Motivation Daily by Motiversity - TAKE ARNOLD'S ADVICE IN 2026 - Best Motivational Speech

Episode Date: January 22, 2026

Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Mr. Olympia, Terminator, and Governor of California, delivers one of the most powerful motivational speeches that will leave you speechless.Special thanks to Jürgen Höller. Subscribe to his channel for the full speech and more like it: https://bit.ly/JürgenHöllerYouTubeFollow Arnold:YouTube: https://bit.ly/2DP2Wx3https://www.instagram.com/schwarzeneggerhttps://twitter.com/Schwarzeneggerhttp://www.schwarzenegger.com/Music: Castellarin - Wonders AboveGain Luke - BirthFancis Wells - All those lettersJohn Utah - Your Greatest AdversaryGabriel Lewis - Waters will flow againDavid Celeste - How many yearsGavin Luke - Birth 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. You got to have a purpose. Have a vision.

I was very fortunate that I stumbled on my vision. I mean, as you know, I was born in 1947 in Austria after the Second World War. And I didn't really like Austria when I grew up. I couldn't wait to get out of there. I couldn't see myself becoming a farmer or a worker in a factory or anything like that. Even though my parents wanted me to stay there

and have a normal life. The father wanted me to become a police officer like he was. My mother wanted me just to stay there and marry a girl with the name of Heidi, hopefully, and have a bunch of kids and run around like the first. and trap family in the sound of music. But that was their vision, not mine.

My vision was totally different. I felt that I was born for something special, for something unique, for something big. Then one day I went to school, I remember I was 11 years old, and they showed a documentary about America. And there they showed in this documentary the huge skyscrapers,

the high rises, the huge bridges, the six-lane freeways, the huge cars with the wings sticking out, and all of this stuff and the same myself, that's where I want to be. I don't want to be around here with these little farmhouses and these little buildings and everything is old. I want to be in America. One day after school, I walked by a store in Graz, which was called Brulul. And it was the only store they'd really sold kind of American stuff. So one day they had jeans there, American jeans, and then they had the pool walker, then had an expander, and some barbells and

some dumbbells and an exercise bench in a window. So I went inside and I looked around and looked at this stuff and then I saw a magazine. I saw a bodybuilding magazine that had Reg. Park on the cover. Reg Park was then a three-time Mr. Universe and I saw him on a big screen as Hercules. And on the cover it said how Reg. Park missed the universe became the Hercules star. That's what the cover story was all about. So I looked at the cover and I said, I said, I got to get this magazine. So I bought the magazine. I took it home and I read it over and over from the front page to the back. It had everything in there, how he trained,

how he was working out in Leeds, England, in a factory town, how he worked out every day for three, four hours, and became the strongest man of Europe. And how he won Mr. Europe and missed the Great Britain, and then eventually missed the universe. And how he won the second Mr. Universe and the third Mr. Universe.

And how he was discovered to play the starring role in Hercules. I read that and I said to myself, wow, this is the blueprint for my life. This is exactly what I want to do. I want to become a bodybuilding champion just like Reg. Park.

I want to get into movies just like Reg. Park. And I want to make millions of dollars and be rich and famous. Just like Reg. Park. 74% hate their job in America. Now there is not much different when you come to Europe. The majority of people don't like what they're doing. Because they're really not doing it because they didn't have a goal and they followed this goal.

They're just aimlessly drift around and then all of a sudden there's a job opening so they get that job. Because you have to work. But then when you work, it's a chore. It's work. It's not fun. So if you think about only a quarter of the people really, enjoy what they're doing in life. That is unbelievable if you think about it.

So I felt so blessed that I knew what I was doing. It's like a medical student that studies and knows he wants to become a doctor. You know where to go. So I knew where to go. So people always ask me, when they saw me in the gym in the pumping iron days, they say, why is it that you're working out so hard? Five hours a day, six hours a day, six hours a day,

and you have always a smile in your face. The others are working out just as hard as you do and they look sour in the face. Why is that? And I told people all the time, I said, because to me, I'm shooting for a goal. In front of me is the Mr. Universe title. So every rep that I do gets me closer to accomplishing that goal

to make this goal, this vision, turn into reality. Every single set that I do, do. Every repetition, every weight of the lift will get me a step closer to turn this goal into reality. So I couldn't wait to do another 500 pound squat. I couldn't wait to do another 500 pound bench press. I couldn't wait to do another 2,000 reps of sit-ups. I couldn't wait for the next exercise. For the next half hour of posing and all the kind of things that you have to do, you be a champion. And with the age of 20, with the age of 20, I went. into London and I won the Mr. Universe contest as the youngest Mr. Universe ever.

And it was because I had a goal. Visualizing your goal and going after it makes it fun. You got to have a purpose, no matter what you do in life, you got to have a purpose. They told me, it says, and your accent, even if you reduce all your body weight and everything, and have a normal body, you accent. I said, you accent, I mean, it would go. give people goosebumps with the German accent. It will get people the creeps.

They will get scared. This is no one in Hollywood ever has become a leading man that had an accent. Doesn't happen. People in America want to hear their actors talk like John Wayne or like Bert Reynolds or like Clint Eastwood. Don't listen to the naysayers. Everything I ever did. The thing that they heard out of people's mouth was, that's impartial.

That's impossible. That can't be done or no. I remember when I want to be a bodybuilding champion, including my parents and everyone else around me, said this is impossible. Why don't you become a ski champion? That's what they do in Austria or a bicycle champion or do some track and field. You can't be a bodybuilding champion. That is exactly what I heard.

