LegendaryLife.com Blog

Seriously, do you believe in yourself? Do you have the self-confidence and desire to really push yourself outside your normal limits? This is a rather simple question but one of the most important to investigate on your own as it bases the entire foundation of your current life.

Why is belief in self important?

If you believe in yourself, then anything is possible. You have no need for external validation, external praise, external conditioning to pursuit the life of your dreams. You are simply a bird that knows where you are flying to regardless of the terrain below you… you are able to stay on course! If you want to become somebody of great importance on this rock, you MUST believe in your abilities no matter what others say.

The problems that arise from a lack of confidence

Believing in yourself, your abilities, your physical as well as mental being is something that I believe should be taught at soon after one is born. Believing in yourself has such a huge effect on your life as you develop and grow. From your social circle to who you end up spending your live with. If you lack confidence, you will more often than not, take the easy route through life. If you are offered a challenge, it’s always simpler to ask others to help guide you through a situation instead of standing tall and charging forward. I believe it’s important to get information from others but too many people take this to an extreme. They are unable to make a decision in life without talking to somebody to confirm their initial thoughts and inspirations. If you believe in yourself, you are so far ahead of many other people it really isn’t comparable!

What does belief in self bring?

If you belief in yourself, you will not require others to prop-up your self-esteem. You will not be concerned with how others view you nor how they react to your actions to the detriment of your goals. Basically, if you can grow from within instead of asking for help from others to improve yourself, you are an incredibly powerful being capable of turning even the most impossible of dreams into a reality.

Belief is a powerful thing

I must warn you, once you come to the realization that you can do ANYTHING in life without regard for what others may think of you, not only are you powerful but you become the absolute master of your destiny. Seriously, if you don’t need others to confirm your decisions, life suddenly becomes far easier and enjoyable. The reason being, most people what to be around “the same” just like dentists have other dentists as friends. If you truly want to achieve a lot in this, your only life, you have to be willing to drop people who cannot or worse, prevent you from succeeding. Sometimes people stop talking to you because you achieved a great success, you have to realize that this is their primal reaction brought on by jealousy and loss. You are and will become a different person.

How do you come to the point of believing in yourself?

How do you become good at riding a bike or passing a test, you study and practice as much as you can! If you don’t believe in yourself, others cannot help you, this power must be nurtured and grown from within to shine outward. You cannot have others “tell” you or “convince” you to gain self-confidence… you must do this yourself and stand-by it!

The Bottom Line

I am Jon Cantin and I believe in myself!

Anybody who tells you that you cannot do this or that because of “blah, blah, blah” have no idea what they are talking about… NONE! If YOU want to make something happen, it’s up to you and only YOU to make it happen.

Barriers to making things possible

No matter your handicaps, no matter how severe they are, don’t let them get in the way of your dreams. For instance, look at the incredible success that Steve Nash, the NBA player has in his career considering how short he is… sure 6ft3 isn’t short but by NBA standards, he is surrounded by giants! How about Richard Branson? He is dyslexic yet is a self-made multi-billionaire traveling the world and outer space! The world is full of unlikely success stories that blow people away due to their ambitions more than their talent.

Beware of what you wish… it may come true!

More than once in my life, I have experienced both personally and through others that what you wish, even for a small amount of time, may actually come true! The most apt example of this was a few years back when, on a long walk, I was wondering what it would be like to be arrested (completely out of the blue), little did I know that a few minutes this “wish” would come true! My life is full of examples of this along several time lines and I am absolutely sure I am not alone. I am not psychic (this is “impossible”) but I do seem to be rather good at seeing the future of decisions I make now in a flash with very little though involved.

So what is impossible?

To be honest, the only limiting factor for most people is the size of their dreams. If you told somebody a thousand years ago that they would be talking through a small portable box to people on the other side of the world, you would be crucified as insane yet with satellite phones this is possible from ANYWHERE. I have come to the conclusion that EVERYTHING and ANYTHING is possible, screw the laws of physics or other limitations brought-up by “smarter” people… if you think it can happen and put enough sweat and tears into it… it WILL happen.

