The most important thing is that you
have a vision that you have a goal
because without that vision and without that goal
again you're drifting around you're never going to end up anywhere
people don't become successful just by accident
you know I mean maybe the guy that found
gold in California and started the gold
rush but don't count on that that's the
one in a lifetime kind of a situation so
you got to really have a specific goal
to me to have that vision that I want to
be Mr. Universe they I want to be
the greatest body builder of all time
that was a great vision and to
specifically to look like Reg Park and
to be up the on that stage and to lift
the trophy overhead and to win the
championship over and over and over
again so there was a great goal you have
to have the goal now it doesn't have to
be that specific goal but it has to be
some goal this is why I always recommend
to people sit down take your time
instead thinking about why do you want
to workout
what is your goal? That can be as
crazy as this it could be you know I
want to impress girls if that's your goal
so be it but it motivates you
It could be that you're emulating a certain you
know body builder or a certain football
player a certain boxer or whatever it is
have those pictures put all over the
wall like I did. When I was a kid I put
pictures of Reg Park and of Sonny
Liston of the boxers and of Ali and of
power lifters and weight lifters all
over my bedroom in a wall so that every
day when I go to sleep every day when I
wake up and look at those pictures and
they motivate me. You need that
motivation and then therefore you have
this kind of imprint in front of you all
the time and you know exactly what
you're chasing this is why I always
smiled when I was in the gym. People
always came up to me and said why are you
smiling you're working out five hours a
day you're doing the same as the other
guys but the other guys have a sour face
they're pissed off the death to do
another rep or another set or something.
I looked forward to I looked forward to
another thousand reps of sit-ups I
looked forward to another 500 pounds of
of leg press or squat I looked forward
to do more and more curls until my arms
fall off. Why? Because I knew that every rep that I did
and every set that I did and
more weights that are lifted I got one
step closer to turning that vision into
reality. So I was turned on by that I was
excited I couldn't wait to get to the gym
I was a perfect example of someone that
was not confident at all I mean when I
was a kid that was just like any other
kid with hang-ups and problems and
all this but when I joined the
weightlifting club and I won my first
little trophy because I did the best
and then I went to another meet
then I won another little trophy I
started feeling like somebody I started
feeling like when I had lifted the
weight and POW put it over my head
put it over my head weight, I saw the
people these hundred people that were in
a beer hall usually those weightlifting
meets where in a beer hall, they were getting
up and they were screaming because there
was the 16 year old kid. I was the
youngest on the weightlifting team
and so they were cheering me on because
there was this young kid that was performing
well so I was giving little trophies
then bigger trophies and all of a
sudden I started really feeling like wow
you know I'm somebody and I can lift
this weight then I actually can be
a pretty good weightlifter but actually
everyone is saying that Arnold your
gaining so much weight and so much mass
I mean you're gonna go far I'm telling
you did you could win the Austrian
Championship in no time and you could
win the European Championship
you should I hope you're taking it
seriously and all this so I said wow if
everyone says that I feel really good so
I started gaining confidence so that's
how it was then all of a sudden I'm won
the junior Mr. Europe and then I won
the Mr. Europe and the second
Mr. Universe so by that time now I was 19
years old I had over 20 inch arms
everyone in London when I arrived at the
Mr. Universe contest and I was
nineteen years old they were standing
outside the hotel and saying oh this is the
guy so how can you not feel special and of course not everyone is gonna have
this kind of a situation but the bottom
line is everyone can use the same method
because I used it in politics I used
it in making money I used it in
everything that I've done in the movie
business when you have one little
victory - I did one little movie I
remember when I did with the Lucille
Ball: Happy Anniversary and Goodbye it
was just a seven minute scene but she
said to me you did fantastic Arnold and in
front of a live audience
you did this TV show you were not scared you
just acted really well I was totally
believing everything that you said -  it
built me up it was a little thing like
that that they gave me the confidence
and then to do Streets of San Francisco
and Stay hungry and Pumping Iron and
Conan the Barbarian so it led from
one little thing to the next
it's adding up what you said is exactly
right little victories add up and that
is what gives you then ultimately
confidence
I tell you another example just quickly
because it's something totally different
public speaking I would have been scared
to do what Reg Park did he always after
he posed he went to the microphone
and said ladies and gentlemen thank you
very much for this great applause and it's
wonderful to be back in Leeds England is
my hometown and he kept
going on for 15 minutes and I'm looking
at this and said to myself
he didn't have a piece of paper in front of
him how could he speak like that
for 15 minutes and so I said to him afterwards I said I'm in awe that you can speak
like that and aren't you scared when you go out there cause it was like 2,000
people out there and he said to me
no no no not at all and he of a sudden
connected and the next day when we did
another posing exhibition in Newcastle
he had me come out he said Oh before I
leave I just want to bring out again my
my very very good friend here and
training partner now Arnold Schwarzenegger
the guy's 19 years old come and welcome him
with a big applause and they all were
