Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Motivation Monday: The Little Big Things About Building a Better You

Episode Date: August 13, 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/

Hello there, this is Mr. Michael Matthews from Muscle for Life and Legion Athletics. And this episode of the podcast is going to be a chapter from my newest book, which is coming out on August 30th, called The Little Black Book of Workout Motivation. And the chapter that I want to share here is the first chapter of the book called The Little Big Things About Building a Better You. And if you like this first chapter, then I think you are going to really like the rest of the book. And if you pre-order a copy now on Amazon, you can enter to win a couple thousand dollars in prizes that I'm giving away, including an all expenses paid

trip to Washington, DC to meet me and the rest of the team, hang out, work out, whatever. We'll do a whole day together. And you can learn more about the pre-order campaign, the giveaway and so forth at www.workoutmotivationbook.com. And the instructions on how to enter the giveaway are there. I also should mention that if you like to listen to me speak, then you should definitely check out the audio book because I recorded it myself and I'm really happy with how it came out. And if you don't have an Audible membership, you can actually get it for free when you sign up for a free trial. And if you want to check that out, go to www.workoutmotivationbook.com slash audiobook, and that will forward you along to the correct URL so you can get the audiobook for free. All right, well, that's it for now. Let's get to the sneak peek.

free. All right, well, that's it for now. Let's get to the sneak peek. Chapter one, the little big things about building a better you. We who cut mere stones must always be envisioning cathedrals. Quarry workers creed. People didn't get why Dan was doing it. Why was he pouring so much time and energy into working out? Why was it so important to him? Was it narcissism? Had he fallen in love with his reflection? Maybe it was insecurity. Was he wrestling with an inferiority complex? Or was it something darker like self-loathing? Was he unable to accept himself the way he was? They were all missing the point. Dan didn't train to feel vainglorious, paper over shortcomings, or punish himself. He did it because it gave him more than a better body.

It gave him a better life. When Dan first reached out to me, he was in a bad way. He was 37 years old, 30 something pounds overweight and frustrated and confused. Name a diet and he had tried it. He had run the gauntlet of popular exercise programs without much to show for it. You don't want to know how much money he had wasted on clueless trainers. Dan was ready to resign himself to the apparent reality that it was just too late. For one reason or another, hormones, metabolism, stress, voodoo, hexes, it appeared that his opportunity to get into great shape had come and gone without even a whisper. He was wrong, of course. He just needed

the right diet and exercise principles and systems. At first, he was wrong, of course. He just needed the right diet and exercise principles and systems. At first, he was skeptical of my advice. He thought it was too simple and that there was no way you could control your body's fat-burning and muscle-building machinery that easily. Give me four weeks, I said, and if you're not absolutely floored by the results, I'll pay you $1,000. A month later, he was in disbelief. For the first time in his adult life, he was seeing real measurable changes in how he looked and felt, and he was doing it without starving himself, following a restrictive diet, or eating foods he didn't like. He could do this for the rest of his life, he realized. That was several years ago and Dan hasn't stopped. In fact, he's now in better shape than his college

days. 20-year-old Dan wishes he had 40-year-old Dan's body. He also realized that his workouts build more than muscle. They build character. They teach us how to have the courage to commit to goals. They teach us how to create purpose and meaning. They teach us how to stop making excuses and finding reasons to fail. They teach us how to stop being a victim and take responsibility for ourselves. They teach us how to stop chasing magic bullets and quick fixes and embrace the process. They teach us how to get gritty and push through pain and adversity. They teach us how to value long-term satisfaction over immediate gratification. At bottom, working out teaches us a very powerful lesson. If we have the power to change our bodies, we have the power to change our lives.

That's why we train. We train because fitness is one of those special things in life that you can't buy, steal, or fake. There aren't any rewards for complaining or failing, and fitness doesn't care about your opinions or feelings. You have to give something to get something. You can't slide by on bullshit. It's called working out, after all, and for good reason. You either do the work and transform your body, or you don't. This is a valuable lesson to learn because it's a metaphor for something bigger.

No matter what you're facing in life, you have two choices. You can put in the work or get put in your place. Nature smiles at the economic, political, and social institutions we erect to try to change this. Let's not forget that not so long ago, our forebears had to chase, fight, and kill just to survive. They expected hardship. They were willing to face the worst. They embraced the fact that the universe, in all its apparent tranquility, is a carefully balanced chaos of forces that we barely understand. We, on the other hand, chaos of forces that we barely understand. We, on the other hand, have it easy. And that makes it easy to go soft, lose perspective, and be lulled into idleness. Working out is something of an inoculation against this. It's a tribute to the primacy of effort. A reminder that unless we're

willing to work for them, secrets will never work. Reading books or blogs may supply pieces to the puzzle, but we still have to roll up our sleeves and figure out how they all fit together. All that can point us to the work, but then we have to do it. If you find this discouraging, you're looking at it wrong. Groping for shortcuts is discouraging. Stumbling around in the dark anxiously turning over rocks in search of arcana is discouraging. Waiting for lightning to strike your bottle is discouraging. On the other hand, donning the yoke can be incredibly encouraging. Yes, it's bulky and uncomfortable, and yes, it demands toil

