You don’t want it – On being fit vs. getting fit and how to reach your goals

Often times when I talk to people about sports I hear stuff along the lines of “I like running, I just never get round to it” or “I want to get fit, but it is so hard”. Well, no, you do not like running. And you do not like getting fit. What you want is being fit and just having finished a workout. What you want is the feeling of accomplishment, but not the pain and struggle before that. So let’s talk about the difference between wanting to train and wanting to be in shape; let’s talk about priorities, habits and reaching your so called “goals”.

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You do not need motivation!

What? I do not need motivation? Well, what the hell am I doing here, then?

Well, it is about this quote:

You don’t need motivation, you need discipline.

It is a great quote because it reveals one of the biggest problems with the whole motivation and self-development topic: A lot of people start reading books and blogs, listening to podcasts and audiobooks because they hope that one day the magic moment comes. That moment in which you just start to WANT to do all the exhausting and boring tasks.

But guess what? That won’t happen!
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On time management

Hey there!

Recently you asked for some thougts on time management, so I put together some ideas that might help you get better results and actually achieve your goals.

Let’s start off by stating one of my all time favourites: You have the exact same 24 hours a day that anyone else has. Other people are capable of using it, so why shouldn’t you be? 24 hours are plenty of time, it is about how you make use of it.

In order for your time to be used better in the future, here is a list of 10 useful time management tips:

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About getting up early

Hey there!

So today I had to get up pretty early, although I’m pretty sick.
As you can think, the first thing that came to my sleepy mind today was:

“Waahhh, stay in the warm bed, get back to sleep, don’t move!”

Still, I managed to get up and start a beatiful morning, and that was because I had very damn good and motivating reasons to do so.

That made me realise two important truths about getting up early:
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You decide who you are

This is a big one. In today’s article I want to talk about how to stay focused on goals and how to efficiently make use of your mind. Let’s start with a story.

When I was taking classes for my driver’s license, our instructor told us about the following situation: You drive on a long highway-like alley through the night, everything is dark and there is nothing besides your car, the road and trees beside it every now and then.

Suddenly the road makes a sharp turn and your car starts spinning. Following the glow of your front lights you search for something to hold on, for something to focus on and certainly you will find a positive lock-on on a beautiful tree. What happens then? Right, you will go right-on into the tree, although you wanted to go back on the road.

We have to ask ourselves: Why does our brain work like that? In this case we should have looked on the empty street or even in the vast nothingness in order to prevent a crash so how does this relate to our everyday life? It is simple: Your mind is extremely powerful and controls a lot of what you do. Therefore you have to understand how it works.
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About sleep

Brace yourselves, this is a big one!

I’ve always figured out that there 24 hours a day. You sleep six hours and have 18 hours left. Now, I know there are some of you out there that say well, wait a minute, I sleep eight hours or nine hours. Well, then, just sleep faster, I would recommend.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

I love this quote by Arnold which comes from a speech he gave at the University of Southern California on May 15th 2009. Not only is Arnold Schwarzenegger a perfect example of a successful person that does not sleep much, the speech also shows that even under great pressure (both for the mind and the body) you can do a shitload of amazing stuff. In fact: Without asking much from your body you won’t be able to sleep less. Here goes why:

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About experience and the difference between practical and theoretical learning

Let me tell you a little story.

When I was about ten years old my mum wanted me to go to a course where I should learn to use a keyboard with ten fingers efficiently. Because, well, it was useful at that time and it should be such an effective system. I refused and said that I had done it several years without this system and I would be fine. She on the other hand attended and after  completing the course, she came back to show me how great it worked and to prove me wrong. Without surprise I could write not only a lot faster, but without making as many mistakes as she did. Why was that? Not because the course was bad, not even because the system was bad. Just because she had good theoretical information with little practice and I had basically no theoretical knowledge whatsoever but loads of practical infield experience. I learned typing by trial-and-error, I learned it by chatting, by surfing the web and by writing articles. That is why it felt easy to me, it felt natural. My mother, on the other hand, had her mind in the way. The mind hat to control the body, it had to “tell” the hands what they had to do, while my hands knew it for themselves.
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Five reasons to stop watching TV

Hey there!
You probably own at least one TV and you probably use it among other things to watch some television.
I say this is not good! Watching TV has many negative aspects that I want you to consider and has nothing that can’t be replaced by today’s media.

You may ask: What the hell does this guy want from me? If you ask this yourself then you are very likely a person that should go on reading this article!
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A strong motivating question!

Hey guys, today I have one of my personal “top 5 motivating things” for you! It is a question, that you ask yourself in situations in which you are not sure wether you should do something or how you should do it. Then you ask:

Will I regret this when I’m 80?

And you picture you, being 80 years old, sitting on a chair, thinking about your life, what you have done, what you have not done, what you should have done and what you should not have done. Would the 80 year old “you” be happy and satisfacted or would it think “Why did I do that?”, “Why this hestitation?” and so on. Usually, when I ask this question, I give myself answers that motivate me to do the harder attempt, to go through the tougher part and especially to do it directly instead of waiting days, months or years before starting.

What is your 80 years old self going to think of your life?

Another good question or idea, which is like the one above is:

How would YOU change your livestyle if you knew people had only 40 years to live instead of 70, 80 or sometimes even 90+ years?

We always think we have so much time in front of us, so many years, in which we will achieve stuff. But why don’t we try to achieve those things we dream of now? What gives us the feeling, that we should hestitate? I’m too young, I will do this in some years blablabla. Would you act differently if noone, not even you, knew your age? Would you realy live everyday to the fullest and do what you wanted to do? If the answer is yes, then cancel your damn birthday out of every fucking calendar and start living your live now! Believe me, you won’t regret this. Not when you are 80 and not when you are 40. Not tomorrow and not when you are dead!

/phil

Keep it up!

The good thing about success is, that you don’t have to get it in one shot

Philipp Kleidt

What I like a lot about success is that you don’t have to get it right in one try. The world wasn’t build in one day neither was any house any company or any successfull business. You don’t have to achieve all of your dreams in no time. But as soon as you start doing a little bit every day, it is just a question of time untill you finally succeed. Every task, it may seem impossible, can be split up into many little things that have to be done and if you are persistend and determined, you will make it!

On the contrary there are some gaps that you can’t cross with little steps, there are some tasks in life that require making a big step, having courage, having the guts. Neverthelesse, as long as you keep trying and won’t let failures tear your intentions down, you will eventually get what you want!

/phil