The Heart and Mind Seed All Motivation and Success Growth

I would like to personally share some thoughts on a subject close to my heart. The heart, physically and spiritually is driven by motivation in many aspects. You must have some sort of desire to accomplish something regardless of what you do, or you would not be breathing. I can express from my own experience, we are all equal we all breathe; we are driven to do things in life on a level that rebounds back to this concept. I will include two powerful YouTube videos of great resource to emphasise my succinct points.

I am reading and sourcing many different books at the moment. I will mention the following - Number one was the book Sally Pearson - Believe. An inspirational story of aiming high. I will get back to this book later it is important to the entire blog. 

Search Inside Yourself - Chade-Meng Tan - Increase productivity, creativity and happiness. This book is one of the best I have ever enjoyed reading. The references to Zen and mindfulness Meditation, the inner mind in a business and personal development angle from a Google engineer. He has met the President and pretty much every successful; highly influential person on the earth. 

Survival To Success by Allan Mason - How to play the game of life and win. This book has themes just like the above, using mind and personal development; spiritual and meditation resources to reach goals.

EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey - 20 years of practical business wisdom from the trenches. 

Seven Years with Banksy - Robert Clarke.

You Can Heal Your Heart by Louise L. Hay and David Kessler.

Psyche's Yearning by Dr. Gillian Ross.

You'll See It When You Believe It by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

Manifest Your Destiny by Wayne W. Dyer. The nine spiritual principles for getting everything you want. 

A few others are also thrown into the mix, including audio, I will listen to highly successful speakers talk from various recordings at certain times. I love to listen to Wayne W. Dyer audio late at night, and gain wisdom when out walking with earphones in. Sometimes whilst making breakfast I listen and absorb motivational audio and self growth. I like to view my mind as a cauldron and throw all kinds of knowledge into the brew and develop a taste or something that will create my own recipe for life. I feel that using only one ingredient when cooking makes for a rather dull, bland and tasteless dish.

The book by Dave Ramsey on EntreLeadership really struck me a few days ago with one simple snippet of wisdom. Making mistakes is the critical tool needed in order to thrive and grow. You need to learn from them in order to develop any skills in life. Dave points out, learning from the mistakes of other's is much less painful. This resonated powerfully with my own experience, and no doubt with all of us. I myself from personal history know how I can relate to bad decisions or unwise choices from an early age. He mentions how Henry Ford once said, "Those who never make mistakes work for those of us who do."

I personally learn and draw much from a friend of mine. Danielle McDonald. She has built her career on helping and advising others how to succeed in all facets of life. My move to Twitter as a new social media platform a few months ago was prompted by our mate-ship and it leads me to the next subject. When you have great leaders you can learn from, who have walked the walk and talked the talk, and share to others what they sourced growth from; you are much wiser.

Sally Pearson, the champion Australian Olympian athlete. I was in a book store and decided to buy her book. The main reason was that I had learned about her in a Motivational and How To Succeed course recently. The teacher was relating a story of how you must believe in something in order to reach it. What you wish for, what you work for, what you desire you will reap. He told us a story along the lines of this - at an event, the media was interviewing two athletes. One was unnamed. The other was Sally. The first was asked how it felt to be at the games, and what her personal goal was. She replied she was most pleased to be here and her goal was to make the final. Sally entered the zone. I say THE ZONE, You can instinctively tell this woman is not there to play candy crush saga. She does not play for the media and dance around like it's 1999. (The Musician - Prince reference gentle sarcasm). She stated she had worked hard to get here and her goal was Gold. 

The first made the final. Goal reached. Sally made her ultimate goal. She will be remembered for the duration of history as a champion... the other athlete perhaps did not have that true motivational mindset at the time.

