Daily Motivations - FOCUS ON YOURSELF AND STAY SILENT IN 2026

Episode Date: November 28, 2025

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this is my last Olympia. That was really the only moment where I was like, I'm done stepping away. And then I had to come back and be like, I'm not done. I'm doing this again. You're raining. Six-time Olympian champion, Chris. When I started bodybuilding, it was kind of just like the gym was a beautiful place for me to go and escape and enjoy it, and I loved it. Start to see progress, and it changed over time.

It just kind of like shifted into a bit of a pressure, and I started to have my identity to it, and kind of like I needed a lot of aspects of it. And I never wanted to. But like, I made the decision to be in bodybuilding. I'm making the decision to stay technically, but is it a free choice if I feel like I have to do it to be good enough? But I feel like myself worth and my identity to is attached to competing now. But this goal I have, this journey I have, and now has this intense tension because it's not a positive choice. It's not a free choice of like this is wanting to do this.

It's like I have to do this to be good enough. I wasn't getting anything from it anymore that was serving me. And then I had to like really be honest with myself, but clearly you were attached to that. And now you may lose it all. Would you be okay with that? Would you be okay with it all gone? before it was like

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Rather than, like, I get to fucking train today, and I have the opportunity to be the best in the world if I do it, right? It was just this different mindset shift that I realized in myself of why I was like, this isn't for me anymore. It's time for me to get off the stage because this isn't serving me and this isn't the proper reason, you know? While you start something typically changes over time. Why you start something might have driven you, but now if it trains you, it's time to reevaluate what you're doing. All those stuff are incredible, don't get me wrong.

It's not like, my don't value having money and attention. Like, I'm human. I enjoy it, but it's not what was making me feel good. good day today. It was taking away from my ability to be at home and I would be like I have to eat again. I missed a meal. I came to an event and I lost a pound. Am I going to be are my legs big enough this year? I feel like my waist got bigger.

Like on that day, 10 minutes on stage, am I going to be good enough to be the best in the world? That pulls you away from being present in your day to day life because you're constantly worrying about that. And that's because I became more attached to the outcome than just the love of the game.

You said I've found greater fulfillment in the journey of pursuing my goals than in the moment of achieving them. Why? I'd say that comes to, like, the question I ask you, discovering what I was capable of. You know, there's been so many times where I've been in a prep and I felt way too far behind to win. And I had an injury last year when I tore my lap, tore my bicep. I was in the hospital, like, all these different things going on. And I'm like, there's no way that I can do this.

Like, it's impossible. And if I were to ever ask myself in the past, like, do you think you could win or get through this and do this? I'd be like, no way, it's impossible. But I was in it and I did it and I accomplished it. And I was like, I'm capable of so much more than my mind understands. And I think that's just the greatest part of the journey that I've achieved is like that understanding of what I'm capable of and that belief in myself to what I can accomplish. And it only came through the journey. It didn't come through the winning.

It comes through the challenge that came along the journey and fighting through it and the beauty of all that. And on top of that, there's just been so many moments in the midst of things where, like, it's a workout or it's a diet or I'm starving or I'm doing check-ins or something. And I'm just like, this is incredible. Like, I'm... From Adams Morgan to Anacostia Park, we all want safer neighborhoods. But what does real safety mean? Real safety means preventing crime before it happens. By having police work with communities to disrupt cycles of violence, by supporting families with stable.

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So what you see is what you pay Get the best deals on sports tickets Download the game time app And create an account to start searching for tickets To upcoming games and events Swipe, tap, ticket, go, game time Peak condition in the world right now Fighting to be the best in the world

And I'm living in that moment right now This is what it takes When people see something on stage This is what they don't see Or what I'm feeling in my mind What no one will understand What it takes to get there I get to experience this

every day. And I think it's just part of the human experience of feeling in life. That's just so beautiful. What does pressure is a privilege mean? I think I first heard it from Tim Grover. His book, Relentless, put my mindset into like the focus on my mindset in competing rather than just my physical body because I knew that's what it would take to like get to the next level. And I think after winning an Olympia, I was like, oh, like, I just showed my cards. People know what I'm capable of. Now there's no one I got beat there's no like second place third place like flow it's like no you're the best and unless you're

the best we just forget about you so it was like this pressure i felt on myself and it was coming externally for a while and i was trying to like understand how i could gravitate that a little bit better without it kind of bringing me down and slowing down my progress and i had to kind of function to the reality that the pressure was really coming from myself rather than externally and that it's a good pressure it's a pressure to be better and to become the best version of myself and it's something that if i choose to use it properly, it's going to push me to be a better version of myself, to grow mentally, physically, my relationships, however I want it to grow if I choose to take control of the aspects I have control over. It's a choice to put your perception of the privilege rather

