So I’m very happy to say that it’s been another great year down here at The Forged Athlete Gym and TravisStoetzel.com
First things first, I’ve got to give THANKS to YOU for being a loyal follower of my blog.
Whether you’ve stopped by here only a few times or have been here since the beginning, I THANK YOU for being here.
There’s 1000’s of other sites you could go to and I’m happy you’ve landed on mine.
I also have to give a BIG THANKS to all of my athletes, clients, and everyone else that has been a loyal follower and member of my gym since the beginning.
Without all of these people, I wouldn’t be anywhere close to where I am today.
Now before we get into the BIG LESSONS below, I’ve got to share some BIG NEWS with you.
Not only did this last weekend mark the 4th year of The Forged Athlete being in business, but my wife and I also found out that we’ll be having a 110% H.A.M. Baby in the near future!
To say that I’m excited don’t cut it.
This has by far made my year the BEST year ever and I can’t wait to share more with you as time goes on with this great journey.
In CELEBRATION of my gym’s 4 year Anniversary and the Daddy News, I’ve got a BIG SALE going down on ALL of my training programs HERE.
This will be for a LIMITED TIME only so take action while you can.
So, with that, let’s get into some of the BIG LESSONS I’ve picked up over the past year.
Before I get into that, here’s a quick video of me outlining my success as well as giving THANKS to those that have helped me along the way over the last 4 years…
The 1st BIG LESSON is to surround yourself with BADASS’.
The people around me that I surround myself with continue to push me above and beyond and to be honest with you, that’s a HUGE part to anyone’s success.
Think of building up yourself a TEAM of people you can go to for help and in return, you can supply help to those around you as well.
If you surround yourself with losers and people who are constantly negative, they’ll do nothing more then bring you down to their level and take from you. You’ll never gain anything from these types of relationships.
In addition to this lesson, I would recommend that you travel around to workshops, seminars, and masterminds because getting yourself to more events like these will have a HUGE impact on your life I can guarantee.
The people you’ll find at these events are typically driven and hungry for success.
People you meet at different events will be life changing.
Over the past year I’ve been able to meet some really awesome people such as…
Martin “The Warrior” Rooney and Mike Robertson.
Lesson 2 – Intermittent Fasting is still the BOMB.
It’s now been over 2, almost 3 years since I’ve started to implement in intermittent fasting into my lifestyle.
In short, it works and works damn well.
I do this all 7 days a week even on Saturday and Sunday’s and I feel great.
Now, don’t get me wrong as when I want to eat breakfast I will on certain occasions, but for the most part I fast and skip out.
I’m more of a night time eater anyways so this works out real well for my lifestyle.
The increase of energy I’ve experienced and the overall convenience of this style of eating I’ve adopted has been the best.
At first, it was tough, but after my body adjusted, it’s been great.
While IF is pretty freakin’ awesome, it’s not for everyone. It’s something you’ve got to try out to see if it works for you.
I suggest you give it a try for at least 7-10 days and if you just aren’t feeling it, don’t do it.
Just to give you a little inside in how I fast, I do the popular 16/8 fast in which I DON’T eat anything for 16 hours then get my grub on for 8 hours.
Even when I train in the AM, I’ll train fasted
To help with these early AM training sessions, the main thing I’ve changed up with this is how and when I eat my carbs.
I’ve taken up the popular Carb Back Loading method for when I time my intake of starchy carbs and it’s worked wonders.
Pretty badass stuff.
Lesson 3 – If you get told “NO”, don’t listen – SCREW the naysayers!
Back in December when I was moving my gym to a new location, I was told “NO” from a variety of different sources that my business wasn’t going to work there and that I shouldn’t move.
There were a lot of road blocks along the way, but I wasn’t about let these barriers hold me back..
In short, make the word “NO” non existent within your vocabulary for when it comes to doing something you’re PASSIONATE about doing.
There’s always a way so let NOTHING, especially the people that tell you “NO” stand in your way.
Lesson 4 – Hire a COACH, in fact hire a few.
Yes, I’ve talked about this before, but I can’t even begin to tell you how much of an impact it’s made on my life.
Things changed after I hired myself a coach.
I’ve got to “pay to play” so to speak and INVEST to get these services, but the investment I make for the coaching I receive pays off 10-fold.
If you’re to take anything away from this blog post, know that when you invest into something like a coaching service or similar, it’s not that you’re throwing away your money.
NO, you’re investing in yourself and that’s the BIG lesson here.
INVEST in yourself.
Everyone needs a coach and even a coach needs a coach.
All the great coaches I know of have a coach.
Lesson 5 – Stop trying to be PERFECT
Something that I had secretly been battling for years and years was that of always comparing myself to ‘The Ideal”.
In other words, no matter how well I would do in something, whether this be in a sport or even a simple accomplishment in life, I was hardly ever happy with outcome.
The reason was due to me always comparing myself to the “ideal”.
In the program Pure Genius, Author Dan Sullivan talks about how you should NEVER compare yourself to the “ideal self” because when you do, you’ll never measure up as there will always be “a gap” between you and your ideal image.
