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*Everyone who wants to feel in control of their own health, body, and future, and who is willing to make the necessary investments in themselves to make that happen.

*People who have a vision for their bodies and lives, and who are driven to break free of artificial limitations, realize their unique talents, and fulfill their true potentialities. 

*Athletes and competitors who want to learn how to find that extra gear inside themselves and develop the physical, emotional, and spiritual strength and energy needed to overcome any obstacle.

*Anyone who hates feeling like they're moving in slow motion, and who wants to fight back against the exhaustion and inertia that's preventing them from healing what's unhealthy, fixing what's broken, and improving what's lacking.

I haven't been this impressed with a fitness book in a long time, but in no way is this just a fitness book.

For whatever reason, most people think that the gym is just about working out, but training is never just training. The gym is...Life.

The lessons you can learn inside the gym, the person that working out can help you to become, can be taken with you everywhere else that you go in life and they will serve you well in every other thing it is you do.

Once you learn how to control what happens inside the gym, you find out that there's a lot more that you can control outside the gym too.

The Little Black Book of Workout Motivation is a thinking person's fitness book, and somehow...somehow...Mike Matthews finds a way to bring Epictetus, Solzhenitsyn, Teddy Roosevelt, Socrates, and more into a book about health and fitness and still make it accessible, easy to get into, valuable, and fun.

Moreover, fitness should be fun. It should make your life better, and not be seen as a chore, some fearful obligation, or something that's beyond your reach. This book is for people who want to be better than they are right now, and if there's just one thing you take away from this book I hope it's that being better than you are right now is never beyond your reach.

That's not to say that you won't be asked to make meaningful sacrifices and to do things that you don't want to do right now, in order to get you closer to the things you want most. As Mike says:

That's another thing the gym teaches you: the supreme importance of showing up. Getting back up after every failure, dusting yourself off after every defeat, and doing your best today, tomorrow, and every day. That's why you won't achieve a spectacular physique after one single day of training. It just doesn't work like that. You have to keep showing up.

Now, you won't find specific training or meal plans inside this book. Mike has other books like Bigger Leaner Stronger that offer plans like that. This book is more about the principles and fundamentals. Once you get those right, and understand the reasoning behind them, you can successfully choose, discard, and even invent methods accordingly. 

The main difference between the people who find this book helpful and the people who let it gather dust on their shelves is that the people who found value in it actually put these ideas into practice on a daily basis. They actually got up and started to get after it, which is how they avoided the trap of spending too much time thinking and too little time doing and looking.

As we'll see in the Key Ideas below, action is the only salvation that exists. But it has to be intelligently directed action, and that's one of the main things this book will clarify for you. It'll help you set meaningful goals, stress test them in the real world, recalibrate, get up and go after them again, and get closer each and every time you do.

Keeping an optimistic but realistic mindset as you move forward is something that Matthews emphasizes, and this is something we can all get better at.

Easy answers and false promises have no place in the Mike Matthews playbook though. As he consistently reminds us, working out and eating right takes time, energy, effort, discipline, dedication, and patience, and Life always finds a way to test us and make us prove how badly we want it.

So keep this book close by and hold tightly onto your growing self-belief. Don't ask for an easy life; ask for the strength to endure a difficult one. Don't limit yourself to the light weights; motivate yourself to get stronger.

#1: Conquering the Fitness Game

People think it's "just the gym," but in reality, it can be so much more. Approached in the right way, you can learn just as much (if not more) about yourself and what you're capable of inside the gym than you can in any classroom.

Perhaps the biggest lesson that I see many people take away from their gym experience is that they have the ability to tackle harder, more complex challenges outside the gym as well.

After you've pushed through enough plateaus and lifted that bar for enough reps, you start seeing changes that you are in control of, and the knowledge that you can effect those kinds of changes is a before/after moment in many people's lives. It certainly was in mine.

Speaking for myself, I was able to take that newfound sense of self-efficacy and self-belief with me out into the wider world and make BIG changes happen out there too.

Those changes didn't happen overnight, which taught me patience. Results take time, inside the gym and out. Those changes came hard, and I had to keep at it for much longer than I had anticipated, which taught me the value of consistency and work ethic.

Every rep, every workout was a positive reinforcement of those kinds of life-changing lessons. Very little that most of my teachers have ever said to me has had that kind of impact on my life. I owe it all to the gym.

The gym is an extremely special place, somewhere you have the opportunity to put yourself in difficult situations (yet in a controlled environment), where you have to figure out how to make it. You have to do this, and so you're confronted with some difficult questions that you can't run away from: Are you going to lift this heavy weight or not? Are you going to run that extra mile or not? Will you persevere?

But the lessons don't stop there! Tracking your workouts, measuring your progress, and showing up at the gym every day whether you feel like it or not teaches you discipline and conscientiousness, which are valuable everywhere human beings seek to make an impact, no matter what the project or goal.

