Muhammad Ali. Joe Frazier. Legendary.
The status of being Legendary is reserved for a select few that are revered for what they have accomplished, the men or women that they have become, and what they have given other human beings. The list of true Legends isn’t long. And it’s one of the few words that hasn’t lost its lustre amidst the ever-growing, over-exaggherated vocabulary of our world today.
The word awesome, for example, is meant to be reserved for something that leaves you in a state of awe. Yet it’s used to describe things that occur everyday, or even every minute. Yet those who are referred to as Legends aren’t done so because of exaggeration or inflammation of their deeds or character – as the definition in the dictionary suggests. Rather, they’re referred to as Legends because they have earned it.
Declining Aspirations
What’s scary is that we all have declining aspirations. As we get older, our goals, dreams, and what we deem as realistic changes. Where we wanted to rule the world as kids, we now want security. When we dreamt of finding our dream girl, dream job, and building our dream life, we now settle for whatever comes our way (often whatever comes our way with the least risk and effort in many cases).
I had declining aspirations. The key word here is ‘had’. When I was young I wanted to be the best hockey player in the world, then the best basketball player, then boxer, then realism started creeping its nasty little head into what I thought was possible, and my expectations for myself began to diminish.
People in my life, who possessed this realism far before I did, began to rub off on me. Where I used to fight back if someone deemed a goal as ‘unrealistic’, I now changed my goals so I wouldn’t have to deal with their condescension. I was moulding into a number, an employee, and one of ‘the many’. But that changed.
Evidence
Where mediocrity was the norm in my everyday life, as I mentioned, it began to creep in to how I thought. Not to say that my goals weren’t still lofty, but they weren’t as lofty as they once were. The expectations of what I should be accomplishing (let alone what I could be accomplishing) weren’t as audacious as they once were. I had a lot of people around me, influencing me, who had limited views of what was realistic and what wasn’t. This wasn’t their own fault in any way. They had people who influenced them, who then influenced their influencers before them.
It’s just how the world works. As we grow up and older, we lose our innocence, imagination, and we gain a sense of realism.
Everyone wants an open mind, but there are very different ideas about what one actually is. I think an open mind is the fundamental understanding that anything is possible if enough hard work, dedication, and sacrifice is put into achieving it. I had thought this since I was a kid, but the poison that is realism had changed this beautiful outlook on life. That is, until I was invited by a good friend, whom I hadn’t seen in years, to see what it was that he was doing with his life.
He introduced me to 10-20 people in his line of work as well. It was basically a collection of guys who worked in different niches, that didn’t have this realism bug that almost everyone I knew had. They were all wildly successful, helping thousands and millions of people reach their goals in various different ways. They had massive expectations of what they could accomplish as well.
The more I hung our with my friend, as well as these other guys, the more I saw that the guys who had the biggest, hairiest, most unrealistic goals, were the guys who were accomplishing the greatest things. Yes they worked hard, but they worked smart too. They worked with that big goal at the forefront of their minds. Those with less audacious goals, worked to achieve less realistic results.
A light was turned on in my head. I saw this correlation for what it was. Hard work + massive goals = great, fulfilling results.
If I hadn’t had this breath of fresh air breathed into my life, I’m scared of where I’d be right now. Probably in a 9-5 that I didn’t like, with a body that I didn’t want, in a life that isn’t as fulfilling – or big – as it is now.
Be Legendary
The timing of my friend helping me out, the physical transformation I went through in gaining 32 pounds of ripped muscle in 32 weeks, and me breaking off and starting my own business was impeccable and life changing. If I still held on to some of those restrictions that I was beginning to hold on to when I started this business, I wouldn’t be going anywhere near the path I’m headed on now, that’s for sure.
And so, a week or so ago I was asked, “why the title Be Legendary?” Well, when I think of Legends I think of men and women who have had a lasting impact on the world. I think of people who didn’t listen to ‘realism’ and instead paved their own way.
I don’t want to give you average information, an average product, or a descent article. I want to give you the means to make your unrealistic and audacious goals a reality.
It just so happens that my area of expertise is in the fitness realm, so that’s my main focus. If I can help you add years to your life, mission accomplished. If I can give you the plan that will help you build your dream body, which will give you the confidence to live your dream life, mission accomplished.
I love this question:
Are you afraid that you will live a small life because you don’t have the energy, confidence, or audacity to live the big life you dream of living?
I am. I’m scared that my impact won’t be as big as I want it to be. I’m sure you have a fear somewhere deep down that you’re not going to live the big life you want to live. So I named this site Be Legendary. Everything I put on here and provide to you is designed to help you do that very thing: live a Legendary, Limitless, and Large Life.
A couple lessons…
1. Surround yourself with doers, not claimers. Doers get things done, people who claim like to talk about getting things done. Both will rub off on you.
2. Think big and hang out with people who think big. Creativity is powerful, and if you have a lot of it in your life, along with hard work and a doer’s mentality, it’ll be pretty damn hard not to be successful in whatever you want to do.
3. Have big, audacious EXPECTATIONS. Not goals. Expect greatness from yourself, even in the smallest, most inconsequential of tasks. If we expect greatness from ourselves in the small tasks, the big one’s will follow.
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