Thankful Tuesday

In her book "The Magic," one of the practices that Rhonda Byrne has the reader perform is to, before bed, think of the very best thing that happened throughout your day, and to be consciously grateful for it.  The reader even says "thank you" out loud for it.

It is a bit of a play on the "gratitude rock" practice revealed in "The Secret," which I have always found to be a great way to remind oneself to be grateful for the things we have.  I keep a small object in my pocket (I've never used a rock, but usually a paper clip.  Same concept though), and each time during the day that I touch that object, I say "thank you" for one specific thing. 

Since starting this, I have found that my mind more quickly and easily defaults to being grateful and being positive, rather than focusing on things which might be obstacles, or things which I currently haven't received yet.

Motivation Monday

Clean Your Car

I haven't got the slightest clue why this works, but it does.
To be completely honest, for the most part I have kept my car pretty messy as long as I can remember.  Other than my first car that was "mine" (a mustang that I bought and kept up 100% on my own) which I kept pretty immaculate, all my cars since have had a fairly rough go of it.  Not disgusting, mind you, just messy.  Papers, CD cases, empty water bottles, etc.  Just full of stuff.  Junk.

Then one day I drove my father to the airport in his car.  It was spotless.  Inside and out.  Other than his sunglasses, there was NOTHING in the car that wasn't literally a PART of the car.   Even the glove compartment was completely spotless.  It was as if he lived a second life as a spy, and needed to be certain he could dump the car at a moment's notice and leave no identifying evidence. 

Well, after dropping him off at the airport I drove home...
...but I drove home by way of about a half dozen places I needed to go and run errands that I had been meaning to get done for a couple of weeks, but never got around to.

I realized that being in the car, as spotless as it was, had me feeling like I needed to come up to a slightly higher standard than I had been settling for in myself. 

It might sound ridiculous, but think about it logically.  Why do we ask that men wear suits to professional functions?  Why is church conducted in "Sunday dress" for the most part? 

People conduct themselves differently when the "costume" (if you will) they are wearing demands it.  In a suit, men stand taller, shake hands a little firmer, adjust their speech patterns, and are simply more professional than they might conduct themselves otherwise. 

It then stands to reason that this second layer of your costume, your car, might have a similarly positive or detrimental effect on your conduct; depending on how you choose to maintain it.

I cleaned out my car and found myself being much more productive and quite a bit more relaxed, just from that one simple change.

Almost as if I Feng Shui'd my evening commute  :-)

Don't buy it?  Give it a try.  What's the worst that could happen?  You drive around in a clean car for a few days. 

Not exactly torture.

Dictate

Each day as we walk through our daily routine, we will all encounter reason after reason why our chosen bodybuilding lifestyle should not work. Jobs, family responsibilities, school, traffic, flakey workout partners, and “ouch my knees hurt” have an irritating way of getting in the way. Jobs get in the way of proper sleep and try to hit us with missed meals. Family responsibilities and school can cause missed workouts, and I won’t even get into flakey workout partners. The fact is, sometimes it will look, feel, and taste as if everything in your life is on a mission of physique destruction.

Be honest with yourself now; you are not Ronnie Coleman. You are not Jay Cutler, You are not Arnold. The vast majority of us do not make our living through our physique, though some may make a little money on the side. A lot of people who are “sponsored” are compensated in supplements, not cash. Many more of us receive no compensation at all for our efforts in the gym and in the kitchen.

That having been said, even being sponsored in supplements, though it helps, does not assuage the basic financial need: Rent has to be paid, gym payments come due, protein powder costs money (for those of us not fortunate enough to be “pseudo-sponsored”), and the food, the obscene amounts of food that some of us eat can cost a proportionately obscene amount of money (and I know I am not the only lifter who has noticed that eating clean costs much more than eating Hot Pockets). We lift so we can grow, we eat so we can grow; but the job is what gives us the money to grow on. So the very desire to bodybuild is what keeps us showing up and punching timecards at those jobs that are such pesky nuisances to the amateur bodybuilder.

There are weapons at our disposal in this fight against “average.” It just takes a little planning and effort. We’ve all heard the simple yet sage advice in all the magazines and from guys at the gym: Cook your meals on Sunday and keep them in the fridge for you to eat throughout the week. Take your protein shakes with you to work. Have protein bars and stay AWAY from the vending machine. Early morning workouts for the 9-5 guys, or evening workouts if your energy is low in the mornings. Take a shorter time to eat lunch and go for a jog and some abdominal work during your lunch hour. All of these things are easily employed ideas for success.
More to the point however, is putting effort into controlling our own mental state. Negative thoughts are kryptonite to bodybuilding. Falling into despair will cripple your efforts. Right before a big lift, you don’t tell your self “I’m never going to get this thing off my chest.” You tell yourself “Light weight, baby.” Just like Ronnie does. The exact same positive thought patterns that carry you to success in each set will carry you to success each day, each week, and throughout this entire marathon of physique perfection.

Never tell yourself “Man, my chest is shallow and nothing I do makes it better.” Tell yourself “My chest is improving, and I can make it even better.” You have to believe and absolutely KNOW that each rep makes a difference. Remind yourself consistently that all the work you are putting in makes your body better, and makes your life better. As I wrote in last week’s article, making major changes to your physique truly does improve your quality of life. Not only will you feel better and BE healthier, your will be treated better by those around You. Remind yourself of your ultimate goals, whatever they might be; and always keep in mind that every workout is another step on the journey. The words you speak, especially to yourself, will dictate your reality.

Dictate the reality you want to live. It’s your life to live; and it’s too short to spend it frail.