Why do people succeed? Because they’re smart? Or lucky? How about: Neither.
Richard St. John compacts 7 years of research into a 3-min slide-show on the secrets of success. St. John interviewed more than 500 successful people, then distilled what they told him into 8 simple principles.
Watch the video before reading how these 8 principles apply to building muscle & losing fat through strength training.
Passion. You’ll develop a love-hate relationship with strength training. Hate because the workouts & nutrition are hard work. Love because the benefits you get out of it become addictive.
Work. Preparing your food for work the day before, Squatting 3x/week, going to bed on time so you feel full of energy at the gym, etc. If you want to build muscle & lose fat, you’ll have to work. There’s no something for nothing.
Good. You will become your domineering thoughts & actions.
- Study. Read books about building muscle, losing fat, technique, etc.
- Apply. Squat endless reps, start a training log, track calories, etc.
Focus. Ignore distractions at the gym, concentrate on lifting the weight. You can build muscle & lose fat at the same time, but if you’re a skinny guy with a beer belly, start by gaining weight. One goal at a time.
Push. Only way to get good at Pull-ups is to do Pull-ups. Even if that means hanging ridiculously on the bar. Stop caring. Drink protein shakes in public. Push yourself to the gym even if you don’t feel like it.
Serve. You were a beginner once. Help beginners at the gym, at work, on Internet forums. Teach them how to Squat, give them StrongLifts 5×5 eBook, tell them how to lose fat, etc. Give and you will receive.
Ideas. Each problem has a solution. Someone, somewhere has dealt with the same problems you have. Listen to what they did, look at what they do, ask questions, make friends, subscribe to their blog, etc.
Persist. My favorite. It could take you 20 years, but if you keep working you’ll get what you want. Failure will try to stop you: injuries. CRAP will negatively influence you: annoying people at the gym. Never let them stop you.
- “Every failure will teach you a lesson that you need to learn.” Napoleon Hill
- “A quitter never wins, and a winner never quits.” Napoleon Hill
- “Persistence is key to success.” Napoleon Hill
Great video by Richard St. John, but he missed key principles to success. I’m leaving that to you: share your secrets of success in the comments.
Wow, that’s an amazing post! You know, there’s nothing I can add to it to be honest. But I think the most important of them all is to persist. You’ll always have people that will doubt you, people who will knock you down. People who think they know more try and make you feel small - ignore them, go learn what you have to learn and apply it. That way all those who flamed you at the start, will maybe shut up and listen for once.
Russ.
Persist is also my favorite one. I really like the quotes from Napoleon Hill, that’s life.
Training at the gym is like a microcosm of life.
Some people want that shredded physique but don’t want to put the effort to exert and educate themselves accordingly. Like people who want to be instant millionaires.
Some people laugh at you a little when you drop to the floor in a puddle of your own sweat after a particularly gurelling Tabata session and then go on to ride the stationary bike while reading some tabloid with not a sweat drop on the page, and then reward themselves afterwards with a 1000 calorie “snack”, wondering why they’re not getting results.
Ah, I could go on and on.
Work and Persist are my two favorite.
If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail. People think my body came naturally. They have no idea I was a skinny pencil neck geek at one point. I can strut my stuff now because I know what it took to get here. It’s not cockiness, its confidence. Go watch me deadlift at the gym and tell me I am cocky. Ill change your mind real quick. I kick my own ass.
You have to work. You have to sweat. Any thing worth doing is worth doing well. Nothing like a good inspirational article to fuel my day. Thanks!!
Yeah this is good, adding to the whole passion thing, I say that that enjoy the training! I have made this mistake to be so focused on the goal itself, when lets face it during the training is when you’re life happens! I have focused too much on the goal and not enjoyed what I’m doing and just have fun in the now.
Damn Mehdi, another great post. I can honestly say that this website has given me the motivation to make myself physcically and mentally stronger. We all talk about getting stronger, but what I have learned through this website is that inner character is so much more powerful than all the muscles that we create.
To johnnyo:
I think in order to pursue strength training or weight lifting you have to have inner character. What I appreciate is the reminder is that we are not only bettering ourselves physically, we are bettering our character. I think that is lost on most. Because you can’t see character in the mirror.
Great post! I think all those ideas are great. One thing is that most people are confused as to what they actually want. I think it’s important to be as clear a possible. And you have to be willing to pay the price. Too many people’s ambitions outstrip their dedication. Also, gotta find a way to move forward every day no matter what. Some days it’s inches. Some days it’s yards. Just gotta keep moving forward despite anything and everything…
Great post Mehdi! I love coming to this site for motivation. Nothing more to add.
the video says its not available. whats going on.. i dont want to read the article until i see the video.. can anyone relink it?
never mind it works now
cracking post
Every one of the talks on the TED-site are worth watching.
One of the best sites on the net!
Thanks again mehdi. You’re a real inspiration, honestly are.
Today I did another 2k rowing test. Didn’t do so well in this one, probably the lowest point mentally in my rowing career and here you are with the perfect post yet again.
It’s at times like where I am right now that I think true character and moral strength show through. I have to go to bed now. Training at 6am.
Not caring was big one for me to get over. Oddly enough you have to deal with a lot in order to eat healthy. Comments from friends and co-workers can be very annoying. “Yes, I do eat all those eggs.”
“Yes, this is a large plate of vegtables. They sell these in every grocery store, it’s not that strange.”
“Yes, I do carry around walnuts in my pocket.”
Perseverence
It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer. ~Albert Einstein
Dear Mehdi, another great post to share with all of us. I absolutely love the website and the approach you´ve made between strength training and general wellbeing (as I share it myself
), plus all the stuff you use from Napoleon Hill applied to personal achieving. Keep up the good work!
Greetings from Argentina,
Dieter
Michael mentioned one of two that I was going to add: character. Interesting, how the US had a politician running for president a while back who actually was so good as to convince people to vote for him while saying “character doesn’t matter”.
My other one is values. What do you value in life. Values plus strong character is a powerful combination.
So, I propose that we should borrow from David Letterman’s concept of “The Top Tens Reasons…”.
The Top Ten Reasons people are successful (at strength training) are:
1. Values
2. Character
3. Passion
4. Work
5. Good
6. Focus
7. Push
8. Serve
9. Ideas
10. Persist
What I struggle with is that strength-training is not the main part of my life. Watching all those TED presentations, you see that these people are super successful, but usually only at one thing. I want to be super successful at something other than strength training. It’s tough finding the balance between going all-in for strength training vs. just doing well enough.
That reminds me of a quote that I learned while studying about money at Get Rich Slowly: “The perfect is the enemy of the good.” I don’t want to be perfect at strength training, but I want to be good enough so that I’m engaging my body, keeping it healthy and active.
Seriously, Mehdi you are the man. Posts like these are truly inspiring and uplifting, especially at a time when I’m feeling a bit down.
Stop Caring… that was my favorite part. I think that is one of the hardest things for people to do is stop caring what other think of them. If you truly stop caring you will make your gains so much faster because you won’t compensate to “look” cool or like you know what you are doing.
Another one that I would have added to it would be “creative.” You have to be able to think creative to push your enjoyment of weight training to new levels. You might be able to create a new exercise or new progression… something that just makes you more engaged in what you are trying to do.