The more you know, the less you know

Why do I think that even “impossible” things are completely possible no matter what the geniuses in this world say? Well, because they have an incredibly BAD track record. I honestly cannot think of an invention, from the press to the automobile where the geniuses at the time put pressure on the creator to give-up these “silly” and “impossible” thoughts! If you told me you where working on a time machine, I would say your chances of accomplishing this are near zero but NOT zero. Look at Thomas Edison who toyed away for years on a light bulb with endless prototypes before he achieved what the geniuses at the time said was impossible! My friends, if you remember anything from this blog article it’s this, the more somebody knows about a subject, the less they actually know about it.

Why do I say this? Well, knowledge is biased information, no matter its origins, how many times it has been proven, there is always something that is missed or mis-interpreted… throw enough of this stuff together and you end-up with a rather impressive body of knowledge that is so full of holes that it becomes a self-supporting yet rather hollow structure.

Ah, the problem with Religion

This is one of my largest grievances with religion… it doesn’t teach you that “anything” is possible, it puts the explanation of “God” as the answer to EVERY question you don’t know the answer to. How did starts form? Well, God did it. Where do babies come from? Well, God does that. Why did I get a C in my math test? Well, God wanted it to be so. What do you notice? Well, the utter LACK of curiosity. If religion teachings one thing, it isn’t to expand your mind, it’s to accept things as they are and stifle creativity in the young minds that need it the most. How did stars form? Well, this is a question that continues to take generations to discover the answer to yet religion says essentially “don’t bother, God did it and that is all you need to know… move-on”. Even though I say this, I do think it’s ironic that our understanding of DNA comes from a monk who studied peas, that religion played a pivotal role in the development of the printing press and many other things we take for granted as scientific fact. Hence, my indecision on this matter which will probably continue until my last breath. I am well beyond the question of whether there is a God or not, I have “advanced” now towards thinking of whether we are better off with or without religion.

The Bottom Line

Nothing is impossible unless you allow it to be so.

Update: This past week a “man” gave birth to a baby and a 72 year old woman gave birth as well… both thanks to the advances in medical knowledge. Both of these where considered completely “impossible” just a few years ago.

From my extensive business experience, if there is any one thing that leads to a slow (sometimes quick) demise of a startup or an established company, more often than not, it can be traced to greed.

The root causes of greed

When you first start a company, the pricing is usually insanely competitive even to the point of undercutting your main competitors. Many people believe that price, and price alone is the way to compete directly against the “big boys”. While this does work for a certain period of time, and can actually be profitable, eventually, overhead such as staff, phones, office space etc. all begin to take their toll leading to you having to raise your prices just to break-even. The root cause of greed for most companies starts-up this way, simply trying to stay afloat… I have yet to meet an entrepreneur who got greedy out of desire. It’s usually caused by something far more urgent, survival!

When greed gets out of hand

Alright, you have a rather new company, you hiked prices and can now afford to pay yourself somewhat of a living wage… great! This should be where things stop but inexperience (myself included) makes you wonder, “hey, that went so well, let’s hike things up a bit more so I can buy xyz”. Your clients grumble but the costs involved with leaving your company for another aren’t large enough to warrant a new fishing expedition. Hey, you got away with it! Hmmm… let’s do it again!

Greed catches-up with you sooner or later

Alright, you are living “large”, move to new offices, hire a bunch of new staff, get a new car, start-up some new (expensive) hobbies and life is amazing! What you fail to realize is that you are slowly pricing yourself out of a market that you helped develop. Sooner or later, the contracts that use to be “guaranteed” begin going to other companies, out of desperation, you match their price but in reality, you cannot. You see, your overhead has taken a toll on how “low” you can go while still breaking even! You have nice new offices, guess what, your clients notice this as well and if “entrepreneur to entrepreneur” you see this, you quickly realize that you, as the client, are the one paying “extra” for these digs. Most entrepreneurs are cheap when it comes to spending money, they have no problem buying a plane and other gadgets but when it comes to business, every penny counts! This is when things begin to go downhill.

Excuses Excuses

First you realize that your sales staff is spending A LOT of time on the road trying to close deals that just aren’t going the way you had hoped or experienced in the past. Your subcontractors, realizing you got a bit of money, begin hiking their prices (making your prices higher) and worse, you begin living project by project. You hear all the excuses but they always seem to come down to price and customer service. You want to hire more people to handle the work flow but your overhead is already too high, you want to fire some people but cannot afford the severance, you need to give your sales staff higher commissions but with lower prices, you are being squeezed from all sides. Throw-in a natural disaster and you are really screwed big time!

