You can hire the world’s most bad ass personal trainer to design a workout routine for you.
You can have Bobby Flay cook you gourmet, healthy meals 7 days per week.
You can have bikini models sit on your lap and feed you…(while Bobby Flay sits in the corner and watches you while he eats a sandwich).
But none of this matters.
Actually thinking about it now, the third point would help a lot.
But none of this matters if you lack the motivation and discipline to follow through with whatever plan you’re on.
That’s why billions of dollars are dropped every year on fitness related products but 99% of people are still in absolute shit shape.
It’s not the “tools” that are the problem, it’s you (and your fucked up mind).
You lack the motivation.
You lack the inspiration.
You lack the discipline.
You lack the ability to take control of your life because there’s never anything truly at risk.
Oh you watched a Youtube video and now you’re motivated? That’s cute
Want to feel motivated right now?
Go to Youtube and type in “motivational videos.”
There are thousands of motivational videos out there with movie quotes ad random dudes working out.
And there’s about 127 videos with the same audio from that Rocky Balboa speech being overlaid on completely irrelevant video clips.
Go right now.
Get motivated for 5-10 minutes and come back here.
We all good?
Alright, I bet you’re feeling pumped…all ready to take on the world and shit, huh?
I bet you now feel like you’re finally going to hit the gym 5x per week, take spinning classes every morning, clean up your diet, and build that body you’ve always dreamed of.
Sweet!
Now check back with me in 2 weeks.
[2 weeks later…]
Woah what’s that?
You gave up?
It was too hard?
You had no time?
Wait…hear that?
Yeah I don’t hear anything either because that’s the sound of no one giving a shit about you and your excuses.
You see, the truth about motivational is that motivation is cheap.
There’s an endless supply of it.
We have motivational Youtube videos, inspirational Instagram quote pics, and an endless amount of blog posts on motivation (this one included).
There’s no real value to motivation.
It’s like a spark that never starts an actual fire.
“Gun to your head” motivation
See what Denzel Washington did to that dude?
He blew his brains the fuck out, all because he didn’t hold up his end of the deal.
You need to find your Denzel.
Not someone to literally someone to shoot you in the head if you don’t reach your goal (that wouldn’t be very smart).
But a method that truly motivates you to take action.
And if you don’t take action, you suffer the consequences.
I’m not one to use extreme violence as a form of motivation, so let’s go to the next best thing – cold hard cash.
Using money to motivate you to take action
Whatif someone said you need to lose 5 pounds this month or $1000 would be extracted from your bank account?
How much more likely would you reach your goals?
For most people the answer is a fuck load more likely.
That’s why I love using bets to increase motivation and form new habits.
The following are a couple services you can use to make bets with yourselves or others:
Personally I’ve only used Stickk and it works like this:
- State your goal and date you want to achieve the goal by.
- Set the amount of money you want to put on the line.
- Set the destination that the money gets sent to if you don’t hit your goals (this can be a person you choose or a charity)
- Now you’re probably wondering, who validates whether you legitimately hit a goal or not? Yeah that’s the only slight problem with these services. It’s all validated via an honor system (your word) or someone you ask to validate for you. So you need to be honest here. Don’t ask a weak-minded friend to validate whether you hit a goal or not. Pick someone who will show zero mercy if you fail to reach your goals.
The #1 biggest mistake people make when betting money
Not betting enough.
Seriously, don’t bet $20-100.
Sure that might sound like a decent amount at the time but in the grand scheme of things it’s really pussy money.
And if at some point you know that you’re not going to reach your goal, you’re just going to wipe it off as “Eh, it’s only $100.”
Put something big on the line.
Something that will really really sting.
So choose an amount that will really piss you off if you lose it.
Obviously don’t bet an amount that will financially ruin you.
I recently placed a business related bet with myself where $10k is at stake.
That hurts me. I don’t want to lose it but at the same time, it’s not going to destroy my life.
So what are you waiting for?
Put some money on the line and take action.
You’ll be surprised by what you’ll actually be able to do.
And if you need a good workout/diet plan to do, I heard Superhero X12 is pretty damn good.
Just saying 🙂
I like the post, especially the part about the motivating YouTube videos. I’ve found myself motivated after watching them, but I never take action afterwards so it’s pretty pointless. At the end of the day you just have to get up and get it done.
Yup. Reading YT comments are the worst. Pretty sure I automatically lose 10 IQ points afterwards.
I’m terrified of ending up like my dad on 7 medications and looking skinny, weak and pregnant. The even MORE terrifying thing is that people around my workplace, the vast majority of them are hella huge.
Apparently, I’m the only one in my karate dojo that can do whole chin ups from dead hang, wearing a Superman under armor shirt. One of the kids calls me “sensei Superman”. He’s my favorite lolz.
Grow strong or become weak. It’s an unusual law of life. You don’t work out, you’re going to get weak simply because you’re not developing. One of the other students, older, claimed when he was younger he could bench 285 lbs at a body weight of 165. Not any more obviously, now he’s in his 40s and sees me deadlifting 240 and I wonder, what excuses did you come up with to stop?
Being weak and sick is my gun to my head. And I’m reminded of it every day looking at all the other sick / fat people on multiple meds (some of which aren’t even in their 40s yet) Lovin’ Superhero shredding, I’ve never been as strong as I have before. Great post btw…
You have a very strong WHY for why you want to get/be in shape.
Most guys just do it to look good and get girls so they never get very far.
