Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Motivation Monday: In Filth It Will Be Found

Episode Date: November 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: https://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 newest book, The Little Black Book of Workout Motivation. Now, this book was fun to write because it really is my personal and 100% practical and hands-on blueprint for transformation, both inside and outside of the gym. And I promise you that it will provide you with new and valuable knowledge and skills that you will use for the rest of your life. In short, I wrote this book to help you fix the things

that are most holding you back from doing and achieving the things you care most about. So if you want to learn how to overcome the mental blocks that are making you unmotivated, unhappy, and unhealthy, then the little black book of workout motivation is for you. And you can find it on all major online retailers like Audible, Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, and Google Play. And I should also mention that you can get the audio book 100% free when you sign up for an Audible account, get the audio book 100% free when you sign up for an audible account, which I highly recommend that you do. If you're not currently listening to audio books, I love them myself because they let me make the time that I spend commuting, prepping food, walking my dog and so forth more valuable and productive. So if you want to take audible up on this offer and get my audio book for free, simply go to www.workout

motivation book.com slash audio book, click the sign up today and save button, create your account and voila, you get to listen to my little black book for free. Alrighty, that is enough shameless plugging for now at least let's get to the show. Hello, Mr. Mike Matthews here from Us for Life and Legion Athletics. And this is going to be another Motivation Monday episode, which means that as usual, we will start with a quote. And today's quote comes from, I don't know where. It's one of those quotes that has been misattributed so many times that I don't think anybody really knows where it came from at this point, but I like the message. And it is simply, you don't attract what you want, you attract who you are. Now, I haven't really read anything about the supposed law of attraction or any of that manifest your

green tea infinity dreams or whatever kind of stuff. It's just not really my thing, but there may be something to the basic idea of non-material forces at work in our lives that make them better or worse. For example, I have known, as we all have known, a number of people who have had a lot of bad relationships. And I've spoken with a few of these people and tried to point out to them, I do recognize that the common denominator in all of your failed relationships is you. Because often these people were placing blame elsewhere and in every case had external reasons for why things didn't work out and really didn't want to look in the mirror. I think that the political realm is another good example, especially when you view it through the lens of history, in that people ultimately get the government that they deserve. As people, as

society generally becomes more dissolute and degenerate and dysfunctional, so does their government until eventually it all just falls apart. Anyway, that is another discussion that I will save for another day. Today, I want to talk to you about easy, fast, and free. Those are three of the most powerful words in the English language. Whether you want to win someone's money, their muscle, or their mind, just one of those words is often all it takes. That's why those words are also dangerous. That's why they are often sung by political, economic, and social sirens. Because of those three words, millions of people live in a trance, transfixed by their desire to get more for less. Less effort, less energy, less time. And it's understandable. We have all been there before. We've all asked ourselves, why does this have to be so hard

when life puts us on the ropes? We've all thought there's got to be an easier way when the obstacles in front of us have appeared insurmountable. We've all wished that someone else could just do the work for us when the demands on us have become too great. It's perfectly normal to have these types of thoughts. In fact, it's perfectly normal to use those types of thoughts as excuses to compromise on our standards or to quit altogether. pounds overweight, to do just a few hours of real work and watch four to five plus hours of TV per day. And in some cases, you also have to tack on a couple hours of social media, including YouTube watching as well, and to have over $130,000 in debt and less than $1,000 in savings. All of that really actually is the norm these days. And it is insidiously self-perpetuating as well, because as more and more people live like that, the justification for even more people to join in just becomes greater and greater. Now, one way to escape the terminal disease of normality,

which in some ways it literally is and that it leads to terminal disease, is to condition ourselves to despise what is easy, fast, and free, and instead learn to embrace difficulty, and free, and instead learn to embrace difficulty, tedium, and sacrifice instead. The author Steven Pressfield summarized this well in his bestselling book, The War of Art, which I highly recommend. He said, quote, the years have taught me one skill, how to be miserable. I know how to shut up and keep humping. In E.N. Gray's enduring essay, The Common Denominator of Success, he argued that the biggest thing that sets the successful in any field or endeavor apart from the unsuccessful is the habit of doing the things that most people simply don't want to do. It's not even that successful people like doing these things. They just have enough drive to muster the willpower and the energy to do them regardless of how they feel. I don't know about you, but I can definitely relate to those sentiments. I'm often asked for advice. People often email me and ask how to be more successful in their fitness or their business or just their lives in general.

