Fear evolved from our ancestors need to escape danger, not from their need to escape rejection. You are not going to be eaten alive. Recognize fear as an almost redundant emotion. Recognize your brain's confusion as being unhelpful. Proceed without fear. Go get what you want.
Imagine. Imagine the day you can no longer run up stairs. Your legs feeble, your body weak.
That day will come, when your body betrays you and you can no longer push it forward.
How will you feel?
Think. Imagine. Picture the future. It will happen one day. You will be WEAK
SO, how about enjoying your body while it still works. Quit taking your health for granted. You can walk, you can run, you can jog up stairs. So do it. Put down your laptop and go for a fucking walk. Jog up some fucking stairs. Let your body BREATHE!
Otherwise, that future weakness you just imagined just might hit you a decade or two sooner than expected...
Sculpt your mind and emotions to take you wherever you need.
You need to physically and emotionally connect to your winner self.
Be certain. If you are certain, nothing can stop you. You are not only confident, you have direction, like a shark that just spotted a nice juicy fish.
"When two people meet and there is rapport, the person who is most CERTAIN will always influence the other person"
Is it your job? Your family? Your friends? Good food? Music?
Focus on the things you love and the people that care about you. Focus on the moment at hand.
Stop obsessing about the past and stressing about the future. It's all bullshit. Everything else is noise.
Do what you love. Be surrounded by people you love. Care about them. Care about yourself.
It's easy to feel insignificant in our world - so many people, so
many choices
A million different
apps, a billion different voices
But do not
despair.
DO NOT DESPAIR
If you think of
the example in the uploaded image above, you can think back to sleepless nights
when you tried to find that tiny, "insignificant" mosquito that
wouldn't allow you to sleep. An adult mosquito is rarely greater than
16 mm (0.6 in)! But who hasn't woken up in the middle of the night
and spent half an hour jumping up and down on his or her bed with only the
intent of finding that damn mosquito and sending it to hell.
Look at this example and stop
feeling small.
You can make a
difference in the world.
If you are reading
this you are already better off than a majority of mankind.
NOW DO SOMETHING
ABOUT IT
Focus on what you
love. Focus on what you are interested in.
It's not important what you have in your bank. That can change in a second. People can take your money, your home or your car, but will you allow them to affect who you are and how you define yourself?
What are your values? What do you believe in that you won't back away from?
Strengthen these values. Think about them daily. Make sure your mind is strong.
Failure is an opportunity.
If you blame someone else you will never stop blaming.
Fulfill your own obligations.
Correct your own mistakes.
Do what you need to do and demand nothing of others.
I'm sorry but I don't want to be an Emperor, that's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that. We all want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.
The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way.
Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.
We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness.
Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.
The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say "Do not despair".
The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people, will return to the people and so long as men die [now] liberty will never perish. . .
Soldiers: don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you, who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder.
Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate, only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers: don't fight for slavery, fight for liberty.
In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written: "The kingdom of God is within man" Not one man, nor a group of men, but in all men; in you, the people.
You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let's use that power, let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfil their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness.
Soldiers! In the name of democracy, let us all unite!
This photo was taken in Hamburg 1936, during celebrations for the launch of a ship. In the crowd, one person refused to raise his arm to give the Nazi salute. The man was August Landmesser. He had already been in trouble with the authorities, having been sentenced to two years hard labour for marrying a Jewish woman. We know little else about August Landmesser, except that he had two children. By pure chance, one of his children recognized her father in this photo when it was published in a German newspaper in 1991. How proud she must have been in that moment.
This post is for people who are able to use their legs
The next sentence might sound a bit funny:
I try to think about my legs about once a week.
Not in an aesthetic sense, but in a bio-mechanical, physical sense.
My legs are amazing. They enable me to walk, jump, hop, skip, kick and run. They also give me height, agility and stability.
Imagining my life without legs helps me to appreciate them even more. This appreciation gives me a certain joy, as it allows me to enjoy something free and that I already have and own for life.
As a thought exercise, for one minute, try to imagine your life without legs.
After you realize how much that would suck, try to think about ways of keeping your legs fit and strong so that when the time comes, they don't give up on you...
On average, a human being living in the western world walks approximately 700 meters a day (around 800 yards)!
That's nothing!!!
