Arnold Schwarzenegger began his life in a small town of Graz in Austria. It was his father who first encouraged him to participate in some kind of sport.
However, it was not until he was 15 years old that he started lifting weights. But even at that young age, he was decisive and positive in declaring:
“I want to be the best built man in the world. Then I want to go to America and be in movies. I want to be an actor.”
And with this kind of drive and intent, he became unstoppable, as after just five years of training, he was declared Mr Universe, the biggest bodybuilder on the planet. Subsequently, ‘Arnie’ raised the bar even higher, steadily pushing himself to 13 more major titles. It was clear that his laser beam focus and concentration played a major role in his success and that his internal power was the key to much of his success in terms of his external lifting abilities. the.
“I knew I was going to be a bodybuilder. It wasn’t just that either. I was going to be the best bodybuilder in the world, the biggest, the best-built man.”
Through meticulous compilation of knowledge of his subject matter and immense passion and devotion, success was always going to be his, but only because he did it for himself, no one did it for him… he was out of luck! Far from it, he created his own reality.
“I wanted more, I demanded more.”
It is now clear that Arnold had great self-confidence and refused to budge or waver in his goals. He knew what he wanted and then he went and got it, no matter what. He regularly used creative visualization which produces amazing results.
In his life as a bodybuilder, his mind was:
“Totally dominated by Reg Park. His image was my ideal. It was indelibly etched in my mind.”
Reg Park was another top bodybuilder he wanted to beat.
“The more I focused on this image, worked and grew, the more I saw that it was real and possible for me to be like him.”
Arnold had clearly discovered the power of the mind over the body. He, too, found that emotional distractions and worry weakened him. These negative influences took away from his workouts that he hated. He realized that the people around him also made a difference. Negative people tended to try to stifle him, not believing in his goals and focused lifestyle. He found that negative people didn’t feel comfortable around him until they had knocked him down or he had won them over with his positive mindset.
“I remember certain people trying to put negative thoughts in my mind, trying to persuade me to slow down. But I had found what I wanted to devote all my energies to and there was nothing stopping me.”
He was determined not to let anyone distract him no matter what. He was persistent in his efforts and always kept his dreams in mind. Arnold clearly understood the principle that success begets success, stating:
“Positive thinking can be contagious. Being around winners helps you become a winner.”
Arnold’s tremendous progress as a teenager continued. He continually challenged himself through his self-imposed goals and overcame many internal and external obstacles, but in short… his dream of him was coming true!
“I wanted that body and I didn’t care what I had to go through to get it.”
At just 18 years old, Arnie was called up for his national military service and joined the tank corps. However, this put him in a difficult position, as it meant that he would not be allowed to compete in the junior ‘Mr Europa’ which was to take place in Germany that year. However, his determination to compete and succeed forced him to risk everything and go AWOL. Naturally, he got the first prize and a big trophy, but he also got a week of solitary confinement because of his problems. It seemed that there was not much sacrifice for Arnold to achieve his goals.
He went on to win Mr Universe in London and after this his dreams took him to the US where he immediately encountered much tougher competition and initially fell short. However, it didn’t take long for him to assess his weaknesses and ways to eliminate them, in short, he refocused.
“I was always honest about my weaknesses, this helped me grow. I think that is the key to success in everything: to be honest; know where you have weakness: admit it”.
So his reality check allowed him to stay in control of his goals and adjust his plans accordingly. Doing this prevented him from becoming introspective and drifting off track.
“When I see that I have certain retrograde attitudes, I reason them out and work to make my perspective more realistic.”
Arnold also learned a lot from watching what other successful people do and what unsuccessful people do. This down-to-earth approach has often given him an edge over his rivals.
“Most of the people I watched couldn’t make amazing breakthroughs because they never had faith in themselves. They had a fuzzy picture of what they wanted to look like one day, but they doubted they would realize the kind of effort I put in because they didn’t feel like they had the opportunity to do it. And, of course, based on that premise, they didn’t do it.”
Over the years, Arnold had developed a winning mindset and mindset. He soon realized that this could be applied to any area of life that he desired. In short, he had developed a simple mindset for success.
In bodybuilding, there are big goals like winning Mr. Olympia; there are medium-term goals like reaching your ideal weight of 245 lbs with only 5% body fat; and there are many short-term goals like: going to the gym, eating enough protein, doing an extra rep for each exercise, etc.
Basically what Arnold did was take this successful approach and apply it in exactly the same way as he did in bodybuilding to other areas of his life.
“In two or three years, I had actually been able to change my body completely. That told me something. If I had been able to change my body that much, I might as well, through the same discipline and determination, change anything else.” that I wanted”. wanted. I could change my habits, my whole way of looking at life.”
Arnold was actually a millionaire long before he began his Hollywood career and learning about business, Arnold applied the bodybuilding template to his studies. In exactly the same way, he built his acting career slowly but surely, always with the ultimate goal in mind.
Looking back at the achievements he has made during his life, it is not surprising that his life philosophy is:
“The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to advance, climb, achieve, conquer”
I strongly suggest that you take note of the tremendous success in Arnold’s life and realize that he was dedicated to himself and how he has used positive thinking throughout his life to achieve his goals. He wasn’t born lucky, or more likely to succeed than you or me. He will follow his template for success and he too will be able to live a very fulfilling life.