positive whatever life chooses to throw their way. I think we often discount the importance of how the way we think impacts our lives. I know at times in my own life I've often attributed success to luck or circumstance; rarely did I ever take the time to examine the real factors behind achievement. Fortunately, I set my sights high enough (and have experienced enough failure) that I started to realize there was more to being successful than intelligence, a good work ethic, and blind luck. From a bodybuilding perspective, I've often marveled at the drive and dedication required to achieve success in the upper ranks of the sport. The eating alone is enough to make the average person shudder. When you realize that success in professional bodybuilding is only wrought through years of constant workouts, overfeeding, and drug use, it's relatively easy to see why very few people ever make it. Yes, you have to be genetically blessed to attain that level of development. Having said that, I've seen genetics freaks never amount to a hill of beans because they lacked the proper mindset to realize their potential. I'm a case study in the success of positive thinking. No, I'm not Mr. Olympia, I don't own a multi-billion dollar business, and I'm not going on the lecture circuit any time soon. However, I've seen a remarkable difference in my life by incorporating some of the techniques I'm about to share with you. I must admit, I've been guilty of being one of the most negative thinkers on the planet. Time after time I blamed my lack of accomplishment on extraneous factors when in fact my own negative attitude was sabotaging my success. What follow are a series of principals I've found invaluable in helping me work towards my goals. |
| Yes, I Can! |
|
Ask yourself this question. Do you spend more time finding all the reasons why you can't do something or do you look for the ways it can? Human nature is to look for the can't instead of the can. If you don't believe me, try a little experiment. Without being offensive, ask an overweight person if they'd like to get in better shape. 9 times out of 10, you'll get a litany of excuses rather than an eager, Yes! Oh, I've tried dieting, it just doesn't work for me. I used to go to the gym but I just don't have time. I'm genetically predisposed to being overweight. Whatever. At one point or another, we've all been guilty of being the kind of person that looks for the can't instead of the can. For a very long time, I approached nearly every obstacle in my way with the can't attitude. Ultimately, the higher you set your goals, the easier it is to find ways why they can't be achieved. If your goal is to work at McDonalds for the rest of your life, an I can attitude probably really doesn't matter. However, if your desire is to build a multi-million dollar business or compete in the Nationals, you'd better be focusing on all the possible ways to achieve these goals, and not on all the reasons why they're unobtainable. So how do you maintain and I can attitude? Quite simply, you give yourself no other option but to succeed. Our Achilles' heal is that we allow ourselves the luxury to quit. If I were to tell the average Joe they had to go to medical school and become an M.D., they'd give you a million reasons why they couldn't. Take that same person and hold a gun to their head through seven years of college and med school and you'll be calling them Dr. Joe after graduation day. Our problem is not that we lack ability, it's that we lack necessary mindset to fully utilize our abilities. When you realize that success is your only option, it's easy to see the ways your goals can be achieved. |
|
Failure is a Learning Tool, Not a Reason to Quit |
|
Failure is an important part of life. While no one like to fail, it's probably the most valuable learning tool any of us will ever experience. For the longest time, I operated under the assumption that very successful people never failed, that the whole reason why they were successful was because of this lack failure. I now know that that the most successful people on this planet have also been the world's biggest failures. Let me explain what I mean. Let's say my goal is to be the best damn school janitor on the planet. I'm going to have my failures, maybe I won't get the chalkboards as clean as they need to be, maybe I'll occasionally fail to get all of the gum off the bottoms of the desks. Taking nothing away from janitors, I'm sure that these failures aren't really going to rock the world. However, what happens when someone like Bill Gates blows it? I'm sure Bill has failed more times than he would care to remember along his journey to build Microsoft into what it is today. The fact that Microsoft is so successful is not a testimonial to Bill's lack of failures, it's a case study of someone who's able to overcome failure through a never say die attitude. In the grand scheme of things, Bill's failures are going to be colossal in comparison to those of the janitor. The magnitude of your failure is in direct correlation to the scale of the task you were attempting. Accepting that you will fail is a part of being successful. Planning for failure is part of being successful. Learning from your failures is part of being successful. And most importantly, recovering from and moving past your failures are part of being successful. As part of my job here at AE, I come into contact with a lot of bodybuilders training for various contests. Some I train, some I simply keep in contact with out of personal interest. Whatever the case may be, I've seen two distinct attitudes when a bodybuilder doesn't place as well as he/she might have thought, and I can immediately tell from this attitude whether or not this person has a chance of success in the sport. On one hand, you have the athlete who goes to the judges to find out what areas need improvement, looking to bring up weak points for their next contest. On the other, you have the athlete who refuses to accept their placing and blames it on everything but the fact that they were actually beat by a superior bodybuilder that day. I've heard all the excuses, the judges were corrupt, it's political, blah, blah, blah. The bottom line is, one of these attitudes guarantees a rewarding experience in the sport, and success that's only limited by the athletes genetic potential. The other is a recipe for failure. Need I explain further? Ultimately, the person who can repeatedly keep trying after failing is going to be the person who wins in the end. Remember, quitters never win and winners never quit. |
