Ep. #357: Motivation Monday: The Real Secret to Toughness (Probably Isn’t What You Think)

This episode is brought to you by me. Seriously, though, I’m not big on promoting stuff that I don’t personally use and believe in. So instead, I’m going to just quickly tell you about something of mine, specifically my newest book, the Little Black Book of Workout Motivation. Now, this book was fun to write because it really is my personal and 100 percent practical and hands on blueprint for transformation, both inside and outside of the gym.

And I promise you that it will provide you with new and valuable knowledge and skills that you will use for the rest of your life. of your life. In short, I wrote this book to help you fix the things that are most holding you back from doing and achieving the things you care most about. So if you want to learn how to overcome the mental blocks that are making you unmotivated, unhappy, and unhealthy, then the Little Black Book of Workout Motivation is for you.

And you can find it on all major online retailers like Audible, Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, and Google Play. And I should also mention that you can get the audiobook 100 percent free when you sign up for an Audible account. Which I highly recommend that you do if you’re not currently listening to audiobooks. I love them myself because they let me make the time that I spend commuting, prepping food, walking my dog, and so forth more valuable and productive.

If you want to take Audible up on this offer and get my audiobook for free, simply go to www. workoutmotivationbook. com slash audiobook. Click the sign up today and save button, create your account, and voila, you get to listen to my little black book for free. All righty. That is enough. Shameless plugging for now, at least let’s get to the show.

Hey, Mike Matthews here from muscle for life and legion athletics. And it is time for a motivation Monday podcast, which means that we are going to start with a quote. And this one comes from the writer HL Mencken. And he said, Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.

And of course, I don’t think that is literally true, but I do think that sometimes you have to be willing to be a bit quote unquote crazy, at least by normal standards, to get anywhere. Okay, so let’s get into the episode, which is about toughness. It is early 1916 and World War I has been raging for nearly two years.

Now this is a cataclysm unlike any other in history. The advance of industrial and military technologies and the horrors of trench warfare are producing unprecedented levels of carnage and destruction. Millions. are dead and thousands are dying every single day from chemicals, fire, shells, bullets, bombs, famine, and disease.

Troops, medics, and nurses on the front lines are surrounded by piles of decaying corpses and chunks of rotting flesh. At night, they sleep to a symphony of machine guns, mortars, and artillery on a bed of their dead comrades strewn about the floor. And then there are the rats that are swarming everywhere.

Now these are well fed rats that grow as large as cats that spread disease ridden fleas and lice. and that can eat a wounded man if he can’t defend himself. How can you maintain your marbles under such conditions, let alone your morale? What can sustain your sanity, let alone your spirit? For many, Humor is the only answer, the armament as essential as their rifles or bayonets, the last psychological defense.

By laughing at what they feared most and raising two middle fingers to the grim reaper, ordinary people endure. Extraordinary hardship. Pilots joke about joining the Sizzle Brigade, soldiers bleat like sheep as they march toward German machine guns, and fighters on both sides give shells cutesy nicknames like Cookpots, Blue Cucumbers, and Jack Johnsons.

We’re here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here, goes the song sung every day. Trench newspapers mock both the enemy and one’s own officers, politicians, and home front propaganda. Now, how could mere wit and insouciance save so many people from a dark descent into derangement? And how can we tap into their power to raise our spirits when the going gets tough?

To answer the first question, let’s analyze It’s humor and laughter through the lenses of history and science. And to answer the second question, let’s probe the lenses through which we view the world. Virtually all cultures, stretching back to the beginning of recorded time, have known of the relationship between humor and health.

The benefits of joy appear in the Bible, which states that a cheerful heart is good medicine, in, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. Ancient Greek physicians prescribed visits to comedy shows to help patients heal faster. Early Native Americans used laughter as an adjunct to various types of treatment and therapy.

