Introduction

In order to fully be able to complete the training and diet programmes that are are used by current A list stars and models, the key element to understand is how pivotal the understanding, controlling and training of the mind is in being able to move forward with you lifestyle and diet journey…

Using your biggest insecurities as the key to your Success!!

When I was at university I stumbled upon a human mental trait, that I now attribute as the “core” to keeping a cast iron resolve towards holding a positive mental condition, that gives me the confidence and motivation to sweep aside adversity, negativity or failure and keep on my journey to succeed and evolve.

You see I truly believe to achieve any goal or aspiration, to a standard of excellence one must desire, want and seek and need that goal as much as we need oxygen to breath, and it must be part of you from your subconscious being, and then carried forward to your conscience state.

What I have discovered in not only myself, but also in my inspirationally successful friends and clients, is that the “trigger” to utter self belief is ultimately understanding our greatest fear of all, complete failure…

Everyone has deep insecurities about themselves , and this normally is the reason which holds back most of the population from reaching their true potential or dreams. However, I have found that if we apply this deep insecurity to the forefront of our motivational process, then we can be continually motivated and empowered with self belief, and this is something I use as the cornerstone to motivate my clients to help achieve their lifestyle and fitness goals.

Let me highlight a few examples:-

When I work alongside celebrity models and actors, keeping them motivated can be at times very challenging!! For at the forefront of their mental outlook, they are used to being naturally blessed with their looks and genetics, and tend to rely on this gift to obtain a certain level of success and achievement. Hence when we work alongside them they may at first lack the hunger of say a champion fighter or elite athlete in keeping motivated to follow their training and diet programmes.

What I do at the outset with clients with this mental outlook is bring them out of their comfort zone, and try and bring out what their inner biggest fears and insecurities about themselves are to the forefront instead. Hence with many famous people they have a deep routed fear of losing the magnetism they posses from their appearance and celebrity status. Hence before embarking on a training /lifestyle programme I will discuss at length which factors in their life could decay this position, that they are not invincible to the ageing process, that younger people are on their toes, how would they feel if they walked into a party and not posses that magnetism where others are drawn to them from their looks or status etc... I then make them visualize this nightmare and keep a mental picture of it.

Fight your insecurities and fears by using them as the pivotal factors of your motivation and ultimate success…… Scott Alexander

I then highlight how keeping in shape and healthy and following a diet will ensure they are in self control and empowered to strengthen their present positive attributes. That by achieving the goals that they have come to me with are important & must be prioritised , and by touching the nerve of the visual picture of their biggest insecurities and fears each time they feel de motivated to train, due a heavy night out or cheat on meals plans, or not give 100% on their workouts, that this fear jump starts them back into keeping motivated and having the self belief that they will succeed. I also find that to be truly motivated you need to want to achieve your goals on a subconscious level, and that linking success and insecurity will lead to mental processing when you sleep, sometime waking in a cold sweat because you dream your insecurities are real, but then realizing you can help overcome them by the factors I highlighted earlier. …

The resulting conditioning of the mind, is thus one where a state of total self motivation ( i.e. not reliant on others to motivate you) and belief is present as the persons fear of their own insecurities is so strong, and at that the surface that they want and NEED their goals so bad they are continually motivated, and this is the mental condition of all successful people I know, they eat, sleep, think, dream, want , desire, live, breath their goals and don’t relent until they get them…

A Positive Mental Attitude

The above explains my view on how to empower the mind into a continued motivational state, but to fully evolve and push yourself beyond your limitations, you must as with all goals in life have PMA (positive mental attitude).

You must have the mindset of a warrior - Scott Alexander.

While many Training and diet techniques have an abundance of research to show them effective or ineffective, the role the mind plays in building muscles and fat loss has not been completely researched.

Just because something hasn't been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt doesn't provide good reason to ignore it.

