Why do you want to workout ?
What is your goal ?
The most important thing is that you have a vision
That you have a goal
Because without that vision and without that goal again your drifting aroud
You never gonna end up anywhere
People don't become successful
Just by accident
You know I mean, maybe the guy
That found gold in California in start of the Gold Rush
But don't count on that
That's one in a lifetime kind of a situation
So, you got to really have a specific goal and to me
To have that vision that I want to be Mister Universe
That I want to be the greatest bodybuilder of all time
That was a great vision and that specificly to look like Reg Park
And to be apdate that stage, to lift the trophy overhead
And to win the championship over, over and over again
So that was a great goal
You have to have a goal, it doesn't have to be that specific goal
But it has to have some goal
This is why I always recommand to people to sit down, take your time and think about it
Why dou you want to workout? What is your goal ?
And it can be as crazy as it is, I could be : I want to impress girls
If that's your goal so be it but it motivates you
It could be that you emulating a certain, you know bodybuilder or a certain footballplay, a certain boxer
Whatever it is, have those pictures put all over the wall
Like I did when I was a kid. I got pictures of Reg Park and of Sonny Liston, of boxers and of Ali
and of powerlifters and weightlifters all over my bedroom, you know, walls
So that everyday when I go to sleep, everyday when I wake up
I look at that pictures and they motivate me, you need that motivation and therefore you have that kind of
Inprint in front of you all the time, you know exactly what you're chasing
People always came up to me : Why are you smiling? You working out 5 hours a day
You doing the same as the other guys but the other guys have a sauer face
They pissed of to have to do another rep or another set
I look forward to, I look forward to another douzen of reps, I look forward to another 500 of leg raise or squat
I look forward to another curl until my arms fall of
Why? Because I know that every rep that I did and every set that I did
And what weight that I lifted, I gain one step closer to turn that vision into reality
So I was turned on by that, I was excited, I couldn't wait to go to the gym
Look I remember that when I weighted 245 pounds
And Bob Rafelson the director of Stay Hungry said to me that : I'm intrested in having coming for a reading
And work on your acting because I want to having you in a movie
To start with the Jeff Bridges and Sally Fields. I was delighted about that and I was excited
I start pumping on one word and then he said but
I don't want to weight more than 210 pounds
He want me to be in a movie but I'm weighting to 45 to 46
As they I've just won the Olympia as they say it was 1974
And I was really at my biggest
But he demanded that, he said : Look, it's very simple
On the day we start shooting
I'm gonna put you on the scale and if you don't make the 210, you are out
Because I have someone else in mind
And I worked on it, that visualing myself very cleary as a lean athlete
Because it was the only way I could loose that wieght in the office
and get interesting in running because until the point of ran 3 miles
after training or before training or whatever
But now it was 5 miles, 6 miles, 7 miles, 8 miles and i even ran mini marathons
In order to loose that weight and I did everything with high reps levels and watching my diet what I eat nor of kind of things
But the day before, I remember we won Burmingham-Alabama
the day before I was at the YMCA with Bob Rafelson he was swimming and I was working out
And I was running. He said : Let's step on the scale
And I stepped on the scale and I weight 209
So it just shows you it is possible if you visualize exactly what you want to look like
And it was no room for any kind of like : I can't get my act together or anything
Because there is only a certain amount of time but the key thing again is : Have the clear vision
Have the specific goal of what you want to accomplish
Because then you never go to gym and say : today I feel down a little bit
I don't know what it is all about
I don't know my life, I'm confused. NO !
I'll tell you that I was a pefect example of someone that was not confident at all
I mean when I was a kid I was like just any other kid
I had my hang ups and problems and orders
But
When I joined the weight lifting club
And I won my first little trophy
Because I did the best clean jerk
And then we went to another meet and I won another little trophy
I started that feeling like somebody
But the bottom line is everyone can use the same method because i used it in politics
I used it in making money, I used it in everything that I've done in the movie business
When you have one little victory. Little victories add up and that is what give you that ultimately confidence
Well, for me the most important thing is to have a deadline
So, when I, for instance, had a competition
And let's say the competition was in the middle of Septembre
And it was now beginning of summer
So there was no more time to screw around
So it was the time now to get going on a diet, to get going with the training
to not slack off at all because it was a deadline
The day of the competition I had to be in the best shape possible
And I knew that if I come to the competition and I loose because I did not schedule my training the proper way
Or I didn't have the right frame of mind or I didn't give everything, literally broke my butt off
I would be just so angry so I never wanted to be in that situation
This is why it was very important to pick that time and to say this is when I have to be in top shape
Then work towards that
But it's not just with the competition
I mean there was always the same with the movie business
I mean to me it was always a big advantage when I say :
Ok, my movie starts on April 1 and I have now 3 months
So I have to get really in great shape
So you pick those times it could also be that you have no movie, no Mister Olympia, no Mister America
No Mister Universe coming up or any of those things
But you say to yourself : The summer starts in June
I'm gonna go to the beach in June and at that time I want to be in great shape
So that creates an urgency, that makes you really start to training hard and taking it serioulsy
Because if you don't have a specific plan then you wander around
And you can have reserved many times the best shape of the best player in the world
But if you don't have a specific goal where you want to go and when you want to get there
You just drift around and you never get anywhere so this is why this is important to create that urgency
And the specific time when you want to be in shape
I mean, look, everyone has a problem with time
But, the day has 24 hours and we sleep 6
Now, I know that some out there that say :Wowowo I need 8
But I just say : Just sleep little faster
Because the bottom line is we have 6 hours of sleep 24 hours available
So 18 hours now available to your work, your family, your hobbies
And also to learn something new or to do something new
Which could easily be that you want to learn a new language or that you wand to read
As a US resolution after read a book every week but what you say I'm gonna go to reshape my body
So you gonna go and take this hour out of your schedule and say : I'm gonna train an hour every day
So this is for most people a huge challenge but it is totally doing what I can tell them
Because the kind of things that I did when I came to this country I mean, I went to school
I was working at construction, I was working out my 5 hours a day
I was taking acting classes from 8 o'clock at night to 12 midnight
I was doing all of those things
I wanted to make sure that out of the 24 hours of the day that I didn't waste one single hour
Those hours were too precious and I just want to tell people don't give me the thing
I have a difficult time with the time, I don't have time for this. You have time, you make the time