What to do?

Well, the above happened to me, it took me years to recover but I wouldn’t have wanted things to happen in any other way. The lessons I learned from my past failures have made me who I am today, far smarter with my money, far more efficient with my time and a miser when it comes to Return On (potential)Investment. Well, how do you avoid a business and the personal failure that comes with it? Here are some tips:

• Only hire staff you absolutely need and not before you have at least a few months salary to cover them in your bank account, in other words, don’t count your eggs before they have hatched.
• Subcontract as much as you can, I have found that you will always PROFIT from subcontractors, when you don’t have a project, they don’t cost you anything and when you do, you will always make a net profit at the end of the day.
• Sales people, unless you can afford otherwise, should have the vast majority of their compensation based on commission, sure you can help with gas and other expenses but it’s up to them to make a living off your product/services, not you.
• Learn from your failures and try to constantly improve not only yourself but how things run in general. I believe in a constant improvement philosophy and it has served me very well in both up and down times.
• Listen to your clients and always try to ask a “lost” client why you aren’t working for them anymore or why a negotiation for a new one didn’t go anywhere. Knowledge is power, especially when it can have a very large impact on your bottom line.
• Accept that chance will play an ENORMOUS role in whether your enterprise succeeds or fails. Entrepreneurs who say they are successful or wealthy because of them and had nothing to do with luck are so full of shit that they can build a mud house out of it. Just about every entrepreneur (successful and otherwise) has been deafly affected by luck.
• Don’t give up! If there is one thing you remember from this blog posting it is that you should NEVER GIVE UP on your dreams. Hope, no matter how small, is still hope. The minute you give-up the only guarantee you will have is failure! Sometimes it is good to refocus your energies elsewhere, learn from your mistakes and move on… but never loose hope on the bigger picture to improve the lives of you, your family and those you care about.

The Bottom Line

Greed is one of those dragons that every entrepreneur has to learn how to slay.

Throughout my entrepreneurial journey, I have come to the realization of a number of facts, some of which I will share with you today. Instead of seeing these things negatively, people saying bad things about you or your products/services actually represents a fantastic opportunity!

Jealousy

When ever something “new” come onto the main consciousness of many people, the first thing they do is reject it even when this act completely defies logic. For example, if you start a new business and you all of a sudden have a number of people calling you a loser, that you will never amount to anything or worse, try everything in their limited powers of persuasion to convince you that everything will fail. What they are really telling you is “Geez… I wish I thought of that” followed by “Well, I’ll be damned if you succeed at something I -could- have but chose not to. In other words, the people out there with the greatest angst about you are the very people who are extremely jealous of your ambition and willingness to succeed where others haven’t.

YOU WANT LOSERS!

If you are developing something that sparks no emotion even in those who wish for your spiraling downfall it means one of two things, these losers either have no clue what you are doing or worse, you haven’t hit their “jealousy” buttons. Why is this bad? Well, it means that the general public, those who have a neutral stance on your success or or failure may also have the same blahze reaction to this idea as well. The quickest death of a company is indifference, you can succeed with huge negative and positive reaction but neutral sparks a quick death. Essentially, you WANT to receive a reaction - at both extremes, otherwise, you may be going down a dead-end.

YOU WANT TROLLS

The difference between a loser and a troll is quite simple, one usually uses their reputation and contacts to bring you down publicly while the other hides behind the anonymity of the internet to speed-up your failure. Losers are easy to deal with, if you have logic on your site, stand-up for yourself, present the facts (and only the facts) without any negative emotion or “talking-down” type behavior and generally losers will slowly fade into the background. Of course, you have to thank these losers because usually they bring-up a lot of attention to your cause which you may not have had otherwise. A troll on the other hand, well, you need to deal with them in a respectful manner now matter what they have said or done as, let’s be honest, you don’t know who they are or the possible influence they may have on you. I have found the easiest way to get rid of them is with a quick message acknowledging their “grief”, saying how you don’t agree with them and essentially telling them you will no longer participate in their games once you have summed-up a reply. Trolls need a reaction to succeed, don’t give them this pleasure and usually they will fade into the background as well.

