Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Motivation Monday: The Number-One Reason to Read (Is Not What You Think)

Episode Date: October 15, 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. Hey there, Michael Matthews here, Mr. Muscle for Life and Legion Athletics back with another Motivation Monday episode of the podcast. I'm going to be doing these every other week, by the way, as opposed to every week to give myself a bit more time to gather my thoughts and write the articles and so forth. Ultimately, I think it's going to make the episodes better because I kind of have to squeeze these in amongst everything else. Anyways, let us begin with a quote. This one comes from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and he said, quote, the heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by

sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night. In other words, if you want to do anything remarkable, work fucking hard. There was a survey, I wouldn't say it was a study, it was a survey of entrepreneurs, small business owners, CEOs. And I believe the average hours worked was about 60 hours per week and ranged from about 50 to 80 hours per week. And if you know any of these people yourself, if you know any entrepreneurs or small business owners, CEOs, it probably squares up with what you see. Certainly with what I've seen over the years. Now, my point with bringing that up is this is something that I've told friends and just

people who have come to me for business advice or career advice, particularly people who are or were considering starting businesses. people who are or were considering starting businesses. And something that I've always told them is if you can't work at least 50 to 60 hours per week and work, not be at the computer 50 to 60 hours, but actually be working. Sure, you take little breaks here and there if you need to, but 50 to 60 hours of real work, not all of it has to be deep work. That also includes email and phone calls and meetings and all the stuff you have to do. Don't start a business. If you also want to be very successful, if you want that business to do very well, just

don't do it. Starting a business, running a business, it just requires a lot of time and a lot of work. It makes me think of a book I read, a golf book I read called Every Shot Counts, I believe. Every Shot, Every Stroke, Every Shot Counts. Mark Brody, a statistics professor from Brown University wrote it. And interesting book. If you're into golf, read it. You will find it very interesting. But one of the things that he found doing a bunch of data analysis is if you can't drive the ball at least 270 yards, which if you're not familiar with golf, that's going to be your longest shot. That's going to be your longest club in your bag. If you cannot hit the ball at least 270 yards, the data shows

you will not make it on the PGA Tour. You will not make it as a professional golfer, period. It doesn't matter how good the rest of your game is. If you don't have that distance, you will not be able to compete. And there are some technical reasons for this that would make sense to a golfer, but not to a non-golfer. So I just won't even go into it. But my point with that is that's like a very simple key metric that would be worthwhile to share with somebody who was, let's say, trying to pursue a career in golf. If you can't break that threshold, that distance threshold, you should probably just find something else. It's just not going to happen. That's what the data says. And if it is going to happen for you, it means that you are an extreme statistical outlier.

And when you look at things in terms of probabilities, is that what you want to invest thousands of hours into? A very low probability? You're just trying to basically win the lottery? Probably not. You want to find something that provides you with a much larger probability of success, right? Similar with working. If you can only work so much before your mind just shuts down or your emotions just rebel against you, then don't try to do something that will almost certainly require a lot more than you are willing or able to give. Anyway, that's just me babbling and has nothing to do with this episode. This episode is going to be about reading and what I feel is the number one reason to read and it's probably not what you think.

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. Let's start this discussion with a story, the story of a man named Johnson O'Connor. Now, O'Connor was a Harvard graduate who spent his early years of his life studying

astronomical mathematics under the famous astronomer Percival Lowell. Now, in the 1920s, General Electric hired O'Connor to observe and analyze its successful employees and discover which traits they had in common that made them good at their jobs. The idea was then the company would test new hires and based on the results, assign them to jobs that best fit their personalities and their skill sets. Now, this project was the beginning of what would become O'Connor's life's work, which was the study of human talents and learning. And to expand his research efforts in 1930, O'Connor created the Human Engineering Laboratory at Stevens Institute of Technology, and he worked diligently to gather data on skills specific to various professions, as well as general data regarding learning and ability.

Soon after that, he launched a research project to determine which traits or talents were more important than others in becoming successful and advancing in one's career. And it was during this investigation that he made a very unexpected discovery. What O'Connor found was that a person's vocabulary level was the best single predictor of long-term success in all disciplines and endeavors that he analyzed. In other words, an understanding of not only general language, but of the words specific to the activity was the most important factor that separated the unsuccessful from the successful. Now, this discovery sparked in O'Connor a fascination with language and its connection with skill and success. In another study, he found that a person's vocabulary

directly correlated with how far they rose in an organization. For instance, presidents of companies scored among the highest in vocabulary of those people he tested. In his later writings, O'Connor concluded that the understanding of words was a major key to unlocking human potential. Now, why? Well, his hypothesis was that as words are the tools with which we think and grasp others' thoughts, the more words we properly understand, the more perceptive, subtle, and versatile our minds are.

And the more robust our minds are, the better we can reason and make constructive decisions, we can reason and make constructive decisions, which then compounds over time and results in higher and higher levels of achievement. Interestingly, O'Connor also fiercely opposed educators who believed only the usage of words mattered and that standard precise definitions, like those that you find in a dictionary, were irrelevant. We can't let the ignorant define our words for us, he argued. I wholeheartedly agree with O'Connor's conclusions, and this is why the number one reason I read is to expand my vocabulary. I've found that the more words I learn, the better I'm able to understand life and the world around me, and the more ideas I'm able to command and connect in my mind. And so what this means is when I'm reading, I spend a fair amount of time in the dictionary checking and clarifying the meaning of words.

