- He loved fitness ever since his dad
brought home a gym in the sixth grade.
He's been an actor, spokesperson, and model
for various commercials, brands, and causes.
He's one of the most recognized and motivating people
in the fitness industry.
He's Greg Plitt,
and here are his top 10 rules for success.
- How you see it,
whatever the truth is,
your perception on how you see that truth
outweighs it 10 to one,
so it's the motivation and why you're doing it.
The journey of getting in shape,
it's a long, long run. Right?
The person who's standing at the end with their hand raised
isn't the person with all the genetics.
It isn't the person with the most potential.
It's the person that has the greatest perseverance,
that's always willing to get up.
The difference between a champion and a loser,
you know, they both fail.
It's just the loser allows the failure to stand for life,
where the champion, even though he gets knocked on his ass,
finds the intestinal fortitude to stand back up,
reface that endeavor until it becomes his favor
until he wins; that's the difference.
Champions get back up and do it again.
The difference between someone that's successful here
or someone's a spectator here
is that a person's successful...
They believe in themselves so much
and their belief overrides any crowd's disbelief.
You have to be a student of the game.
You have to know what nutrition is,
what supplementation is, why you're training.
You can't be a blind squirrel trying to find a nut everyday,
meaning you have to know what you're doing.
In order for your body to change,
it starts up top with the greatest muscle.
Why you're doing what you're doing.
If you're not a student of the game,
then you don't understand the ins and the outs
of each daily operation.
Success has nothing to do potential.
It's all about the perseverance of somebody.
That will override any endeavor.
If you throw (beep) against the wall,
eventually something will stick.
You guys that have this potential,
don't have this potential...
You know, that (beep) dies.
What continues to last forever
is a perseverance to always show up.
That's what champions do.
Every single champion is the same as every ordinary person.
The only differential is that they show up
to the event every single day.
They see failure as a learning curve.
They welcome failure.
You learn more from failure than you ever will from success.
So showing up and getting knocked on your ass,
finding the intestinal fortitude, stand back up
and reface that endeavor,
is going to be the overriding factor that makes a difference.
How do you know when you're doing those things?
The small things in life add up to those big
monumental things.
And when I say the small things,
it's a character building block.
That your name means something, you hold value to your name.
If you drop trash on the ground,
you pick it up 'cause that's your responsibility.
You hold value to yourself.
When you shake someone's hand, you look them in the eye
and give them a firm handshake
'cause you're here for a purpose.
Everything you do, you do to the best of your ability.
Doesn't matter what you're doing,
it's the fact that you're doing it.
So therefore it means something to you.
That's going to build the legacy
'cause the title out there doesn't mean (beep).
You win the title, fine.
That title will not get you another title.
What you're trying to build is a legacy.
Footprints behind you,
they're left for motivation for someone else to follow.
Legacy is built daily through the character,
the willpower, the code of conduct within somebody.
And that's the perseverance.
Showing up every single day.
That will always achieve your goal.
It doesn't matter what you're born with.
It doesn't matter your potential,
the silver spoon or money you have.
All of that can be attained if you show up,
and you're willing to risk failure for success.
I went through the life: the military and sports.
I always use the gym for some means.
It was never about fitness modeling.
I just had a passion for working out.
Every time I hit struggles or I was stressed out,
I went to the gym to find solidity there,
to work through any kind of stresses.
So, naturally I got in shape,
but it wasn't for fitness modeling,
it was for military and sports.
And then, later on down the road,
an agency saw me, and said,
hey, you should take some pictures.
I'm like, I'll try it.
And that's how this was born.
It wasn't this starting.
I didn't start out, set out for this.
It just ended up coming to a passion
and the love of the gym.
I could teach you whatever, but when you go out there,
and you try it yourself, and you fall flat on your face.
That's where you learn it the most.
Because the next time when you fall,
you got to learn to catch yourself, and that's a lesson
you never forget.
So everyone wants a war game.
Everyone wants to sit back, and what ifs,
and before they start their journey,
they want to plan it out, war game, and war game.
Just get going, man.
Get going. You'll learn it along the way.
And some people want to be a fitness model,
so they'll try to figure out all fitness model stuff
to be a fitness model.
But you just fall in love with the passion.
I know a lot of people that started out to be
a fitness model, but that wasn't the real passion.
But they didn't know it until they started it,
and now the photographer, the editor, or an actor
coming up to LA, that now is a great producer
or director; you don't know what the field is.
Just get going and figure it out.
And then the truth will surface.
Action causes reaction, you know.
If you stand still in a sedative state,
if you're a pond and it's sedative,
what grows in there is algae; mosquitoes.
No one wants that.
But if you have a current, a fountain or something
it's like an oasis.
People want to come and look at it.
Your life has to be moving the same way.
When you guys are sitting on the couch,
or wherever you're watching this,
- Yeah - to take that first step
- Yep - towards greatness
is very hard.
That's the hardest step of everything,
is that first step, right.
- Yep. - That first step
towards greatness is hard.
- Yeah. - But what's a lot harder,
- Yeah. - is when time expires
in life, you look back - Yeah, yeah.
- on your life, knowing you could have been great.
That's something you can't control anymore,
because time has run out.
I have the greatest job in the world.
It's a job where I get to put out what I do,
what I love to do, and help to inspire people
to do what they love, and achieve things.
I come to these expos, and people wait three hours,
or drive 10 hours, or a plane, and they wait in these lines,
and they come up to me and they say,
thank you for everything you're doing,
you've really saved my life.