We have become too used to our comfortable cars, segways and elevators and have stopped using our legs, thus neglecting the very components that make us into such an awesome machine.
This neglect is dangerous. It weakens the bones (which need constant resistance to stay strong and compressed) and depletes our muscle and tendon fiber, leaving us vulnerable to injury and to illnesses such as diabetes.
Don't take your legs for granted!
Make some changes in your habits.
How about climbing the stairs instead of taking the elevator? Make it a rule that any ascent under 5 floors high - you will use the stairs.
Walk to the post office or kiosk down the road, don't take the car! Stop being so lazy.
If you are serious about your health -
Start walking, jogging or running.
Go to your fucking gym, and if you are already going to the gym, work out your legs, not only your pecs and arms!
If you guys have ideas for more ways to change habits of leg neglect, please comment below :-)
Try to always be learning something new.
Take a weekly course in something that interests you - finance, shiatsu...whatever.
Improve your knowledge - it's not school anymore, it's learning things that interest you!
I just signed up for an online creative writing course. I will review it here :-)
"Spartan Race™, the global leader in Obstacle Racing since 2005, was designed by seven insane ultra athletes and a Royal Marine. If you have tried trail races, mud runs, tough mudder runs, or a warrior dash, it's time to step up to a brutal Spartan Race obstacle course. You can tackle a Spartan Sprint, a Super Spartan, maybe even attempt a brutal Spartan Beast, but only a few of you will have the heart to graduate up to our Death Race; the world championship of obstacle racing, and an endurance race like NO other. Are you unbreakable?"
Make decisions - You can fail but don't fear failure. If you fear failure, you don't try. If you don't try, you can't succeed
4. Don't listen to the "Nay Sayers" (people who say "You can't")
5. Work your butt off !
6. Give back - Don't only take. Help others.
If you want to read what you just heard and let it sink in some more, here is the above (edited) speech transcribed:
Of course people ask me all the time and say to me:
What is the secret to success?
The first rule is: trust yourself.
But what is most important is that you have to dig deep down, deep deep down and ask yourself:
Who do you want to be? Not what, but who?
And I'm talking about not what your parents or teachers or others want you to be, but you.
I'm talking about figuring out for yourself what makes you happy, no matter how crazy it may sound to people.
And number one is of course trust yourself no matter what anyone else thinks.
Number two is: break the rules.
We are given so many rules in life about everything.
I say break the rules, not the law, but break the rules.
It is impossible to be a maverick or a true original if you are too well behaved and not want to break the rules.
You have to think outside the box, that's what I believe after all.
What is the point of being on this earth if all you want to do is to be liked by everyone and avoid trouble.
The only way that I ever got to any place was by breaking some of the rules.
Which of course brings me to rule number three: don't be afraid to fail.
Anything I have ever attempted I was always willing to fail.
Though you can't always win, don't be afraid of making decisions.
You can't be paralyzed by fear of failure or you will never push yourself.
You keep pushing because you believe in yourself and in your vision and you know that is the right thing to do.
And success will come: so don't be afraid to fail.
Which brings me to rule number four which is: don't listen to the naysayers.
I mean, how many times have your heard: you can't do this, you can't do that, this has never been done before.
I love it if someone says: no one has ever done this before because if I do it, that means that I'm the first man that has done it.
So pay no attention to people who say it can't be done.
I never listen "that you can't", I always listen to myself and say: "yes, you can".
That brings me to rule number five which is the most important rule of all: work your butt off which means leaving no stone un-turned.
Muhammad Alì, one of my great heroes, had a great quote in the 70's when he was asked: how may sit-ups do you do?
He said: I don't count my sit-ups , I only start counting when it starts hurting, when I feel pain, that's when I start counting cause that's when it really counts, that's what makes you a champion.
That's the way it is with everything: "no pain, no gain".
But when you're out there partying, horsing around someone is getting smarter and someone is winning. Just remember that. Now, if you want to coast through life, don't pay attention to any of those rules.
But if you want to win, there is absolutely no way around hard, hard work.
None of my rules, by the way, of success, will work unless you do. I've always figured out that there 24 hours a day.
You sleep six hours and have 18 hours left. Now, I know there are some of you out there that say well, wait a minute, I sleep eight hours or nine hours. Well, then, just sleep faster, I would recommend.
And that takes me to rule number six, which is a very important rule: it's about giving back.