than a burden, and by taking the power back in that choice, push it in a direction of being better rather than holding you back. What else does it mean to have a champion mentality? Again, something that definitely elevated over time. Originally, it was like just winning, and it evolved into just like a no-quit mentality. It's accepting these fears I have, this doubts I have, this everything that goes through my mind, but regardless of that, not quitting

and not giving up on myself, no matter how hard is the time or what I'm going through and whatever should I feel, it's I'm going to still put in the same work because champions not controlled by their outside circumstances, they control their own mind and sight

and how they act, and then the world goes on around them. I, the whole time, thought it was bad to be driven by like, oh, I'm not good enough, so I need to accomplish. x to be good enough and it's i don't think that's a way to live but maybe that's a good way to start a lot of people are driven to high levels of success by doing that and maybe that puts you

in a position of abundance of success to show you the things that you are important to you to give you enough confidence to give you enough life experience to go inside and reflect on ways that you can find lasting genuine self-worth you know maybe if you're like well no you shouldn't do something because you're not good enough well then maybe you never start you know or maybe you're Maybe it makes you an incredible bodybuilder, we go on this huge run and you're able to go on this journey of self-discovery and then figure it out in the end. But I wouldn't have changed that going back of why ever I started, even if it was coming from a insecure or bad place because it got me to the place I am now. From Adams Morgan to Anacostia Park, we all want safer neighborhoods. But what does real safety mean?

Real safety means preventing crime before it happens. by having police work with communities to disrupt cycles of violence, by supporting families with stable housing, and providing more mental health and drug treatment. We know that adding more police and locking up more people doesn't make us safer. Real safety means investing in the things that help prevent crime. Learn more at Real Safety, D.C.

There's nothing like being in the stands cheering on your favorite team. Game time is your hack to unlocking amazing tickets in just a few taps. Plus, their gain time guarantee means you can trust you'll get 100% authentic tickets at the best price. Fees are always included, so what you see is what you pay. Get the best deals on sports tickets. Download the game time app and create an account to start searching for tickets to upcoming games and events. Swipe, tap, ticket, go. Game time. It's easier to do the things that you want to do so that you no longer need to do them than it is to try and release yourself of the desire.

overall. I've always connected with the Jim Carrey versions of that. He has like a couple quotes of it where one of them is specifically, I wish for everyone to achieve their hopes and dreams so they can realize that it doesn't make them complete. It's like, damn. And then the other one was his like ironic, I think it was Golden Globe. He goes up there and I don't remember a word for word, but he's like, I'm two-time Golden Globe winner, Jim Carrey going to get some well-needed shut-eye. And when I dream, I don't just dream any old. dream. I dream about being three-time Golden Globe-winning actor Jim Carrey, because then I would be enough. And I could stop this terrible search for what I know ultimately won't fulfill me.

And then the whole crowd just starts laughing and they're all just, ah, he's funny. And then like, a few people you could see, you're like, whoa, he's beyond it now and he's just like, one's enough enough, you know? If you hadn't won, would you have still retired? This year? That's an incredible question. I actually haven't even thought about that. Every year, and my sister, when you looked at me in the Olympia, she's like,

are you ever going to believe you're going to win? It was like in between prejudging and night show when I just dominated the show. She's like, so, you feel good about it? I was like, I don't know. Like, maybe I'll win. She's like, are you ever going to fucking believe that you're going to win? And I didn't. And then in the last year, I went into that prep, and I, like, I had those moments of do I love

this do I not and I worked my way back to a point of like this is the last time and I enjoyed it and I like love the experience but the whole time it was just like am I going to win or am I going to not compete that was what was in my brain I didn't even think and it was finally that point where I just believed in myself where I knew like I know what to do I know what I'm capable of and like I'm going to come in and win if I do it so I never even thought about it but that is a champion that's how it's right but yeah I like to believe that I would have retired you know and it like I said it's very different because my mind did just like release all these focuses where it opened up the ability to realize all these things that I had been holding that might have been creating

tension in my life. So I'm in a state right now where I can't imagine trying to lock in and focus on being so selfish at something with life changing like it is. From Adams Morgan to Anacostia Park, we all want safer neighborhoods. But what does real safety mean? Real safety means preventing crime before it happens. By having police work with communities, to disrupt cycles of violence by supporting families with stable housing and providing more mental health and drug treatment. We know that

adding more police and locking up more people doesn't make us safer. Real Safety means investing in the things that help prevent crime. Learn more at Real Safety, DC. There's nothing like being in the stands cheering on your favorite team. Game time is your hack to unlocking

amazing tickets in just a few taps. Plus, their game time guarantee means you can trust you'll get one 100% authentic tickets at the best price. Fees are always included, so what you see is what you pay. Get the best deals on sports tickets. Download the GameTime app and create an account to start searching for tickets to upcoming games and events. Swipe, tap, ticket, go. Game time.

