It hurts me to say this -I know you are working your ass off- but you are failing miserably at on thing.

A few months ago, you could nearly lift the phone you are reading this on and now you are doing push ups, pull ups, dips, squats and perhaps even muscle ups.

Still, you feel like you are a weakling compared to all those athletes on youtube, instagram and facebook.

 

You think about quitting, giving it all up.

Your motivation is leaking away, like water in a bucket filled with holes and the thought of that happening disappoints me, it really does.

After all, you’re leaps closer to where you where when you started working out.

 

And you work just as hard as those ‘people you look up to’, sometimes even harder because you know you have some huge patches of ground to cover.

Believe it or not, but they look up to you too.

At least I do, not because I’m trying to kiss your ass. No, the real reason why I look up to you is because you are willing to go out there.

You just need to find a way to fill up those holes that are eating away at your motivation and discover how much you have really grown.

 

 

 

What You Need To Write In Your Book Of Achievements

 

First of all a book of achievements is a ‘simple’ book for you to document your journey in.

Basically it’s your workout diary and it is one of the most essential tips for beginners.

Why is it so essential? Why should you keep a diary?

 

Before I explain, first you need to get one and realise that the most important thing you need to write down in your book are your goals for the coming year.

What do you want to achieve?

Which cool moves should you be able to do within a 12 month period if you are realistic.

 

Give an exact number of repetitions or seconds.

For example: ‘By the end of this year (12-12-16) I want to be able to do 12 consecutive muscle ups’.

Write down at least 10 goals.

After that you write down your current weight and your goal weight and you are all set to go.

And write down 1 crazy thing you want to achieve this year, it should make you smile.

 

Based upon these 10 goals you start looking at the right routines.

‘What routines do you need to do to get these 12 muscle ups?’

How much reps, how often a week.

 

Write down your routines for the coming period to make sure you always have them with you.

Don’t use your phone.

Actually writing down stuff will help you remember it much better (1).

 

 

 

How To Motivate Yourself 101: Magic To Motivation

 

This is just as important as having goals.

And it’s your essential ‘trump card’ for your motivation.

So read this carefully.

 

Before every training write down the exact date.

Write down what workout you are going to do and write down any additional notes, perhaps feelings.

Things you are going to do differently or stuff you have recently discovered.

 

Key Takeaway:

After every training -no matter how short- write down the answer to this question: “What have I achieved during this workout?”

It can be anything.

It can be you eating a bunch of bananas while hanging on 1 arm.

It can be doing an extra push up when you felt like you couldn’t.

It can be doing your first muscle up after 2 months of intense training.

 

WRITE IT DOWN.

Whenever you feel down or need some motivation, pick a few achievement pages in your book, read them.

And remind yourself of how far you have come.

 

 

 

Fire Up Your Mind For Motivation With This Book

 

Studies show that when you actually write down stuff,  it leads to higher quality learning, as writing is a better strategy to store and internalize ideas in the long haul (2).

So no phones, tablets, laptops or anything else.

Just plain old ink and some paper.

 

More, research shows that an easy way to stay motivated and speed up your journey is by breaking down your big goals into mini-achievements.

By doing so you change your brains perception of the distance to your goal and you actually physically feel that you are moving towards it.

Additionally, you can actually make your brain think more positively by reminding yourself of how often you’ve succeeded in the past (3). 

 

So this is the part where it gets weird.

Basically what you need to know is this:

Your brain works like Google, if you ask a question your brain looks through all your files and in your environment for answers.

Whatever you focus on, your brain sees and all the other stuff just gets ignored (4).

The same goes for writing down your goals.

As you write down those goals you start focusing your brain on achieving those goals.

You are more or less, wiring your brain for your own success.

 

As soon as you write down: ‘I want to get my first muscle up’, your brain starts looking for information, experimenting with stuff and you are setting yourself up for that first achievement.

That’s why you are reading this, because you at a certain point asked the question or set the goal: “I want to become better at calisthenics or how can I achieve a calisthenic-like body?”.

You have wired your brain, you just don’t know it yet.

Am I freaking you out already?

 

 

 

Are You Ready To Hardwire Yourself For Results?

 

If you could buy a $0.99 book that would allow you to increase your chances of achieving the results you want by 200% would you leave it laying on the shelves or would you use it?

Whatever your calisthenics dream is, its success depends on your motivation.

You know all too well that the work you put into your body doesn’t always pay off the way you want it to.

Whenever your disappointments or feelings of failure start hijacking your brain, look at your achievements.

Punch some holes into your bucket of negativity.

And re-wire your brain, shed a different light on your thoughts, because every failure brings you one step closer to your success.

 

Start today.

Get a book of your own.

Open it. Look at the empty first page of your book of achievements.

And before you do anything else, write this down: “I promise myself, I will never give up.”

 

*Fist bump*

 

Now I’d like to hear from you:

Did you like this post?

Or maybe you have a question.

Either way, leave a quick comment below right now.

 

 

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  1. Absolutetly incredible how motvating this post was. It has been two rough months and I have been putting in all my effort, sometimes more than other times, this set me on track again, I will get a book of achievements and use it everyday, thanks to you. I hope it works because I really want that first muscle up.

    Also, do you keep a book of achievements yourself? Has it changed you in any distinct manner?