If you truly want to make a dramatic physique change, you need to make sure your brain is on board. It has been my experience that virtually every person I have encountered that is successfully working towards their lifestyle goals is using the following mental training techniques to some degree or another, whether they do so consciously or not.

• They have positive attitudes.
• They utilize visualization and imagery to see themselves successfully performing workouts and attaining their goals.
• When they workout, they do so with a definite focus, the mindset of a warrior.

Most of the people I observed couldn't make astonishing advances because they never had faith in themselves. They had a hazy picture of what they wanted to look like someday, but they doubted they could
realize it. Ultimately they didn't put out the kind of effort I did because they didn't feel they had a chance to make it. And of course, starting with that premise, they didn’t - Arnold Schwarzenegger

When I first started practicing martial arts, there was a banner at the front of the room with the four basic principles printed on it. One of those four principles was "Extend Ki". I imagined that somehow, perhaps after years of training, or through some sudden revelation, I would discover what Ki was, and - if I was real lucky - how exactly you "extend" it.

But then my Sensei made things a whole lot simpler for me. One day, he changed what that principle said. He changed it to "Develop your positive mind." After that, things started to get a bit more clear. Ki, it turned out, was not some magical power foreign to most humans. It was something that most of us had already experienced. Ki was thinking positive, believing in yourself, having faith, never relenting on your goals…

So then what's the big deal about having a positive mind? We all know that it's important to believe in ourselves. Norman Vincent Peale wrote about that years ago in his very famous book, The Power of Positive Thinking, which was all about how if you believed in something, you could make it happen. But the reality is, sometimes it feels like it's almost impossible to have that kind of belief in yourself. That's where, my theory on bringing your fears to the forefront of your mind and train your brain you never want them to take a hold can make you have that strong, unshakeable confidence in yourself as natural to you as breathing.

I believe that PMA is when you truly feel you can accomplish your goals, you're not nervous or tense about it. You're calm, relaxed, even your posture will probably reflect your confidence in yourself because you have relentless self belief in yourself…

PMA into training & how to get it…

You're not very likely to start a Lifestyle program without expectations of success. In other words, at least at the beginning, you have a positive outlook. You believe you will succeed in building muscle and losing fat. That is what propels you to start. This positive attitude can be difficult to keep up if you are not a naturally positive person or if you do not actively work to sustain it.

Undoubtedly, before your goals are met, you will experience setbacks, you will experience periods of time where progress isn't easily identified. A negative person will see these setbacks as insurmountable obstacles that will prevent them from reaching their goals, lose confidence and ultimately quit.

A positive person will see the same setback and declare it a learning experience, a chance to improve on their bodybuilding techniques. They will find ways around it, maintain their positive outlook and ultimately reach their goal of building muscles.

Which person do you want to be?

Of course you want to be the person who meets their goals. And whether you believe it or not, it really is as simple as choosing to be that person. The way a person thinks is a habit, something that is developed over time as a result of experiences. Inevitably, bad things happen to all of us and it is very easy to get into the habit of negative thinking.

But you can choose to think positive.

It will take practice to perfect the training technique of becoming a proficient positive thinker but the results can be life-changing, not just in terms of achieving fitness goals and creating the great physique you want but in every aspect of your life.

To think positive and maintain this positive attitude, set realistic, attainable and definable goals. Set short term and long term goals. For muscle building, a time period of ten to twelve weeks works great for short term goals, an example goal being to gain ten pounds of muscle in that time. You can always do better, meet your goal ahead of time and have to make a new goal - tough problem to have, eh? A long-term goal may be to have those muscles defined and ready for the beach in six months.

Practice believing in your ability to achieve your goals. When you hear self-doubt creeping into your mind, think of your fears and use them as fuel to keep positive.

So stop and reset your mind. Force it to think positive and in time it will know no other way to think.

Think of the successful people you know. Are they can't-do people or can-do people? Keep in mind the famous quote from Henry Ford...

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you are right."

