Image credit: elstob
What makes people go from rags to riches? What makes them go from obscurity to fame? What do all successful people have in common?
Desires.
Yes some get help. Yes some are gifted or even lucky. But willpower & luck don’t drive people. Desires do. That’s why I asked you to think about the reasons why you want to achieve your goals for 2008. These reasons are your desires.
Conflicting Desires. Here lies the problem. You know what you need to do in order to achieve your goals in 2008, but you don’t do it.
- You want to build muscle, but Squatting 3x/week is too much for you
- You want to lose fat, but preparing your food daily is a chore
- You want to fix your posture, but all those exercises take too long
- You want pleasure, but you don’t want pain
The secret of success is learning to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that you are in control of your life. If you don’t life controls you. - Anthony Robbins.
Pain vs. Pleasure. You link pain & pleasure to things. Some people reset these links. They’re sick of their situation & decide to do what it takes to change it. That’s when you read stories like this guy who lost 400lbs without surgery.
You still have to sacrifice & to work hard after you’ve reset the links. But you know that this the only way to achieve your goals. And you’ll never stop until you have it. Pain triggered a strong desire to change.
You Haven’t Experienced Enough Pain Yet. Because if you did, you’d take action. You’d work hard & sacrifice. You’d do the things you hate to do. Because you would know that this is the only way to achieve your goals in 2008.
Wake Up. If you can’t wait to experience the pain you need to wake up, reset the pain/pleasure links yourself. Neuro Linguistic Programming. Get Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins.
it took having kids for me to get motivated to accomplish my goals. i didn’t want my kids to model themselves after their fat ass dad and i wanted to make sure that i intimidated any boys my little girl brings around.
This is an awsome Article. Sadly though I am one of those guys who hasn’t reset the links to pain and pleasure to the extent where I stay on my change. Funny part of the article to me is the squat 3x a week part because I am guilty as all hell there. I am not as strong as I would like to be, and I know that takes time and to stop making excuses, but I guess I get complacent in the overall condition I am in. (I hope that makes sense). I workout in the gym and its hard because you have your few meat heads who are just huge, and to me that is pointless. Then you have your athletes who I look to for strength standards. Thats when I start kicking myself in the ass. I know I can get there I just have to stop being lazy. I was gonna go on a long list of things that sometimes hold me back but I guess in reality all they are are excuses.
I just hope that I don’t look to ridicules when doing squats but I will atleast try. No pain no gain. Well, then my blood pressure is thru the roof and I am taking medication for it and I am only 37. Damned.. This can easily help me lower my blood pressure and perhaps I can stop taking the pills all together. Watch your pressure people. Go and check it out today and if its too high and you are not doing this then start. If that isnt a good enough reason then I dont know what is.
BTW, is there some way to do this on the “cheap” so to speak? I mean, if I can not get to the gym and I have no room at all for my own weights (small apartment) then how I can do any kind of exercises that would help me reach my goal?
Normally I can sneak of to the gym at lunch (its across the road from work) and get an hour done then together with co-workers but sometimes its just too much work and there are things that has to be done here at home too. I would love it if I could be here at home and do squats but there is no way I can fit that into my apartment.
Get a bigger appartment and stop making excuses.
Re-read the article
Geee. Its not an excuse. There is no possible way to get a bigger apartment or a house. Give me a break and be reasonable.
fan of philosophy, mehdi?
i like how you match your posts with the time-new years, new goals, etc.
you must get all the girls huh!
@other noob
Be happy: you realize what the problem is. That’s the start.
@Matt
“We will either find a way or make one” Hannibal. There’s always a solution. If you don’t have the place at home, I guess you’ll have to find a gym.
true article.. i want to be 215 by the end of the year with about 10% bodyfat.. and right now im 190….6′1 my friends say that i dont have the genetics but i will be 215 and i have been squating 3xweek for 3 weeks now… i dont plan stopping anytime soon..
deadlifts, barbell rows, dips,pullups,presses.. dosent get any funner??
ok, so I fail… better quit right now than later… would be a waste of all that effort.
*sniff*
I cook my own meals. I eat 6 times a day. I walk to work. I was at the gym during my lunch break today. I just want to be able to cover all my “excuses” so I can NOT make one because no matter where I am, I can workout.
No pain no gain! Old but so true.
@Matt
Make it a priority, and it will happen.
Check out the “Stronglifts 5×5 for Dumbbells”:
http://stronglifts.com/stronglifts-dumbbell-5×5-strength-training-using-dumbbells/
And buy a powerblock:
http://www.powerblock.com/blocks.html
That’s on the cheap, since you can do that in an apartment. Benches are also cheap. If you are like me, you’ll become addicted and reposition your life around your ability to train 3x a week… which isn’t that much actually.
Another good post.
Matt - can I make a suggestion? There are lots of ways of getting really good workouts through calisthenics and dumbbells.
[...] being lazy is not the only reason that people don’t achieve their goals. There’s another reason why you you’re not getting what you want: You haven’t set the right [...]
Matt - Try body weight workouts. Pushups, decline pushups, one armed pushups. Squats, burpees, pistols (one leg squats), step-ups, bulgarian squats and many more. It may not be perfect but you are doing something. Making it a habit and doing it no matter what. If you wait for the perfect set up it will never happen.
Matt, hang in there and you can do it. Lisa is right, use body weight exercises and look around for a gym. If not available try an EZbar and some weights, they stash away easily and you can do so much with just them. Just go easy on the apartment floor
Lift hard brother and keep in the zone, you can do it.