I believe what you do needs to drive passion in you. You need to want it so badly. Like the motivational people famously say As bad as you want to Breathe. Also, you must love what you do. If you do not enjoy something you will rarely sustain it for a long period of time. You need to wake up on a winter's morning, like I did all through the toughest most defining part of my year of a huge goal... and rather than think, I do not quite feel like doing it. Force it. I got myself to that gym and rarely miss a workout or strength session, only by sickness or recently deeper career focus. Like Arnold said in a video I watched recently and the great Bob Proctor touches on this strongly too... you can ask someone what their goals are, and you can gain a good understanding of the level of commitment they reflect. If they beam the right source of light you know they are destined. If they project what I love to call the Kind of Sorta Try attitude - I kind of sorta want it. I want to kind of sorta try and put the effort in. I might go 90 percent, but in some regards I will slacken off the other ten percent at times I need it most. I meet people like this in my fitness pursuit. They are willing and wanting to change or to set a high goal, but they will never go that extra mile. They get weary. They fall back, and in some cases cannot perform at the front of the pack. I have always found if you want something badly in life Go ALL OUT to get it. I love how Arnold Schwarzenegger used his initial gym based mindset in order to apply the same dedication to his future pursuit of Acting, and to make it as Governor of California. This truly reflects a drive that many do not have to succeed at everything you put your mind to. I might add that Arnold was using Meditation and Visualisation mind awareness tools in the 1970s and 1980s ... never assume anything from looking at someone. You can work your body, but you can work your mind even harder. Some people tend to forget that. 

The need to work the mind hard is the most important aspect to motivation and success. You need to get in that ZONE. This brings me back to Sally Pearson to finish the blog. Please watch this video, this is the Gold winning event at the London Olympic games in 2012. Observe a few things I personally picked up on. She is seated at first in the beginning. She is almost like this robot. She is not there to act, she is there to Perform. Look at the intensity in her demeanour. She has the WILL, She has the Desire. The Focus. The Belief. 

I believe she says to herself as you can see in the video Fast Start. Strong Start. 

She also used Keep It Together. 

Her heart was already racing and it certainly didn't help, the Olympic games organisers for unknown reasons decided to echo mega-loud heartbeats through loudspeakers in the stadium - right up until the starter called 'Set'.

History was made, through pure dedication to aiming high and believing in oneself.

I could not embed this YouTube Olympic video due to restrictions, so here is the link

http://youtu.be/qFqL-lAud0k

Here is one of the greatest thinkers and minds of all time - Bob Proctor:

Motivation - Driven to Succeed Mind Over Body!

I had some powerful thoughts recently on Motivation. I was reading a book about our Aussie Champ Sally Pearson, and I feel that Motivation is a huge driving force within all of us.
It can be for whatever pursuit we attain it to, sports, career, athlete success, business, relationships... the desire to just make something come full circle starts with a goal, or an idea. A vision, an inspiration... a dream perhaps.

Some of us are Not motivated. We are not particularly driven to do anything substantial. Perhaps reasons for this are varying, it can be the place we are at right now in life. What I want to talk about is what drives a person to follow through, and what sustains momentum? What essence keeps motivation strong? I will not go into excess detail I tend to ramble too much in my blog posts, so I will try to keep this short. Two main principles I have discovered for me personally have been:

Discovering your Passion. I love this T.D. Jakes quote:

I believe all the primary success masters have adopted this simple mindset of - if you do Not enjoy what you do, that can be your career or job, or chosen interest/pursuit you will not succeed. Find or discover your True passion and it will be your true purpose.
That is a first guiding principle I found worked for me, and opened up paths and realms of possibilities.

Principle One: Purpose and Passion - or Love.