Summarize

I know it’s tough to hold back your emotions and especially your tongue when attacked, but from my experience, if you handle it in a very civil manner and always maintain a certain state of decorum, others will come to realize that you where wronged and you will WIN! Every actions has a reaction, by blunting your reaction, there is nothing left to react against, as such, a developing negative situation can quickly be dissolved with little grief.

The Bottom Line

Trolls and losers are an indication of success, NOT FAILURE!

One of the most amazing aspects of being an entrepreneur is the absolute joy you get from being constantly forced to learn new things!

Enjoying the rewards, paying the costs

Honestly, what other type of non-job other then an entrepreneur can you be paid to do what you absolutely love to do and gamble, quite honestly, on all your past success to throw yourself into yet another higher level of possibility! The rewards of entrepreneurship as a lifestyle are as endless as it’s costs but the journey sure as hell is a fun one!

Case Study: WoodMarvels.com - how it began

I started this site after many years of having this idea in the back of my head. I really love wood, I enjoy the flexibility that this material provides and its availability just about anywhere. Nothing beats the smell of pine or cedar… so, I decided, enough is enough… I am going to develop this site right now! That was back in October, at first, it was difficult developing an entire new level of standards and procedures, not to sound too technical but after years of producing industrial 3D animations, switching to wooden toys takes a little bit of work to pull-off correctly. For several years, I also really wanted to get into manufacturing, I have visited some amazing shop floors around North America and to be honest, I LOVE BIG MACHINES!

Case Study: WoodMarvels.com - models from virtual to physical

So, back in October, I started essentially producing new virtual wood marvels on a weekly basis but about two months ago, my second dream was finally made available to me… manufacturing! I built all my wood marvels in my computer, they looked great and I got some great feedback from customers but being able to ship on-demand merchandise anywhere in the world is a whole other level of accomplishment. It took a few weeks but now I am as comfortable in the “manufacturing-on-demand” area as I am in the 3D one. I am not a professional in either by any stretch of the imagination, but I have developed enough knowledge of both industries to easily converse with engineers and other professionals on an even platform.

Just for the heck of it, you can see the evolution of the designs from one of the very first models I created to the second-to-last one (latest one is still rendering).

Shark (September 2007′ish)

Full Armor Gear Bull (June 2008′ish)

Case Study: WoodMarvels.com - book from virtual to physical

Now, this is where things get really interesting, I am a few weeks away from having a book published encompassing 25 of my top models available print-on-demand through BookSurge.com (an Amazon affiliate). Things have gone full circle, the models are produced on-demand in the physical world and now, my guides and books as well! Isn’t this really cool! One of my goals in my life was to publish several books, this is my first, at the age of 32 and I really enjoyed the process and can’t wait to actually hold in both my hands what where once but virtual items inhabiting the deep recesses of my mind.

Where do you go from here?

WoodMarvels.com has been a tremendous success, it has opened several doors in my life and I look forward to developing that property well into the future. My other properties are slowly growing and I am sure they will open as many doors if not more then what I have just shared with you… which is still but a glimpse of things to come. The fact that I managed to do this while traveling around the world, visiting one of my dream places (Cape Tribulation in Australia) and climbing mountains in South Korea really make these successes all the more enjoyable! I already have two other non-WoodMarvels.com books stewing in my mind which I hope to release next year. My priority is to get the next huge goal I have had in my mind for several years now… LegendaryLife.com. I wish I honestly could live a thousand years because I have so much yet to accomplish and experience, trying to cram all of this in one lifetime while still being able to enjoy that life is a very tall task indeed!

The Bottom Line

Nothing beats a dose of entrepreneurship to introduce some vitality into your life!

Buzvia: BookSurge.com (on-demand publisher), Ponoko.com (on-demand manufacturer), WoodMarvels.com (on-demand happiness!)

No, I am not a (severe) germaphobe nor have I lost my mind… but I realized yesterday that EVERYTHING we and all other living organisms do on this planet is thanks to bacteria. We had it all wrong, we don’t rule the Earth, bacteria do!

A little history

The very first organisms to inhabit this planet with any type of internal mechanism for survival are the bacteria, there is still a lot of debate as to whether they originate from our planet or hitched a ride on a comet billions of years ago. The one thing that is an indisputable fact is that every living organisms on this planet can trace it’s origins from the humble bacteria, from the trees that populate our forests to the shrimp you add to your salad… EVEN US! Yes, our distant ancestors are these little, microscopic and mindless bacteria! I am unsure if we have evolved to be any smarter but that is something to be discussed at a later date.

