To all of those stepping into the gym for the first time in years for your New Years Resolution, there are a couple of things I want to make clear.

1. Motivation is BS. Dedication is the key. Motivation is only designed to get your ass up and out of the door, the rest comes from hardcore dedication in the face of adversity. First you will be competing against your own laziness, breaking a habit takes 21 days, as does creating a new one. When it comes to laziness, your motivation will only serve you until you can turn motivation into dedication, at which point going to the gym be as routine and automatic as brushing your teeth (which you should be doing by the way). If you need more motivation, stand in front of the mirror and take a deep, long look at yourself, I want you to be dissatisfied with yourself and hungry to change, none of that body acceptance BS will help you here, your heart doesn’t give a shit if you FEEL good about yourself, and either does the opposite sex.
2. You are your own worst enemy, but so are the people who claim to care about you the most. When you set off on your journey to become the strongest version of yourself, know that most people you know won’t want you to change and will encourage you to stay the same. They may not do it because they don’t want you to succeed, they may even want the best for you, but seeing others change makes people examine themselves, which is uncomfortable. You are going to have to learn how to be immune to the opinions and persuasions of others. They want to keep you in the same cramped box you have always been in, you’re changing and they’re not. If to “live a little” you need to eat a slice of pizza and skip the gym today, I’d rather be deadlifting twice my body weight to Rebel Inc and eating chicken and rice. They won’t understand, and they don’t need too, your results will speak for themselves. Your friends will drag you down, when they see you change they will be asking you how you did it.
3. This isn’t a weekend retreat, this is a lifestyle change. Dieting is 70% of results, you must discipline yourself and make sacrifices. Take whatever isn’t helping you and cut it off. This goes for anything not helping you in your path to becoming the strongest version of yourself, what’s not helping you is only hindering you. Whether it’s food, friends, Netflix, drugs, etc, if it’s not helping you, cut it off. If you are looking to build muscle and become stronger, you must have a suitable amount of protein in your diet to gain muscle mass, you will also need fat to turn into testosterone and complex carbs for energy. There are plenty of resources out there on macro management. If you are going to be working out strenuously you need to be adequately hydrated; the average person is chronically dehydrated and suffers unknowingly because of it. In order to be optimally hydrated you must drink at minimum 3 quarts to a gallon of water every day, per day, for the rest of your life, until you die. Not once a week ago, no yesterday, not that one time after a hangover. Every. Single. Day.
4. You’re on your own. You’re born alone, you’ll die alone, you’ll go to the gym alone. No-one will be helping you in your struggle when the alarm clock rings, even if you pay a personal trainer or have a gym partner that will go to the gym with you every day you will be on your own in your journey. There is only one person who will be getting you out of bed at 8 AM, driving you to the gym after work, and pushing through that last transcendent rep. Only one person has the power to change your life, and that person is very close to you. That person is your right hand, and your left hand, and your eyebrows, and your bad haircut, that person is none other than You. Don’t worry, with all that work you will be putting in the gym, they won’t even notice your bad haircut.
5. Your friends will admire you and people will treat you differently. After working out for some time you will notice some changes in your personality, your posture will change, your head will be held a little higher, you will feel less stressed and more relaxed. If you are a man your testosterone will be higher and your voice a little louder, you might feel more vociferous and stick your chest out. If you are a woman you might feel the rush of endorphins and the strength of being able to beat up almost any guy out there and be confident knowing you’ll look good doing it. And most importantly, you will have proved to yourself just how powerful and just how dedicated you are, you’ve done what most fail to do. You are beginning to realize the strongest version of yourself, but none of that will happen if you don’t step up and take action. In the end you will just be wasting money on a gym membership and the time of the person who is actually dedicated whom is waiting to use the bench behind you. Don’t be that person, this isn’t DJ Khaled talking, they don’t wan’t you to have it because they know they can’t have it themselves!

I would like to conclude in the wise words of Arnold Schwartzeneggar:

” The resistance that you fight physically in the gym and the resistance that you fight in life can only build a strong character.I saw a woman wearing a sweatshirt with Guess on it. I said, Thyroid problem?The best activities for your health are pumping and humping.Just like in bodybuilding, failure is also a necessary experience for growth in our own lives, for if we’re never tested to our limits, how will we know how strong we really are? How will we ever grow?

I’ll be back.”

So are you feeling inspired now? Good, now don’t rely on it, get in the gym and get dedicated.

‪#‎Lift‬