DRIVEN

What Motivates You:  Part 2 of 3

It’s amazes me to learn about the motivations of people.  In our own unique ways we all want the same thing, happiness.    What it takes for an individual to feel happy varies from person to person but what I’ve found is that no matter who you are,  true and long-lasting happiness comes from feeling successful.  Success in love, life, fitness, business or whatever means different things to different people.

In my young life, I have been fortunate enough to see the best and worst in people, as well as discovering the best and worst of myself.  Over the last few years i have made changes, educated  myself in things im passionate about and done what I can to provide inspiration to others wishing to do the same.  I’ve surrounded myself with good, and positive people and I continue to weed out the negative influences on a daily basis.  I’ve made a ton of money and learned that money in and of itself doesn’t provide happiness.  Especially if you like to spend it and don’t hire financial planner in time to save you lol.  Everything I do, have done, and will continue to do is in search of that elusive label that changes meanings daily…”Successful”.

Through this blog series I have been blessed to see what drives certain people.  I think the truth is, we all have our own motives and ideas of what success will bring us.  What I was most pleased in reading and discovering through the responses I got however had nothing to do with what success brings us, but instead what our success can bring to others.  I was so inspired to see that the overwhelming majority of the responses that came in had one very crucial similarity; “success is about the ability to help others”.  What an incredible insight!  Almost everyone who responded defined success in someway by their ability to positively impact the lives of the people around them…  Giving back, paying it forward, and creating community were all at the top of people’s list of successes defining characteristics and what drives them to be better everyday.

Something else I learned is that we all are motivated by the fear of failure in one way or another.  We each have goals, dreams, and aspirations that we are afraid we’ll never achieve.  Thus is a huge driving force that in my opinion sets us apart from a large part of society.  In a recent article I read that close to 80% of Americans aren’t passionate about anything enough to take action on it.  If you don’t ever make a move for what you want,  then truthfully you can never feel the disappointment of not getting it.  It makes sense in that regard that so few people ever reach their true threshold of being successful.  In this society it’s very easy to sit back, be taken care of, and live day-to-day and paycheck to paycheck without ever envisioning a better future for you and yours.  I am excited and energized at the thought of new things, new friends and new goals.  I am personally driven by an intense desire to make something out of nothing and be a positive role model for the younger generation.  I have had my share of mentors, educators, and friends that have positively impacted my life and I am looking forward to being able to repay that favor over the long haul.  That’s what drives me.

In part 3 of this blog series I am going to talk about negative influences, things that can’t be controlled, and things that ive learned to get and stay motivated.  I’d love to read your feedback and thank you to everyone who responded to the first part of this blog.  I hope the day finds you blessed and striving to be better today than you were yesterday.

Keith-

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DRIVEN

What Motivates You? Part 1 of 3

Money, Fast cars, extravagant homes. Maybe your thing is exotic vacations or philanthropy. Success, Wealth, social acceptance? Could it be that possibly social acceptance isn’t good enough? For you, being at the top of the class is much more important than simply being in the class. It’s all a matter of perspective and everything we do is relative to where we’re trying to go. 

The problem is that too many people don’t actually have any true idea of “where they’re trying to go”… How can you get to a place if you don’t know where it is you want to be? So many people wander aimlessly through the year with resolutions that become faint dreams and broken goals that they become disillusioned with the idea that they can even find true success. It becomes a chore to wake up in the morning and take a shower, much less have a healthy breakfast and lead yourself into a productive day. As a country, America is number one in depression and mental illness along with obesity. NUMBER ONE! In a free country where each of us are given the same basic rights and we all have the opportunity to make a success of ourselves, how is it possible that we lead the world in these three categories? Is it even possible to be motivated and driven in a Country that leads the world in being out of shape and depressed? Hell yes it is!