Loving the passion, and getting such a high level of enjoyment from it, you are forced to always do it. How many things do we honestly maintain for a long period of time we dislike?
If you paint or like writing Poetry, but you only get a low or moderate level of joy, perhaps look into something that draws your creative energy stronger - into feelings... not short term emotional reward; but something that feeds you the feelings of happiness and pleasure.
If you embrace exercise and fitness but do not like certain activities, change the exercise to something you do enjoy, or change the mindset approach.
If you do not like working at McDonalds, get the hell out of there and push yourself forward.
If you are in retail, but dream of something big - but a family member or some fear holds you back from trying to think about something else - think big, shoot the fear down. Perhaps you are from a family that expects you to accomplish something according to what they believe. What they believe is right for you - You might be expected to be a Lawyer, and frowned upon for expressing a desire to follow a different path - ignore them - this is Your Life - Not Theirs. If you allow yourself to live under the control and expectations of others, allow yourself to be dictated to by the opinions; good or bad, of others - if you listen to the Naysayers - you will be doomed. This leads me into the next principle because you are held back by the above by a strong force:

Second principle - Fear and the required Dissolution.

Fear is the number one enemy. It prevents most of us from everything.
It comes from the mind - but you can slay it. You can learn to beat it.
Most people have fears of failure - what if I try and fail?
What will my friends and family think?
What will I think of myself?
Failure will come - to everyone - but learn to embrace rather than hide and avoid it.
Each little obstacle is just another hurdle you can jump and you must keep hold of hope, you and focus. You never know, the path might be clear for the next 100 metres until the finish line. If you think, that hurdle was too hard... there are twenty more ahead - I might hit the next one with my knees, and fall down. I will lose. I do not have the energy or strength left in me to reach it. It's too hard. You will not get to that finish line in life. The Motivation has been lost. It escaped you. The bad aspect of your mind won - it beat you down like a champion boxer, it gave you a KO, but the sad thing is - it was Not better than you - it was not a champion that beat you - it was a shadow. It was something within yourself you allowed to break you down, largely in part from your own negative thinking.

I was listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival the song below at 4am this Sunday Morning during fasted Steady State Cardio - ... Run Through The Jungle.
It got me onto the thoughts of how war time and extreme life challenges force motivation. I need not discuss or raise opinions about war and killing - what I want to emphasise is the mindset in order to survive and endure hardship - in order to stay motivated.
I heard recently that a person who was in the Jewish filled death camps observed the people around him, he wrote or noted that the people who gave up, had no motivation to survive, usually met this fate. The people that had some drive within, the fighters that embraced a mindset of - I want to get out of here, and tell the world what horror took place - I will Not allow myself to die in this shit-hole. These people cannot beat me. I want to tell my future children and grand-children of the atrocity - so this never happens again... these people had something worth living for - a sheer drive to continue. The motivation needed in order to last... of course not all of them did survive; but the majority of the stronger minded people walked out to share the tale. The people who said this is it. I give up... generally one would be led to believe, endured a tougher time and relented first mentally.

Mental strength is paramount. The Mind is more powerful than the body. You need to learn that success is based on how you think, and what you think - what you create in your mind - how you visualise your goals - and how you sustain the motivation needed.

I will include a great video interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger on this topic. Place your attention on the mind aspect he discusses, and the people who speak to him of the desire. The people that crave on hunger and feed from it, as opposed to those who do not.

Nourish your motivation with passion - feed it heaps of calories, fatten it up everyday - make it obese in fact. Fuel the mind, Research. Read. Watch. Listen. Learn. Be inspired. Create. Share ...Grow.
and RUN THROUGH THAT JUNGLE OF FEAR - beat the odds and come out the other side Victorious.
There will be times you will doubt, you may want to entertain quitting. Think about the reasons you are doing it - perhaps the soldiers in this clip thought about that loving wife back home, the family they intended to reunite with. Think about why are you doing this? Focus - and continue the march.

Like I always say Improve the Body the MIND follows!