Modeling somebody's rise, not their result, I think is a really important insight that hasn't fully caught everyone's attention yet. most people that have the platform to be able to give advice have got the platform because they're successful and if they're successful that means that they have done something for a sufficiently long time at a grand enough scale for people to consider them an authority one form or another but the problem is you are at the beginning of your career

and they are the person at the top of the mountain they can't remember what it was like to be a beginner so when you ask somebody what is the key to success in business and they say, well, you know, it's all about work-life balance. I think it's very important. You know, you need to be using your intuition and your gut. And you go, huh, what did you do when you were at my stage? It was like, oh, everything was completely planned out

and I didn't have any time for my friends or family. I should probably do what you did when you were my stage, not what you do now that you have the luxury to do whatever you want. What happens when it feels like that's being taken away from you. You kind of that old adage of you don't know what you got until it's gone. You don't know what you valued until it starts to decrease a little bit. Yeah. So.

I'm still unraveling why I wanted to quit before. One year prior to when you actually did it. And that was the year I had a really bad injury. We had discovered Courtney was pregnant. There was all this stuff going on. There was some personal. All this chaos in my life that was pulling me away from focusing on competing. And I was like, I couldn't handle all of it in the moment.

And I was like, I can't do this anymore. And I was stepping away from it. And I realized I was stepping away from it in fear. And because I had so much external things muddying my decision of, either because I don't love competing or because of all these other things going on right now the injury that almost made me lose I should have dropped out

I kept pushing through all these things that I wanted to give myself an opportunity to try again and be in it and be like is this still for me and I feel like one of the most important things I've done in the last few years is like consistently re-evaluate my values and try and make decisions

based off the highest ones even if in the moment I really feel like it's what I want and the funniest little thing of what has made me feel better recently was working out again on a schedule and eating five meals a day and weighing up my food and having that little bit of structure of like and not having to as well it's like all this stuff's going on my life i don't know i'm kind of lost what can i do

well i can go work out again and i don't have to so now i'm choosing to well why are you so work out so hard why are you training so hard it's like well i just because i love it and then all of a sudden i start to feel better day to day and it's these little changes and i realize this is truly how i fell in love with the gym and why i'm such a big advocate of weightlifting like i honestly kind of hope I don't inspire people to get into bodybuilding because it's tough, it's fucked up, it's not good for your health, but I do want to inspire people to go lift weights, get in the gym and want to get

jacked because it's such like, oh, I'm lost, I don't know what to do, just go work out. Apply some discipline, work hard, find something you love that's difficult, that shows you progress, builds confidence, and just go do it, and finding that next goal and working towards it. I'm so grateful that I'm back to a point of, like, loving the gym.

You know, because what you're talking about, it's going to be difficult and things will be hard and you won't have the drive or the goal that you used to in the past all of those things are kind of fluffy concepts but they come into land they actually sort of meet reality with i woke up on the morning and didn't know what to do i felt tired a lot i didn't want to train i was short and snappy with my business partners i found myself getting distracted with lots of little tasks because it made me feel important and like people needed me.

I packed my calendar out and did because a lot of the time in advance of something happening, we probably have a good idea about what it's going to be like in the macro. What we don't know is how it's actually going to appear manifest in life. And it's navigating those things.

I needed to treat myself like a science experiment of like taking and removing pieces and see what's important. It's like, okay, bodybuilding was creating a bit of pressure and stress in my life. Is it everything related to that? I'm not competing anymore.

I don't need to eat on a schedule. I don't need to train at the same time. I don't need to leave my phone outside the gym and be locked in and focus as much. I don't need to wake up with my alarm. I can kind of sleep. I can do all these little things that I can let go of because now I don't have to because the goal is different.

But then I start to not feel good. And it was like, okay, it wasn't those things that weren't making me feel bad. Those were actually making me feel good. It was the outcome. Like I said before, oh wait, the structure and the discipline makes me feel better. It filled me with more confidence

and ability to go do other things rather than taking away. Regardless of whether it's in service of becoming Mr. Olympians. Yeah. And I mean, I know those things, but like you said, it was I feel like shit. I don't want to do anything. And you're way hard to pull yourself out of that than if you cut it earlier. That's life, though, you know? There's no direct descent to the top

that's ups and downs and building a new self as you go. What would you say to anybody that's lost direction in life in the way that you have I would say I'm still in the midst of it but I do believe it will be for the better

I feel like the path I was on wasn't I knew what I was on it wasn't the best for me so if I stayed on that path it might not be lost but I'm not discovering anything else and at least in being lost you might discover something new that's better nothing will be like the Olympia but things will be incredible in my life. The gym has been like the thing for me of when I'm lost, it's always there. So having a constant in your life, having something within your control when things feel out of control to just go do, I think it's so crucial. Just go work out, go lift weights. Just get jacked and figure it out.