Before you can jump on the Happy Train to success, you need to have a heart to heart with yourself. The first step in getting there is to define what “success” is to you. I’m not talking about a vague idea of the material outcome… If your dream is to own an incredible car collection, and an ocean front mansion that’s great. However, that’s not success. It’s what I refer to as the Material Outcome of Success. In your personal heart to heart, you need to have two things in mind, the destination and the Map. What is it that you want most in this world for yourself, your family, friends and community? This is the destination and more often than not will include many very specific ideas of what you want. Write them all down… Next, what you need is a Map. Your Map is going to tell you exactly what you need to do in order to arrive at your destination. It is a system of events that you create in order to get you to the place where you’ve decided Success is. Everyone’s destination and Map is different. That’s why it is so important to write them down. The process of taking an intangible idea from your mind and writing it down makes it physical and anything you can touch instantly becomes real. 

All of this is great in theory and the truth is it works every time. However, what doesn’t work is the vehicle aka YOU! If you have a MAP, and you know your DESTINATION, then logically if you’re not getting where you want to go it’s because the transportation is broken… The good thing is that what is broken can be fixed. It just takes hard work! The media sensationalizes celebrity lifestyles and often portrays the lifestyles of the rich and famous as having become overnight successes. In reality, I can promise you that becoming an overnight success is going to take years of hard work, determination, and passion. There is no quick fix and in my opinion, that’s why America leads the World in the three categories I mentioned earlier. We see the extravagant homes and sports cars that other people have and we want it too. We want it now, and frankly we don’t want to work for it. This is a Country of many Freedoms, but an exceptional life is never FREE. People in America for the most part have two issues that need to be dealt with before it’s possible to start working towards obtaining the life of their dreams. #1: Instant Gratification Syndrome… Yes it’s a sickness, so get it out of your head! Nothing great is given and anything truly worth having must be EARNED. #2: The Victim Mentality… If something doesn’t go your way, then deal with it and move on. Stop trying to make excuses, stop running from your problems and for Heavens sake, stop blaming the world for your short-comings! We are each in the position we’re in because of the choices we’ve made to this point. Start taking responsibility for your own life and create some GOALS that motivate you to be a better person today than you were yesterday. 

That brings us to the question; what motivates you? What drives you to be the best you can possibly be? I’d like to know so that we can share our experiences and hopefully affect positive change in our Networks of people. We all want to be Super-achievers and it’s my hope that by inspiring and motivating each other through this series we can each pin point exactly what success means to us, and how we intend to get there. Please respond directly to this post or inbox me. You can also email me at talk2thetrainer@gmail.com and check out my blog at talk2thetrainer.com

Quote of the Day:

“Though I carry the weight of the world on my shoulders I will not fall…  For the Man who stumbles under pressure will never achieve Greatness” – Keith D. Larsen

I wrote this quote a few years back sitting in my room one day while I was trying to motivate myself to get to the gym for leg day.  I’ve never been a huge fan of Squats, Lunges, and leg presses because frankly I like to just get Shit done.  I like to see results.  Fast results.  With Legs, there is no such thing as a fast fix for bitch legs.  The problem with the whole instant gratification mind-frame is that it never leads to any long-term success.  I remember thinking about a lot of my bodybuilder friends and the fact that each of them had one thing in common…  They had the mental fortitude to push through pain barriers, push past the point of failure and continue working towards their goal.  I had that too, but in my early days in the sport my ability to work past the point of pain and failure was encompassed only in the typical “beach muscles”…  Not uncommon because we all enjoy working out what we can see much more than what is covered all the time.  Didn’t lead to balanced physique though so I changed my thought process by writing a simple quote that I posted up, and to this day I continue to read it before every Leg session.

I guess what it boils down to is that we all have our own triggers.  Our own breaking point when enough is enough and we decide that we are better than what we’re currently doing with our lives.  Frankly, it may seem cheesy to some people that a trainer needs to find motivation through a quote to get in a workout, and that’s OK.  we each have quirks.  I will say this though. Every time I read that quote, I picture Branch Warren or Phil Heath with a fully Loaded bar squatting ass to ground and I find Huge Motivation in that…  Needless to say, My legs have come up quite a bit since I wrote it which goes to prove that any motivation in any form is better than a wish and a dream that never gets acted upon.  Find your motivation…  Work it into your Passion, and don’t look back.  It doesn’t matter if its working out, living a full life or trying to find happiness in starting over, whatever your goal is-  FIND YOUR MOTIVATION-

IMPULSE CONTROL & BECOMING YOUR BEST VERSION OF YOU!

