Bob Parsons billionaire’s advice on fitness part 2

Bob Parsons, self made billionaire was forced by me again to give some fitness advice 😉 So this is part 2 of his 16 rules of success in business and life in general.

And I didn’t really force him to do anything, but as I mentioned his advice was with me for past 10 years or so, and it just fits perfectly with fitness and bodybuilding area.

Read 1-8 in my previous post. And here comes 9-16. Plus my lace playsuit outfit because I like it.

 

9. Measure everything of significance. I swear this is true. Anything that is measured and watched, improves.

Don’t try to fool yourself that your diet and exercise are working, you are dieting for past year and look and feel the same? If you haven’t see a small progress within a month then start this: weekly progress photos, measurement, write what you eat, add up calories, use numbers to watch your progress, record your training, try to improve with each week. You can start doing this less regularly after it becomes a habit, for example progress photos once a month.

10. Anything that is not managed will deteriorate. If you want to uncover problems you don’t know about, take a few moments and look closely at the areas you haven’t examined for a while. I guarantee you problems will be there.

Try not managing your diet for a year and say good bye to your abs 😀 But ok let’s try to find something simple, obvious, that you didn’t examine before/in a while. Injuries? Look at areas you haven’t look yet such as is your form while performing movement correct, maybe it worked for the past few months, but continuing doing it wrong will lead to injury sooner or later. Nutrition? Perhaps your diet worked so far, you were loosing weight, because calories were low, but in the long term is it sustainable? Are you getting enough of healthy fats, protein or vitamins?

11. Pay attention to your competitors, but pay more attention to what you’re doing. When you look at your competitors, remember that everything looks perfect at a distance. Even the planet Earth, if you get far enough into space, looks like a peaceful place.

For the beginners – remember everyone was once a beginner. It may seem someone’s fitness life seems so effortless to achieve, you are so wrong. majority of us had to work very hard, every day, every night, fight with old habits, they die hard you know, and this is true for everyone. But the positive shift starts the moment you find the motivation that drives just you.

For the advanced fitness freaks – no more significant progress, or even ‘better’ – regress, lack of motivation, problems with health. Again, you are not the only one to go through it, go back to basics, focus, if you want then ok use others as motivation, but just don’t forget, no ones circumstances are perfect, at some point we all had to step up our game and fight a bit more to stay or go back on track.

Especially now in era of social media everyone’s life looks perfect from the distance, is it always?

Also don’t look for excuses to give up, because someone out there had similar problem to yours and did overcome it.

12. Never let anybody push you around. In our society, with our laws and even playing field, you have just as much right to what you’re doing as anyone else, provided that what you’re doing is legal.

It’s a modern world, there are many ways to make diet and fitness work, to maintain health, burn fat, grow muscles, be lean etc. We continue to learn all the time, what worked in the past may no longer work now, but again not always, just because some fitness theory is old doesn’t mean it’s wrong. So have your own fitness opinion, listen to others but don’t let them bully you into what is a right or wrong way to burn fat, build muscle etc. None of us really know it, not even doctors, some people may have more experience, but this doesn’t have to go with their knowledge level. Some people with little experience and little knowledge may actually get some facts more accurate, maybe because they are more objective and think simpler. Try things on yourself, and do what you feel works best for you.

13. Never expect life to be fair. Life isn’t fair. You make your own breaks. You’ll be doing good if the only meaning fair has to you, is something that you pay when you get on a bus (i.e., fare).

I would give you many examples of this, but don’t expect that just because you work hard the success will come to you straight away. It may actually go to someone who didn’t even work hard for it and then you think this is not fair. So just stop, don’t compare yourself to others, the person who got successful was obviously smarter at some point, or was in the right place etc. What matters is that you need to focus on your attitude, look at what you are and not what others are doing (see point above about competitors). How can you do things differently, work smarter, be more patient, challenge yourself, be open minded, perhaps you are missing something vital, and so on.

Sometimes bad things happen to you, you get hit with a brick, and again it’s not a matter of fairness, accept it, deal with it, even use it, stick to your plan, revise your plan, do what you can, but then –> move on

14. Solve your own problems. You’ll find that by coming up with your own solutions, you’ll develop a competitive edge. Masura Ibuka, the co-founder of SONY, said it best: “You never succeed in technology, business, or anything by following the others.” There’s also an old Asian saying that I remind myself of frequently. It goes like this: “A wise man keeps his own counsel.”

I have been searching the internet for lots of answers, but what works best is when I actually focus on what ideas I could come up with, that no one thought about, how to solve my own problem. This would be for example how to burn fat, don’t lose muscle, and not be hungry, all at the same time. This got me to intermittent fasting, then to keto diet, and although those 2 things are quite amazing, they are not 100% for me, so my next move would be to create something that will work just for me, using the knowledge and needs I have.

15. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Lighten up. Often, at least half of what we accomplish is due to luck. None of us are in control as much as we like to think we are.

Approach your workouts and diet with fun, don’t be so serious. Isn’t this cute/funny that you don’t know how to make this machine adjusted, how to put on weights on the bars, or how to take the security lock off? Who the fuck cares. You put weight on? This is amazing, isn’t it?! You created fat, wow 😀 Your body has the ability to build a fat tissue, you, yourself, d i d   t h i s.

Wanna undo this? Then undo this. And make it fun?

Remember, attitude is everything.

16. There’s always a reason to smile. Find it. After all, you’re really lucky just to be alive. Life is short. More and more, I agree with my little brother. He always reminds me: “We’re not here for a long time; we’re here for a good time.”

Every morning or evening find 3 different, small or big things that you can be grateful for. You have 2 strong legs, you can squat, do dead lifts, walk, run uphill, even downhill, some days you choose to stay in bed and do nothing, you have a training partner, or someone who is helping you, pushing you, challenging you. There may be lots of things that you are taking for granted, when in fact they are a blessing to you, if you look closely, you will see it. If you can, then thank someone for having the opportunity to do or have those things. Even if this is just thanking yourself. Then smile. You really are lucky to be alive, what if you actually wanted to be here?

Some people can’t exercise or are allergic to certain food, but you have the opportunity to do all the things that you want. Appreciate it, see it from different perspective, then watch things around you start to change.