3 Lessons I Learned About Success From The Book Of Eli

WARNING: I am about ruin the “twist” of this move AND reveal my age all over this post.....

I know this movie is considered “old” now, but I just love this movie. I love the action, the photography, the story, the action... and did I say action...... “Sooo, you are going to re-make The Road Warrior with Denzel Washington AND Gary Oldman... and sprinkle in a little Flashdance”... What's not to love about this movie.

Besides all the action and cool colors, The Book of Eli had some deep lessons on what it takes to be successful

Lesson 1 – Keep Going West

Eli had a goal and laser beam focus. “Take this book and keep going west until you get there.” No matter who got in his way, how many battles he had to endure, the next day he brushed him self off and kept going west.

Lesson 2 – Know Thyself

*Spoiler Alert* Eli knew he was blind, but that didn't stop him from kicking ass and going west. He used his strengths to get him through. He smelled his enemies before they had a chance to attack, he could hear the intention in their voice, the rhythm of their breathing. He was well aware of his strengths and worked with them masterfully.

Lesson 3 – Watch What You Eat

There are cannibals out there, feeders of human flesh. Eli knew he couldn't eat just anyone's food and neither should you... If you want to be successful. Be careful of what you eat. Poor nutrition no matter how dialed in the rest of your program, your results will go up in smoke.

6 Things You Must Have For A Successful Spring Training

As a strength coach, I am constantly looking for ways to improve my clients athletic ability or—more importantly— strength, speed, and mental. I want them to have a program that would make a difference. I want them to have both the mental AND the physical advantage going into a game.

Throughout my quest to achieve this goal, I have always been looking for programs that work. I’ve tried EVERYTHING. I bought about every book, dvd, attended every seminar I could find and talked to as many people as possible for ideas. Some of the programs allowed for some success while others have been an epic fail.


So, my quest continued as I patched together programs and had moderate success, but not the success that I knew that I could achieve.



Finally, though years of trial and error, I have come to the conclusion that success is the result of hard work—brutally hard work—that follows a well-developed plan of attack. The reason that most people are not successful is that they are victims of poor planning or not planning at all.. I get the most out of my clients because in addition to making them work hard and want to win, my training involves careful planning. Success depends on identifying needs along with your weaknesses and then formulating an appropriate plan of attack.




The Next Level plan of attack includes the following:

Strength training – the foundation on which the plan of attack rests. We use barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, sleds and more with the idea to develop the greatest levels of strength possible.

Speed training - my thoughts on the significance of speed can be summed up in this quote from The Art of War, by Sun Tzu: “Speed is the essence of war.” Special sprint training will employ a variety of drills to maximize absolute speed.

Agility training – start, slow down, change directions, and accelerate with a minimum loss of speed. Agility drills require rapid changes of forward, backward, vertical, and side-to-side movement.

Flexibility training - one of the most important, yet misunderstood, areas of athletic development is range of motion, or flexibility... often mistaken as simply stretching.

Mental Toughness training – toughness is flexibility, responsiveness, strength, and resiliency under stress. Toughness training puts you in control of your performance level on and off the field.

Recovery Training – recovery must be planned, scheduled and “trained” just like any other element of your complete training plan of attack. Knowing how and when to recover may prove to be the most important skill in your life.

One thing is for sure the possibilities are endless and there’s no way you’ll get bored with your training using this plan of action..

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Mental Toughness Advice From Ancient Japan

The Samurai.. the privileged warrior class of feudal Japan. The samurai were indifferent to death or pain and wore two swords which symbolized the “soul of the samurai.” These guys trained as though their very lives depended on it... because... it did. It wasn’t just about losing a competition it was about surviving to fight another day. They knew from experience that in order to win battles—most of which were fought in hand-to-hand combat—they had to develop their minds as well as their bodies.

3 MENTAL TOUGHNESS STRATEGIES FROM 3 OF THE GREATEST MARTIAL ARTIST

1. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE

“Once you have trained yourself well, your body and limbs will move automatically without any conscious effort. Your mind will not be overwhelmed by your physical movements. You will employ techniques without having to think. Once you have attained this state of mind, not a single doubt nor hesitation will arise... Train yourself thoroughly and then forget about it. Throw away your mind.”


Yagyu Munenori – the most respected samurai serving the Tokugawa Shogun family.

2. HAVE A SHORT MEMORY

“It is not good to hold on to one's previous thoughts or to retain what is presently in the mind. You must make a clean and complete cut between the past and the present. If the mind is drawn off into thoughts of the past, that means it has stopped. It is important that the past does not interfere with the present, so cut off your previous thoughts and be careful not to stop you mind.”

Takuan Soho – revolutionary samurai priest who was fired because he advocated the separation of religion and the shogunate government. He was later rehired by our friend Yagyu Munenori.