and sweat, but it also promises a return on your efforts. You may not always get the prize you want, but you never leave empty-handed. This makes the gym a lot more than a place to move, grunt, and sweat. It's a microcosm where we can make contact with the deeper parts of ourselves, our convictions, fears, habits, and anxieties. It's an arena where we can confront these opponents head-on and prove that we have what it takes to vanquish them. It's a setting where we can test the stories we tell ourselves. It calls on us to demonstrate how we respond to the greater struggles of life, adversity, pain, insecurity, stress, weakness, and disadvantage. And in some ways, who we really are.

In this way, the gym is a training and testing ground for the body, mind, and soul. the gym is a training and testing ground for the body, mind, and soul. The conflicts we learn to endure in the gym empower us in our daily lives as well. The concentration, discipline, and resilience carry over. The way to do anything is, at bottom, the way to do everything. The gym is also a source of learning because it calls on us to constantly attempt new things. It's a forum where questions are at least as important as answers, and it cultivates what scientists call a growth mindset by teaching us that our abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work, a worldview that's essential for great accomplishment. The gym is practical too, not idealistic. It's a laboratory open to any and all ideas and

methodologies, and it gives clear unqualified feedback. They either work or they don't. In short, the gym can be so much more than merely a place to work out. It can be a refuge from the chaos around us, a world of our own that we create to satisfy dreams and desires. The gym can also provide us with something missing from so many people's lives, principles, values, and standards to live by. In short, a game worth playing. Without a game worth playing, nothing else really matters. Life becomes a daisy chain of random events that happen to us accidentally rather than intentionally, without rhyme or reason, direction or meaning. It doesn't have to be like this though. Fate has dealt us a hand, but we get to choose

how we play it. This is one of the many reasons to love fitness. It has purpose, order, and significance. It's an outlet for integrity, intention, and excellence. It fosters community, commitment, and a clear focus on worthwhile results. The type of results that bespeak prized virtues like discipline, patience, work ethic, self-respect, and passion. The type that speak louder than words and posture. The fitness game goes deeper than that, too. It's a metagame, so to speak, because if you have what it takes to conquer your psychology and physiology, then you might just have what it takes to reach out into the world and conquer a whole lot more. In short, the better you get at the fitness game, the better prepared you'll be for

every other game you might want to play. Whose story better exemplifies that than Arnold Schwarzenegger's? Born in Austria in 1947 to an alcoholic ex-Nazi who beat him as a child, forced him to do sit-ups to earn breakfast, and ridiculed his boyhood dreams of becoming a bodybuilder, Arnold's rise to fame and fortune was a masterclass in self-determination. As a kid, Arnie promised himself that he would leave Austria and make something more of his life. And he found inspiration in the most unlikely of places. A magazine article on the iconic bodybuilder turned movie star Reg Park. Arnold's imagination soared.

He envisioned himself becoming the most muscular man in the world and then making blockbuster movies and million-dollar paydays. That's exactly what he would do, he told himself, and so he began training his body. His friends were amused. Come on, you're dreaming, they would say. Give it up. His father was harsher. He said that such fantasies were embarrassing and arranged for Arnold to be shipped off to the military at 18, where there would be no time or equipment for bodybuilding. Or so he thought. Arnold resolved to do whatever it would take to make his daydream a reality. So, after long grueling days of running, crawling, marching, shooting, and soldiering, when everyone else was literally collapsing from exhaustion,

he worked out, sometimes for hours, using chairs, benches, bars, and whatever else was at hand. As usual, Arnold's peers lampooned his antics. They saw a useless fool trying to build castles in the sky, but Arnie wasn't phased. He was determined to break through, no matter what it took. Reaching his goal of being a world champion became his singular focus in life. Arnold's first chance to make a splash in the bodybuilding scene came when he was invited to compete in the Junior Mr. Europe competition in Stuttgart, Germany. There was a problem though. It would require that he abandon basic training and face severe consequences upon his return. Night after night, he turned it over in his mind. Was he really ready to go to jail to

compete in a bodybuilding show? Was all this really just a crazy delusion? No, it wasn't, he decided. Reg Park did it, and he could do it too. When he closed his eyes at night, he saw himself standing on the stage, triumphant, just like his idol, and knew that he had to go. So he snuck out of the base, stowed away on a freight train, rode for 26 hours, borrowed another competitor's trunks, he didn't own any, shuffled onto stage and awkwardly presented his physique to the skeptical judges and crowd. And he won first place. This was a watershed moment. It gave Arnold something tangible to hang his hat on. It proved that maybe he wasn't so foolish after all. But there was a problem. He was also

