Dpn't Try It, Do It!

Monday 2/10/225

Yes it is advice from Arnold S who knows something about motivation and success. In my tutorial Conquer Accounting, I point to individuals who are successful in very different fields, tennis, boxing, classic piano, and car racing. They all have a common element, practice. Arnold suggest we do not over think our goal, just do it. I often hear students say, well I am going to take this and that course and then I will graduate and then I will start studying for such and such and exam. Wrong, Dot It Now, read on.  Please watch Arnold's talks about goal setting and why that is important.

The impoprtance of a goal

Arnold's 2018 Motivational Speech

__________________

Today I want to talk about turning off your brain.

Because I have a theory: overthinking has killed billions of dreams. I just saw a perfect example of this, and as you know, I believe the gym is the ultimate classroom.

You might remember when I went on the 2 Bears podcast. One of the funniest members of the Pump Club, Bert, told me his big, crazy goal was to hit a 315 bench. He didn’t just make a vague goal, Bert made a bet that he would do it.

You can watch the podcast here.

I gave him some pointers, and I sent him a pump up video when I heard it was time.

Somehow, the bet became 320. Don’t ask me. Here was his lift.

Let’s start by congratulating Bert. That is serious weight, and he went beyond his goal. He’ll be at 400 in no time, and then I’m sure he’ll be training for the Arnold Strongman Classic.

Some people were surprised by the video I sent him. They thought I’d give technical pointers, not a simple pump up. Instead of telling him to row the weight toward his chest and then explode up, I told him not to think!

Let’s break down why I told him to empty his mind because I think the same advice can help the million of you who read this newsletter.

At that point, Bert had done all the thinking necessary. He made a vision — one that a lot of people thought was crazy. Once he had the vision, he did the work.

I gave him some pointers when he was preparing, but most were to train his mind, not his body, to prepare him for lifting a weight that seemed impossible.

I told him to lift 300 for one rep again and again, to teach the mind that it was happening no matter what. We had him unrack 400 pounds and just hold it, not even try to lower it, to teach his mind that he could hold a weight much higher than his goal.

But once it was time to lift, it was time to turn off the brain.

Overthinking will stop you in your tracks.

I know, I’m always telling you that you need to really take the time to let your mind wander and daydream to find your vision, so it might be confusing to hear me say I want you to turn it off.

You need to learn to become a genius when it’s time to make your vision and your plan — and a total forehead when it’s time to go after it.

Because any time you try to do something you haven’t done before, your brain fights back. You can’t blame it. It is natural.

The brain wants to keep you comfortable. It wants to avoid risk. Doing new things, doing big things, doing crazy things — that’s all very uncomfortable. There is a risk of failure.

Your mind knows that, and if you let it, it will talk you out of any vision. It will derail your plans.

I know that many of you, and even many members of the Pump app, suffer from overthinking.

Let’s just give an example.

You say, “My vision for this year is to finally get in shape.”

Your brain says, “Now hold on, what supplements do you need for that? What is the absolute perfect exercise? Is a fly better than a press for pecs? What’s the difference between a reverse lunge and a lunge because I want to make sure you do the right one? What’s the ideal diet — actually, let’s wait on the diet because first we need to focus on exercise. You can try the diet later.”

Absolutely none of that will get you in shape. Your mind just wasted a ton of time and got you absolutely nowhere.

In the time you were thinking about all of those things and researching, you could have done some squats and pushups and rows in your living room, gone for a walk, and eaten a vegetable and some protein.

You would be much closer to your vision than you are.

Instead, you let your mind take over and keep you frozen, and you make zero progress. You need to realize that’s what your mind wants. It loves to keep the status quo, even if that’s bad for you.

The person who doesn’t know anything about the perfect exercise or supplement or diet but just started doing something will beat you every single time until you learn to hit the off switch on your brain.

And don’t get me started on “trying.”

I see this every day.

People say “I’m going to try to build an exercise habit this year.”

“I’m going to try to diet once I get that habit dialed in.”

Try, try, try.

I know we have encouraged our kids to “try” for years now — and I believe that teaching kids that making the ultimate effort is important and failure is nothing to fear. But trying is just too soft for me.

It’s another trick your brain plays on you to keep you from going all out.

I need you to be honest with yourself. Look back over the past year. How many things have you promised to try? How many of them have you actually done?

Are you the type of person who is always trying and never doing?

It’s time to turn off the thinking. You know your vision. Be a forehead.

Don’t intellectualize it. Don’t research it. Don’t try it.

Do it.