HopeFul Reflections

As a young child, I just remember the other men in my family being amazed by how muscular the man was. I didn’t learn anything about him until I started looking into working out when I was 13 as I mentioned in my last post. My nature is such that I really only care about whatever information serves me. However, more than the physical training regimens he had to offer there was something else I thought was worth learning from the man when I looked into his story.

Ambition

There were hundreds of people speaking online about how to workout and how to look and become strong. Arnold spoke about the simple act of exercise as if it were a path to greatness and for him it was. He spoke about his life and his goals with such passion. I had just begun to envision my future and as a kid I was looking for someone to inspire me. Here I had someone who came from humble beginnings and became a champion bodybuilder, actor, politician, and real estate millionaire. I didn’t necessarily have those same ambitions, but the ambition and the drive he had was something I admired and wanted to apply to my life.

Vision

He’s often found in interviews and in books speaking about how he has rules for success and paramount to all of them is that he has a vision of his future. He says that he very clearly sees what he wants in life and then no matter what the path or the obstacle he persists until he has it. As a young boy with a vision, to hear this was incredibly validating.

The cold machine like drive toward his goals, the zest for life, and confidence were all things I had hoped to emulate. Having read his book “Total Recall” I’ve come to learn that he claims his confidence came from a history of little wins that built up his confidence. The ability to appreciate his life comes from realizing that there are worse ways to have to live and that he’s lucky to live the life he has. The drive came from feelings of inadequacy and wanting to prove something which I related to greatly.

I think it’s very important for kids to have heroes. I don’t agree with everything the man has done of course as I am my own person, but having someone to look up to as a child was important so I could have a model for how I approach my problems. Life has so many viable approaches to take you could get lost just thinking about how to go about it. Having anyone to look up to just helps make things simpler. In trying to remember myself I found myself reflecting on why this man was my hero as a child. Again it was the zest for life, the cold terminator style drive, and the confidence. One day I hope someone else looks at me the same way.

-JKG