Take The Loss

To advance to the next level, it is only natural that we make mistakes. We cannot control everything around us, we cannot control every outcome. If you focus on making everything perfect, then that fear of making a mistake will hold you back from ever taking action upon that goal.

I always relate the game of fitness to the game of life, so I am going to start with something simple in a way for everyone to understand my point. Let's say you are trying to bulk up, gain mad mass and be a beast. Do you know what that requires? It requires a lot more calories, fats, and carbs than if you were trying to shred and get ripped.

If you have abs now and are afraid to lose them, than that will stop you from building more muscle. I took the risk of losing my abs to achieve big gains like I have been. Eating more fats, carbs, and calories meant that my abs were not going to show as nicely as before, but you have to understand this is only short term.

You risk the nice abs to get big, to be a beast, and then after you finish the bulking cycle you can hop on to the shredding cycle. That's exactly what I have been doing now. If you've seen my photos before, you'd see I was skinny, ripped, with a nice hard core. Since I began bulking, you see more size and less core now. In the long run, I'm going to have the body I want by building around my core, then shredding to have that "the rock" look. I'm always chasing my role model The Rock, and I know even when I achieve my fitness goal I'm still not going to be him, but the mindset of always chasing that goal is what keeps me going. It's what keeps me advancing to the next level and wanting to get stronger and better every day.

When you have a passion that you want to do for a living, most of the time it is going to cost you money to invest. That's a risk you have got to be willing to take. Think about this for a moment: When you move out of your parents home to move closer to your work and to be alone, how much does that cost you? It cost me over $8,000 to move 5 hours away from home. I put my future in the hands of someone else, because I was working for someone else. 4 months later, the moment COVID-19 hit, I got laid off. I'm so grateful I had my family to lean back on, but I invested into something that was uncertain. And you know what? Everything in life is uncertain, you can set an outcome for yourself but you cannot predict exactly what is going to happen.

I made a decision during this pandamic that I would only invest into myself from now on. When you invest into your own thing, you control your destiny. It is all going to come down to your determination to make it, your will power, your dedication. These are the risks we have to be willing to take if you ever want to advance. I took a big L moving for that company, and I might take another L investing into my business. But here is the difference: you do not get another chance with the same company, you get 1 chance and it is over. When you invest into yourself, you can give yourself as many chances as you want. In fact, the more L's you take the stronger and wiser you get.

There is no other way around it: challenges are the building blocks of your character. Mistakes turn into lessons, and nothing is ever going to be perfect. As the saying goes, "No pain, no gain." You must have the will to go through the pain if you want the gains. You must be willing to go through the challenges if you want to succeed. You must be willing to take the risks if you want to achieve your goals and fulfill your dreams. Remember: Most people will give up when they are inches away from achieving the big goals because that is when it gets most tough. The closer you are, the tougher it gets. And this is all to prepare you for the greatness you are about to achieve. So choose to achieve greatness. Choose to be phenomenal.