"A committed decision to reach a predetermined specific goal, combined with burning desire, followed by immediate, massive action repeated consistently for as long as it takes until your goal is reached."
The above was a reponse that fitness trainer, success coach, and professional bodybuilder Tom Venuto once gave to a question on how to achieve success.
Think whatever you want about Arnold Schwarzenegger, there is no doubt about one thing.
He's come a long way, baby!
If you take a close look at Arnold (not THAT close, lady), or rather his life, you will see that, while luck DID play some part in his overall success, he made a lot of his own "luck". Not only that, but many steps that Arnold Schwarzenegger took from being the son of a police chief in a small Austrian town to ultimately becoming the governor of California could have been taken directly from any good book on how to achieve success.
First of all, he had the desire.
At the start, Arnold desired, more than anything else, to become the best bodybuilder in the world. All sorts of success coaches and motivational trainers and experts agree that having a "burning desire" to achieve something is one of the most important steps in programming success into your life. It doesn't seem to matter whether you ask professional bodybuilders or fitness trainers such as Joe Weider or Tom Venuto, or highly paid yet physically unfit success coaches who train the highest level executives at major corporations, you will be told essentially the same thing. Planned and programmed success starts with a burning desire.
Next he had the goal.
As motivational and success coaches will agree, Arnold set long-term and near-term goals for himself. He kept focusing on them and massaging them and modifying them as he learned and progressed, but every goal was intended to take him to the achievement of his heart's desire. First he desired to be the best bodybuilder in the world, and then he decided to become a famous actor.
He refused to accept "no" for an answer.
While I am sure that Arnold had doubts along the way, HE never waivered from his chosen path. So many people, with a pathway clearly marked out to success, allow themselves to be distracted or even deterred from their march to success by the seeds of doubt sown by others. Even worse, many seek out and sow these seeds themselves, telling themselves, "it cannot be done" or worse still, "I cannot do that". How do you know until you have tried every possible avenue to your goal? At 16, Arnold Schwarzenegger was a skinny kid from nowhere who stood six feet tall and weighed 150 pounds. No way that kid could be a future bodybuilder, movie star, or governor was there? Arnold thought otherwise.
Along the way, he was willing to make the effort.
Knowing where he wanted to go and how to get there was not the end of the process with Arnold Schwarzenegger. AS with doubt, so many people believe that the effort is not worth the reward. Arnold believed otherwise. He believed that the reward justified the effort. Even as a young man, he saw such things as having to walk or ride his bicycle to the gym as part of the training process that would take him where he wanted to go. Obstacles such as not having proper exercise equipment or facilities did not deter him either. In fact, he saw these obstacles merely as problems to be solved or overcome on his way to success. How many people give up at the first or second obstacle they encounter?
He didn't know when to give up.
Arnold's life, as with many successful people, illustrates how an ordinary person can achieve extraordinary stature through one simple characteristic. Study successful people, and one fact will gradually begin to emerge. Once they had a burning desire, had set a goal, had faith in themselves, and were willing to make the effort, the key remaining factor in their success was simply their perseverance. They could not be deterred from performing the simplest or most difficult acts over and over again until success was theirs. As each new level of challenge presented itself, or as a pathway seemed to close in front of them, they simply girded their loins and began the trek on the new path or at the new level. Each setback, while it might affect them for a while, was soon put behind as they began again towards their goal.
I would think that Arnold Schwarzenegger, like many other successful people, as he encountered each new obstacle that seemed to end his quest for the future that he knew was waiting, simply looked at the setback as temporary and said, "I'll be back!"
About the Author
Donovan Baldwin is a freelance writer residing in Copperas Cove, Texas, and a University of West Florida alumnus. He is a member of Mensa and is retired from the U. S. Army after 21 years of service. In his career, he has held many managerial and supervisory positions. However, his main pleasures have long been writing, nature, health, and fitness. In the last few years, he has been able to combine these pleasures by writing poetry and articles on subjects such as health, fitness, weightlifting, bodybuilding, yoga, weight loss, the environment, global warming, happiness, self improvement, and life. You can find a collection of his articles on health, fitness, diet, and weight loss at http://nodiet4me.com/articledirectory.
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