What are bacteria?

Bacteria are single celled organisms which are not only the oldest and most diverse kingdom of life on this planet (possibly the universe) but they are the cornerstone of just about everything on this planet. To put it bluntly, if there where no bacteria on this planet, there would be NO life. Not only that, but if we removed everything except bacteria from this planet, including rock and soil… you could clearly see the shape of the landscape from their presence alone!

Why are bacteria so powerful?

Bacteria are like woman for most men, you can’t live with them and you can’t live without them. Bacteria are responsible for some horrendous conditions but they are also the cause for some wonderous medical cures as well. Unlike viruses which are just floating strands of DNA with no rhyme or reason, bacteria have a purpose, they want to live! Actually, bacteria have an even stronger will to succeed then anything else on this planet, they can be found LIVING inside rock, up to 3 miles underground, in extremes of temperature and can even go into a type of hibernation lasting thousands of years until conditions improve. We humans have NOTHING on these guys, they are probably the first life to colonize other planets (galaxies), they are almost eternal in their structure and leave their mark everywhere. Who changed this planet from one killing life to supporting it? Well, bacteria! Sure, they haven’t written books nor are they very good conversationalists but they blow us in the dust in just about every other aspect.

What can we do to help bacteria?

Here is the funny thing about bacteria, they don’t want nor need our help in order to thrive. They are in their own little world with an arsenal of weapons that would make even the top generals in the United States wet their pants with glee. Bacteria are the first organisms to develop chemical and explosive weapons, if anything, we need to respect them before they blow us away! Bacteria can live off eating just about every natural substance in the universe, from iron to the rays of the sun. Bacteria can multiply even faster then even the horniest rabbits and put workaholics to shame. To put it bluntly, we need bacteria for our survival, they do not need us.

Perspective is key

So, what have you learned so far? Not are we incredibly fragile beings, to put it very lightly, but we are at the absolute mercy. If they ever “decide” (ei: evolve) to turn on us, we have no chance in hell of providing any type of plausible defense. Think about this the next time you say anything bad about these little guys who rule the universe!

The Bottom Line

Bacteria don’t love or hate us, they are indifferent to other forms of life.

I can’t think of any entertainer who has had more ups and downs over the course of a career that lasted several decades than David Hasselhoff. The “Hoff’s” career has spanned several industries from television to music, movies to now, the internet!

David Hasselhoff: The Early Years

Born David Michael Hasselhoff in Baltimore, Maryland on July 17th, 1952, little did his parents know they had just created a phenomena that would revolutionize an entire industry! He was born in a family of four sisters so he always had attention thrown upon him so at the age of seven, it seemed natural at the time that he began taking acting, dancing and singing lessons. By the time he got out of his teenager years, he was already standing at six foot four and was beaming to become a huge pop star. He has already stared in a number of school plays and did the rounds of several dinner theater circuits before being discovered in California.

David Hasselhoff: Television Career takes off!

Although he had planned on doing musicals on Broadway at first, he soon caught the attention of an “The Young and the Restless” scout while in California in 1973 and, in 1975 began his first role portraying Dr. William “Snapper” Foster, Jr. till 1982. He then struck gold when he got the role of Michael Knight in “Knight Rider” which shot him into cult status, he would play this role for four years till 1986 when the series ended. Although still in heavy syndication, this was the first show for “The Hoff” to be seen abroad, it played in over 80 countries and set the state for his success abroad.

David Hasselhoff: Musical Career takes off!

Not wanting to rest on his previous success, he was eager to transform his career into the pop world and, in in 1989 launched his “Looking for Freedom” song which stayed at the number one spot on the German charts for eight weeks! He toured extensively around Europe hundreds of concerts attended by millions of dedicated fans. He would later release 8 records which involved extensive touring and promotional events. He never let his extreme success get to his head, often capable of making fun of his image along the way.

David Hasselhoff: The Worldwide Phenomena that is Baywatch!