| Surround Yourself with Successful Individuals |
|
We've all heard the saying bird of a feather flock together. I've met a lot of successful people, and read the bios of even more. Invariably, even the most ardent self-made man has someone in their past that had a profound impact on their success. People who are successful seek and find other successful people in order to facilitate their rise to the top. My training partner is 43 years old, a very successful self-made businessman. For years he focused on his family and business, letting his physical condition deteriorate until he weighed over 320 lbs. Before I met him, he had started dieting and working out and managed to drop about 90 lbs in about 12 months. At that point, he reached a plateau and his progress slowed to almost a standstill. When I met Tim, he expressed a desire to look like Bill Kazmier. Here's a business guy, maybe weighing 235 lbs, probably around 25% body fat, telling me he wants to look like the great Kaz. In all honesty, I didn't think it would be possible. However, I took him on as a client because I knew I could help him make some dramatic changes in his body. As it turns out, Tim is one of the most driven people I've ever met. He's one of those people that looks at life with an I can attitude. Within a very short period of time, we decided to become training partners. Within 4 months Tim went from 135 lbs to over 500 lbs on his squat. He uses the 120 lb dumbbells on inclines. Sometimes it's difficult for me to keep up with him in the gym. Tim did a very important thing in his quest to achieve his idea of the perfect body. He sought out someone more knowledgeable and successful than himself (at least in terms of muscular development). Had he not done this, I'm sure he'd still be in the gym squatting 135 lbs and benching 185. I don't take credit for his progress; I simply enabled him to optimize his own drive and potential. Accepting or seeking the counsel of others is strength, not
weakness. I know that many of you reading this probably think differently. I can assure you that everyone who ever achieved greatness did so with the help of a multitude of people. Whether your goal is to be Mr. Olympia or to be the next Bill Gates, it's important that you surround yourself with people of similar drive and determination. |
| Visualize Your Goals |
|
I remember reading about the Weider Visualization Principal years ago when I picked up my first copy of Muscle and Fitness. As an aside, isn't it amazing how Joe invented damn near every bodybuilding theorem and technique? Anyway, at the time, it sounded like a bunch of feel good mumbo-jumbo. I didn't need to visualize myself achieving goals, I just need to go out and achieve them! Now at the time, I was a foolish, naïve youth with only 16 years of life on this fragile planet. I know now learned how important visualization is, and more importantly, I've learned to incorporate it into my own life. It's an incredibly powerful tool, helping you not only stay focused, but to maintain the drive that's necessary to achieve your dreams. Let's say your goal is to win a state level bodybuilding show. Hopefully everyone can appreciate the work that's required to achieve this kind of victory. Unless you are able to envision yourself winning that show and enjoying the subsequent accolades, it's very easy to lose focus and quit. After all, how much fun is it to diet for weeks on end? I own a plethora of bodybuilding tapes and videos. Every time I feel my desire waning, I pop in one of these tapes. Certainly the sight of Dorian training back is enough to motivate any hardcore bodybuilder. More importantly, it allows me to visualize myself at that level, and helps me do the things that are necessary to achieve my goal of becoming a professional bodybuilder. |
| Set Realistic Goals on Your Road to Achieving Your End Dream |
|
If you examine the progression that took place in achieving any major goal in your life, you can probably break it down into a series of smaller successes. All too often we set ourselves up for failure by simply shooting for one large victory, rather than setting realistic smaller goals that can be more easily achieved. I have the utmost respect for people that have extremely high goals, but often see them failing simply because they didn't have a plan for success. I've fallen into this trap more times than I care to remember. One of the reasons why I haven't competed since I was a teenager was because I failed to realize the importance of forcing myself to achieve a series of small goals on my way to the big ones. Case in point, I've wanted to compete in the upper echelons of bodybuilding for some time. However, I failed to see the steps that have to be taken along the way. I've never had a physique that I felt would allow me to do well on the national level. However, I have had a body that would allow me to easily win a national qualifier. I kept putting off the prerequisite smaller show until I could win the shows that would follow. Why? I've now set my sets on winning a national qualifier at the end of 2001. This is something I know I can do, and by forcing a deadline on myself, I force myself to stay focused in my preparation. I could keep putting off competition forever, telling myself I'll compete when I feel ready. The end result of that line of thinking is that I'll be 50 years old thinking about what might have been. Most of the things I've discussed in this article really seem to be nothing more than common sense. In a way, I guess that's true. Unfortunately, we often fail to do the beneficial things that are most obvious. Maintaining a positive mindset requires work, just like everything else that worthwhile in life. By incorporating these ideas into your own life, you're one step closer to achieving your dreams. |
|
|