In later times, doctors found that humor could distract from the pain of surgery and promote recovery and even treat depression and other psychiatric disorders. Humor itself Though wasn’t considered a legitimate field of scientific study until 1964 when Dr. William F. Fry, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, suggested that mirth had tremendous potential for impacting physical and mental health.

Now, his peers mostly ignored his assertions and denied his request for funding, but Dr. Fry moved forward on his own steam and dime. And in time, he produced landmark studies demonstrating several positive physiological mechanisms associated with laughter, including the activation of muscles. the elevation of heart rate and the increase in oxygen exchange, which together are similar to the effects of exercise, as well as the release of endorphins and vasodilation.

Word spread of Dr. Fry’s discoveries, which attracted other pioneering scientists to what he was now calling gelatology from the Greek word for laughter. Jell O’s and ology meaning study of, and together they produced many breakthroughs. For instance, studies conducted by Dr. Lee Burke and colleagues from Loma Linda University found that laughter lessens the negative effects of stress by reducing cortisol and catecholamine levels and boosts the immune system by increasing the production of antibodies, which protect against disease and dysfunction.

More recent research conducted by scientists at the University of Maryland Medical Center have found laughter improves blood vessel health and blood flow, which can reduce the risk of heart disease. These findings and others help explain why laughter is strongly correlated with significant health benefits, including improved cardiovascular performance, increased pain tolerance, reduced joint inflammation.

elevated mood, fear desensitization, and improved quality of life and well being. Research even shows that incorporating humor into teaching and learning environments can be transformational, reducing anxiety, stress, and tension, increasing self esteem and motivation, and improving alertness, creativity, and class performance.

Teachers who make their students laugh also create stronger bonds with them and receive higher evaluations, which significantly raises chances of academic success. Now, those are just a few examples from the growing body of evidence that joy is a powerful, but often Overlooked force immediately available to any of us who wish to uncork it.

It is a primal, instinctive and universal basic emotion that creates positive feelings and softens the impact of stress. What’s more, we don’t have to wait for something to tickle us. We can fake it till we make it. Find something, anything to laugh at, and the constructive process starts. And before you scoff at that, before you scoff at the idea that it is so straightforward, consider this.

If soldiers on the battlefront of an unthinkably gruesome war could find comedy in the absurdity of their existence, We can too. One reason humor is such an effective way to defuse stress is it allows us to distance ourselves from threatening circumstances and reappraise them in more positive, growth oriented ways.

Research also shows that people with a good sense of humor find more meaning in stressful events and perceive them as challenging. Rather than menacing. In other words, you can use humor and laughter to become more resilient. And that means that the more you chuckle at the vicissitudes of life, no matter how unfair, undeserved, or unreasonable they may seem, the less sway they have over you.

As the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote in his meditations, Choose not to be harmed, and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed, and you haven’t been. Now, when I first read that line, the message resonated with me, but I struggled to feel it when confronted with highly destructive people, actions, and forces.

For example, some time ago, I invested a significant amount of money, for me, in a Promising residential real estate venture that was being organized by a longtime friend, quote unquote, of my family’s. Now on paper, this deal looked like a home run. It was a prime location. Buyers were already trying to put down deposits and banks were already lining up to underwrite the project.

As time went on, however, the plans kept changing. Changing the development got bigger and bigger requiring more and more capital purportedly for more land, more staff, more contractors, more services. And as the financial demands continue to grow with no clear end in sight, so did. Suspicion among the investors.

Eventually several of them filed lawsuits. And then we all learned that the operation was a sham. The developer had embezzled much of the money that he raised and never intended on building anything. And what’s more, because I was a relatively small player in the game, there was little chance. That I would receive any sort of restitution.

Then to rub salt in the wound, the founder shrugged off my loss as collateral damage. He told me, let this be a lesson in chasing after easy money. Okay. As you can imagine, the whole fiasco. Stung this crook didn’t need my cash and he knew there were many other productive and meaningful things I could have done with it.

