Pump It Up Principle

How do you build muscle?

If you answered "exercise," then you are partially right. For the most part, exercise is not what builds muscle. Exercise maintains the muscle you have already built, yet it only actually builds muscle when that exercise goes into uncharted territory.

"You need more weight."

If you haven’t reached your goal, staying stagnant, or simply doing same thing you’ve done to get you to where you are today, will ensure you never grow.

In order to really push, you really need a spotter. You see, when lifting weights your muscle is built when it goes beyond its comfort zone or literally stretches beyond what you have done before. Just as you’re about to give up, you hear the voice spotting you blurt out, "One more… come on… it is all you… one more… you got it… push it up." Your spotter will consistently push you to do one more than you would if he wasn't there, and that is why when you work out with someone else your muscles are consistently in the growth zone.

Growing in life is very similar to building muscle in the gym. If you are doing what you are comfortable with or can do easily, you never will grow. You will never expand to reach your full potential. Growth only occurs in life when you are pushing yourself to something new. This could mean learning a foreign language, learning to play an instrument, conquering your fears or pursuing your life-long dream of building a business, writing a play, authoring a book or talking to people that you normally would shy away from.

If you are going to build muscle in the gym you are going to need to do two things: #1 Lift more weight; #2 Have a spotter. The answers for success in life are very similar.

Go for more weight this week and get yourself a spotter!

CAP

"Do Yes"

"Do Yes" is not some new honeydew hybrid that I discovered in the supermarket. Growing up, one of my favorite movies was Karate Kid (the subsequent sequels were a stretch, but I still was a fan). Lately, I've grown to appreciate the old sage, Mr. Miyagi and his "Miyagisms" that were laced throughout the Kkid movie(s). This moring I feel like "doing" and it brings to my rememberance a famous "Miyagism": "Either you Karate do yes, or you Karate do no. You Karate do guess so (squish noise) just like grape." People at the top of every profession share one quality – they get things done. This ability supersedes intelligence, talent, and connections in determining the size of your salary and the speed of your advancement. Despite the simplicity of this concept there is a perpetual shortage of people who excel at getting results. The “do yes” habit -- the habit of putting ideas into action now – is essential to getting things done. Here are 7 ways you can grow your “do yes” habit: 1. Don’t wait until conditions are perfect – If you’re waiting to start until conditions are perfect, you probably never will. There will always be something that isn’t quite right. Either the timing is off. The market is down, or there’s too much competition. In the real world there is no perfect time to start. You have to take action and deal with problems as they arise. The best time to start was last year. The second best time is right now.

2. Be a doer - Practice doing things rather than thinking about them. Do you want to start exercising? Do you have a great idea to pitch your boss? Do it today. The longer an idea sits in your head without being acted on, the weaker it becomes. After a few days the details gets hazy. After a week it’s forgotten completely. By becoming a doer you’ll get more done and stimulate new ideas in the process.

3. Remember that ideas alone don’t bring success - Ideas are important, but they’re only valuable after they’ve been implemented. One average idea that’s been put into action is more valuable than a dozen brilliant ideas that you’re saving for “some other day” or the “right opportunity”. If you have an idea the you really believe in, do something about it. Unless you take action it will never go anywhere.

4. Use action to cure fear - Have you ever noticed that the most difficult part of public speaking is waiting for your turn to speak? Even professional speakers and actors experience pre-performance anxiety. Once they get started the fear disappears. Action is the best cure for fear. The most difficult time to take action is the very first time. After the ball is rolling, you’ll build confidence and things will keep getting easier. Kill fear by taking action and build on that confidence.

5. Start your creative engine mechanically - One of the biggest misconceptions about creative work is that it can only be done when inspiration strikes. If you wait for inspiration to slap you in the face, your work sessions will be few and far between. Instead of waiting, start your creative motor mechanically. If you need to write something, force yourself to sit down and write. Put pen to paper. Brainstorm. Doodle. By moving your hands you’ll stimulate the flow of ideas and inspire yourself.

6. Live in the present - Focus on what you can do in the present moment. Don’t worry about what you should have done last week or what you might be able to do tomorrow. The only time you can affect is the present. If you speculate too much about the past or the future you won’t get anything done. Tomorrow or next week frequently turns into never.

7. Get down to business immediately - It’s common practice for people to socialize and make small talk at the beginning of meetings. The same is true for individual workers. How often do you check email or RSS feeds before doing any real work? These distractions will cost you serious time if you don’t bypass them and get down to business immediately. By becoming someone who gets to the point you’ll be more productive and people will look to you as a leader.

It takes courage to take action without instructions from anyone but yourself. However, you if stay in the do yes, do no mode -- you'll find, if you already haven't, you'll be squished like a tiny, little grape -- don't be that guy.

Note: This list was inspired by The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz. The book is highly recommended.

Just for Fun - here's the audio of Mr. Miyagi with one of his famous Miyagisms: http://www.entertonement.com/clips/34120/Either-you-Karate-do-yes-or-Karate-do-no

The Birth of "Optipessim"

If you pay attention to the news, read blogs, or observe pop culture you get a sense that there is a change in the air. Although we know the media reports in way that appeals to the twisted side of us that likes to slow down to look at the accident on the side of the road – it’s different now. I feel, for the masses, this change involves the death of optimism. The death of optimism has brought about a new doctrine -- I call, optipessim.

Optipessim is our culture’s dual personality between optimism and pessimism and obsession with duality and fate as the result of bipolar and multiple personality disorders. (Forgive me for throwing grammar out the proverbial “window” to create my compound word – but I hope it makes my point.)

People, unchecked, can let pessimism seep into their psyche and begin to change their lenses, in which they view life, circumstances, and the future. I understand that there are typically varying degrees of optimism and pessimism and our inclinations are not always black or white. However, I am talking about sustained duplicity – not just brief moments of the two extremes. It seems most are in a constant state of optipessim.

A long-standing case study in human behavior would find that pessimists think optimists are foolish; optimists think pessimists make themselves unnecessarily miserable. A lot of research has been done on this issue in the last 30 years. The University of Pennsylvania found that optimistic people are happier than pessimists. When something bad happens, optimists think of it as temporary, limited in its effect, and not entirely their fault. Pessimists do the opposite. They consider the setback to be permanent, far-reaching and all their fault.

In several large-scale, long-term, carefully controlled experiments, studies at U of P discovered that optimists are more successful than pessimists - optimistic politicians win more elections, optimistic students get better grades, optimistic athletes win more contests, optimistic salespeople make more money.

Why would this be so?

Because optimism and pessimism both tend to be self-fulfilling prophecies. If you think a setback is permanent, why would you try to change it?

A life is not worth living if you are pessimistic. Because that is what feels like death. That is what causes athletes to, out of despair, get drunk and wrap their cars around a pole. Or lash out at someone they love. Or that is what might have caused someone to murder their family after being laid off from their job. It is the seedy feeling of optipessim of others living life around them, that keeps their fists tightly wound around whatever dollars they can muster, caring little more than nothing about those around them that can lead to just surviving and anything goes.

We can take control of our lives, we can be optimistic, we can say - right now, these are our lives, it is time to start living it. It is time to not second guess, to move forward, to make mistakes if we have to, but to do it with a greater good in mind.

Personally, I don’t watch many R-rated movies, I’m keeping the news off, and I’m not browsing the Drudge Report. What is your antidote for optpessim? CAP