The gym also teaches you to handle your emotions when results don't come as quickly as you'd like them to, or when you feel overwhelmed and aren't sure whether you can make it through these last few, heavy, difficult reps. You almost always can, but until you prove it to yourself, your true capability will always remain "potential" and not "actual."

Perhaps most importantly, the gym teaches you the supreme importance of keeping your promises to yourself, no matter what.

The worst thing you could ever do is to let yourself down, and the gym gives you that choice: Am I going to come through for myself? Or am I going to lie down? Am I going to follow through? Or am I going to just fold?

Every single lesson and piece of valuable self-knowledge I've described in the preceding paragraphs is also valuable in the external world where we all live out our days. And the gym is one of the best places in which to learn these lessons.

It's all too easy to focus on the physical pain of each rep, and the emotional drain of doing your absolute best, no matter what. But you always have to remember: your mind is getting a workout too, and on the other side of this next, brutally challenging set is an entirely new self-concept, a whole new reality.

#2: The Most Rewarding Adventure

The perfect physique doesn't exist, and whatever you've achieved in life so far, isn't your true potential. You can always do more; that's yet another thing that the gym teaches you.

But again, there's more to it than that. The gym also happens to be one of those places where not only is everyone welcome, but it also doesn't matter who you are or how many times you've failed in the past: you're still always welcome within these walls. Nothing you do - or fail to do - can ever change that.

Look: every workout is a new workout. Every day is a new day. Every attempt is a new attempt, and our past doesn't determine our future. We determine our future, and it's always up to us. Something else that the gym teaches us!

The interesting thing you'll discover is that attaining that perfect physique (or anything else, like social acceptance, status, trophies, etc.) was never the point in the first place. Those are external measures of success that are undeniably important; we need to have objective ways to determine winners in sports and athletics, and competition does wonderfully focus the mind, elevating all the competitors in the process.

But in fitness, there is no finish line, and even if you were to get there, it would only represent a tiny fraction of the total time you've devoted to getting better and better at the gym.

As they say, the person who loves walking will go further than the one who just loves the destination. It's the present that we inhabit - one where we're tested by meaningful challenges and must prove ourselves worthy - where we'll find the majority of the rewards of our training, and when you think of it like that, the fact that this process never ends is actually the most wonderful news of all.

#3: Paying the Full Price

Throughout history, the people who stored food for the winter, learned to anticipate the changes of the seasons, and sacrificed at least a little bit of their present comfort for their future survival were the ones who actually made it.

While we may not face nearly as many existential threats to our safety as we did in the past, the same general principle is true today: the people who win make the right sacrifices, and the people who lose don’t. It's all about giving up at least some of what you want now, in exchange for what you want most later.

In his book, The Power of Regret, Daniel Pink identifies four distinct categories of regret (foundation, boldness, moral, and connection regrets), and the sacrifices that people make in each category partly determine what kinds of regrets they're saddled with (and/or avoid) in the future.

For example, foundation regrets involve things like not saving up money for retirement, never gaining an education, etc. All those things contribute to one's stability throughout life; they serve as the foundation for a better life. But in order to save enough money for retirement, you can't blow all your cash (not to mention your health) on getting drunk every weekend. You have to sacrifice at least a little bit of what you want now (an entertaining weekend out that you may or may not remember), for what you want most, which is the calm, peace of mind, and equanimity of knowing that you'll be provided for financially when you choose to stop working.

Similarly, with training, the more you sacrifice, the more you'll be able to achieve. Maybe you won't be able to eat whatever you want, skip workouts whenever you feel like it, or stay up late and wreck your sleep watching movies. You're going to have to get up, you're going to do some work, and you're going to have to undergo some discomfort to get what you've said that you want: to get in shape and improve your body. But that's just the price you'll have to pay.

A quote from football legend Tom Brady gives perfect voice to this idea. He said:

Now, depending on your goals, you certainly don't have to give up your whole life. But how far do you want to take this? How hard are you willing to train? How long are you willing to maintain your workout streak? Are you willing to impose certain limits on yourself in some areas so that you can transcend your limits in others? What are you willing to give up now for what you want later?

The answers to those questions make all the difference between the people who make it and the people who fail.

But I'll also say this: you don't have to be perfect. Not if you don't want to be a world champion. You just have to do enough. You just have to determine the full price of whatever it is that you want and promise to pay it. As Matthews says:

#4: This is What “Hard” Feels Like

This is somewhat of an extension of the last Key Idea, in that once you commit to paying the full price of what you want, you often discover that the actual price is far higher than your original estimate.

Sometimes, even though we do take what is undoubtedly the hardest step - the first one - we find that the next thousand steps are shaping up to be far more arduous than we had ever imagined. We thought that we knew what it was going to take, but it turned out that we had no idea. And you know what?

