Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Motivation Monday: Are You Crazy Enough to Make Things Happen?

Episode Date: February 26, 2018

This episode is part of a weekly series that I have dubbed “Motivation Monday.” (Yes, I know, very creative of me. What can I say, I’m a genius…) Seriously though, the idea here is simple: Every Monday morning, I’m going to post a short and punchy episode that I hope gets you fired up to tackle the workouts, work, and everything else that you have planned for the week ahead. As we all know, it’s one thing to know what you want to do, but it’s something else altogether to actually make yourself do it, and I hope that this series gives you a jolt of inspiration, energy, and encouragement to get at it. So, if you like what you hear, then make sure to check back every Monday morning for the latest and greatest installment. Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter! Click here: www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

This episode is brought to you by me. Seriously though, I'm not big on promoting stuff that I don't personally use and believe in. So instead I'm going to just quickly tell you about something of mine, specifically my hugely popular and 100% natural pre-workout supplement pulse. hugely popular and 100% natural pre-workout supplement, Pulse. It has sold over 250,000 bottles in the last several years, and it increases energy, improves mood, sharpens mental focus, increases strength and endurance, and reduces fatigue without the unwanted side effects that you probably experience with many other pre-workouts or the dreaded post-workout crash. It's also naturally sweetened and flavored and contains no artificial food dyes, fillers, or other unnecessary junk. And all of that is why Pulse has over 3,100 reviews on Amazon

with a four and a half star average and another 500 plus reviews on my website. Also with a four and a half star average. So if you want to feel focused, tireless, and powerful in your workouts, and if you want to say goodbye to the pre-workout jitters, upset stomachs, and crashes for good, then you want to head over to www.legionathletics.com and pick up a bottle of Pulse today. And if you're not sure which flavor to get, I highly recommend Blue Raspberry. It's my personal favorite. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps, use the coupon code podcast at checkout and you will save 10% on your entire order. And lastly, you should also know that I have a very simple 100% money back guarantee that works like this. You either love my stuff or you get your money back period. You don't have to return

the products. You don't have to fill out forms. You don't have to jump through any other hoops or go through any other shenanigans. So you really can't lose here. Head over to www.legionathletics.com now, place your order, and see for yourself why my supplements have thousands of rave reviews all over the internet. And if for whatever reason, they're just not for you, contact us and we will give you a full refund on the spot. All righty, that is enough shameless plugging for now at least. Let's get to the show. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to another installment of Motivation Monday. Let us start with a quote as usual. And this quote comes from Oscar Wilde, and it is particularly relevant to the discussion that we are going to have today. And here's what he said, quote, moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess. So you want to make things happen. Maybe you want more money. Maybe you want more

muscle. Maybe you want a more meaningful relationship or maybe a more meaningful life. And that's great. We all want things. But if we're going to have any hope of actually arriving at our goals, at actually realizing our ambitions, then first we have to know how to get into the right mindset because only then can the correct actions follow. And if you ask me, the mindset that is most conducive to long-term success is not one of quote-unquote reasonable expectations. It's not one of zen-like tranquility. It's one of craziness, of genuine desperation. Now, there was a great samurai general named Lord Naoshigi, and his story and his wisdom

are found in the timeless book Hagakuri. And in that book, here's what he said. The way of the samurai is in desperateness. Ten men or more cannot kill such a man. Common sense will not accomplish great things. Now, I love that quote because I think it's so true. I think that you have to be a little bit crazy, or at least you have to appear a little bit crazy to most people to really make your way in the world. And I really think this is truer now than hundreds of years ago when Naoshigi said it. Because only a crazy person is audacious enough to stand up to the many

obstacles and the many hurdles that lie in the way of just about any goal or any achievement. And only a truly desperate person can fight back and defeat the people that try to stop you. The people who don't want to give up territory, who don't want to see a new kid on the block, or who through ignorance and incompetence simply get in the way. And only a crazy and desperate person is willing to sacrifice all the things that need to be sacrificed to get anywhere. And as I said, I think that this advice is just as true today, if not more true today, than it was hundreds of years ago. Because common sense these days says that you shouldn't work too hard. You really shouldn't become too obsessed with a goal. You should just let go and you

should just strip your life down to the bare necessities and release yourself from the burdens of desire and the need to pursue something greater. And you should just be thankful for who you are and how you are and what you have. And you should just stop putting so much pressure on yourself, slow down and enjoy the ride. And these types of philosophies have sex appeal. They sell, they are quickly embraced by the more well-adjusted members of our society. You know, the people who, the normal quote unquote people who are on average 20 plus pounds overweight, the people who watch an average of 30 plus hours of TV per week, and who have a hundred plus thousand dollars in debt and less