He only took the money because he could because I trusted him and So I was upset a part of me didn’t want to turn the other cheek a part of me didn’t want to Look past the dishonesty Disdain and depravity, not to mention the economic and emotional costs. Fortunately for me, though, I have a funny bone, and it won out after cooling off.

I had a good laugh at the predicament, at the guy, at myself. What a ridiculous experience with a clownish, Parasite, a pure comedy of errors. And even though I had every reason to seethe, I split my sides instead, and I no longer felt harmed. So other people hurt me? Aurelius said. That’s their problem. Their character and actions are not mine.

Such is the power of what scientists refer to as self enhancing humor. Using humor to relieve stress and foster a cheerful outlook in the face of adversity. Try not to take yourself or your circumstances too seriously, even when the chips are down. You really never know how your good spirits and your tenacity might pay off as time goes on.

In my case, losing that money not only did teach me some important lessons about Due diligence, but also allowed me to meet several other successful entrepreneurs and investors who have since helped me grow my businesses in various ways. There’s a Chinese fable titled we’ll see that expresses this message beautifully.

It goes like this. A farmer had a horse and one day it ran away. His neighbors consoled him. I’m so sorry. This is such bad news. You must be so upset. The man just said, We’ll see. A few days later, his horse returned with twenty wild horses in tow and the man and his son corralled them all. His neighbors celebrated.

Congratulations! This is such good news. You must be so happy. The man just said, We’ll see. A few weeks later, a stallion kicked the man’s son, breaking one of his legs. His neighbors reeled. I’m so sorry, this is such bad news, you must be so upset. The man just said, we’ll see. The following month, the farmer’s country went to war and drafted legions of able bodied young men to fight their enemies.

Casualties were high, but did not include the man’s son, since the army had no use for a lame boy. The neighbors couldn’t believe the family’s luck. Congratulations, this is such good news, you must be so happy. The man just said, We’ll see. Hey there. It is Mike again. I hope you enjoyed this episode and found it interesting and helpful.

And if you did and don’t mind doing me a favor and want to help me make this the most popular health and fitness podcast on the internet, then please leave a quick review of it on iTunes or wherever you’re listening from. This not only convinces people that they should check the show out, it also increases its search visibility.

And thus helps more people find their way to me and learn how to build their best bodies ever too. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then just subscribe to the podcast and you won’t miss out on any of the new goodies. Lastly, if you didn’t like something about the show, then definitely shoot me an email at mike at musclefullife.

com and share your thoughts on how you think it could be better. I read everything myself, and I’m always looking for constructive feedback, so please do reach out. All right, that’s it. Thanks again for listening to this episode, and I hope to hear from you soon. Oh, and if you liked this episode, then you are going to love my newest book, the little black book of workout motivation.

You should definitely check it out because this book is my personal and 100 percent practical and hands on blueprint for transformation, both inside and outside of the gym. I promise that this book will provide you with. With new and valuable knowledge and skills that you will use for the rest of your life.

In short, I wrote this book to help you fix the things that are most holding you back from doing and achieving the things that you care the most about. So if you want to learn how to better overcome the mental blocks that are making you unmotivated, unhappy, and unhealthy. Then the little black book of workout motivation is for you and you can find it on all major online retailers like audible, Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, and Google play.

Now I should also mention that there is an audio book as well, one that I recorded myself. So if you. If you don’t like listening to me talk about this kind of stuff on the podcast, then you’ll definitely like listening to the audiobook and you can actually get that audiobook 100 percent free when you go to www.

workoutmotivationbook. com slash audiobook and sign up for an Audible account. Now, I myself love audiobooks and highly recommend them to everyone because they let you take downtime. that you spend commuting, prepping food, walking dogs, stuff like that into something more valuable and productive. So if you want to take Audible up on this offer and get my audiobook for free, simply go to www.

workoutmotivationbook. com slash audiobook, click on the little sign up today and save button, create your Audible account and voila, you get to listen to my little black book for free.