Be Useful: Seven tools for life

by Arnold Schwarzenegger

It’s the struggle that makes success, when you achieve it, taste so sweet.

Being a bodybuilding champion, being a millionaire leading man, being a public servant—those were my goals, but they were not what motivated me.

Vision is the most important thing. Vision is purpose and meaning. To have a clear vision is to have a picture of what you want your life to look like and a plan for how to get there.

We always have a choice. What we don’t always have, unless we create it, is something to measure our choices against.

That is what a clear vision gives you: a way to decipher whether a decision is good or bad for you, based on whether it gets you closer or further away from where you want your life to go. Does the picture you have in your mind of your ideal future get blurrier or sharper because of this thing you’re about to do?

The only difference between them and us, between me and you, between any two people, is the clarity of the picture we have for our future, the strength of our plan to get there, and

whether or not we have accepted that the choice to make that vision a reality is ours and ours alone.

This wasn’t a fantasy. This was a memory that just hadn’t happened yet.

In my experience, the fitness world, Hollywood, and politics are full of amazing people. I’ve met many of them. They’re also full of douchebags, pricks, and assholes. I’ve met a lot of them too.

Plain talk! Love it.

Navigating the gross parts of these worlds was like trying to move inside a set of Russian nesting dolls full of shit and hair gel.

In German, we have a saying: Wenn schon, denn schon. Roughly translated, it means “If you’re going to do something, DO IT.

Let me tell you something: Nothing good has ever come from having a plan B. Nothing important or life-changing, anyway. Plan B is dangerous to every big dream. It is a plan

for failure. If plan A is the road less traveled, if it’s you carving your own path toward the vision you’ve created for your life, then plan B is the path of least resistance. And once you know that path is there, once you’ve accepted that it’s an option, it becomes so, so easy to take it whenever things get difficult. Fuck plan B!

My goal is to help fix the earth. It’s just how I think. Big.

I’d do the same thing on the front page of my speech drafts. I knew once I got to ten reps I could do a decent job delivering the speech, but twenty reps meant I could knock it out of the park. The words would feel more natural, like I was speaking off the cuff and from the heart. The more I practiced the speech, the more of myself would be present in the room, and the more likely it would be that the people in the audience felt connected to me and the ideas I was sharing with them.

The key is, they have to be good reps. Not lazy, distracted, arched-back, noodle-arm, bullshit reps.

‘Noodle-arm, bullshit reps’. Hilarious!

Milius’s response: “Pain is temporary, this film will be permanent.”

Muhammad Ali famously said that he didn’t start counting his sit-ups until they hurt. “They’re the only ones that count,” he said. “That’s what makes you a champion.”

Don’t be a lazy fuck. Do the work. The only time you are allowed to use the phrase “I took care of it” is when it is done. Completely.

Ironically, follow-through is usually the easiest part of the work, at least in terms of energy and resources; yet it’s almost always the thing that we either take for granted or let slip through the cracks.

American country singer and sausage maker Jimmy Dean who nailed it. He said, “Do what you say you’re going to do, and try to do it a little better than you said you would.”

Follow up and follow through, fully.

When you’re chasing a vision and working toward a big goal, there is nothing more energizing than making progress.

And while I was definitely physically exhausted, mentally I was totally switched on. I was excited and energized, because I’d just spent two hours moving closer to achieving my vision.

Whether it’s a matter of getting into flow state or not, what every person who gets shit done has in common is that they either find the time, make the time, or turn the time they do have into what it needs to be for them to accomplish the task in front of them.

It’s not hours in the day you lack, it’s a vision for your life that makes time irrelevant.

What about time for rest and relaxation? First of all, rest is for babies and relaxation is for retired people.

It’s not “I will be a great bodybuilder.” It’s “I can see myself as a great bodybuilder.” It’s not “I will be a leading man.” It’s “I can picture myself as a leading man.”

All my friends will tell you that one of the most distinctive things about me is my ability to find joy in everything I do.

Failure has never killed a dream; quitting kills every dream it touches.

I have a rule. You can call me Schnitzel, you can call me Termie, you can call me Arnie, you can call me Schwarzie, but don’t ever call me a self-made man.

As I got older and I understood more of the nuance and the history behind the idea of the self-made man, I understood that what people were really trying to do was to compliment me for being hardworking, disciplined, motivated, dedicated—all the things you need to be in order to achieve your goals. And they were right, of course. I was all those things. No one lifted the weights or spoke the lines or signed the bills for me. But that doesn’t mean I was self-made. Who I am, where I am, why I am here, what I have had the opportunity to do—this is all because of the impact of hundreds of special people in my life.

Life isn’t zero-sum. We can all grow together, get richer together, get stronger together. Everyone can win, in their own time, in their own way. How that happens is by focusing on all the ways we can give back to the people in our lives, whether they’re our family, our friends, our neighbors, our collaborators, or just our fellow humans who breathe the same air we do. How can we help them achieve their own visions? How can we support them in their goals? What can we do to help them get better at the things they love to do? What can we give to those in need? What you will discover as you answer each of these questions for yourself in your own relationships is that you will get back exactly what you give.

Giving back is also known to produce a neurochemical called vasopressin, which is associated with love.

I was happy helping other people not because it advanced my personal goals, but because it was my personal goal.