There is something about fear that is hard to explain.
We all know how it feels. We understand why it exist as we explain away some biological notion of self-interest we remember from high school science class.
The truth is, we don’t understand fear at all.
In true fashion, we also can’t control it. We simply experience it and then let it lead us to our fates of mediocrity.
To beat fear, is to feel it, then to overcome it. Do the thing you were going to do anyways.
We can’t understand this, so we wait until divine intervention.
But if that near death experience never comes, then fear wins. Mediocrity wins. Average wins.
To become more powerful, we adopt this mindset: Fear Nothing.
MINDSET (PSYCHOLOGY)
♦The 50th Law by 50 Cent and Robert Greene. If one of the world’s best writers on the human psyche were to team up with a world renowned rapper and street hustler, what would be the byproduct?
The book: The 50th Law. The main idea: Fear Nothing.
But how does one become fearless? Similar to what Greene often suggests, a long apprenticeship in which you overcome obstacles of increasing difficulty. For 50 Cent, he started off as a drug dealer at age 11, spent time in prison as a teenager, and then, while working under direct supervision of another dealer, crafted techniques for leveraging production and distribution in order to free himself and start anew. His life began with little hope for a promising future, but like many other successful hustlers, he possessed self-awareness, curiosity, and a desire to become more.
♦ Mind Gym by Gary Mack. Renowned sport and performance psychologist Michael Gervais put together a list of five books and Mind Gym was the only actual book on the list about sport psychology. With that in mind, I read through the small classic in less than a day. Mack, who is a noted sports psychology consultant, uses 40 lessons taken from professional athletes to prove the book’s major idea: What you think affects how you feel and perform. Training your brain is as important as training your body.
Achieving inner excellence is a process. Building mental muscle, like building physical muscle, requires time and effort. The more you work on the inside, the more it will show on the outside. – Gary Mack
MOTIVATION
♦ Total Recall: My Unbelievable True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger. I wrote about Arnold’s 10 rules from the book here. Also, this book inspired a trip to The Mecca, which I wrote about here.
♦ Fitness Confidential by Vinnie Tortorich. As one of Hollywood’s go-to trainers, Tortorich has been working the bodies of some of the most “body centric” people in America for several decades. He is from New Orleans, so his writing style gets straight to the point, and his humor shines through in this tell-all from the fitness profession. What I like most about this book is the simplicity of his methods as a trainer, which is counter intuitive of what you expect from a celebrity’s trainer. You would expect fancy words, gimmicks, gizmos, and lots of shiny stuff, yet his recommendations are simple and clear cut. For diet, stop eating sugar and grains. For training, choose exercises that give you the most bang for your buck in the shortest time possible: squat, lunge, bench, overhead press, lat pulls, and some programmed cardio with every session.
PHYSICALITY
♦ Fit Pro’s Guide to Starting Your Career by Jonathan Goodman. Creator of the popular website, The Personal Trainer Development Center, Goodman puts together some keen insights into what it takes to make it as a personal trainer. Many people think personal trainers are just meatheads that like to lift and to some degree, they are right. However, the industry continues to stand on its own due to the complete inability of people today to live a life of health and physicality. Like most things, they rather outsource their progress to someone else, and that person is usually a personal trainer. Finding one that is well-educated in both the physical and mental attributes is tough and the process of training a person is a very different skill from training yourself. The best trainers understand more than reps and sets, they know about self-efficacy, the belief in oneself to actually stick to a program and reach their goals.
BUSINESS (ENTREPRENEURSHIP)
♦ The Miracle Equation by Hal Elrod. Author of the top seller Miracle Morning, Elrod decided to put together a follow up book that further explains his equation for success. In this sequel, he puts knowledge into action, he delves deeper into the process of a personal development practice and how to consistently improve upon the quality of your life. The “miracle” is the equation but the equation itself is really quite simple: Unwavering Faith + Extraordinary Effort. When you combine the two into a process, it produces miracles. There are a ton of useful anecdotes and quotes in this book and Elrod’s ability to put it all together seamlessly makes his message concise and most importantly, actionable.
Champions are not the ones who always win races; champions are the ones who get out there and try. And try harder next time… ‘Champion’ is a state of mind. They are devoted. They compete to best themselves as much if not more than they compete to best others.” – Simon Sinek
Check out the book study for more lessons from each book ever read on the blog.
Onward,
Chief
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