than $4,000 in savings. And maybe I'm just a little bit boorish, but I'm really not interested in the advice that those people have. I'm not interested in the platitudes that they use to console themselves because none of that sounds like common sense to me. That sounds like an admission of defeat. It sounds like justifications for weakness and confusion. I believe that life is meant to be lived. I believe that it is an action. It's not a state of mind. And that if there's something about our lives that we feel can be improved or should be improved or something that we are not happy with, that it is much better to just get in action and do something about it than try to wrestle with it internally and try to come to terms with

it and try to just accept it because we just don't want to have to do anything about it. Hey, quickly, before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it? Because no amount of marketing or advertising gimmicks can match the power of word of mouth. So if you are enjoying this episode and you think of someone else who might enjoy it as well, please do tell them about it. It really helps me. And if you are going to post about it on social media, definitely tag me so I can say thank you. You can find me on Instagram

at MuscleForLifeFitness, Twitter at MuscleForLife, and Facebook at MuscleForLifeFitness. Now, of course, there are some things about ourselves that are non-optimal that we probably just have to accept. We all have natural inclinations that work against our best interests. And no matter what we try to do, they don't necessarily go away. That doesn't mean, though, that we have to succumb to them. It doesn't mean that they control us. It just means that sometimes we have to grit our teeth and keep going despite the part of us that wants to stop or wants to pull us in another direction.

And again, that comes back to being a bit crazy, being a bit desperate. So what's crazy? Well, crazy is working twice as much as everyone you know to accomplish your goals. Crazy is waking up at the crack of dawn to get in your workouts. Crazy is spending thousands of hours deliberately practicing a skill. Crazy is wholeheartedly pursuing something that nobody around you believes in and taking risks that nobody around you could face. And what's desperation? What does that look like? Well, Napoleon Bonaparte said that death is nothing but to live defeated is to die every day. And I like that quote because I think that is the essence of desperation. It's

that feeling that you must not be beaten. It's the feeling that everything is on the line here, that only an all-in commitment is appropriate, and that the only excuse for failure is simply a failure of will. So you want to make things happen. What are you waiting for? It's time to get crazy. It's time to get desperate. And it's time to get in action because the clock is ticking. To quote again from the Hagakuri, death seems words, every minute of every day is another minute closer to death. A morbid thought, I know, but factual. And so that being what it is, we'd better get to work and get to work now before it's too late. So we have to decide, are we crazy enough to make things happen? Are we desperate enough to see them through?

Are we crazy and desperate enough to stop doing all of the things that are currently getting in our way and to start doing things that are going to help us get to where we want to be? Are we crazy and desperate enough to face our fears, to face our insecurities, to face our dragons, and to struggle to overcome them? These are the questions that we have to reflect on and answer honestly if we are going to have a fighting chance. And if you did and don't mind doing me a favor and want to help me make this the most popular health and fitness podcast on the internet, then please leave a quick review of it on iTunes or wherever you're listening from. This not only convinces people that they should check the show out, it also increases its search visibility and thus helps more people find their way to me and

learn how to build their best bodies ever too. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then just subscribe to the podcast and you won't miss out on any of the new goodies. Lastly, if you didn't like something about the show, then definitely shoot me an email at mike at muscleforlife.com and share your thoughts on how you think it could be better. I read everything myself and I'm always looking for constructive feedback, so please do reach out. All right, that's it. Thanks again for listening to this episode and I hope to hear from you soon. And lastly, this episode is brought to you by me. Seriously though, I'm not big on promoting stuff that I don't personally use and believe in. So instead, I'm going to just quickly tell you

about something of mine, specifically my hugely popular and 100% natural pre-workout supplement pulse. It has sold over 250,000 bottles in the last several years, and it increases energy, improves mood, sharpens mental focus, increases strength and endurance, and reduces fatigue without the unwanted side effects that you probably experience with many other pre-workouts or the dreaded post-workout crash. It's also naturally sweetened and flavored and contains no artificial food dyes, fillers, or other unnecessary junk. And all of that is why Pulse has over 3,100 reviews on Amazon with a four and a half star average and another 500 plus reviews on my website, also with a four and a half star average. So if you want to feel focused, tireless, and powerful in your workouts. And if you want to say goodbye to the pre-workout

jitters, upset stomachs, and crashes for good, then you want to head over to www.legionathletics.com and pick up a bottle of Pulse today. And if you're not sure which flavor to get, I highly recommend Blue Raspberry. It's my personal favorite. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps, use the coupon code podcast at checkout and you will save 10% on your entire order. And lastly, you should also know that I have a very simple 100% money back guarantee that works like this. You either love my stuff or you get your money back period. You don't have to return the products. You don't have to fill out forms.

You don't have to jump through any other hoops or go through any other shenanigans. So you really can't lose here. Head over to www.lesionathletics.com now place your order and see for yourself. Why my supplements have thousands of rave reviews all over the internet. And if for whatever reason, they're just not for you, contact us and we will give you a full refund on the spot.