Whatever path that you take in your lives, you must always find time to give something back, something back to your community, give something back to your state or to your country.
Let me tell you how reaching and helping people will bring you more satisfaction than anything else you've ever done.
Remember the six rules:
Trust yourself, Break some rules, Don't be afraid to fail, Ignore the naysayers, Work like hell, and Give something back.
Now, of course, people ask me all the time, they say to me, "What is the secret to success?" And I give them always the short version. I say, "Number one, come to America. Number two, work your butt off. And number three, marry a Kennedy."
But anyway, those are the short rules. Now today, I'm going to give you the six rules of success. But before I start, I just wanted to say these are my rules. I think that they can apply to anyone, but that is for you to decide, because not everyone is the same. There are some people that just like to kick back and coast through life and others want to be very intense and want to be number one and want to be successful. And that's like me.
I always wanted to be very intense, I always wanted to be number one. I took it very seriously, my career. So this was the same when I started with bodybuilding. I didn't want to just be a bodybuilding champion, I wanted to be the best bodybuilder of all time. The same was in the movies. I didn't want to just be a movie star; I wanted to be a great movie star that is the highest paid movie star and have above-the-title billing.
And so this intensity always paid off for me, this commitment always paid off for me. So here are some of the rules.
The first rule is: Trust yourself. Arnold Schwarzenegger as Conan the BarbarianAnd what I mean by that is, so many young people are getting so much advice from their parents and from their teachers and from everyone. But what is most important is that you have to dig deep down, dig deep down and ask yourselves, who do you want to be? Not what, but who.
And I'm talking about not what your parents and teachers want you to be, but you. I’m talking about figuring out for yourselves what makes you happy, no matter how crazy it may sound to other people.
I was lucky growing up because I did not have television or didn't have telephones, I didn't have the computers and the iPods. And, of course, Twitter was then something that birds did outside the window. I didn't have all these distractions and all this.
I spent a lot of time by myself, so I could figure out and listen to what is inside my heart and inside my head.
And I recognized very quickly that inside my head and heart were a burning desire to leave my small village in Austria -- not that there was something wrong with Austria, it's a beautiful country. But I wanted to leave that little place and I wanted to be part of something big, the United States of America, a powerful nation, the place where dreams can come true.
I knew when I came over here I could realize my dreams. And I decided that the best way for me to come to America was to become a bodybuilding champion, because I knew that was ticket the instant that I saw a magazine cover of my idol, Reg Park. He was Mr. Universe, he was starring in Hercules movies, he looked strong and powerful, he was so confident.
So when I found out how he got that way I became obsessed, and I went home and I said to my family, "I want to be a bodybuilding champion."
Now, you can imagine how that went over in my home in Austria. My parents, they couldn't believe it. They would have been just happy if I would have become a police officer like my father, or married someone like Heidi, had a bunch of kids and ran around like the von Trapp family in Sound of Music.
That's what my family had in mind for me, but something else burned inside me. Something burned inside me. I wanted to be different; I was determined to be unique. I was driven to think big and to dream big. Everyone else thought that I was crazy. My friends said, "If you want to be a champion in a sport, why don't you go and become a bicycle champion or a skiing champion or a soccer champion? Those are the Austrian sports."
But I didn't care. I wanted to be a bodybuilding champion and use that to come to America, and use that to go into the movies and make millions of dollars. So, of course, for extra motivation I read books on strongmen and on bodybuilding and looked at magazines. And one of the things I did was, I decorated my bedroom wall.
Right next to my bed there was this big wall that I decorated all with pictures. I hung up pictures of strongmen and bodybuilders and wrestlers and boxers and so on. And I was so excited about this great decoration that I took my mother to the bedroom and I showed her. And she shook her head. She was absolutely in shock and tears started running down her eyes.
And she called the doctor, she called our house doctor and she brought him in and she explained to him, "There's something wrong here." She looked at the wall with the doctor and she said, "Where did I go wrong? I mean, all of Arnold's friends have pictures on the wall of girls, and Arnold has all these men.
But it's not just men, they're half naked and they're oiled up with baby oil. What is going on here? Where did I go wrong?" So you can imagine, the doctor shook his head and he said, "There's nothing wrong. At this age you have idols and you go and have those -- this is just quite normal."