If you think you can't achieve your goal to lose weight fast, you are right. If you think you can achieve your goal to lose weight fast, you are right…

Visualization

I keep a vision of what I want - I continually want more and demand more of myself… Scott Alexander.

It is said that Michaelangelo had a picture in his mind of a completed sculpture, the finished masterpiece, before he ever picked up a chisel. You should visualize yourself with the physique you will have after you attain your goals, the complete finished masterpiece. Within your mind, use these proven bodybuilding techniques to feel the new muscles, flex them, pose them for yourself.

You should think of these images often, park them in the forefront of your mind and bring them up in spare moments. This will help keep you focused on your muscle building goal and the coming reward for all the work you are putting towards it. It will remind you of the reasons you have this goal and help move you towards it in a positive way.

If you have trouble imagining yourself looking vastly different, choose someone who has the physique you want to have and get a picture. Put that picture in a place where you will see it everyday.

Be realistic here, if Danny Devito chose Arnold Schwarzenegger's physique to place on his wall and work towards, he would end up very frustrated. It just isn't going to happen. Arnold and most other professional bodybuilders are not realistic goals for the genetically non-gifted, 99% of us.

The above is an example of long-term visualization but perhaps most important to your success will be short-term visualization, where you visualize yourself performing workouts. There are studies that show people are much more capable of performing tasks correctly when they have first performed that task in their minds. Form is critical to weight training success. Visualization is a very effective bodybuilding technique for helping to create and maintain good form.

Before each workout, perhaps the night before, take ten minutes to visualize it.

Close your eyes, relax your body and visualize yourself performing each exercise. Actually run through a set of each exercise you will perform in your workout inside your head. Concentrate on your form, your breathing, your counts and successful completion of each set. Introduce as much detail as you can into your visualization, note the way the barbell feels in your grip, feel the burn on your muscles as they slowly lower the weights. This will help the mind be prepared to handle the actual workout and can do wonders for your form.

Another good time to practice visualization bodybuilding techniques is during an actual workout, right before you perform an exercise, during the rest interval from the previous set. This is a great way to keep your mind from wandering to unproductive topics and keep your focus where it has to be - on getting a quick and effective workout.

The Warrior Mindset

Life is a continuous battle - be prepared to fight at each set back with deep inner self belief that you can overcome it and WILL make it happen -Scott Alexander.

If Lennox Lewis entered the ring against Mike Tyson and at the same time tried to figure his taxes in his head while working to make eye contact with the pretty woman in the third row, it wouldn't be long before he was out cold on the canvas.

During a workout, you must keep your focus completely on your workout.

If you are basically going to the fitness center to socialize, if between sets you are trying to secure phone numbers from the hotties, you can forget about accomplishing your goals to gain weight fast or any other significant fitness goal. If done correctly, your workout won't last more than an hour and it will take nearly all of your energy.

Approach a workout as a warrior would a battle.

It may seem you don't have as much to lose as a warrior might but without focus gym accidents can and do happen causing serious injury. Beyond safety, it is important to remember that a key to gaining muscle mass and losing fat is to extend maximum effort in the limited time you have to effectively work your muscles. You can't do this without an intense focus on your workout.

To build muscle fast, you must do as much right as possible. Developing an impenetrable focus when you walk into the gym is one way to increase your odds of accomplishing your goals.

Zone out all distractions. For that hour-long workout, be totally self-absorbed. Use your mental bodybuilding techniques. Think about your muscles. Use visualization bodybuilding techniques, both long-term and short-term. Think about your future physique. Remind yourself of why you are doing this. Imagine yourself performing upcoming lifts. Feel your muscles burn. Welcome the pain. Enjoy the pump. Concentrate on using the muscles you are targeting with each lift. Concentrate on your form. Focus in on your breathing.

Don't let anything or anyone into your world during your workout, be relentless in your focus and your want and belief that you can go beyond your limitations…