There is no such thing as an ideal self or “perfect” self.
Trying to become your perfect self is like chasing the horizon, you’ll never catch it.
There will always be a gap between you and the horizon no matter what you do.
There’s only the progress you make in trying to get to your ideal self.
What you need to focus in on rather than the final result you keep chasing is the continuous journey from where you are NOW in current time, to where you can yourself to at different times in your life.
The truth is, no matter how hard you try, you’ll always have flaws in some way, shape, or form and that’s OK.
No ONE in this world is perfect.
So instead of focusing on trying to be perfect or chasing your “ideal self”, focus on continued success and growth and enjoy the journey.
Set smaller goals and when you achieve them, make sure to recognize the success that you’ve made and be happy about it then continue on for more.
YES, it’s great to be driven for more success and to stay hungry (as I speak about next), but you mustn’t forget about the successes that you’ve already accomplished and what you’ve currently got in the present.
If all you do is focus on what to get next and never stop to look at what you do have, you’ll never be happy and that “ideal self” will forever seem unreachable.
The BIG takeaway from this lesson is to know and understand that HAPPINESS is a choice that YOU choose to make.
Lesson 6 – Stay HUNGRY, Stay DRIVEN, KEEP SUCCEEDING.
One of my all-time favorite athletes, Maurice Green who was an Olympic Gold Medalist in the 100m, gave this quote that I always like to refer back to:
“To be number one, you must train like you are number two.”
What this means to me is that you mustn’t ever be fully satisfied with your success and your abilities.
While this may contradict the last lesson I spoke about, it’s more about continuing to push yourself ahead.
Don’t ever stop climbing that mountain.
In other words, keep learning, keep getting yourself better, and keep improving.
The day you think you’re “too good” or “too strong” will be the day you get WORSE.
It’s always harder when you become the champ then when you’re a contender, but if you keep that “contender” type of mindset, you’ll be fine.
Lesson 7 – Commit Daily To “Learning Time”
Something I’ve been doing for the last year is making sure I reserve a certain amount of time each and ever week to strict “learning time”.
I set aside at least 4 hours a week minimum in which I must “study up” on my craft.
In this time I typically read up on training books, manuals, and watch videos that teach me new things or simply go over stuff I’ve learned in the past.
It’s essential to do this if you want to continue to improve in on what you do professionally.
I know that everything I learn and continue to discover overtime will help me help my athletes and clients even more and that’s exactly what it’s all about.
To add even more time to my weekly “learning time” I always have some sort of success audio book playing in my Jeep that I listen to while on my way to and from the gym.
I’ve talked about this before in the past about how you need to turn your car into a mobile library. It’s amazing.
Lesson 8 – E.M.O.T.M.’s are the BOMB
I’ve wrote about E.M.O.T.M.’s set ups within my training in the past, but I’ve got to tell ya, this type of training set up is truly powerful.
I’ve continue to use it in a variety of ways for some BIG TIME major results.
One of my favorite uses of the E.M.O.T.M. set up is a tweak I’ve made to help accommodate a little bit more higher volume strength work.
Instead of the “Every Minute” set up, I’ll switch it up to a “Every 90 secs” or “Every 2 minutes” set up which allows me to train with 2’s and 3’s at heavier weights than I can typically handle with the every minute on the minute set up.
The little bit of extra time makes a huge difference.
For example, I’ve used the E.M.O.T.M. set up before in the past to train with 85-95% of my 1 rep maxes on different lifts and it’s worked.
For these I’ll do a single rep E.M.O.T.M. for say 10-12 mins and it get freaking TOUGH, but not too bad.
As I’ve said, it’s worked great, so I’ve been experimenting with adding in an extra 90 secs to each round and have even been going with a full “Every 2 Minute” set up.
I’ve tried doing heavy 2’s and 3’s with 90% plus with the E.M.O.T.M. set up, but it’s just not enough time to get in enough quality sets at such HEAVY weights.
So, that’s when I switched in the 90 sec and 2 min interval strength sets with these higher reps and since adding in these 90 sec and 2 min interval strength sets, I’ve been getting STRONGER and building up a ton more strength-endurance with this.
If you’re not currently trying this type of set up, you’ve got to give it a try sometime.
My favorite set up with this is with Clean and Jerks.
Try putting around 80-85% of your 1 rep max on the bar and cranking out 1-2 reps every 90 seconds for around 8-10 rounds sometime 😉
And there you go with my first 8 BIG LESSONS.
I’ll tell you want…
I’ve got a bunch more of these lessons that I’ve learned over the past year that I want to share with you and highlight in a part II of BIG LESSONS.
If we can get over 100 LIKES on this post, I’ll throw up the 2nd part.
Let’s make it happen!
ALSO, I want to hear from YOU so make sure to post up your thoughts, comments, and questions below.
Live and Train Aggressive!
PS – In celebration of my gym hitting 4 years and me finding out the news that I’ll becoming a DAD in the near future, I’ve got a HUGE MEGA SALE going on right now on ALL of my training programs.
Here’s your chance to ==> Daddy CELEBRATION SALE (SAVE BIG – LIMITED TIME)