In fact, I would estimate that about 30%, 20 to 30% of the time I spend reading is invested in the dictionary, reading definitions, making sample sentences, and reviewing etymologies. And yes, I do this regardless of what I'm reading, whether it's an article, a book, or even a tweet. Every word that I can clarify and I can learn is like a gem that I can add to my collection and thereby increase my understanding and wisdom. And yes, this process can be very annoying at times. Sometimes I would just like to blaze through whatever I'm reading and move on to something else, but I stick to it because of the significant and wide ranging dividends it pays. Now, why not just read a dictionary? You might be wondering, and it's a

good question. It's something I've actually considered. And honestly, I would do it if I wanted to give more time every day to learning. Currently, I spend 45 to 60 minutes per day reading, as well as 15 to 20 minutes per day learning German words and 60 to 90 minutes per week learning German grammar. Once I have some career and financial goals behind me, however, I will probably start working my way through the dictionary 30 to 60 minutes per day. I'd have to at least put in 30 minutes. Ideally, it would probably be 60 to 90 because it will take time. And I'll also recruit someone to do it with me because I think it'll be more fun that way. And interestingly enough, because I think it'll be more fun that way. And interestingly enough, this is what Malcolm X did when he was in prison, and it marked the beginning of a profound personal transformation for him.

So in 1943, Malcolm was 18 years old. His name was not Malcolm X, it was Malcolm Little. He was 18 years old. He was living in Harlem, and he was involved in drug dealing, gambling, racketeering, robbery, prostitution. And a few years later, he got involved in some elaborate burglaries of the residences of wealthy white families. And he wound up arrested for larceny and breaking and entering. So he's 21 years old. He is in prison in Massachusetts to serve eight to 10 years, and he can barely read. Quote, every book I picked up had a few sentences, which didn't contain anywhere from one to nearly all of the words that might have been in Chinese, he later wrote. Now in prison, Malcolm met a self-educated guy named John Elton

Bembry. Now Bembry was well-regarded and Malcolm would later describe him as the first man I had ever seen command total respect with words. So these two guys became friends and Malcolm decided to educate himself as Bembry had. So where did he start? Well, Malcolm was painfully aware of his illiteracy and he got his hands on a dictionary and he began copying every entry by hand. It took him a day just to do the first page and every day thereafter, he would copy out a new page and then read aloud each word and every one of its definitions. Now, of course, slowly but surely, Malcolm began to remember new words and what they meant. He realized that a dictionary is really a little encyclopedia, and those are his words, that taught him about people,

animals, places, history, philosophy, science, you name it. As his vocabulary grew, so did his understanding of life and the world around him. And he finally was able to pick up a book and actually understand what it was saying. From then until I left that prison, he later said, in every free moment I had, if I was not reading in the library, I was reading in my bunk. You couldn't have gotten me out of a book with a wedge. Malcolm preferred to read in his cell and after the lights out at 10 o'clock, he would sit on the floor by the door and continue reading under the faint light of the bulb that was outside his cell. And the guards would come around every hour or so. And when he would hear their footsteps approaching, he would rush back

to his bunk and pretend to be asleep. And then as soon as they had gone, he would be back by the door reading. So Malcolm read and read and read and read. He devoured books on history and was astounded at the knowledge he obtained about the history of black civilizations in particular. He read books by Gandhi on the struggle in India. He read about African colonization and China's opium wars. And he also learned about genetics, philosophy, and religion. Ten guards and the warden couldn't have torn me out of those books, he said. I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading opened to me. I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life.

Malcolm was then paroled and released from prison in 1952, and he later reflected on the time that he spent there, and he said that months had passed without even thinking about being imprisoned. In fact, up to then, he said, I had never been so truly free in my life. This new course of his, of course, led him to become one of the most prominent figures in the American civil rights movement, something that he will be forever remembered for. in his organization was that of a teacher. He ran a class for young people where he told them, read everything. You never know where you're going to get an idea. We have to learn how to think. Now, think about Malcolm's story for a minute. By 21 years old, his fate seemed to be completely sealed. He was an illiterate, black, drug-dealing pimp stuck in prison, living in the harsh realities of 1940s racism. Where should he have gone in his life? He should have gone nowhere, of course. He should have died a cold, insignificant death in the streets of Harlem or a tiny prison cell. But by using the power of words,

he literally rewrote his destiny in a way that almost defies belief. And where did it all start? It started with the simplest of things. It started with words. Who's to say that we can't harness the power of words as well and unlock our own latent abilities and inclinations? Who knows where our own intellectual journeys could take us? Now, paying close attention to your understanding of words has another very practical benefit, it forces you to slow down and absorb and analyze what you are reading or listening to word by word, sentence by sentence, as opposed to sailing through sentences and paragraphs, believing you're understanding and retaining more than you really are. And in fact, research shows that this is probably one of the reasons that people tend to remember more of what they read in print than on a screen. Most people tend to read digital content faster. So if you want to upgrade not just your ability to comprehend and retain information, but the foundation of your

entire intellectual operating system, so to speak, get a dictionary. The New Oxford American Dictionary, third edition is my personal favorite, and start using it liberally. 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 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 audiobook 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.