And one of the more important lessons that I've personally learned and that I share is this. If you want a hard life, then go in for the easy, fast, and free. If you want an easy life, pursue the hard, slow, and costly. In other words, I've found that the most difficult way to do things almost always turn out to be the easiest in the end, as well as the most effective. And that's often why they turn out to be the easiest, because they're almost always the only ways that actually work. Nothing is more frustrating than putting in time, effort, energy for failures, for very little progress. But you take that same time, energy, and effort and put it into something that produces actual results. Maybe they're a bit slower or a bit smaller than what you anticipated or what you hoped for going in. But the fact that you can continually

make progress changes your perception of the work itself. Now, I believe in this so wholeheartedly that when I enter a new activity or a new discipline, the first thing I do is to go looking for the purposeful hard work that most people simply don't want to do. I actually ask myself, what is the average person running away from here? And more often than not, that question alone helps me easily discover the most direct paths to getting real results. So take fitness, for example. Right now, there are millions of overweight, out of shape people who are completely at sea. They are wandering from one 30-day shred program to another, one fad diet to another. They're chasing the easy, the fast, the free, the mirages, the magic bullets, the quick fixes.

I recently met someone in the gym who had been stuck in this rat race for many years. His name is Josh, and his story was familiar. Josh had over 30 pounds that he wanted to lose, and he had tried many fad diets over the years, and he just wasn't sure what to do next. So Josh asked me my thoughts on the magic bullet du jour, the ketogenic diet. And here's my reply. I told him that if you finally want to get in shape, just do a few hours of intense exercise per week, let's say three to five, do anything that you like. If you want a little bit more advice there, I recommend putting a fair amount of that time into training your muscles. But if you're not really into that, do whatever, whatever you enjoy most. Come do classes. We go to Equinox and they have classes that a lot of people like.

I was just go do classes, do whatever you want, three to five hours of intense exercise per week. And I want you to eat 2000 calories per day and no more than that. And I want you to get at least 150 grams of protein. I don't care what foods you eat right now, eat whatever you like, just stick to those numbers. And if you want some bonus points, yeah, eat some fruits and vegetables as well. Now, when Josh heard that, he was skeptical, of course. What about sugar? What about carbs? What about red meat?

And I said, I don't care about any of that. He still had a hard time processing what I was saying. So you're saying that I can eat any of those things, really anything I want, so long as I stick to 2000 calories and 150 grams of protein per day. Yes, that's it. I don't recommend eating a bunch of sugar, I told him, because you're probably going to feel like crap. But if you do want to have a treat every day or you want to have some sugar every day, whatever, just fit it into your calories. Josh thought about it for a minute and he said something interesting. He said, it's funny that you say that because all these years I have sworn to myself that I would never count or track calories. Now you, the fittest person I know, are telling me to do just that.

Six weeks later, Josh was down over 15 pounds. And more importantly, he now understands the ground truth about the relationship between energy balance and body composition. And he will never again puzzle over his body weight. It's now under his control. And he also shared with me something that I thought was particularly interesting and that inspired this podcast. There was a saying in medieval alchemy, and it went in sterquillinus in venitur, and it roughly translates to in filth it will be found. Now, Carl Jung later expounded on this, and what he said is that what we most want to find in our lives will be found in the places where we least want to look. And that perfectly summarized Josh's fitness epiphany in the filth

of energy balance and macronutrient balance. Those are very unsexy, unpalatable subjects that most people want to avoid because they tell you that, no, you can't eat whatever you want, whenever you want. You do have to actually pay attention to the foods that you eat and you have to actually understand how much energy you are burning and how much energy you are eating and so forth. So in all of that is where Josh discovered the quote unquote diet secrets of the super fit. And so it is with most everything in life, only in the filth of all the things that are difficult, complicated, uncomfortable, unexciting, and sometimes exhausting are the true gems found. 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 Muscle for Life Fitness, Twitter at Muscle for Life, and Facebook at Muscle for Life Fitness. I'm often asked what book or tip or trick has most contributed to my development as a writer. And my answer is I have spent about six years now in the muck and grime of writing. I've read thousands of pages of challenging literature. I've spent hundreds of hours in dictionaries,

