The School of Greatness - 627 Let Passion Lead with Steve Cook

Episode Date: April 13, 2018

LOOK FOR SOMETHING TO BE GRATEFUL FOR EVERY DAY. Finding what makes you passionate is something a lot of people struggle with. We all want to find that thing in life that we are excited to do -- the drive that makes us want to wake up early because we can’t wait to get started. When you find the energy that your passion creates, it’s your duty to share it with everyone around you. That’s when you’ll make a real impact and people will remember you. Take care of them, and they’ll end up taking care of you one day. To go more in depth about the importance of living your passion, I wanted to bring back an episode with Steve Cook for this week’s 5 Minute Friday. Steve is one of the most recognizable faces in fitness today. He’s an IFBB Pro Men’s Physique Competitor, and spokesmodel for Optimum Nutrition and Bodybuilding. Learn how you can make an impact and inspire the world (and yourself) on Episode 627.

This is 5-Minute Friday! Now just recently I met this guy, Steve Cook. And let me tell you something, Steve is an incredible human being. Steve is one of the most recognizable faces in the fitness industry today. He's best noted for being an IFBB pro men's physique competitor, optimum nutrition and bodybuilding.com spokesmodel, an international fitness personality, as well as the founder of Swolder Nation. That's right. Let's get swole. He is also the third person ever to obtain his men's physique pro card, first ever men's physique competitor to qualify

for the Mr olympia and so much more if your message is really something that you believe in and you have passion when you have that excitement for something that you're doing whatever it is that you're doing if you're ridiculously excited about it like willing to wake up super freaking early that's contagious. And that's one thing that I've learned that whenever, you know, when I was excited to step on stage, the audience, the crowd, people,

that's a contagious thing. It's like it's tangible when it's there and you'll naturally attract other people that are passionate for that. Or who want that. Right. A mentor, early mentor of mine said that the world makes room for passionate people

100 so true when you are passionate and show up that way people want to be around it they're attracted to a magnet you know what i mean so and when you're passionate you don't notice the hours you don't notice that you know all of a sudden you've been doing it for four years time's gone by like 12 hours a day yeah time's gone by and and you're just like i'm here because i love it even if i didn't get paid or even if i wasn't you know i can't imagine doing anything else i think that's a big time it's you know for me it was it was scary i instead of going doing chiropractic stuff i took a job the secure way yeah i took a job as a waiter still because i wanted to travel around the world with optimumum because I saw an opportunity there.

They weren't paying me much, $500 a month. That's not enough to live on. But I said I had my college degree, and instead of trying to go to the corporate world or going back to school, I said I think this is what I'm passionate about. I'm going to invest my time, and I'm not going to get paid for it. But what I'm going to do is I'm going to shake every person's hand in line at an expo. I'm going to give each person a hug. I'm going to introduce myself. I'm going to make that person remember me by the way I treated them.

And that passion then grew. And I think that people felt that energy. Again, it's tangible when you're there at an expo and you can sit down and look somebody in the eyes and truly care about them what they're doing and you can't fake that you either have that or you don't and there's been times in my life that i haven't had passion for it and i feel like that's when i i have to come back and am i giving away too much of my time i burnt out but definitely when you have that passion for something you can't do an expo for eight to 10 hours a day on your feet and not truly love people. You've got to love people. You do. You can't fake that. And again, you're going to be exhausted after it. And there's sacrifices that you have to be made. But again, at the end of the day,

you feel like you're doing what you want to do. You feel like you're giving value to people around you. And that's a huge, for me, I'm like, oh, this feels good. So I was doing it for myself as well. And that's a huge, like, for me, I'm like, oh, this feels good. So I was doing it, you know, for myself as well. Be happy today. So the thing in our society, I'll be happy when I make a million dollars. I'll be happy when I have a million Instagram followers. I'll be happy when, when, when, when.

If you're not happy now, you'll never be happy. You know, and again, there's a difference between being content. Like, you know, I'm not going to just sit back, kick my feet up, and all of a sudden think, you know, I've made it. Like, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about enjoying that daily struggle. If you don't find things in your life to be positive about today, then you will never find those things. And that to me is the first and foremost. Every time I feel myself starting to think, you know, I start thinking crappy.

In L.A., you know, this happens because there's always somebody who's better, better looking, you know, more money or has a better this or that. There's that. So it's human nature and it's the world that we live in today to teach you you don't have enough. And not having enough starts making people feel like they're not good enough. And then not being good enough starts creating this sense of unhappiness. So I think it's about finding something every day to be grateful for and to be happy for. And then all of a sudden, you're already living that.

You've already made it. But you want to give that. You want to continue that. So you keep on pushing.