Follow Schwarzenegger’s Advice to Put Fuel on the Fire

“Adversity causes some people to break, and other people to break records.” — Anon

The Governator

I think one of the most powerful motivations in my life is when someone tells me that I can’t do something.

In his autobiography, Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger puts it this way:

Sometimes you have to appreciate the very people and circumstances that traumatized you. Today I hail the strictness of my father, and my whole upbringing, and the fact that I didn’t have anything that I wanted in Austria, because those were the very factors that made me hungry.

Every time he hit me. Every time he said my weight training was garbage, that I should do something useful and go out and chop wood. Every time he disapproved of me or embarrassed me, it put fuel on the fire in my belly. It drove me and motivated me.

What strikes me, is that it wasn’t the fact that Arnold was tormented that made him into the over-achieving force of nature that he became (warts and all), it was the the way that he used that ordeal as motivation to reach his goals.

Arnold’s motivational story:

 

My favorite blog articles for the week:


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26 Responses to “Follow Schwarzenegger’s Advice to Put Fuel on the Fire”

  1. Untemplater says:

    Thanks for the mention. I find it motivating as well when someone says I can’t do something. I usually get fired up to prove them wrong. Sometimes they end up being right, but I have to see for myself and give it my best shot.

    • Terry says:

      I agree.

      Even if the naysayers are right and we fail, as Teddy Roosevelt says, at least we are in the arena battling for what we believe in, and not just sitting on the sidelines criticizing.

      We score a moral victory just from the heroic effort of trying to do what may seem impossible.

      One of my favorite Ralph Waldo Emerson quotes is:

      Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.

  2. […] Follow Schwarzenegger’s Advice to Put Fuel on the Fire by Terry @ Fix em Up Rent em Out […]

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  5. Terry where have you been?! Haven’t seen you around the webs for a while.

    • Terry says:

      Todd,

      Thanks for the note.

      I had a family member who was having some health problems, but that situation is improving now.

      I’m also channeling the energy that I would normally use writing one or two blog articles per week into putting the finishing touches on my new book.

      I should return to blogging again in the next few weeks.

  6. I think that you were right on with this article. Terry I hope you keep writing more blogs like this one. I like this one Terry.

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