Motivation Daily by Motiversity - FOCUS ON YOURSELF AND STAY SILENT IN 2026 - Powerful Motivational Speech | Chris Bumstead

Episode Date: December 8, 2025

YOU OWE IT TO YOU IN 2026! Advice and wisdom from the 6x Mr. Olympia Classic Physique title holder. One of the Best Motivational Speeches Ever. Edited by Motiversity.Special thanks to:Chris Williamson: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisWillxSpeakerChris Bumsteadhttps://www.instagram.com/cbum/?hl=enJim Carreyhttps://www.instagram.com/jimcarreyhereMusic:Epidemic SoundConfidential Musichttps://www.confidentialmusic.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello listeners, Motivirity is excited to share that we have launched a new podcast called Morning Motivation by Motivore. If you are looking to start your day with positivity and the most uplifting motivational audio, this is the show for you. For today's episode of Motivation Daily by Motivority Podcast, we are sharing a recent episode from the Morning Motivation Podcasts. If you like it, go follow the show. New episodes are being released every week. The link is in the description. Did you ever secretly want to quit before, but you stuck around due to expectation?

I did announce privately that I was retiring after my fifth win. I had a video on my phone I recorded me, like crying in my gym after a workout being like, 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 kind of come back and be like, I'm not done, I'm doing this again. You're a champion.

When I started body building, 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 and like 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 in my identity to attach to competing now. So this goal I have, this journey I have, and I have 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 the love of the sport. It was love of bodybuilding. and then it became this attachment to this need of what came with it. And going into the last year, I didn't even, I wasn't enjoying it. It was more of an attitude of like, I have to go work out so I can win the Olympia.

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 while you start something might have driven you but now if it trains you it's time to re-evaluate 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 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 gonna 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 asked you, discovering what I was capable of. You know, there's been so many times where I, 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'm, 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

come through the challenge that came along the journey and fighting through it and the beauty of all that. And off 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 peak condition in the world right now, fighting to be the best in the and I'm living in that moment right now. I'm doing the, 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, but 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 and competing rather than just my physical body. Because I knew that's what it would take to, like, get to the mindless. it would take to like get to the next level and I think after winning in Olympia I was like oh

like I just showed my cards I had people know what I'm capable of now there's no one I got to 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 was out 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, in 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, pushes you 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 doubt 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 of 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 side 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 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 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 it makes you an incredible bodybuilder you're 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 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 of the Golden Globe. He goes up there and I don't remember it 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, like, whoa. He's beyond it now and he's just like, when'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? Like, and I didn't. And then 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. I like loved 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. That is a champion. That's how it's right. But now, yeah, I like to believe that I would have retired, you know? And 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. 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 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've 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 reevaluate 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 still 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 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 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 started 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 harder 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. It'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 when 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 is so crucial. go work out, go lift weights. Just get jacked and figure it out.