    Thanks for all the great content, the best of my regards, Istabrak.
    Beast mode ON!

    1. Hey Ista,

      Thanks for the positive reply again! Appreciate it!

      This will definitely be something that will help you become more disciplined about what you do and it will allow you to figure out things better as you move forward.

      It has definitely helped me significantly, especially forcing myself to write down an achievement after I feel like I’m not progressing. In addition, it has allowed me to memorize my workouts better and it’s forcing me to reconsider what I have been doing, because I can look back at all of my workouts and look at where I did something wrong or right.

      Let’s say on a monday I feel extremely strong in a certain exercise, much more than I used to feel before. I simply look back at the workouts, notes, achievements to find out what happened that has allowed me to improve so much and I build on that.

      You really have to discover it for yourself. It’ll be a fun obsession after a while.

      Beast mode ON!

      1. I started my book of achievements and wrote 2 full pages already on my goals and routines. But I am a bit confused, should I follow every single goal at the same time? I’d like to pursue 2 goals at the time and when they are checked off, proceed to the following two.

        Keep up the good work, I read every single post you make.
        Beast mode ON!

  2. Absolutely agree with this. Been wanting to get a appreciation/achievement book for a while. While getting charcoal for our braai will get a book.
    Thanks for the e-mails/articles as they inspire us

  3. Hey Rich, I want to ask your opinion on the arch and hollow back position technique to achieve a muscle up?
    Check this video out by Strength Project, skip to the 1:24 mark and watch how the first pulls himself up with an arched back then at the top motion of the pull up, hollows his back to get this shoulders and wrists above the bar, I am eager to try the method out, what’s your view on it?

    Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmWVCi7WiEk

    1. Hey Ista,

      The strength project video is definitely great and I can recommend it (I love that guy, he has great videos), by hollowing the back you are basically making use of your shoulder muscles in the right way. He is retracting his shoulders explosively. By swinging forward he automatically, pushes his shoulder blades together and this allows him to explosively pull up.

      It still requires significant strength however.

      Practice!

      Beast mode ON!

      1. Hey Rich, sorry for bothering you again, I found another method for the muscle up presented by Omar Isuf, what do you think about it? They say you keep your feet infront of your knees, and you don’t let them go behind the knees, then also you swing forward two times then use the momentum and do a straight lat pull over instead of a straight up pull up. After that you throw yourself over the bar and press up. What do you think about it?

        Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKg5hfbj6Jg

        Also, I started doing weighted pull ups to increase my explosiveness in my regular pull up to get a muscle up easier, you think weighted pull ups are beneficial for the muscle up? And should I include slow muscle up negatives to get the feel of the transition, and jump muscle ups to understand the motion as it will be performed?

        Thanks for all your motivation and inspiration, you are the most helpful guy on the internet I have yet to see. Thanks again.

        Best of my regards, Istabrak Ode.
        Beast mode ON!

  4. This is most certainly a great way to create proggress to your workout. Ive only taken notes about reps and sets but im going to add a little more, inspired by this post:)

    Any advice about starting a habit of stretching? Im an on/off stretcher. I saw your pic in facebook about your insane stretch against the wall and got inspired. So can you give a little example how you do it so i could learn something.

    1. Hey Teukka,

      Thanks for the positive comment!

      Great question. I’ll make sure to write a blog on a few basic stretches which I do.

      To start off with make sure you do an accumulated 5 minutes a day (to start off with) of horse stance and 5 minutes of deep squatting (Most people can’t do this).

      You can find both on my instagram.

      Both exercises will have huge benefits for your overall lower body flexibility.

      If you have any other questions, let me know and be on the lookout for a blog on flexibility.

      Beast mode ON!

  5. I really appreciate your efforts to analyze our mind with your worth full words that gives me a positive vibes towards my fitness dream.

  6. I really loved reading this post. Currently, I am a 17 year old boy who is skinny and underweight (168cm, 49kg). I can see myself being a beast in a few years time. So I just started to workout today (28/6/19) and I felt sore throughout my whole body afterwards especially my arms. During the workout, I almost gave up on the last cycle of decline pushups because I felt that my arm can no longer support me, but I still finished it and really felt happy and it was rewarding for some reason.
    Some of my goals are to not be skinny and bony like before, be a more resilient person and able to do 5 consecutive muscle ups by the end of 2019.
    I promise myself I will NEVER give up.

    p.s. Thank you for writing this post! I am now motivated to change myself and I would love to see my future self reading this achievement book and able to recollect the hard work I did in the past and be more motivated.

    1. Hey Haiqal,

      Thanks for sharing brother, you will get there and look back with a smile.

      Start slow and take your time, you have time in abundance.

      Come back to me at the end of the year and let me know how it went, whether you get that goal or not you will learn a lot from the journey which is more important than anything else.

      Keep up the good work my friend!

      *Fist bump*

  7. This guide was just brilliant and was good for many things such as for diet, motivation,daily schedule and many more things………
    #Thanks bar brothers you are beast 💪👊
    #Just want to say guys there you are
    #thanks and keep motivating

    1. Hey Aman,

      Awesome stuff! Really happy to read that you have been making use of the tips. It took me many years to collect them and I am privileged enough to be in the position to share with those looking for answers.

      Keep up the good work my friend!

      *Fist bump*

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Calisthenics for beginners.



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