Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Motivation Monday: Is the “Great Life” a Great Lie?

Episode Date: November 13, 2017

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/

A great life can't be determined by the standards of others. It can only be determined by our own sense of ourselves. episode is part of a weekly series that I have dubbed Motivation Monday. Yes, I know. So creative of me. What can I say? I'm just a genius. Seriously though, the idea here is simple. Every Monday morning, I am 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. Because 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 energy and encouragement to go ahead and do all those things that you want to do.

So if you like what you hear, then make sure to check back every Monday morning for the latest and greatest installment. Quote, the cost of a thing is the amount of what I call life, which is required to be exchanged for it immediately or in the long run. And that one was from Henry David Thoreau. And I might add very much in line with my recent talk on sacrifice and on its importance and its role in living life and achieving things, which is a nice segue into today's episode, which starts with a question. So I don't know about you, but I've actually pondered this question. I really have. And that's why struggle to achieve a great life

when it's just so much easier to settle for a good life? Why make the great sacrifices of time, money, and interests? And why accept the great burdens of great living? What's wrong with just giving ourselves to the comfort of complacency? And why do people divide so sharply on these types of issues? Why do some people resonate with men and women of great ambition? And why do they want to strive to become someone like that themselves while others will take pride in having conquered the need to conquer the world? I mean, let's face it, every single one of us, whether we are rich or poor, we live in sumptuous luxury compared to not only our ancestors, but also to most of the people in the world.

We can communicate with anyone, anywhere, anytime. We are surrounded by unlimited amounts of delicious and ready to eat food. Deadly predators are a world away. Modern medicine can save us from pretty much all but the most catastrophic sicknesses or injuries. I mean, really, what is our great struggle? Our great struggle is trying not to bury ourselves in credit card debt or drink or eat ourselves to death. So what more do we really need? Isn't that great living by pretty much any standard? Shouldn't our modern society's obsession with material wealth and recognition be viewed more as a perversion than a brass ring? And while I'm definitely not a philosopher and I don't presume to know what a great life really is, when I personally meditate on this type of existential dilemma, I think of the following quote from John Wooden. And he said, don't measure

yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability. Now, in case you don't know of him, Wooden was a legendary NCAA basketball coach, and he led his team, the Bruins, to 10 championships and a 61-game winning streak. And he also innovated a recruiting system and full court press style of play that basically revolutionized the game. Not only that, but he was also a pretty profound person, and he had some pretty interesting things to say about life and achievement in general. And I think that his statement above really strikes at the heart of this great life dilemma because a great life can't be determined by the standards of others. It can only be determined by our own sense of ourselves. It isn't about the external expectations or approval, but the

internal. It's a personal journey of self-discovery and self-actualization wherein through the application of ourselves to our lives, we can learn what our abilities truly are. And at the end of this journey, no objective measurement of the friends that we have made, the skills we've learned, or the wealth or wisdom or recognition that we've acquired, no objective measurement of these things really matters. I mean, who's to say that we did or didn't share our lives with enough people or the right people or achieve enough mastery or the right mastery or make enough money or rise high enough in our professions, really only our own measurements of our efforts counts. Only we can know if we made the most of our endowments and our opportunities or if we squandered them.

And so the point here is that we can all live great lives in our own ways, according to our own abilities and opportunities and ideas and desires for self-actualization. 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.

I really do think that we all have our own highly individual adventures waiting for us. And this is why I myself really try to move as quickly as I can every single day. And I try to fit as much as I can into my life before the clock expires. This is why I strive to spend the majority of my time with people that I love and respect and why I am loathe to settle for giving anything less than what I'm fully capable of in my work and in my relationships and in my other pursuits. And in the end, will it all add up to a great life? I mean, I don't know, but I think it's at least going to be a hell of a lot more interesting and probably fun and fulfilling than what most people would consider a good life. 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,

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