Total Recall By Arnold Schwarzenegger

You can check out Total Recall on: AMAZON or GOODREADS

Key Takeaways

• What is the point of being on this Earth if you are going to be like everyone else?

• The idea of balancing the body and the mind. You have to build the ultimate physical machine but also the ultimate mind.

• The joy in working out is that with each painful rep you get a step closer to achieving your goal.

• From the bodybuilding days on, I learned that everything is reps and mileage. The more miles you ski, the better skier you become; the more reps you do, the better your body. I’m a big believer in hard work, grinding it out, not stopping until it’s done.

• It’s human nature to work on the things that we are good at. To be successful, however, you must be brutal with yourself and focus on the flaws.

• You can’t grow without burning. I don’t want to be too comfortable. I like to stay hungry.

• My definition of living is to have excitement always; that’s the difference between living and existing.

• The only way you become a leading man is by treating yourself like a leading man and working your ass off. If you don’t believe in yourself, then how will anyone else believe in you?

• “Take one dollar and turn it into two.”

• The most important thing was not how much you make, but how much you invest, how much you keep.

• I’m a person who does not like to talk about things over and over. I make decisions very quickly, I don’t ask many people for opinions, and I don’t want to think too many times about the same thing. I want to move on.

• Often it’s easier to make a decision when you don’t know as much, because then you can’t overthink. If you know too much, it can freeze you. The whole deal looks like a minefield.

• “It’s not what you get out of life that counts. Break your mirrors! In our society that is so self-absorbed, begin to look less at yourself and more at each other. You’ll get more satisfaction from having improved your neighborhood, your town, your state, your country, and your fellow human beings than you’ll ever get from muscles, your figure, your automobile, your house, or your credit rating. You’ll get more from being a peacemaker than a warrior.” -Sargent Shriver

• Arnold’s Principles of Success:

1. Turn your liabilities into assets. (more on that topic HERE)

2. When someone tells you no, you should hear yes. The only way to make the possible possible is to try the impossible. If you fail, so what? That’s what everybody expects. But if you succeed, make the world a much better place.

3. Never follow the crowd. Go where it’s empty. 

4. No matter what you do in life, selling is part of it. People can be great poets, great writers, are geniuses in the lab. You can do the finest work and if people don’t know, you have nothing!

5. Never let your pride get in your way.

6. Don’t overthink. If you think all the time, the mind can relax. The key thing is to let both the mind and the body flow. And then when you need to make a decision or hit a problem hard, you’re ready with all your energy. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use your brain, but part of us needs to go through life instinctively. By not analyzing everything, you get rid of all the garbage that loads you up and bogs you down. Turning off your mind is an art. It’s a form of meditation. Knowledge is extremely important for making decisions. The more knowledge you have, the more you’re free to rely on your instincts. Yet in most cases, people who have the knowledge get bogged down the frozen. The more you know, the more you hesitate, which is why even the smartest people blow up big-time.

7. The day has 24 hours. 

8. Don’t blame your parents. They’ve done their best for you, and if they’ve left you with problems, those problems are now yours to solve.

9. Change takes big balls. 

10. Take care of your body and your mind. 

11. Stay hungry. Be hungry for success, hungry to make your mark, hungry to be seen and to be heard and to have an effect. And as you move up and become successful, make sure also to be hungry for helping others.

• My father always told me, “Be useful. Do something.” If you have a talent or skill that makes you happy, use it to improve your neighborhood. And if you feel desired to do more, then go all out. You have plenty of time to rest when you’re in the grave. Live a risky life and a spicy life and like Eleanor Roosevelt said, every day do something that scares you.