Mental/Motivational Strategies

By Brad Loomis

2x ABA/INBA Natural Body Building Champion

            If you want a healthy fit body, you have to start at the top of your body, your head.  Success in anything is 10% strategy, and 90% mental.  It does not matter what the strategy, as long as one believes that success is eminent, it will be so.

            I have defined what it is that I want.  I have developed a meticulous plan so easy to understand a monkey could do it.  The hard work is done.  All the thinking is complete, now all I have to do is execute the plan as best I can day in and day out for the next 14 – 15 months.  However, just because I have a plan and I intend to execute it to it’s fullest, that does not guarantee my success.  If I am to reach my goal, I must use all of my mental, as well as my physical abilities each and every day of my quest.

            I will not long or desire for the scale to read 205lbs, I will not question if my plan is working or hope that what I am doing is effective, and I will not worry about the fact that I may not be putting on weight as quickly as I would like, that kind of thinking only places my focus on the fact that I am not yet at my goal.  Whatever I focus on is what I will get and if I say to myself, “I want to be 205lbs,” my focus is squarely on the fact that I am not.  

            In stead, each and every day I will envision or see myself bigger and more muscular.  I will see myself on the scale and imagine how good it will feel to see 205lbs.  I will put myself in the feeling place of how good it will feel to see my massive and muscular body in the mirror,  smiling a big smile of satisfaction knowing I achieved what most people thought was not possible. All the while believing 100% that each meal, each workout, each task is moving me closer and closer to my goal.  I will see and feel myself on stage ripped and muscular and put my focus right where I want to end up.  When my energy is high, like when I am doing my cardio, I will see myself at my goal, see myself on stage, see my family and friends pride in me and get that “tingly” feeling we all get when we really like something or when something feels really good.  Then with persistence, I will be moving toward my goal out of pure desire and determination.  Even if my plan is not 100% effective, a more effective plan will be revealed to me as I move ever closer to what I want.

            I will expect my goal to arrive by my deadline.  Once I am of the mind set that my focus is on my goal and am seeing and feeling how good it will feel to be there, I will expect it to come here.  It may not be today or tomorrow, it may not even be in 2005’, but it will be here sooner or later, out of pure attraction I will bring my goal to me.

            When I am in the midst of battle, knocking out the tasks during the every day grind, I will put blinders on and not look down the road to what I have to do tomorrow, next week or next month.  My focus will be on what I have to do to complete the next task to near perfection.  I will take advantage of each and every moment of each and every day to the best of my ability.  I may not be perfect, I may not get that heavy weight up an extra rep, I may not exceed my record of calories burned from last week, but I will be excellent.  I will get close to that record, I will at least attempt to get that heavy weight up an extra rep, and I will not miss even one opportunity to try to improve.

            Lastly, I will make every attempt to be in a good mood and feel good every day.  I hate being in a bad mood, down, or even in between the two.  I love the feeling of being in a good mood with a smile on my face and feeling like a million bucks.  So each and every day I will develop more and more “tricks” or strategies to make myself feel good and put myself in a good mood.  Even when life seems to be crashing down on me, I will do all that I can to not focus on what is going on around me, and think about the things that make me feel good.

            The mind is very powerful.  If we only use 10% of our brains abilities, imagine what is possible with the other 90%.  I will do my best to tap into 1% of that to make my goal a reality.  I am sure a lot of people would say, “It is just not possible for you to put on 30 – 35 lbs of drug free muscle in one year.  I would respond to that with the words that the Great Arnold Schwarzenegger might use.  “Well girly man, not with that kind of attitude you won’t.”