To visit the Vegan Bodybuilding website click here


Showing posts with label lifestyle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lifestyle. Show all posts

Sunday, 17 June 2018

The adventure is the journey, not the destination


By Pete Ryan


Many people have dreams, goals and desires that they wish to achieve. You may want to be Mr Olympia, become a champion powerlifter or have 6-pack abs. Whatever the goal or dream, remember this fact. It is not the goal that is the important feature of this idea, it is the journey to that goal that will decide if you achieve it or not. In fact you may or may not actually succeed in that goal, so deciding on a goal becomes “Is the journey itself worth the sacrifice and effort”. Suppose I said you will go to the gym, drive yourself hard for over a decade and you will not become a pro bodybuilder, is the journey itself enough to drive you? If you say it is not, then I would not pick that journey. To succeed the journey needs to be enough to sustain you, you need to love the process that leads to that goal. We are not being simplistic, obviously some aspects of any goal may be dull, scary or even unpleasant, but overall you need to enjoy the process to succeed.  Winning a medal is a fleeting moment in time, a blip in your life, but the journey to that goal can take years or even decades to complete, so consider the process before you decide on a goal.  If you want 6-pack abs, but love fatty food and exciting dining adventures, then giving that all up may not be the best journey choice you could make.  Maybe just staying trim and in decent shape while still enjoying regular culinary adventures is a thing that would add depth and appreciation to your life? If you want to be the strongest man in the world, but hate the gym, then maybe you’d be better finding a goal that didn’t involve so much of life in a gym situation? You have one life, spending the majority of it doing something you do not want to do seems very wasteful of your time.


It is surprising how many people do not think of the process when they begin to choose a goal. They think of college in terms of what will give them the highest paid career, they think of jobs in terms of what will be the most financially successful. In both of these outcomes they have not thought if they will enjoy those courses or the job that follows. Let me offer you two job examples; One pays a lot, you will have a fabulous home, nice cars and all the luxuries imaginable, but you will hate the job, every workday will be long hours and you will rarely feel happiness in the job. By 50 you will begin to suffer serious stress related issues, your family life will be terrible, you will potentially suffer issues with alcohol or other abuse just to cope with the work. Or our second scenario where you find a job you enjoy a lot, it is challenging and sometimes you fail, but generally you do well, you improve. Again, you might have to work long hours, but these are productive hours with results you care about. It is a mid-income job, you are not exactly poor, but your car is a few years old, you have a small property, but you have few luxuries. By 50 you are still in good health and have a happy life generally. The first guy might retire with immense wealth and the second guy may retire with much less, but if we look back on their journey was it really worth all those decades unhappy to achieve the goal of immense wealth? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to do what made them happy for decades, but end up with less?


Before you think I am suggesting you always limit yourself, let me reverse the scenario.  Suppose you love exercise, the process of muscle growth. Now you could settle for a job or follow your dream of becoming a bodybuilder.  If the training is what makes you happy, then maybe the right goal for you to aim at is to see how far you can go in the bodybuilding field. You may just be a Mr Olympia one day, or if starting businesses is what you love to do, then maybe developing multimillion pound businesses might be the way forward for you. What I am saying is pick a process that you mainly enjoy, then consider how to make a goal from that journey.  You are more likely to be happy if you plan things that way. 


Come join us on our social media:

Twitter @veganbodybuild https://twitter.com/veganbodybuild
Tumblr @veganbodybuild http://veganbodybuild.tumblr.com/

Here are a few money off codes you might want to explore:

(Proteins and supplements)
35% off using code VEGANBODY2018
orders by post, online or phone

(Minimal footwear)
30%off using code PeteR

(Supplements)
15% off using code VEGANHEALTH

(Superfoods)
10% off using code vbb

(Proteins and supplements)
10% off using code VBB

(Exercise clothing)
10% off using code VBB

Tuesday, 24 April 2018

Aiming at failure


By Pete Ryan


I recently noticed that my behaviour has followed a different path. I was actually playing a computer game and I was at a specific point that I could not get past. As my frustration grew I made a realisation. At some point I had started to avoid situations where failure was a high possibility. This week I have decided to move away from that mindset.


Think about yourself as a child, did you walk first go? Did you learn to read and write without struggles? Humans naturally grow through failure, they do not generally grow through success. My simple idea is to try something that involves a high probability of failure regularly. Failure is the hard part of growing, without it we will stagnate and never become the person we were meant to be.  With this in mind I intend to add some things into my life that will push me to fail regularly.  These will then also help me develop as I discover what it means to push through to success, and conversely to learn when I need to realise I just need to give up and move on to another problem that does have a solution I can accomplish.


Don’t get confused, these do not need to be fantastic feats or impossible actions.  Try simple things. I will use myself as an example. Suppose I get some inline skates (I cannot skate). I would have to push past the “Everybody laughing at me wobble along” stage, before I can achieve any sort of skill at the activity. Perhaps you prefer something more forceful, how about arm wrestling.  If you go to a club, even if you are stronger you will probably be destroyed by your skilled opponents. You might even be the least able arm wrestler in the club for a while. This would be both humbling and off-putting. However, if you stick with it you will develop more skills and even if you stay at the bottom, you will achieve a proficiency and learn the art of arm wrestling to the best of your ability.

Whether you maintain these skills or leave them behind afterwards is unimportant. I believe adding activities that involve regular failure and having to master new skills will improve you and also acclimatise you to overcoming regular failure. This will help you a lot into the future as it translates directly into life, business and education.

Let’s quickly look at how you can introduce failure into your life. The first point is not to begin with something that will be critical if you fail. You don’t want to climb a perilous cliff face without a lifeline unless you are fully competent at climbing. Start easy. If you can’t swim, join a class, if you cannot do mathematics do a course. You can also learn a new skill, learn chess or anything you cannot presently do. The 'what' does not matter as much as how you feel about it.  You should be mildly concerned when you think of doing the skill. Does doing Judo give you butterflies in the stomach? Does ballroom dancing make you feel like you have two left feet? If so, then they might be just the activities you should be approaching.  Pick things you know will be hard, but not impossible. Pick something you might want to do, there is no point doing flower arranging if you have zero interest in it.


So, here is the challenge.


  1. Pick a skill or activity that you feel you want to do, but have little or no ability at doing right now.
  2. Find a place to learn that activity.
  3. Learn it and embrace the failures along the way.


If you can learn to aim at failure and begin to realise that failure is actually a positive outcome, it could lead your life onto very different pathways and before you know it you will be accomplishing things that you never thought was possible. 



Come join us on our social media:

Website http://www.veganbodybuilding.org/
Facbook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/23353662623/
G+ group https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/114410514180598643636
Instagram @veganstrength https://www.instagram.com/veganstrength/
Twitter @veganbodybuild https://twitter.com/veganbodybuild
Pinterest @veganbodybuild https://www.pinterest.co.uk/VeganBodybuild/
Tumblr @veganbodybuild http://veganbodybuild.tumblr.com/

Here are a few money off codes you might want to explore:

http://www.veganicity.com
(Proteins and supplements)
35% off using code VEGANBODY2018
orders by post, online or phone

https://freetfootwear.co.uk
(Minimal footwear)
30%off using code PeteR

https://www.vegetology.com
(Supplements)
15% off using code VEGANHEALTH

https://www.revolution-foods.com
(Superfoods)
10% off using code vbb

http://veggie-style.com
(Proteins and supplements)
10% off using code VBB
http://www.virusperformance.co.uk/
(Exercise clothing)
10% off using code VBB