If you have any questions I am happy to answer and help when I can, I am Not motivated by money or a desire to profit from my positive encouragement. I do not have a website that wants you to outlay large sums of money in order for me to feel whole. This blog is public and not advertised it is free and basic. I have been ignored by many of the highest profile fitness and health industry bloggers. I do not care, I will continue to enjoy what I love doing. Character is everything - arrogance and ego are ugly. I just try and promote my social media interests to feeding my own goals - the gratitude I receive from others telling me - they can learn from this. What I have faced and the challenges I can share - how I have learned from them. What I can show to others;  a light that remains behind a closed door. If you want to open it up, look into changing things - start with an idea, a dream, a vision. Build on it. Look into mental fitness such as meditation and nutrition for the physical, get yourself active and help your body learn to love you back. Then things start to happen, things can open up. You can gain confidence. I was watching the Biggest Loser this time last year, and when the Trainers spoke of the concept - Let go of the Past - In order to move forward - I was thinking at that point in time ... How??? Is it possible??? I Wish I could. Please explain how this is possible?

Now I understand. Now I get it. You grow, the strength comes from the manner in which you learn and adapt and apply. With growth comes mass - you get bigger, mentally and physically. Stronger in mind and body. I am not talking about bodybuilder mass I am talking strength of heart, mind and body in terms of gaining true Power. The strength to start to view the world differently. 

If you want a truly great tip; if like myself - you faced some severe mental challenges and issues in the past the book called "Your Erroneous Zones" by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer may just be the blueprint you will need to get started. If you have faced challenges you cannot let go of, or just think the past cannot possibly be forgotten - consider investing in it - if there was one book I needed to read - if the world ended, and I was forced to hold one book for the rest of my days - and if the world was troubled - that book would be my gift to myself. If I can share this gift with one person and it changes their life, my work is done.

like Dr. Wayne W. Dyer says:

if you change the way you look at things, 
the things you look at will change.

arrogance is ugly in life even uglier in fitness

I wanted to share some thoughts on the subject of arrogance and ego in people and in fitness circles. I do not know for sure when I started out if I had the misconception that most fitness people were possibly arrogant and had their heads stuck up their glutes.  I have spoken to people and some do believe this stereotype, when they have not been in the lifestyle from the outside looking in.

Many people are reluctant to join a gym because they feel they might be judged or rated or feel inferior to the other fitness members who push hard and show the obvious results physically.
Many obese people are sensitive and lack self esteem and cannot face the prospect of being around fit people, they want to reach their goals yes, but in front of the people that are so strong and fit?
There was a wonderful google plus post of a man who got dressed up in costume at the gym to divert the attention away from his self conscious obese friend who hated the attention. It worked and it was a remarkable human spirit gesture of kindness and respect and goodwill.
If only all people could be like this sadly some are not - some do have their heads stuck up their toned arses, I have found these to be the minority the majority of fitness people I encounter are the greatest people I have ever known.

Negative people are everywhere, I was walking the street yesterday in a tank top that says Eat Clean Train Mean Live Lean, and this stranger gave me the most dirty look of disapproval you can imagine,  you could see in his eyes he hated the fact I work on myself.
Some random guys the other week starting yelling abuse from 100 metres behind me saying stuff to try and incite me and you think you are so F**ing good don't you and so on, I just held my head high did not respond and let it bounce off me.
Guys can be worse than females I get many men who are extremely hateful and resentful of my lifestyle, they are jealous but won't admit it, they like to make excuses and say they cannot make the time but they look at you like they would love to kill you.

Arrogance is everywhere lurking out of every mouth that comes from negative people who like to put down people, they cannot accept are doing better than them.  They resent success and hard work they want to belittle you and knock you down a peg or two.

I am here to say stay strong and focus on your goals and what you want and need to do in this life to make yourself a better person and let go of everything from the people who do not matter.
I gave up caring what others think when I grew mentally stronger months ago.
It is the best feeling you can imagine.  To be free of worry and negativity is something many dream of.  You cannot shake it all it is like saying you will never laugh or smile again the times and moments come and thoughts test you, but if you build your warrior in mind and body you can break the world apart, and climb any ladder, scale any mountain, and conquer any goal you set yourself!

edit: I might add if you are not in fitness to share and help and inspire others, only in it for yourself and your own ego, you are not doing it for the right reasons, if we can all help and teach and learn and inspire we grow stronger together doing it alone we lack this.