You're a huge motivation, a huge difference.
And they don't understand how much that means to me.
Because that's the greatest thing in life.
That's the legacy that you actually do something
to lead an impact towards others.
And there's no greater honor than that.
It's not until I come here and someone takes time
out of their day, that gives value to what I do.
They use it to transform themselves, to get belief
in themselves, to change their life, to become
the person they've always wanted to be.
And they come and they share that,
and they thank me for that.
But the thing is, it's their sweat on their shirt.
Not mine.
I just help them believe in themselves.
And to have a small impact in the betterment
of their life, that just humbles me so much.
And so that's why I think I have the greatest
job in the world.
Because, the return of investment.
It's not a monetary value, but it's a value that,
that builds legacy.
It's not the dog in the fight that matters,
it's the fight in the dog that matters.
Same with you.
It's not your genetics, or your potential,
it's how bad do you want it.
Going to the gym is not about checking the box,
you know, paid my dues today.
I go in there and I find, it's self discovery.
It's like there's something about that
eighth rep, when you can't do it; of who you are.
When you're pushing it, trying to get it up,
and, do we just quit?
Do we just rack it?
Or, do we rack it, drop the weight, and keep going
for the burn, or do we get someone to spot us?
Who are we in that adversity?
Do we push past it?
Do we try to get more out of it, or do we settle?
Do we say words like, good enough?
And if you do say, good enough, you're in trouble
because you don't know if you have enough, until later.
I always say if you never use terms like, good enough,
tomorrow you'll always have enough.
So, I like to leave it all there when I work out,
and no matter what happens later in life,
I know it's not because of my shortcomings done today.
Those three reps I could have done; is that the difference
of me being successful later?
I don't know.
That's why I do those three reps, so I never
have to wonder what if.
How do you stay motivated?
Guys, you want to get a partner.
Champions come in pairs of two cause they
bound themselves in perfection.
A partner is not only an asset to you
on the physical side, but also the mental side,
meaning when you guys are coming home from work
or something, when maybe the wife is just (beep)
yelling at you too much, and it's driving you
into a migraine, or the kids are just...
You know, it's one of those days, you know,
the boss is on you (beep) seems like (beep).
I just need to go to the bar or something.
Well, if you have a partner, your partner's
going to be calling you,
hey man, ready to hit the gym?
You're like, dude, man, I just had a long day and
everything else; I'm just not feeling it, man,
not going to the gym.
And so, you let him down.
Now, we can all fool ourselves, and bury the real truth
inside of us of why we're not going, right.
And kid ourselves for whatever (beep) reasons,
or these excuses that mean nothing, but we give them value,
we give them weight, to make us not go,
so we can fail on our own account.
But you got to be a really low (beep, beep),
to fail on somebody that's relying on you.
Very few people would do that.
When you make a commitment; a verbal, written commitment
to somebody, your word should mean something to them.
When they call you up and say, hey, let's go,
and you're like, dude, man, I'm not into it, man,
not into it.
Wow, so you're not into it; not like it affects you,
but also affects someone else's day.
No, what's going to happen is that guy's going to pull you
into the gym, drag your (beep) through the workout,
even though you didn't want to.
And by expending that energy in a tired state,
you can come out of the gym with a sense of pride
and relief, or you know, morphed out energy,
like, wow, man.
You know, that felt good.
Now you're going to go back into your problems
that you didn't want to go to the gym
'cause they're overwhelming, and you can
look at 'em differently.
Now all of a sudden you're going to see the problems
with solutions, because your mind...
you're thinking smarter, you're thinking more
of the glass half full, instead of it's half empty.
And you're going to find remedies and solutions
to those (beep) problems.
Makes for a better day.
Combine that for a couple of 'em; good week,
good month, good year.
Also, partner is really key because you're going to
hit failure, right.
The partner is going to have to use forced reps,
three or four reps, that's going to push you past failure.
Where you're going to feel that high.
Wow, I just (beep) did it.
You're going to feel that pump, you're going to feel alive.
On top of that, you got someone going through
the same workout routines, right.
Now person A, I'll say Joe, is going to go to person B, John,
and say man, you know, I'm not really feeling it, John,
are you feeling it?
And John might be like, yeah, man, I'm totally feeling it.
And Joe be like, wow.
Well John, do you know what I'm doing wrong?
Yeah, I think you're doing it this way.
Oh, let me try that; oh yeah, now I feel it.
So you guys can push and pull off each other
on what is working, and what isn't working,
so you can find a mental strength.
Or you're like, hey man, John, you know, hey,
I'm really feeling this, but you know what,
I'm not seeing the results as much.
You know, what's your (mumbles), what are you doing?
Well I'm doing this, I'm doing that.
And you're going to start comparing each other, you know.
And you guys start feeding off what is working,
what isn't working 'cause you guys are a team.
Partners are essential, guys.
If you don't have a partner, you really can't
push yourself past your current limitations,
and so it's forced reps and failures,
and drop sets and everything else.
To really get the most bang for the buck, okay.
Partner, must get a partner.
- Thank you, guys, for watching.
I made this video because Elias asked me to.
So if there's a famous entrepreneur that
you want me to profile, leave it in the comments below,
and I'll see what I can do for you.
- Hi, I'm Hayden.
- Thank you for watching.
Continue to believe, and I'll see you soon.
- Believe.