applauding so I had no choice I'm not
standing backstage right because I just
watched him pose and I'm watching
everything that Reg Park does because
I'm emulating him and I want to copy
everything that he does well obviously I
had to go out and then he put the
microphone in front of me and said to me
he said so tell them you know that you
like you know Newcastle
and I said to him is this ok? He said yeah talk it's ok you can talk
say I like Newcastle and I said I like
Newcastle and they all applauded
imagine a little a few
lines and they all applauded so then he said
he said say good evening ladies and
gentlemen. I said good evening ladies
and gentlemen and as I was out there and
he was feeding me lines
I started feeling more confident and all
of a sudden I realized that there was no
one out there trying to kill me because
I'm speaking but in fact it is a bigger
fear factor for people to speak publicly
than anything else so here is an example
little things incremental things of him feeding me
lines and stuff like that. A year later two
years later it got bigger the speeches
got bigger and I started feeling
comfortable being in front of a
microphone and the rest is history. I never was scared again doing public
speaking or anything else because of
those moments
You know one of the things
you know creating urgency it can go
in a one way or the other because like I
remembered that when I weighed 245
pounds and Bob Rafelson the director of
Stay Hungry said to me that I'm
interested in having you come in for
reading and work and your acting and
all this because I'm interested in having
you in a movie to star with the Jeff
Bridges and with Sally Fields I was
delighted about then that was excited
and I started pumping up one more and
then he said but I don't want it to
weigh more than 210 pounds so he says no
I said well it's funny you come to me if
you want me to be in the movie but I'm
going to 245 to 246 I said I just won the
Olympia I said in 1974 and I was
really at my biggest and but he demanded
that and he says look it's very simple
on the day we start shooting he said
I'm gonna put you on the scale and if
you don't make the 210 your out because
I have someone else in mind
and I worked on it I said that
visualizing myself very clearly as a
lean athlete because that's the only way
I could lose that weight and all of a sudden
get interested in running more
because up until the point of ran like
three miles after training or before
training or whatever but now obviously it
was five miles, six miles, seven miles
eight miles and I even ran mini
marathons in order to lose the weight
and I did everything in high reps
that was watching my diet what I eat
all these kind of things and the day the
day before and I remember we went
Birmingham Alabama the day before I was
at the YMCA with Bob Rafelson, he was
swimming and I was working out and I was
running there was a track there and I was
running. He said let's step on the scale
and I stepped on the scale and the weighed
209 so it just shows to you what is
possible if you visualize exactly what
you want to look like so it can go one
way which is you can lose weight
and get trim and get slim and everything
get the abs and all this or you go the other
way and you gain weight because you see
yourself big and you see yourself as a
winner of Mr. Olympia or something like
that so it can go anywhere but then
what would happen to me that year was
very interesting because I had to drop
the weight to 210 and then after
I was finished with Stay Hungry I
decided that I go back into the
Olympia because I actually in my mind
retired in 1974 but because
George Butler and Charles Gaines came to me and said were going to
do Pumping Iron are not only that you know
the book that we have that was very
successful but we want to do a
documentary and we want you to be in it
and otherwise it doesn't work we needed
you to be in it so I said okay good I
started training again and I only had
three months now from that time I weighed
210 to go back up again, I didn't make the to forty anymore
I only made 232 to 233 in 1975 but
I won the Mr. Olympia again and this was
what Pumping Iron was all about and
stuff but in each case it was like
certain time limits were set and I had
to perform and there was no room for any
kind of like well I can get my act
together or anything like this because
there's only a certain amount of time
but the key thing again is have the
clear vision have the specific goal of
what you want to accomplish because then
you never go to the gym and you say
today day I feel down a little bit I don't
know what it is all about I don't know my life I'm confused
No! Everyone has a problem with time but
the day has 24 hours and we sleep six
Now I know there's some out there that say oh
whoa whoa whoa I need eight but I say
just sleep a little faster because the bottom
line is we have six hours of sleep 24
hours are available so if 18 hours now
available to do your work,  your family
your hobbies and also to learn something new
or to do something new which could
easily be that you want to learn a new
language or that you want to read
as a New Year's resolution, have to
read a book every week or where you say
I'm gonna go and reshape my body so
you're gonna go and take this hour out
of your schedule say I'm gonna train an
hour every day
so this is for most people a huge
challenge but it is totally doable I can
tell them because the kind of things
that I did when I came to this country I
mean I went to school I was working in
construction I was working out my five
hours a day I was taking acting classes
from 8 o'clock at night to 12 midnight
I was doing all of those things I wanted
to make sure that out of the 24 hours of
the day that I don't waste one single
hour those hours were too precious and
so I just want to tell people
don't give me this thing I have a
difficult time at the time and I don't
have time for this none of that
you have time you make the time when the
President of the United States has time
to work out when the Pope has time to
work out then you have time to work out
Mmm oh these cookies!
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