Mindpower

Here is your quote for the week:
"Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve."
-Napoleon Hill

My opinion:
This is perhaps Hill's most famous quote and is found in "Think and Grow Rich".
Hill was letting us know how powerful our mind is. I have had many people ask me about handling life's daily struggles. We all experience them. The question I would like to ask you is how much do you focus on the struggles?

Hill's quote is a double-edged sword. If you conceive and believe in all these negative things, you can achieve them....but if you conceive and believe in a big goal you can also achieve that.
Now you may have noticed he used the words "can achieve" and not "will achieve" and the reason for that is action steps/persistence but that is a discussion for another time.

I would like all of you to stop and start to take notice of the thoughts constantly circulating in your mind.

Until next time.....

Oppurtunity

Another great quote:
“What is opportunity, and when does it knock? It never knocks. You can wait a whole lifetime, listening, hoping, and you will hear no knocking. None at all. You are opportunity, and you must knock on the door leading to your destiny. You prepare yourself to recognize opportunity, to pursue and seize opportunity as you develop the strength of your personality, and build a self-image with which you are able to live / with your self-respect alive and growing.”
-Dr. Maxwell Maltz

My opinion:
If you have not read Dr. Maxwell Maltz's book Psycho-Cybernetics I strongly recommend you do so.
Most people will sit around waiting for some great thing to come and find them instead of creating the opportunities to live the life that they want.
How can you do this?
One thing you need to look at is your self image. What do you believe about yourself? Another famous saying by Dr. Maltz was that "You will never outperform your own self image.".
To relate that to you financially: This means if you believe you are worth $30,000, you will never make more than $30,000. You will always hover around that amount.
I encourage all of you to take a long look at what you believe about yourself.

Until next time....

Belief

Here is an awesome quote:
“Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.”
-Charles Kettering

My opinion:
That is a very powerful quote.
Now you may be sitting there thinking that is crazy, how can you act like it is impossible to fail?
I mean everything that we do has some amount of risk and one of them is failure, correct?
Of course there is risk but what Charles Kettering is telling us, is to focus on the belief that you will succeed.

Here is something to think about:
What if you really did believe it was impossible to fail.......Would you be doing what you are doing now?

Until next time.....

Intuition

Here is your quote that I wanted to share:
"Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next."
-Jonas Salk

My thoughts:
I love this quote. We so often get a hunch, an inspiration, or a new idea about what to do next and we ask "Really?" or "Is this what I should do?".

I will tell you two things that I have learned:
1. If you ever get an idea, you can do it. I don't care how crazy it is. You can do it. There is a reason you received the idea.
2. When you get an inspiration or hunch, instead of asking yourself "Is this right or wrong?", or "Should I do this or Shouldn't I...?". Ask yourself if I act on this idea will it move me towards my goal, and if the answer is yes....DO IT.

By the way, Intuition is one of our six intellectual faculties. These faculties help us control our emotions instead of riding along on an emotional roller coaster.

Until next time....

Awareness

How aware are you of your thoughts? Do you just go through the day like a robot? Or do you recognize what you are actually thinking about every day?

I think for so many of us we just wander around the day fairly aimlessly. We wake up, brush our teeth, maybe eat some breakfast, go to work, work, go home, eat dinner, watch TV, go to bed, and repeat the process. What's interesting about all of this is we often expect something to change yet, if we keep doing the same things day in and day out how can we expect change?

The first step to breaking this monotony is setting a goal. Decide what you want your future to be. After you choose your goal start being consciously aware of what thoughts are running through your head. Stay focused on the positive ones. When you do catch yourself being negative try switching your perception.

Here is an example:

Imagine, you are driving to work minding your own business when someone cuts you off. Instead of complaining about that person (because once you start you will notice every other driver starting to annoy you). Tell yourself maybe he has an emergency and he's headed to the hospital. You may think this sounds funny but if you tell this to yourself enough times you will eventually start to limit your complaining.

Until Next Time......

Obstacles

Here is a great quote:
"The mere fact that you have obstacles to overcome is in your favor... "
-Robert Collier

My opinion:
Someone asked me the other day, "If there was one thing you could change about your life, what would it be?".
My answer: "Nothing".
I believe that all of the obstacles I have faced up until this point have made me who I am today and have prepared me for who I am becoming.
So the next time you are faced with an obstacle or something doesn't go right instead of saying "why me", see what you can learn from the experience.

-Until next time....

Workout Updates

I realized I haven't posted any workout updates recently.
I finished my diet (cut) the end of July. I lost around 15lbs in a little under 8 weeks.
I started bulking again in early August. I started around 218lbs and I am looking to go up to 240lbs. So far my progress has been slow, I am sitting at 225lbs right now. It's all about calories and I am not taking in enough of them. I am rectifying the situation now.

I plan on continuing this bulk until April of next year and after that diet (cut) back down again.
I have had some terrific workouts over the past few weeks. It's nice actually going to the gym and having energy.
Here are some of my lifting goals:
Deadlift: 550x1 (495 is my current max)
Flat Barbell Bench Press: 335x1 (I've done 315 for half a rep)
Squat: 365x1 (I've done 315 all the way to the ground, 335 to parallel)

Until next time....