I’ve been around this industry for a long time now.  I’ve seen the very best and also the worst in people in the process.  I’m amazed everyday at some people’s passion for health and fitness and I do what I can to instill that fire into everyone I meet.  I think recently I’ve come to terms with the fact though that sometimes, it’s better to back off and give people room. 

As a trainer/coach I want the best for people who I work with.  Happiness, health, feeling sexy and having energy are all part of what this life brings.  That being said, sometimes people aren’t ready mentally to give 100% effort.  That doesn’t fit well with me because I’m an all or nothing mindframe guy and that’s also something I am working on.  It frustrates me though to see such potential in my people and then to just waste all the work on a burger and fries  or a weekend of bar hopping just drives me nuts. 

So this is the plan… Not too just reach some people, but also to maybe help myself in the process to become a more understanding and growing coach…My next series of posts is going to be referring to IMPULSE CONTROL and how to get it if you struggle with cravings or getting that workout in.  Please follow the blog and leave feedback and comments as it relates to your life.  How have you overcome your struggles?  What did it take for you to finally break the bad habit?  This and anything else on the subject is what I want to hear from you!  

Yours In Fitness,

Keith-

 

 

If You Want It Bad Enough, You’ll Kick That Vice

Daily Fit Thought

YES!

From McFatty to McFit: Taking Back my Life 1 Meal at a Time

Words to think about today.
There have been many days, especially the morning after a binge, when I have seriously thought about quitting.
I have actually gone as far as telling myself that i’d be happy if I was fat again.
But then I know that i’m just having a weak moment. We all have that strength inside of ourselves. Fear ad weakness seem like the easy path, at times. Initially, it is easier to keep eating a mass load of junk food and lay around but it is not.
There is such joy and pride in eating healthy and working out. Never give up on yourself, you are worth the extra effort.

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Fitness Tip Of The Day 11-07-2012

No matter what you do for your fitness and health needs, nothing can come close to the benefits of starting your day of right with a balanced and nutritious breakfast.  It sets the tone for the entire day and gets your metabolism going again after hours of sleep.   If you don’t have time for a true meal, then don’t forget to grab some whey protein, berries and some oatmeal.   Put it all in a blender and make a breakfast shake!  Either way, feed the BEAST!

Supplements

Muscle Pharm is a quality product

Robustness final cut

What are supplements and what do they do for you? 

I want to start off by saying there are three types of supplements; Pre- workout, intra- workout, and post- workout. Essentially, supplements that helps you energize, improve, and recover.

We can all suffer from that lack of energy from time to time. Either if it’s  cardio or weight lifting, you know all too well the dragging, lack of energy feeling that can sometimes follow you through the gym doors. It doesn’t matter if you’re hitting it in the morning or in the evening, it hits you on random days.  To prevent these day you would take pre- workouts ( before workouts). However, you have to be serious about your workout. Results doesn’t happen on it’s own. You have to push just as hard for the supplements to do it’s job. You will fell that extra kick, and that’s when you…

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Sweater Dress Season… already??

Love it!

another cup of Tee

Recently, I found myself thinking about my 2012 New Year’s Resolutions.  As I continued to think about it, I remembered that I decided that they wouldn’t be ‘resoutions’ this year.  Instead, I would have  New Year’s GOALS.  So I thought about my goals… for a long time… and finally, I realized that I honestly could not remember what they were!

Surely, that must be because I kept them so well that they became part of my daily routine.  Right?  Probably not.  So to finish out the year, I’ve decided that I’m going to have monthly resolutions… goals.

If you know me well, you know that my work pretty much takes over my life from May until around October.  This means that I can’t have a consistent routine with anything outside of my work life.   Also,  to make things worse, this year during the same time I went through some… “emotional tests.” 

The…

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