3. EXERCISE YOUR BRAIN

“Never forget to make your mind work when your body is quiet, and to make your mind calm when your body is in action. It is important to make your mind useful and enrich it with knowledge. Take no account of the trifles and thoroughly keep your spirit strong... Keep your mind clear and maintain a broad view of things.”


Musashi Miyamoto – genuine samurai badass. Between the ages ages of 13 and 39, he had over 60 to the death sword fights and never lost one! Not only was he a master swordsman, he also was a master of drawing, poetry and sculpture.





Marinate on that....

The Mental Toughness Pyramid

How do the super-successful separate themselves from the rest? The average?


I'll let The Don answer this one...

“Creative people rarely need to be motivated – they have their own drive that refuses to be bored. They refuse to be complacent. They live on the edge, which is precisely what is needed to be successful and remain successful.”



Ya see... The average live their lives on cruise control, resisting change and avoiding risk. They have the same talent and opportunity but they choose to play it safe to avoid the pain of failure and the agony (temporary) defeat.

At Next Level S&C, we use the Mental Toughness Pyramid as a tool we use to help you determine which stage of the pyramid you are performing.

At the first stage you are Playing Not to Lose, which is doing just enough to avoid getting fired, benched, or cut. The next level up you are Playing To Cruise, which is just going through to motions without really engaging in any serious thought or action. The next level is Playing to Improve, which is when you begin to actively engage their mind and body to the task of getting better. The level above this is Playing to Compete, which is when you begin to believe you are capable of beating the competition and being the best. Sadly, at this level you can find success and power, but since this stage is highly ego driven people are sometime left felling empty wondering if “this is all there is?”

The highest level is Playing to Win, which occurs when you move from just competing to creating, where the primary goal of you performance is to be the best that you can be. At this stage you are competing only with yourself with the objective of being better than you were yesterday. Your competition is with yourself, not the person next to you.

If you have never challenged yourself beyond your known limits, either physically or mentally, I suggest you find an area you desire to push yourself in and set a goal in that area that will stretch you for an extended period of time.

Whatever goal you set, if it is high enough and hard enough, by definition, you must question yourself somewhere along the way: “Do I really want to do this? Is the reward that great?” You will rationalize how little you want the reward, and you must think about how much easier it would be if you were to rest, if only for a little while. If you do that, you are pushing yourself. If you quit, you quit; you lose for now. If you continue to try, you are among the minority. If you continue to quit, you are part of the majority. It does not matter what excuse you make. They all have the same result—failure. If you continue to try and you succeed, you are part of the elite, a winner.

Discover The Secret Formula For Dominating The Competition

Adapted from Mark Bender's Train Tough The Army Way

“Set the example in physical fitness. It is a fact that physically fit people are mentally, physically, and emotionally stronger than people who are not. Physically fit people are better able to withstand stress in peace and war.” - Army Field Manual

The secret?

Are you ready for it?

The secret to dominating the competition is... SUPERCONDITIONING

Huh? What's that, you ask?

It's the result of almost all world class athletic performance... It helps to cover up the weaknesses in your game... and it will pay off when you see the other guy quit and you are still ready, pushing forward.

Superconditioning is being SUPREMELY conditioned for your sport. And the only way to get there is to train harder and smarter than your competitors.



YOUR ROAD TO THE PATH OF SUCCESS

OK Dorothy,

Here is your yellow brick road:

First, list the critical skills for your sport. Focus your plan on these skills, and be sure that what you are practicing is fundamentally sounds. It is a big waste of time getting good at doing the wrong things.

Next, tailor your conditioning program to the sports you play. Undoubtedly, this will include a mix of strength, flexibility , and endurance training. It should also include speed and agility training.

Again learn correct technique. The best way to do this is to hook up with a competent trainer. There are also a number of helpful videos and books on the market. Trust me, life is too short to waste time training without the right program and the proper technique.

Along with strength training, you need an aerobic workout and for most of us that means running. You run to build endurance and stamina. Running raises your metabolism and burn off fat. For maximum effect in the shortest amount of time, consider wind sprints. Try sprinting 100 yards at 70 percent effort and jog back to your starting point. Do that 6 times and add a rep each workout until you can do 12 sprints in a row.

With any strength and conditioning program that you choose, you must first establish a base and never allow yourself to get to the point where you have to start from scratch. You lose 80 percent of your conditioning after 4 weeks of inactivity and it would take a whole month of hard work to get it back to where it WAS. And don't forget about the basics, like push ups, pull ups, squats, lunges, jumps, and sit ups – it's amazing what you can accomplish with no equipment at all.

To discover how you can take your game to the NEXT LEVEL call me NOW at 410-645-0231 to request your Free STRENGTH ACCELERATOR Audio Interview and Special Report.

STRENGTH ACCELERATOR is a unique, no nonsense, and powerful sports performance
system conceived to hone your mental and physical strength and toughness. STRENGTH ACCELERATOR will prepare you to take on the competition – and the world!

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