David Hasselhoff was approached by NBC on the heels of reviving his television career after extensive success with both his previous “Knight Rider” show and his developing his pop-icon status abroad. The name of the show was “Baywatch” and it changed his life forever in 1989. The show had a simple premise, he played “Mitch Buchannon” and the show chronicled the beach life full of beautiful woman and men running around with nothing but bathing suits. Although the show was canceled after the first year it was on television, he had a stroke of pure genius and acquired the rights to “Baywatch” to continue developing the show with a few partners. The show became an instant worldwide phenomena that lasted over a decade, had almost a billion weekly viewers and continues to be syndicated around the world even to this day through its various spin-offs. One of the huge breakout stars of the “Baywatch” show was Pamela Anderson who, herself, has been incredibly successful in creating a worldwide following of her own since the show ended.

David Hasselhoff: Other Roles

In between his busy television and musical careers, David Hasselhoff has appeared in a number of other television and movie projects. From “Revenge of the Teenagers” in 1976 to Anaconda 3 which is currently in production, he has amassed an extensive and impressive portfolio. (See more here)

David Hasselhoff: Awards and Recognition

David Hasselhoff has achieved incredible success and, as a result, a number of distinctions. In 1983, he won a “Peoples Choice Award” for his role as Michael Knight in “Knight Rider. In 1996, he was awarded his own star on the “Walk of Fame” in Los Angeles, California and in 2005, he won “International Star of the Year” by Bollywood!

David Hasselhoff the Humanitarian

His schedule might be loaded but he still finds ample time to spread good cheer to those less fortunate, especially children who are terminally ill or handicapped around the world. He also runs his own charity called “Race for Life” and has hosted numerous charitable events.

David Hasselhoff: Internet Phenomena

Having conquered the television, theatrical and musical scene, David Hasselhoff has recently began conquering the Internet, producing rather fantastical music videos and selling everything “Hoff”. Here is a glimpse of some of his works!

David Hasselhoff: Trivia

There are a number of very interesting facts about David Hasselhoff that you may not be aware of, here are a few:

• in 1994, his first heavily promoted, pay-per-view concert meant to ignite his popularity in the United States happened to be the same day that O.J. Simpson drove his friends famous white Bronco down the Los Angeles highway
• in 2004, he appeared as himself in SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
• he believes that Knight Rider was a larger worldwide hit then Baywatch, though both live on in syndication
• has a listing in Guinness Book of World Records under “Most Watched TV Star in the World” due to his roles in Knight Rider and Baywatch
• has a keen interest in politics, sometimes comparing himself to Tony Blair
• has appeared in South Park
• fought John Tesh in MTV’s Celebrity Deathmatch
• 1989, New Years Eve, he performed “Looking for Freedom” on the Berlin Wall
• has a musical in Australia based on his life
• is an avid outdoors and sports fanatic

The Bottom Line

When success came to “The Hoff’s” door… he ANSWERED IT!

Buzvia: David Hasselhoff on The Internet Movie Database, David Hasselhoff’s Official Website, David Hasselhoff on Wikipedia, David Hasselhoff’s Biography on Sing365.com

We are all a product of a dream, whether realized or otherwise, they are among the most powerful mechanisms in our lives that help guide us, give us new ideas and play around with alternative realities!

Why develop Dreamclue.com?

Well, I originally began on this project a little over a year ago now after realizing that there was a huge amount of knowledge we are all acquiring but forgetting nightly! I wanted to create a system that not only makes sense of our dreams but more importantly, allows us to record them for prosperity. Our dreams are also a visual medium, so the site had to be chalk full of imagery to help guide you through the exploration of the dreamworld. The results? Well, launching with over two thousand dream symbols written by yours truly and a quarter of the entries with photographs also taken by me, I have big expectations for this site!

How does Dreamclue.com work?

Dreams are our own business, so it has to be built anonymously, as such, like myfoodcount.com before it, the system has no clue who you are and it’s drop dead easy interface for adding and learning about the dreamworld only helps to make the exploration that much easier!

Other cool Dreamclue.com features

The site features both text and image based navigation, in addition to interesting statistics not only about your very own dreams but all the dreams on the site as well. You can also read other peoples dreams (they are rendered anonymous by our system) and even comment on any interpretation on the site!

What’s next?

A lot, will let all our visitors know when the time is right
The Bottom Line

Passion is a dangerous thing as it can only bread more passion!

I have developed a list of habits and thoughts on healthy life extension over more then half of my life… it’s interesting that only NOW are studies beginning to come out proving the logical conclusions I had come to so long ago.

