The message I'll try and get across today is by no means exercise-related alone; it applies to ALL fields of life - education, sports, workouts - just about anything, really.

And that message is - focus on the POSITIVE, rather than amplifying the negative.

Sounds simple enough in theory, but you'd be amazed at how many folks look at the negative in any given situation, rather than the positive (and potential for more positive).

A common enough example might be a person with a bit of a belly (but otherwise strong and in decent enough shape) reluctant to take his shirt off while running on the beach for fear of what others might say.

"I don't have the six pack to do that", he might say.

"Well, it doesn't matter all that much - you're not going to the Mr. Universe contest out here", I might respond. "Plus, you're plenty strong, and it SHOWS - broad shoulders, powerful chest - and how are you going to get that stomach fat off anyway unless you target it?"

"Oh, I don't know about the strong part", he might respond in a downbeat manner. "No-one ever tells me I'm strong - it's mostly all about the one body part that I find hard to keep in shape".

"Well, forget about what others might think or say - do because you want to do and FOR you - and thats half the battle won", I'd respond.

Now, the above story might sound a bit silly, but rest assured it happens to us all.

Most "people" in our lives will rarely complement our positives, preferring instead to focus on our negatives.

"Oh, I know you got that A in Math, but what about History? What price Biology", a father might ask his son - and reprimand him soundly for the latter two issues, while forgetting to even dwell on the former. (And yes, this happens a lot - I should know - I've had it happen myself when I was a kid!)

It happens a lot at the workplace too - our accomplishments tend to get easily forgotten, and our failures magnified. And a lot of people end up getting discouraged by the constant negativity, lose sight of their overall goals, and are back to square one within no time at all.

A lot of us have been told that "this is how it is in the real world" - but guess what - it doesn't HAVE to be that way. More to the point - YOU don't have to get discouraged by others - and you certainly don't have to let them stop you from achieving your goals - or whatever you are out to achieve at that moment.

What does this have to do with fitness, you might say.

Well, plenty, my friend - plenty.

You may be a super marathon runner, but not that strong when it comes to lifts - and you may hear the "oh he's got stamina, but he's not strong" (with a heavy emphasis on the latter).

So, you take that as an incentive to improve and do improve your strength - and then you'll likely hear "Oh, he's strong, but he doesn't have a six pack. Whats the point"?

You see what I'm saying - it's impossible to satisfy "others". Those who focus on the negatives do so either out of ignorance or because they themselves feel threatened by someone trying to actually DO something positive - and blanking out whatever doesn't feel good to them is the way to go for such people.

So what I'm saying is this -

The next time you see a person snicker at your total number of pull-ups per set, ignore him, and focus on the fact that you're actually DOING them as opposed to the other person.

The next time you hear some clown jabber on about "oh, I was far fitter than that in my heyday", push the ignore button on - it's just not worth getting upset and annoyed over baseless comments like that.

And so forth.

And no, this isn't an excuse to be weak/skinny/fat and ignore the fact - far from it. What I am saying is that constant negativity doesn't help anyone - and helping a weak/skinny/fat person (for example) focus on the positive and thus cancel out the negative with extra effort helps far more than a constant stream of negative armchair (in most cases) commentary.

And like I said before, this is by no means limited only to fitness - this applies to all areas of your daily life.

In a nutshell, then - FOCUS on the positive - work on eliminating the negative - and don't let the negativity around you get you down!!

And that, my friend is really what gets you going and things happening at the end of the day.

I'll speak more about this at length in other posts, but this should be enough for a start. Back again soon with more!

Best Regards,
Rahul

PS: Get started on the routines outlined in Fast and Furious Fitness, and you'll be stupefied at how quickly the negativity around you disappears. Nay-sayers will choose a different person to badger, the overly negative folks will quickly back down - and YOU will be on the road to a better and healthier YOU - and thats what it's all about. Grab your copy now, and change your life for the better TODAY: - http://rahulmookerjee.com/index.php/articles/83-fast-and-furious-fitness-the-book