So this is rule number one. I wanted to become a champion; I was on a mission. So rule number one is, of course, trust yourself, no matter how and what anyone else thinks.
Rule number two is: Break the rules. We have so many rules in life about everything. I say break the rules. Not the law, but break the rules. My wife has a t-shirt that says, "Well-behaved women rarely make history." Well, you know, I don't want to burst her bubble, but the same is true with men.
It is impossible to be a maverick or a true original if you're too well behaved and don't want to break the rules. You have to think outside the box. That's what I believe. After all, what is the point of being on this earth if all you want to do is be liked by everyone and avoid trouble?
The only way that I ever got anyplace was by breaking some of the rules. After all, I remember that after I was finished with my bodybuilding career I wanted to get into acting and I wanted to be a star in films. You can imagine what the agents said when I went to meet all those agents. Everyone had the same line, that it can't be done, the rules are different here. They said, "Look at your body. You have this huge monstrous body, overly developed. That doesn't fit into the movies. You don't understand.
This was 20 years ago, the Hercules movies. Now the little guys are in, Dustin Hoffman, Woody Allen, Jack Nicholson." Before he gained weight, of course, that is. But anyway, those are the guys that were in. And the agents also complained about my accent. They said, "No one ever became a star with an accent like that, especially not with a German accent.
And yes, I can imagine with your name, Arnold Schwartzenschnitzel, or whatever the name, is, on a billboard. Yeah, that's going to draw a lot of tickets and sell a lot of tickets. Yeah, right." So this is the kind of negative attitude they had.
But I didn't listen to those rules, even though they were very nice and they said, "Look, we can get you some bit parts. We can get you to be playing a wrestler or a bouncer. Oh, maybe with your German accent we can get you to be a Nazi officer in Hogan's Heroes or something like that."
But I didn't listen to all this. Those were their rules, not my rules. I was convinced I could do it if I worked as hard as I did in bodybuilding, five hours a day. And I started getting to work, I started taking acting classes. I took English classes, took speech classes, dialogue classes. Accent removal classes I even took.
I remember running around saying, "A fine wine grows on the vine." You see, because Germans have difficulties with the F and the W and V, so, "A fine wine grows on the vine." I know what some of you are now saying, is I hope that Arnold got his money back.
But let me tell you something, I had a good time doing those things and it really helped me. And finally I broke through. I broke through and I started getting the first parts in TV; Streets of San Francisco, Lucille Ball hired me, I made Pumping Iron, Stay Hungry. And then I got the big break in Conan the Barbarian.
And there the director said, "If we wouldn't have Schwarzenegger, we would have to build one." Now, think about that. And then, when I did Terminator, "I'll be back," became one of the most famous lines in movie history, all because of my crazy accent.
Now, think about it. The things that the agents said would be totally a detriment and would make it impossible for me to get a job, all of a sudden became an asset for me, all of those things, my accent, my body and everything.
So it just shows to you, never listen to that you can't do something. And, "You have to work your way up, of course, run for something else first." I mean, it was the same when I ran for governor, the same lines, that you have to work your way up, it can't be done. And then, of course, I ran for governor and the rest, of course, is history.
They said you have to start with a small job as mayor and then as assemblyman and then as lieutenant governor and then as governor. And they said that's the way it works in a political career. I said, "I'm not interested in a political career. I want to be a public servant. I want to fix California's problems and bring people together and bring the parties together.
So, like I said, I decided to run, I didn't pay attention to the rules. And I made it and the rest is history. Which, of course, brings me to rule number three: Don't be afraid to fail. Anything I've ever attempted, I was always willing to fail. In the movie business, I remember, that you pick scripts. Many times you think this is a winning script, but then, of course, you find out later on, when you do the movie, that it didn't work and the movie goes in the toilet.
Now, we have seen my movies; I mean, Red Sonja, Hercules in New York, Last Action Hero. Those movies went in the toilet. But that's OK, because at the same time I made movies like Terminator and Conan and True Lies and Predator and Twins that went through the roof.
So you can't always win, but don't afraid of making decisions.
You can't be paralyzed by fear of failure or you will never push yourself. You keep pushing because you believe in yourself and in your vision and you know that it is the right thing to do, and success will come. So don't be afraid to fail.
