4 Lessons on How to Win from Arnold Schwarzenegger
Jun 14, 2023
For 15 or so minutes while I eat my first meal, I've turned on the new show about Arnold on one of the TV streaming things.
Arnold's said some dumb things lately, but you can't deny his achievements, and you can't deny how impressive they are given from where he started in life.
So, I flick it on, and though I'm only an episode and a bit through it, he's provided some valuable lessons and reminders to me, that I figured may help you as well.
So here we go...
"Be useful"
His old man always used to say this. Always be useful. Don't just sit there, help. Even if you think you've 'made it' for a while, keep being useful.
It's a good way to operate, and it doesn't just have to apply to being useful to others, but be useful to yourself. If something can be done, cleaned, fixed, completed, worked on, do it.
"Be too busy to think about your feelings"
As Ezra Cornell said, "Idleness is to the human mind like rust is to iron."
As feelings are given more weight in our culture, it declines.
People can feel anything and choose to see that as their reality. The weight we're placing on feelings is destructive.
Maybe it's because we're not building things? Maybe we have it too good?
Throughout history great men have done great things, feelings existed in all of them, but they didn't get in the way of the work, and by not getting in the way of the work, maybe they didn't get in the way of their ability to think clearly?
I don't fully know.
What I do know is that when I'm busy and focused, life is great. When I'm not, and my mind idles, I'd better find something to get busy doing or time wastes away and feelings shape my actions - and not in a good way.
I really do think there's a lot of value in this. Being busy on worthwhile work brings confidence, it creates results, while idleness can be a trap - just like comfort and laziness - that's hard to climb out of.
"If you have a vision (not a dream), nothing else really matters."
He makes a clear distinction between a vision and a dream.
A dream is a wish, a vision is you literally seeing in your mind's eye what you're pursuing.
This isn't a thing, like a car, house, whatever, but an achievement. An achievement is almost like our purpose for being here, and what's cool is, we get to decide why we're here in that sense, why we're alive.
Achievements aren't everything, but they're a piece of our reason for existing.
But you'd better choose what you're aiming at in life based on your interests. In other words, play your own game. Don't aim at what someone else is aiming at. Don't play someone else's game, don't compare.
It makes life a race of one, which you can control, when you compare where you are versus where others are or what they're doing, that's out of your control and it's a path that'll lead to despair.
I've heard too many uber successful people talk about this 'vision' concept to dismiss it. I know achievements depend on habits, but you won't do the habit if you don't believe it can produce the result.
We need that self belief.
It starts with clarity of that vision, really see it, and then back it up by doing the work.
"Don't need it."
At one point Arnold started buying up apartment buildings while he was trying to be a leading man in the movies.
This put him in a position of power, which enabled him to say 'no' to everything except what he really wanted - which was eventually Conan the Barbarian.
Even with our dreams and visions, our desires and mission, don't need it. It's hard to wrap your head around, but neediness is a repellant. When we need what we're aiming at the stress, fear, and worry that we may not get it clouds our mind, it forces bad decisions, and our achievements are merely an accumulation of good decisions.
When you don't need it, you're in a position of power. You can do the work, have the habits, enjoy the process, without compromising who you are or your values or standards.