still enlisted in the Austrian army. Furthermore, after unsuccessfully trying to sneak back into his barracks, he was castigated by his superiors and thrown into solitary confinement. After cooling down, though, the officers wanted to know if it was true. Did Arnold actually win the show? Indeed, he did, he explained, and it was all thanks to the rigors of their training, he added, playing up to his seniors. As men who valued discipline above all, they accepted the invitation to share in his victory and even began presenting Arnold as a model recruit. From here, Arnold continued to build, mold, and sculpt his body while completing his stint in the army. He then took the bodybuilding scene by storm, and in just a few short years, had not only

mounted its highest pedestal, but helped transform the sport from an obscure, low-rent hobby into a glamorous celebration of the physical aesthetic. Becoming the best bodybuilder in the world was only the first phase of his plan, though. The next domain to conquer was the silver screen, so Arnie went west, only to be met with scorn. The awkward accent, the bulging muscles, the weird name, none of it worked, Hollywood gatekeepers said. Be realistic, they told him, it's not going anywhere. As usual, Arnold paid them no mind and got to work. He landed his first acting gig in 1970 to play, as fate would have it, Hercules in a low-budget comedy called Hercules in New York,

and then burst into the limelight in the 1982 box office hit Conan the Barbarian. What followed includes now iconic films like Total Recall, Predator, Terminator, and Terminator 2, and to date, his films have grossed over a billion dollars, making him one of the most successful action movie stars of all time. Arnold's run for the California governorship was more of the same. No way, no how, impossible, wins handily. Not bad for a starry-eyed Austrian kid nobody believed would or even should amount to anything. exemplifies why the gym can give us a lot more than muscle and strength. It can give us more life. Every day we show up and put in the work, it transforms more than our physiques. It transforms our very being. So that was the Austrian oak. What about you? What game do you most want to play? you? What game do you most want to play? What do you value most? What are your strengths?

Who do you most want to become? Don't sell yourself short when reflecting on these questions. Don't nod along with the reasons why you think you should downsize your dreams. Don't allow the reality of who you currently are snuff out glimmerings of who you could be. Don't skid through life ignoring the music that is inside you. Recommended reading, The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz. Do this now. What's your why for fitness? Why is it a game worth playing? Why do you keep showing up? Do this now. What's your why for fitness?

Why is it a game worth playing? Why do you keep showing up? Reflect on those questions and write your answer down. Why does that matter? Why is it important to you? How does it benefit you? Reflect on those questions and write your answer down. Why do those things matter? What do they mean to you?

What is special about them? Write your answer down. Continue this process of asking why until you've written something that clicks, that puts a sparkle in your eye and makes you say, yes, that is really why I do it. Write this down. In case you're curious, here's my personal take on this exercise. What's your why for fitness? Why is it worthwhile? Why do you keep showing up? To look and feel good and be healthy. Why does that matter? Why is it important to you? How does it benefit you? Life is just better when you're happy with what you see in the mirror, when you feel energetic and healthy, and when you don't have to worry about developing disease or dysfunction. Why does that matter? What does it mean to you? What's special about it? I want to do a lot of things well in life, personal growth, career, love, friends, etc.

And taking good care of my body will make all of them easier to do. Neglecting my body, however, will make them much harder, if not impossible, to achieve. I also want to be a certain type of person. I want to embody the values and ideals I admire, like honesty, honor, diligence, resilience, and independence. As my body is literally the embodiment of my character, taking care of it is closely intertwined with this. Therefore, when I work out, I'm not just working toward a better-looking body, I'm working toward every single one of my goals and the person I really want to be. If you go pre-order a copy now, you can enter a giveaway that I'm holding, a book launch giveaway,

a celebration of a couple thousand dollars in prizes, including an all expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C. to meet me and the team and hang out, work out, whatever we want to do. We'll go have fun for a day. You can learn more about that at www.workoutmotivationbook.com. As always, thank you for all of your support and who knows, maybe I will be seeing you soon. Oh, and before you leave, let me quickly tell you about one other product of mine that I think you might like specifically my fitness book for men, bigger, leaner, stronger. Now this book has sold over 350,000 copies in the last several years and helped thousands and thousands of guys build their best bodies ever, which is why it currently has over 3,100 reviews on Amazon with a four and

a half star average. So if you want to know the biggest lies and myths that are keeping you from achieving the lean, muscular, strong, and healthy body that you truly desire, and if you want to learn the simple science of building the ultimate male body, then you want to read Bigger, Leaner, Stronger, which you can find on all major online retailers like Amazon, Audible, iTunes, Kobo, and Google Play. Now, speaking of Audible, I should also mention that you can get the audiobook 100% free when you sign up for an Audible account, which I highly recommend that you do if you're not currently listening to audiobooks. I love them myself because they let me make the time that I spend doing stuff like commuting,

prepping food, walking my dog, and so forth so much more valuable and productive. my dog and so forth, so much more valuable and productive. So if you want to take Audible up on this offer and get my book for free, then simply go to www.bitly.com slash free BLS. And that will take you to Audible. And then you just click the sign up today and save button, create your account and voila, you get to listen to Bigger, Leaner, Stronger for free.