Which brings me to rule number four, which is: Don’t listen to the naysayers. How many times have you heard that you can't do this and you can't do that and it's never been done before? Just imagine if Bill Gates had quit when people said it can't be done.
I hear this all the time. As a matter of fact, I love it when someone says that no one has ever done this before, because then when I do it that means that I'm the first one that has done it. So pay no attention to the people that say it can't be done.
I remember my mother-in-law, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, when she started Special Olympics in 1968 people said that it would not work. The experts, the doctors that specialized in mental disabilities and mental retardation said, "It can't be done. You can't bring people out of their institutions. You can't make them participate in sports, in jumping and swimming and in running. They will hurt themselves, they will hurt each other, they will drown in the pool."
Well, let me tell you something. Now, 40 years later, Special Olympics is one of the greatest organizations, in 164 countries, dedicated to people with mental disabilities and that are intellectually challenged.
And she did not take no for an answer. And the same is when you look at Barack Obama. I mean, imagine, if he would have listened. If he would have listened to the naysayers he would have never run for president. People said it couldn't be done, that he couldn't get elected, that he couldn’t beat Hillary Clinton, that he would never win the general election.
But he followed his own heart, he didn’t listen to the "You can't," and he changed the course of American history.
So over and over you see that. If I would have listened to the naysayers I would still be in the Austrian Alps yodeling. I would never have come to America. I would have never met my wonderful wife Maria Shriver, I would have never had the wonderful four kids, I would have never done Terminator, and I wouldn't be standing here in front of you today as governor of the greatest state of the greatest country in the world.
So I never listen that, "You can't." I always listen to myself and say, "Yes, you can."
And that brings me to rule number five, which is the most important rule of all: Work your butt off. You never want to fail because you didn't work hard enough. I never wanted to lose a competition or lose an election because I didn't work hard enough. I always believed leaving no stone unturned.
Mohammed Ali, one of my great heroes, had a great line in the '70s when he was asked, "How many sit-ups do you do?" He said, "I don't count my sit-ups. I only start counting when it starts hurting. When I feel pain, that's when I start counting, because that's when it really counts."
That's what makes you a champion. Arnold Scvhwarzenegger in Kindergarten CopAnd that's the way it is with everything. No pain, no gain. So many of those lessons that I apply in life I have learned from sports, let me tell you, and especially that one. And let me tell you, it is important to have fun in life, of course.
But when you're out there partying, horsing around, someone out there at the same time is working hard.
Someone is getting smarter and someone is winning. Just remember that. Now, if you want to coast through life, don't pay attention to any of those rules.
But if you want to win, there is absolutely no way around hard, hard work.
None of my rules, by the way, of success, will work unless you do. I've always figured out that there 24 hours a day. You sleep six hours and have 18 hours left. Now, I know there are some of you out there that say well, wait a minute, I sleep eight hours or nine hours. Well, then, just sleep faster, I would recommend.
Because you only need to sleep six hours and then you have 18 hours left, and there are a lot of things you can accomplish. As a matter of fact, Ed Turner used to say always, "Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise."
And, of course, all of you know already those things, because otherwise you wouldn't be sitting here today. Just remember, you can't climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.
And that takes me to rule number six, which is a very important rule: it's about giving back. Whatever path that you take in your lives, you must always find time to give something back, something back to your community, give something back to your state or to your country.
My father-in-law, Sargent Shriver -- who is a great American, a truly great American who started the Peace Corps, the Job Corps, Legal Aid to the Poor -- he said at Yale University to the students at a commencement speech, "Tear down that mirror. Tear down that mirror that makes you always look at yourself, and you will be able to look beyond that mirror and you will see the millions of people that need your help."
And let me tell you something, reaching out and helping people will bring you more satisfaction than anything else you have ever done. As a matter of fact today, after having worked for Special Olympics and having started After School Programs, I've promoted fitness, and now with my job as governor, I can tell you, playing a game of chess with an eight-year-old kid in an inner city school is far more exciting for me than walking down another red carpet or a movie premiere.
So let me tell you, as you prepare to go off into the world, remember those six rules:
Trust yourself, Break some rules, Don't be afraid to fail, Ignore the naysayers, Work like hell, and Give something back.
This is a 10 minute excerpt from Arnold Schwarzeneggers USC Commencement Address in 2011 - It includes the full version of his "6 Rules of Success" speech.