pages of challenging literature. I've spent hundreds of hours in dictionaries learning new words. I have flipped through piles and piles of vocabulary flashcards that I make. I have copybooked hundreds of pages of work from legendary writers who I admire and whose work I aspire to. And I've also written and published over one and a half million words now, probably, between my books and articles over at Muscle for Life and Legion. And what has all of that gotten me? Well, it has gotten me to a point where I am merely competent by my own standards. by my own standards. Maybe another six years of that and I will see what I consider glimmerings of greatness. I'm also learning to speak German. And instead of wasting time on the easy, fast, and free of the language learning space, which is easily spotted, anything that says you can be fluent in three months, for example,

and that includes audio programs, software apps, those products are designed to make you feel like you are progressing toward fluency when you're really not. And so instead of wasting my time with any of that, I am deep in the minds covered in the soot and grunge of thousands of SRS flashcards, which I'm using to build a vocabulary as well as an understanding of the basic grammar rules, because German grammar is very different than English grammar. How you compose sentences is completely different. So you have to learn a new way to think really. And in addition to that, I'm also spending time in grammar and sentence building textbooks, which are where I get the material for the grammar flashcards from. So there are some good textbooks out there that really do walk you through all the grammatical

and syntaxical things that you need to understand to speak the language well. And they do have some exercises, but that's not enough really to internalize it. You have to practice a lot. So flashcards are a good way to get that going. And then, of course, it comes down to speaking with people, writing, reading, and so forth. And that all is the practice side of things. And it's not painful, but it is a bit frustrating because you can't communicate well. You feel like you are five years old again, You feel like you are five years old again, struggling to find the words to communicate very simple concepts.

But the good news is I am making progress. I'm making real progress. Eines Tages werde ich gut Deutsch sprechen. One day I will speak good German. It will happen. It just takes time. Now, if everything I have said here leaves you feeling a little less than inspired or maybe even a little disillusioned, I do understand. I've been there before myself, but you should know this.

Nothing is more difficult and ultimately disappointing than the quest for easy, fast, and free. quest for easy, fast, and free. It's a shell game of false hopes and fool's paradises where you simply can't win. Someone once asked the Spartan King Leonidas to identify the supreme warrior virtue from which all others flowed. His reply was contempt for death. For us as strivers and scrabblers of all stripes, think the difficult. Contempt for the difficult is our cardinal virtue. So what is a gem that you currently desire? What is a shiny, attractive goal that you currently feel drawn toward? goal that you currently feel drawn toward. Now consider what is the purposeful hard work that most people with the same desire don't want to do? What difficult, complicated, uncomfortable, and

unexciting things are these people running away from? Reflect on that and research it if you have to until you have created an extensive list. Then pick one thing from the list that you can do today, right now even, and just go do it contemptuously. Hey there, it is Mike again. I hope you enjoyed this episode and found it interesting and helpful. 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. Oh, and if you liked this episode, then you are going to love my newest book, the little black Book of Workout Motivation. You should definitely check it out

because this book is my personal and 100% practical and hands-on blueprint for transformation, both inside and outside of the gym. I promise that this book will provide you with new and valuable knowledge and skills that you will use for the rest of your life in short i wrote this book to help you fix the things that are most holding you back from doing and achieving the things that you care the most about. So if you want to learn how to better overcome the mental blocks that are making you unmotivated, unhappy, and unhealthy, then the little black

book of workout motivation is for you. And you can find it on all major online retailers like Audible, Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, and Google Play. Now, I should also mention that there's an audio book as well, one that I recorded myself. So if you like listening to me talk about this kind of stuff on the podcast, then you'll definitely like listening to the audio book. And you can actually get that audio book 100% free when you go to www.workoutmotivationbook.com slash audiobook and sign up for an Audible account. Now, I myself love audiobooks and highly recommend them to everyone because they let you take downtime that you spend commuting, prepping food, walking dogs, stuff like that into something more valuable and productive. So if you want to take Audible up on this offer and get my

audiobook for free, simply go to www.workoutmotivationbook.com slash audiobook, click on the little sign up today and save button, create your Audible account, and voila, you get to listen to my little black book for free.