Being Thankful For A Successful Future

Posted on November 21, 2015 by maxedoutmuscles

Yesterday, we talked about what we are thankful for in every single day of our lives. I got to thinking about this “attitude of gratitude” and I remembered the idea of practicing affirmations to sort of “fake it ’til you make it”.

Basically, I would venture to assume that practicing affirmations can lead you to success in whatever field you are practicing. Not only would you live in the present with joy, but you would succeed with your dreams by practicing gratitude for your future success.

I also remember a wise man saying “You don’t do things for what you’ll get out of it. You do them for who you will become!” If you’ve been following me for very long, you know that’s an Elliott Hulse quote.

So in all respect to reality, you may not be successful.

…at least not on your first attempt. But if you dedicate yourself to a mission and practice gratitude, you will find that you are growing into a different person through the challenges and tribulation.

So what does this mean? Why would we practice affirmations?

While I can’t say that you should do something, I can offer up my own experience because(although it is limited) it’s all I have at the moment. I mentioned in yesterday’s post, where I listed 5 things I am thankful for(click here to read the post), that I am mostly thankful for the experiences I have gained in this past year alone. I am 21 and so far 2015 has been the best year of my life.

..not because it was easy! Because it was hard. I went through a lot of problems this year, faced a lot of adversity, cut off a lot of harmful relationships, and began a journey of self-improvement. This year was the best year of my life thus far because of the all of the challenges that I had to overcome, so that I could become someone new.

if-it-doesnt-challenge-you-it-wont-change-you-quote-1

..and throughout this whole year, I couldn’t have had as many small victories if I had not practiced positive affirmation. I constantly told myself I would succeed at any small SMART goal I had, and I did! As I said, this year has been all about self-improvement and I am a lot healthier, stronger, happier, and wiser than I was a year ago.

..and while I’ve done so well this year, I have to remember that we all have humble beginnings. I am still certainly not where I want to be in any of my long term goals, but I am working to achieve them. 2 quotes come to mind as I think about this journey, or change, that we should all attempt to go through as we constantly affirm that we will succeed:

One is supposedly a Native American quote. I’ve seen it on Facebook several times and when I looked it up, I couldn’t find who actually said it, but here it is

wolf quote

I also want to mention a Bible verse, Matthew 26:24, as it seems to be implying the same thing. It’s interesting how two completely different cultures stressed the same sentiment.

Matthew_26-41

My point is you could challenge yourself so that you can grow and be the type of person you would be proud of, and to guarantee your success you could practice affirmations. Thanks for reading and my challenge for you today is to not only think of 5 things you are thankful for,

but also 5 things you will be thankful for when you succeed at whatever your goal may be. Whether they’re materialistic things or a better character, I’m interested in reading your responses.

Forget Motivation And Develop Discipline

Posted on October 31, 2015 by maxedoutmuscles

Motivation – (noun) the general desire or willingness of someone to do something.

While motivation is great, it can often be fleeting. You may be willing to do something one day, and not want to on another day. Motivation is simply wanting to do it! For a little while you’re driven, and if you have no discipline you crash and burn.

Discipline – (noun) the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience.

Discipline is doing something whether you want to or not. It’s sticking to a set plan, or something you said you’d do, whether you’re still motivated or not. This is self-discipline. You don’t have to punish yourself if you don’t finish things, but you know that self-discipline is important if you want to have the habit of getting things done.

In the video above, Elliott Hulse talks about his timeline for success. He explains how he worked fruitlessly for five years on creating his youtube channel before he ever got the viewership he has now. It goes to show how you have to stay dedicated, even when things don’t seem like they’re paying off. Even when you have doubts. Even when you don’t know if you really feel like it.

Often times, I think to myself

“What would I gain if I quit working out right now?”

“What would I gain if I quit working on Maxed Out Muscles?”

The answer is nothing. There is nothing to gain from quitting. If I continue working hard I can assume that maybe someday I’ll be successful. I can also assume that I’ll become a different person as I’m working hard to become the person I need to be in order to succeed.

My questions today are

Have you personally felt like giving up?

Whether it be on your fitness regime or something you’re passionate about?

Have you ever been highly motivated to do something and then wavered?

What do you think of today’s post? Do you agree that discipline is extremely important?

Please let me know in the comments down below. I want read your opinions.

Sharing Hard Work Helps Everyone

Posted on October 19, 2015 by maxedoutmuscles

A lot of the posts on my site have been about passion. Passion is incredibly important because, when you love something, you will probably work harder on it.

While passion is so important, there is really a lot more to succeeding than having passion. With passion, you’ll need to follow through on your dreams and work hard. Then you’ll have to know how to reveive and share that passion and hard work to others.

I was watching this video from Elliott Hulse on passion and he answered a question titled “Worthless Passion”. As he stated in the video below, Obama isn’t handing out passion checks so we have to work hard to make our dreams happen. Feel free to watch his video and join the conversation in the comments below.
What I noticed right away is how this video impacted me today.

…and just today!

I have been watching his “Yo Elliott!” series for a year now and when he posted this it didn’t impact me. But now, I’ve been pursuing my own passion and sharing with you so I understand.

So on top of the message he made clear in his video, I noticed that it is so cool that he walks the walk. And I’ve walked the walk also! I’m going to stop before my arm gets tired patting myself on the back. 🙂

Metaphorically, Think about the garden Elliott talked about. If you at least leave something for the world, you’ve been successful. I just noticed that he has hundreds of videos up and that in a sense is his garden. You can pick what video(his work) you need in a specific moment for advice, and then another video when you’ve grown past needing help with the same subject.

So I will continue to try and emulate that mentality. I will continue to write new articles and share content with you so that I can be of some service. Maybe the things I post today or tomorrow won’t be helpful, but someday you may see the exact article in a related search bar and it may be more relevant to your current situation.

So in conclusion I want to ask you a question:

What are you doing to pursue your passion? Also, are you helping others?

..and since this is so relevant today,

“Life’s a garden. Dig it,” –Joe Dirt

Adding Cardio To Help Cut Down

Posted on October 10, 2015 by maxedoutmuscles

Sometimes you may cheat on your diet or you may be struggling to lose some extra weight, so cardio is a great method to burn off extra calories and burn fat!

A lot of people in the fitness industry have fear mongered and made people fear that they would lose muscle if they did a lot of cardio.

and that just isn’t true! Here is a video by Elliott Hulse explaining why cardio burning muscle is a complete myth!

How To Become A Lion Amongst Sheep

Posted on October 3, 2015 by maxedoutmuscles

Today, rather than write a long post like the past few days, I want to share with you a video that has deeply inspired me. Not only has this video inspired me, but all of this man’s videos. Elliott Hulse is not someone that everyone will love or welcome with open arms, but the guy speaks truth! His videos are typically driven towards young males but can be helpful for any audience and he is a man who follows his own advice.

Watch this video, and see how he cleverly uses information and ideas to help people.