Fit people stay younger then sedentary ones

Just this week, a study was reported by ABC News that found out that chronological age isn’t related to cellular age. If you abuse your body taking drugs (including tobacco), alcohol (more then one drink every few days) and just live the couch potato lifestyle, the cells within your body are quickly deteriorating. As a result, organs that become “sick” loose their efficiency, kinks begin to form in the bodies armor and voila… a few decades down the line, you are in a wheelchair gasping for every breath. The study reported that people who exercise regularly have cells that are actually younger then their sedentary counterparts by up to 10 years! Yes, the fountain of youth begins at the cellular level! This isn’t news to me, I have observed this all my life.

Why this is true?

Although I have explained this many times, repetition is the mother of retention as, Anthony Robbins often says. Our bodies are MEANT to be active, no, I am not talking about walking from the television to the fridge to get a bear, I mean ACTIVE like walking for HOURS each day, straining your muscles lifting heavy objects and eating incredible amounts of whole food. It’s no secret that our modern lifestyles are killing many humans off, our bodies are optimized for hunter and gatherer type activities. What do hunters and gatherers do all day? Well, they WALK, RUN, FIGHT, CRAWL, BUILD and MONITOR their environment, in other words, they are incredibly active in every sense of the word. The mind is always racing along with the body. The body is incredibly nimble regarding resource allocation… it doesn’t want to waste one ounce of energy towards activities that will not lead towards living another day. For example, your body would far prefer that you sit and wait for prey to come in your sights instead of running for hours on end to capture the same prey. Why? Because out in nature, energy is a very valuable resource, the body doesn’t want you to become a muscleman with 2% fat, it wants you to become a typical couch potato because it guarantees you will have enough energy to get you through the typical abundance / starvation cycles found in nature. The entire purpose of your body and mind is to make you live long enough to pass on your genes, it doesn’t care what you look like or your emotional well being as long as you… PASS ON YOUR GENES!

How to improve the health of your genes

This is rather easy, just think of yourself living 20 000 years ago before modern conveniences existed. I am not saying you need to throw away your toilet and replace it with a hole in the ground anymore then to begin hunting the neighborhood squirrels for you super but there are some things you can do to extend your healthy lifespan.

1) Throw away the Junk!

If you don’t know what you are eating, the ingredients don’t make sense and the packaging says “now lower in xyz”, throw away this junk! You cannot expect a long, healthy life eating garbage. Eat every few hours, small portions and every once in a while, eat everything you see… you want to keep your body guessing and try to mimic what nature built our bodies for… survival.

2) Lift heavy weights!

Get yourself a personal trainer if you must, but you must lift heavy weights throughout your lifespan, not only does this improve your central nervous system but it also increases bone density and muscle strength. You really need to strain your muscles on a continuous basis, if you never worked-out before, you need to educate yourself so that you don’t over-train or injure yourself. You need to be as strong as possible when you are young so that your muscle mass when you are older (when it’s needed the most).

3) Stress your heart and lungs

I am lucky, where I live now, there are mountains up to a kilometer high… I climb up them without taking a break… I can actually HEAR my heart beating loudly while climbing, my legs are mush, it’s difficult to breath and I am sweating profusely but you know what… it feels great afterwards! I am still young so this is fine but it beats any type of treadmill out there in every possible way. You need to optimize your cardiovascular systems (heart, lungs) as much as possible when you are young so that you can stave off common diseases when you are older.

4) Get outside!

We are not meant to live our lives in self-contained static environments (ei: office or home)… get outside every chance you can, if you live in a big city, get out and move to the country (or another country if you can). Everyday, the weather is different, the temperature, humidity etc… this keeps your body optimized so that you keep your internal calibrations constantly guessing. If you live in a place plagued with unhealthy air, you need to move! Your health is worth far more then any high paying job in a polluted environment.

5) Keep thinking

Get lost on purpose, when you realize that you have no clue where you are, the mind instantly focuses on the task at hand… getting you back home! This can be exhausting but it’s well worth it to do every few weeks to keep you sharp! We all have an internal compass that falls into disrepair due to lack of use, you need to get it back into shape. I know for me, it’s getting ever more difficult to get lost because I am starting to memorize, without my knowledge, key points that help me find my way back.

The Bottom Line

Stressful situations are essential to a long, healthy life… as long as they are from within.

