Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable (Tim Grover Winning Series)

by Tim S. Grover

Working through physical challenges that would put others on the bench just so you can taste the sweetness of winning one more time—that is what separates the good and great from the unstoppable.

You don’t have to love the hard work; you just have to crave the end result.

The only difference between “feedback” and “criticism” is the way you hear it, and I heard it all.

Cleaner, the most intense and driven competitor imaginable. You refuse limitations. You quietly and forcefully do whatever it takes to get what you want. You understand the insatiable addiction to success; it defines your entire life.

Let them judge you by your results, and nothing else; it’s none of their business how you get where you’re going.

That’s how you become unstoppable—by placing no limits on yourself.

Being relentless means demanding more of yourself than anyone else could ever demand of you, knowing that every time you stop, you can still do more. You must do more.

If you’re aiming to be the best at what you do, you can’t worry about whether your actions will upset other people, or what they’ll think of you.

From this point, your strategy is to make everyone else get on your level; you’re not going down to theirs. You’re not competing with anyone else, ever again. They’re going to have to compete with you. From now on, the end result is all that matters.

We never saw obstacles or problems, we only saw situations in need of solutions.

Relentless is about never being satisfied, always driving to be the best, and then getting even better. It’s about finding the gear that gets you to the next level . . . even when the next level doesn’t yet exist. It’s about facing your fears, getting rid of the poisons that guarantee you will fail.

anything that requires a long explanation probably isn’t the truth.

“In order to have what you really want, you must first be who you really are.”

Being relentless means never being satisfied. It means creating new goals every time you reach your personal best. If you’re good, it means you don’t stop until you’re great. If you’re great, it means you fight until you’re unstoppable. It means becoming a Cleaner.

Greatness makes you a legend; being the best makes you an icon. If you want to be great, deliver the unexpected. If you want to be the best, deliver a miracle.

That’s what champions do; they put people in place to get results and make everyone else around them look better.

A Cleaner’s attitude can be summed up in three words: I own this.

This is my fucking bus and there will be no fucking around on my bus; it will be clean and on time, and anyone who messes with me or my bus will be back on the street walking.

They never stop working, physically or mentally, because it gives them too much time to think about what they’ve had to endure and sacrifice to get to the top.

the one thing that defines and separates him from any other competitor: He’s addicted to the exquisite rush of success.

His lust for it is so powerful, the craving is so intense, that he’ll alter his entire life to get it. And it’s still never enough. As soon as he feels it, tastes it, holds it . . . the moment is over and he craves more.

Cleaners understand they don’t have to love the work to be successful; they just have to be relentless about achieving it, and everything else in between is a diversion and a distraction from the ultimate prize.

You can’t be unstoppable in your career and your relationships and your other interests, because achieving excellence in any one of those areas requires you to say, “I don’t give a damn about anything else.”

Cleaners don’t care about “having it all.”

True Cleaners don’t care about the bling and the showy lifestyle; they look at the bottom line. All that matters is the end result, not the instant gratification along the way.

Coolers, Closers, and Cleaners. Good, Great, and Unstoppable.

Cleaners don’t wait to be asked, they just do it.

Cleaners don’t have to show who’s in charge—everyone already knows.

You keep pushing yourself harder when everyone else has had enough.

You get into the Zone, you shut out everything else, and control the uncontrollable.

When everyone is hitting the “In Case of Emergency” button, they’re all looking for you.

You don’t have to love the work, but you’re addicted to the results.

You’d rather be feared than liked.

You don’t recognize failure; you know there’s more than one way to get what you want.

Excellence isn’t only about hitting the gym and working up a sweat; that’s the smallest part of what you have to do. Physical ability can only take you so far.

you can’t train your body—or excel at anything—before you train your mind.

Physical dominance can make you great. Mental dominance is what ultimately makes you unstoppable.

Do. The. Work. Every day, you have to do something you don’t want to do. Every day. Challenge yourself to be uncomfortable, push past the apathy and laziness and fear.

Otherwise, the next day you’re going to have two things you don’t want to do, then three and four and five, and pretty soon, you can’t even get back to the first thing.

yourself. Bottom line if you want success of any kind: you have to be comfortable being uncomfortable.

You control your body, it does not control you.

Any workouts involving the words easy and comfort aren’t workouts. They’re insults.

Cleaners show emotion if it’s the only way to get everyone else where they need to be. But never because the Cleaner has lost control of his feelings.

The fastest way to tumble out of the Zone is to allow emotions to drive your actions.

But the difference between Cleaners and everyone else is their ability to control those feelings, instead of allowing those feelings to control them.

Most people are the lion in the cage. Safe, tame, predictable, waiting for something to happen. But for humans, the cage isn’t made of glass and steel bars; it’s made of bad advice and low self-esteem and bullshit rules and tortured thinking about what you can’t do

You don’t have to think about whether those reflexes will come through, they just always do. That’s how I want you to envision instinct. No thinking. Just the gut reaction that comes from being so ready, so prepared, so confident, that there’s nothing to think about.

Whether you’re playing a sport or running a business, it’s the same concept. You don’t need to schedule a meeting to discuss a decision; you just make the decision.

Your instincts become so finely tuned that you have a reflexive response that allows you to attack without thinking.

Overthinking. Overanalyzing. That’s how you lose the natural ability that made you great in the first place.