Thanks glad you like SS 🙂
I wanted to lose the gut I’d been building up over about three years of being a stay-at-home dad, aging (I’ll be 43 next month.), and just general laziness. I also wanted to have a body like Stephen Amell, and to be able to do a salmon ladder and at least a couple of muscle-ups. I got a gym membership for $42 a month, but all I ended up doing was doing a couple miles on the treadmill a few times a week, and after about eight months, it wasn’t doing squat.
My problem, however, wasn’t motivation, but direction. I’d dabbled in lifting weights here and there over the years, but the fact is, I had little idea what I should be doing to make real, noticeable improvements.
One day, though, I finally got sick of my wife (whose height, weight, and eating habits I will NOT address here) telling me that that $42/month was being wasted, so I googled “stephen amell workout,” and browsing through the results, I came across your site’s “Arrow workout.” That was July 29th of this year.
Now, I don’t know how much your “Arrow workout” really has in common with Stephen Amell’s own workout practices, but I can say that after five months of soda and candy, cake, donuts, etc. being almost completely eliminated from my diet, nearly four months of following the workout on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and about two months of doing cardio on my non-lifting days, the fat loss has been slow-going, but the muscle gains have been AMAZING! Muscle gain has outpaced fat loss (so far) to the extent that I’ve actually GAINED ten pounds!
There was even a period of about four weeks where I had to take it a little easy on leg day (or tried to take it easy, anyway), due to spraining my left ankle while doing the Bulgarian split squats, but even during my recovery, the closest I ever came to skipping a lifting day was a couple of occasions where I had to push a day back by one day. Well, until today, anyway; muscle gains on my legs are so far ahead of my upper-body gains that I’m MAKING myself skip a leg day. (I tried to skip leg day last Thursday, and Friday morning I felt like crap until I finally gave up, went to the gym, and did leg day a day late.)
Anyway, it’s been a long time getting to this point in the story, but there WAS actually about a week, three or four weeks into the workout, when I was starting to feel like I wasn’t getting anywhere, and maybe I should just accept that I’m getting old, and stop trying to look like someone almost 10 years younger than me. I stuck with it, though, and it wasn’t much longer before I started to think I was beginning to see a difference. A few more weeks, and I was sure I could see improvement, and a week or so after that, even the gym manager and another regular at the gym were complimenting me on my progress. Now, three months after my “moment of doubt,” I have a better body than I’ve ever had before – well, aside from the gut that I’m still working on.
In closing, to those who FEEL like they’re lacking motivation, first, take a look at your workout (or lack thereof). It could be that, like me, it wasn’t a problem with motivation, but direction. Second, start with a REASONABLE goal and REALISTIC expectations. Even a guy who’s already ripped isn’t going to build a body like Dave Bautista in a month, so how can you expect to get your fat ass to look like Brad Pitt in the movie “Snatch” after only a week or two? It took Chris Pratt five months of a Paleo-style diet and SERIOUS training, four hours a day, to drop 80 pounds and have the body he has now, so don’t you think you’re being a little arrogant, thinking you should be seeing amazing results after only a few weeks of smaller portions and hitting the gym for an hour, three or four times a week?
That’s awesome, Michael.
I’m glad you realized that you weren’t lacking motivation but simply direction. Most people aren’t in a similar case.
Congrats on all your success so far and being self aware enough to set realistic expectations.
I think the hardest part of getting into the best shape in your life has to be diet. Building muscle isn’t supoer hard if you’re putting in the work and eating right. It’s when you have to cut that kills your mind. I’m still stuck in a year-plus limbo that I won’t back away from, either. I’ve been going to The GYM 5 times a week (6 times last week) and it’s not the hard part.
Yeah more ppl struggle with diet but I’d say a good chunk of ppl struggle with workouts as well.
Great article and love your site. Sorry to use the forum wall but I’m not sure how else to contact you since “[email protected]” is sending me back a Message Delivery Failure message when I send emails for some reason. I purchased your program yesterday and have still not received the confirmation email with access to the material. Checked Spam folders, no trace. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
you can send me an email now. It’s working.
Sorry yesterday everything got all fucked up due to some tech issues with my servers.
Motivational videos aren’t so bad, it’s just that they are short so the effect won’t stick. You’d have to pour that stuff into your head days and nights until it would get into your guts – so that ultimately, as every good player, you’d start to motivate yourself.
I’ve started mountain biking as a kid because I had mental parents and bike was the only legitimate way to leave the house. I’d go on for hours until I’d start shaking and when that happened, I’d down one or two of those 5g packages of sugar that you get with coffee in some places, and I’d keep going. Eventually in college I joined the boxing club and took up few other things in local gym. It was good but something was missing, guys didn’t really mean the business I think. After college I saw the point, it was like I wasn’t supposed to do this any more, time to get serious and all the rest of it. That was a mistake I made that I let myself be pushed where the society wanted me. Frustrated chap that buys stuff to forget.
I never stopped working out completely but 2 hours of bike per week over the last 2 years cannot compare to what I did in the past. So I am not in a bad shape but I definitely started to see how that change affected my personality. I thought like, ok, this isn’t paying the bills, I am not gonna do that anymore. But since I put the focus out of sport my ability to see new opportunities to let’s say pay bills better, and to go for them, it all started to deteriorate too. And I don’t wanna be that kind of guy. It’s like when you lose all faith and you just do what you are told to. To me this is far far scarier than losing money.
I wouldn’t say motivational videos are completely useless BUT most people use them for the wrong reason.
All the videos do is spark a fire but if you don’t actually do anything, the fire quickly fizzles away.
Congrats on doing something yourself, man.
So true about the motivation. Used to watch 5 minutes before heading to to the gym but after a few times, it lost some stamina. Execution and action is the way to go.
Yup it lights the fire but doesn’t sustain it.