Depending on how you look at it, I am either blessed or cursed, you see, I am one of those typical guys who has trouble not only gaining weight but keeping it on. As soon as I stop working out with weights, my accumulated mass begins to go away though, oddly enough, not my strength gains… most women would kill for these genetics, so I guess in that sense, I am very lucky to have them!

Tip #1: Go for Quality, not Quantity

The most I have ever weighed was 200 pounds, being six feet tall and I felt like I was CONSTANTLY eating. Why was this a challenge? Well, I eat only whole foods that I cook myself and I am incredibly active most of the time. When I am not in front of my computer slaving away or running my businesses, I am hiking, working out or going for long extended walks lasting up to 5 hours if not more. Gaining weight is easy if your diet consists of fast food and the only activity you participate in is channel surfing. The first tip I cannot stress enough is you most likely want to have quality gains that come with strength, shape and muscle mass, not becoming the next “Fat Bastard”. The process is slower, the battle much tougher but the end result, if done properly, is a body that looks amazing even before you diet down using carbohydrate reduction techniques.

Tip #2: You don’t need supplements

Supplements make things easier, no doubt about it. Nothing says commitment like swallowing a heaping tablespoon of chalky Creatine in the morning with some grape juice followed by a liter of chocolate cross-filtered whey protein powder but, after many years, I have come to a realization that they are not essential. With all the marketing hype reading though bodybuilding magazines, you can’t help but be sucked into believing that the only way to gain muscle mass is by consuming the latest supplement to hit the market. Let me be straight with you, supplements are very nice things to have but not essential. Nothing is as anabolic as food, not even Steroids is able to replace the power found in eating a fantastic diet. Need proof? Stop eating and just take steroids and Creatine, no matter how much of this stuff you take, you WILL loose weight and feel like shit. Now, just eat a very respectable diet and don’t take Steroids nor Creatine, you will GAIN weight. If you are serious about improving yourself though, stick with the no-name cheap stuff like basic Creatine, a Multi-Vitamin and some decent cross-filtered Protein Powder. As your budget allows, you can then get into more exotic things like cold-pressed flax seed / fish oils, ZMA (Zinc Monomethionine Aspartate plust Magnesium Aspartate), HMB (beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate), BCAA (branched-chain amino acids) and the list goes on. Once you got your diet down, there is no reason why you cannot achieve significant gains in the weight room without any supplements. As for me, I tend to cycle them, when I hit a plateau and changing exercise or diet doesn’t get me through it, then I use supplements to get me over that mental / physical block then I drop them.

Tip #3: Cycle Weight Loads

If you are in your see-food diet, meaning you eat everything you see, then by all means, go as heavy as you can take and beyond. But as anybody in serious weight training will tell you, simply going HEAVY all the time becomes a game of diminishing returns. If you start to feel sore in your joints or sheering sounds while rotating your arms, it means you are due for an extended break of changing your routine. Cycling, also referred to as Periodization is such a system in which you change not only your routine but your overall weightlifting strategies over an extended period of time. Remember, your body is built to adapt to new circumstances, if you always do the same thing, it stops being challenged and focuses it’s energies elsewhere. Periodization shocks the body repeatedly to get you the most strength and mass gains possible over an extended period of time.

Tip #4: Dumbbells and Barbells RULE!

If you exercise using primarily machines, you will have a problem. You see, machines are great for muscle isolation, that’s why you can lift so much more with them verses free weights but this comes at a cost. When your body is forced to stabilize a weight, many other muscles are recruited to keep things running smoothly. You will see this sometimes when you notice some peoples muscles that seem to go into spasms when doing heavy free weights… it isn’t only because the weight is heavy, it’s because the muscles are being overwhelmed. I can’t really think of a time when I experienced the muscle shaking on a machine but it occurs rather regularly when using free weights. If you want to gain weight and improve your overall strength there is no way around it, you got to get comfortable with free weights.

Tip #5: Track your Progress

Each and every week, weight yourself, if you are up, even a fraction of a pound, then you are well on your way towards gaining weight. If you stay the same or don’t go up, then re-evaluate what you did the previous week, figure out where you went wrong and give it another go the following week. I would say that once a month, take your body measurements and record that as well… with pictures if you need to. Seeing an quarter or half inch increase in a bicep is just about impossible but measurements don’t lie.

The Bottom Line

The body is the ultimate challenge for the mind.