That's fine! I mean, how would you have known how hard it was going to be if you had never attempted it before? I'm speaking, of course, about starting a new training program, a new business, a new relationship - anything. It's probably going to be much harder (at times) than you are anticipating.

At times like these, it's helpful to remember that this is what "hard" feels like.

You've embarked on a journey worth taking, and of course that's bound to be difficult. Did you expect it to be any different?!

This is supposed to be hard, and because it's hard, you can rest assured that most people just won't be able to sustain that kind of tremendous effort. But you can. And every time you do, what you're doing is separating yourself from average and everything that being average entails. That comes with discomfort. It's unavoidable - just part of the deal. This is what "hard" feels like.

But if you can withstand that and keep going - continuing to pay that price - you will eventually get to a place that hardly anyone ever gets to see. In the words of Henry David Thoreau, if one advances confidently in the direction of their dreams, and endeavors to live the life which they have imagined, they will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

#5: Implementation Intentions

The above quote refers to what are called implementation intentions, and they're extremely helpful when it comes to installing great habits.

My process for reading 100+ books a year works exactly the same way. In practical terms, I schedule my reading first and then schedule everything else around it. But what I'm really doing is deciding that I'm going to read, at specific times, in a specific place, etc. It'll work the same way for anything that's important to you.

Are you going to work out? Okay, great! What type of workout? Weights? Calisthenics? Rock climbing? When? Today? Tomorrow? (Please make it today)!

Now, where exactly are you going to work out? How far is the gym from here? What time do you have to leave in order to get there at your chosen time? Who are you going with? How long are you planning on staying? The more clear and specific that you can get about these details the better.

Strong implementation intentions are essential to forming great habits, and Mike Matthews backs up his claims with cited research evidence that this stuff works:

#6: We (Partly) Determine Our Willpower

Perhaps one of the biggest lessons you can take away from this entire book is that where you start doesn't have to be where you end up.

You can make changes. You can improve; you can get better. There are things you can do that will stack the probabilities of success in your favor, and you have significant control over whether or not you actually do them.

Where willpower is concerned, doing a few separate things is sure to give you some quick wins. Prioritizing your sleep, for one. It's hard to focus on anything through one bloodshot eye, and you're sabotaging yourself in the future whenever you cheat yourself out of the sleep your body desperately needs tonight.

Another important thing is optimizing your body's hormones, such as dopamine, serotonin, and several other important neurotransmitters.

Admittedly, I'm no expert when it comes to hormones and neurobiology (even though I've read more than a few books where they're discussed and explained), and in these breakdowns, I never try to pass myself off as more knowledgeable than I actually am.

So in this case, I'll refer you to people like Andrew Huberman (and obviously, Mike Matthews) who know a hell of a lot more about this stuff than I do. But I know that it's important, and whenever you reject sources of "cheap" dopamine like junk food and social media scrolling, and instead tie dopamine release to the accomplishment of your goals, you can do some pretty incredible things.

As Matthews says in the quote above, your mindsets, decisions, and environment play significant roles as well, including the people within your environment and the people influencing your mindset. It's hard to move forward in life with a bunch of 175lbs anchors holding you down, so you're doing yourself a disservice by willingly associating with people who aren't actively helping you to get better.

The self-image we have of ourselves is also a huge factor in how much discipline, self-control, and willpower we can summon in service of our highest aims. Maxwell Maltz proved that our self-concept - how we see ourselves - powerfully shapes our behavior, and that's one of the reasons why you should never say anything about yourself that you don't want to be true. You might just start to believe it.

The bottom line here is that we are not helpless. We are not stuck with the level of willpower and determination that we currently have. We can do more. And if we don't try to find out how much we can really do, we will never know.

#7: The Only Salvation That Exists

In one of my favorite lines in one of my favorite books of all time, Zorba the Greek, the main character Zorba says in a letter to the narrator, "Action! Action! No other salvation exists." This, I believe, is one of the more foundational truths of human existence. Everything positive that we want to realize in our lives springs from taking massive, energetic, effective action.

To improve our situation, we must actually do something. We must act! We have to get moving! Generating forward momentum and drive! It's truly the only way we can save ourselves, whether that's from living a life of regret and missed opportunity, developing the kind of physique we want, and all the rest of it. Action gives us the life and the body that we want; it gives us that option.

Reading about getting fit isn't going to make you fit. Just like reading about starting a business won't generate any sales. But once you get started, moving things tend to stay in motion, and once you've generated sufficient momentum toward your goal you become very difficult to stop.

Action also clears the mind and brings incredible focus; it silences - or, at least dims - the voices of self-doubt and self-loathing in our heads; and it allows us to go much further than we ever thought we could way back when we were just thinking about getting started.

Only you can save yourself. But you know what? The good news is that you're also the best person for the job.

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