And of course, I proved to the people that it can't be done. So whenever someone said to me, it can't be done, I heard, it can be done. When they said, no, I heard yes. And when they said it's impossible, I heard it is possible. When you start doubting yourself, that's very dangerous. Because now what you're basically saying is that if my plan doesn't work, I have a fallback plan. I have a plan B.

And that means that you start thinking about plan B and every thought that you put into plan B, you're taking away now that thought and that energy from Plan A. And it's very important to understand that we function better if there is no safety net. Because Plan B becomes a safety net. It says that if I fail, then I fall and I get picked up and I have something else. there that would protect me. And that's not good. Because people perform

better when there's no safety net. People perform better in sports and everything else if you don't have a plan B. I'm telling you I've never ever had a plan B.

I say I made a full commitment that I'm going to go and be a bodybuilding champion. I made a full commitment that I'm going to be in America. I made a full commitment. a full commitment that I'm going to get in the show business and I'm going to be a leading man no matter what it takes, I would do the work. I would do the work over and over and over until I get it. And the same was in politics and everything like that. So to me, it is very dangerous to have a plan B because you're cutting yourself off from the chance of really succeeding.

And the reason, one of the main reasons why people want to have a plan B is because they have worried about failing. What is if I fail then I don't have anything else? Well let me tell you something don't be afraid of failing because there's nothing wrong with failing. You have to fail in order to climb that ladder. There's no one that doesn't fail. Michael Jordan said in one of his interviews when they said you are unbelievable you're the greatest basketball player of all times. I mean tell me about that and he says well you're just mentioning the successes but he says for me to become the greatest basketball player I missed 9,000 shots when I was playing basketball at the NBA games

so during this games that he was so successful he missed 9,000 shots does it make him a failure no he's one of the greatest basketball players of all times but he failed 9,000 times. Do you get it? We all fail. It's okay. What is not the case that when you fail, you stay down. Whoever stays down is a loser and winners will fail and get up. Fail and get up, fail and get up. You always get up. That is a winner. That is a winner. I failed. I failed. in bodybuilding, I lost bodybuilding competitions, I lost powerlifting competitions, I lost weightlifting competitions. I had movies that went in the toilet and that were terrible and got the worst reviews. And in politics, I remember I had many of the initiatives on the ballot and we lost.

by approval rating in California went down to 28% and then it went back up again and they won again the governorship hey we all lose we all have lost us this is okay and this is why I say don't be worried about losing

because when you're afraid of losing then you get frozen you get stiff you're not relaxed you got to be in order to perform well in anything if it's embarking or if it is on your job or with your thinking, is only happening when you relax. So relax. It's okay to fail. Let's just go all out and give it everything that you got.

That's what it is all about. So don't be afraid to fail. I believed that I can be a leading man. I believe that I could be another Dean of Eastwood or another Bert Reynolds or another Warren Beatty, or whatever those characters were Charles Bronson and so on. Bronson and so on. I believe that it could be those people. I said there's enough room in that ladder that I can fit up there. And I looked back again and learned from what I learned in sports.

In my case in bodybuilding, it's all about the hard work that you put in. And after I did Conan the barbarian, the director at the press conference said to the press, he said to the press, if we wouldn't have had honored, we would have had to build one. The very body that they said can never be sword because the time is wrong. A few years later, I'm doing Conan the Barbarian and it was the number one hit at the box office when he came out in the summer of 82. Think about that. And the director says, if we wouldn't have had his body, we would have had to build one. So all of a sudden, my became an asset, not a liability. And the same thing was with Terminator.

After we were finished filming Terminator, Jim Cameron said to the press, if Arnold wouldn't have had that accent and talked like a machine, I think the movie wouldn't have worked. So think about that. The body and the accent that they attacked was an asset. But I didn't listen to those losers. I didn't listen to them at all. Work your ass off.

There is no magic bill. There is no magic out there. You cannot get around. You have to work and work and work. And Muhammad Ali worked his butt off. And I saw it firsthand. And I remember that there was a sports rider that was there in the gym when he was working out

and he was doing sit-ups. And they asked him, how many sit-ups do you do? and he said I don't start counting until it hurts that is working hard and so you can't get around the hard work it doesn't matter who it is as a matter of fact I believe what Ted Turner said

work like hell and advertise work like hell go to bed and early early to rise work like hell and advertise so you work your ass off and then you let the world know about your work. That's what it is all about. Let people know if you have a company,

if you have a movie, if you do a sports, work your ass off, but then advertise and let everyone know. Imagine if you will work on the business, on some business that you want to develop every day for an hour. Imagine how further along you will go and get. So it drives me nuts because we have When people say we don't have the time, we have 24 hours a day. We sleep six hours a day, so it gives you still 18 hours.

The average person works around 8 to 10 hours. So let's assume it's 10 hours. So we have 8 hours left. Then you travel around an hour a day, maybe 2 hours a day. So now you have still 6 hours left. So what do you do with this 6 hours? but you can see how much time there is available if you organize your day

so you got to work hard I mean let me tell you something when I went to America I went to college I went and worked out five hours a day and I was working on construction because in those days in bodybuilding there was no money

I didn't have the money for food supplements or anything So I had to go to work. So I worked in construction. I went to college. I worked out in the gym and at night from 8 o'clock at night to 12 midnight. I went to acting class

four times a week. So I did all of that. There was not one single minute that I wasted. And this is why I'm standing here today.