Aim For The Top & Visualise Success

Arnold Schwarzenegger has achieved amazing amounts of success in many diverse areas; business, body building, acting and politics. His autobiography teaches us to: 1) Aim for the top because there is space there (most people settle for the middle, thus it’s full). 2) Approach life like a happy puppy (focus on what can go right, deal with problems when they arise). 3) Visualise success (picture your future success so vividly that it feels inevitable).

Transcript

Welcome to the Abundance Mentality podcast.

20-minute snippets to improve your health,

Wealth,

Spirituality and relationships.

I'm Zach.

And I'm Maria.

So today we've got Total Recall.

It's an autobiography written by Arnold Schwarzenegger and it's incredible.

It's not like a self-help book or not like one of the books we would usually cover on the podcast,

But it's like his mentality shown throughout his life distilled and it's incredible.

That's amazing.

Yeah,

For those that don't know,

I'll just read from the back so you get an idea of – I mean,

We're familiar with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

He was a governor of California and a movie star,

But he was born in a year of famine in an Austrian town,

Moved to America,

Couldn't speak English,

Learnt.

By the age of 21,

He was living in Los Angeles and being crowned Mr.

Universe.

Within five years,

He'd learned English and become the greatest bodybuilder in the world,

Winning multiple championships multiple times,

Coming in and out of retirement to do that,

Right?

Wow.

It's incredible.

Ten years,

He'd earned his college degree and was a millionaire from businesses,

Not from the bodybuilding or from movies.

So businesses made him a multimillionaire.

What kind of businesses?

Like construction and property.

I'll get into that.

Oh,

Wow.

Okay,

Okay,

Okay.

And in 20 years,

He was the biggest movie star earning – God knows how much.

So much money and an emerging Republican leader.

And after 36 years,

He was elected governor of California,

Which is one of the biggest economies in the world,

Right?

So after 36 years of coming to America?

Yes.

Wow.

Yeah,

So like – Amazing.

You know,

And like even if you just took one of those things,

Just one of them,

It's amazing.

And just like Google a picture of him in his prime,

He's a monster,

Right?

Yeah.

He doesn't even look real.

It's – It looks like a doll.

It's incredible.

And like the book is quite candid.

He goes into times where he was – he mentions he uses weed all of the time.

He's mentioning steroid use.

He mentions when he had affairs.

Like it's candid,

Right?

Which is – it's great.

It's good to be real,

Yeah.

100%.

So with all that in mind,

Like there's,

You know,

There's controversy and all that sort of stuff.

But the main things that I wanted to sort of drill down upon on this book – now you haven't read the book.

I'm almost through it.

Yeah.

But it just – over all of those things,

It takes you through his life.

So it starts off,

He is in the army and he sees,

You know,

The Americans' bodybuilding.

He's like,

I want to do that,

Right?

And he figures out ways to do it.

And he's always like problem solving.

He's got this like goal set.

And then like he's in America and he uses these same skills to start bodybuilding and winning the championships.

And he uses those same skills to get into the movie.

And it's like – so basically,

He's using the same mental state that I think I would like to be able to embody.

Yeah,

Absolutely.

Absolutely,

Right?

Just 1%.

Just a casual 1% would be great.

Just even 0.

1% would be nice,

Right?

So I've got sort of three sort of lessons,

Things that I'm taking away from the book.

Like I said,

It's not a self-help book.

It's just a – it's just his story,

But it's written by him.

I'm pretty sure it's an autobiography.

I can't find any sort of ghost writer.

So I'm assuming – I'm assuming it is him,

Which means that it's like these things are coming directly from him.

It does feel like it is written by him.

Okay.

Anyway.

So a couple of things that I want to address.

I want to talk about this idea of aiming for the top because there's room there.

I want to talk about this idea of being the happy puppy and sort of like not worrying about what can go wrong or don't even tell me what can go wrong.

And I want to talk about visualizations because they're the main things that I've found from here.

Okay.

So the first one is aiming for the top because there's room there.

Tell me all about it.

So when he was in his movie career,

He recognized that he wanted to be right at the top,

The leading man in America.

This is despite him struggling to speak the language in a way that didn't have the most strongest accent ever,

Right?

Back before him,

It was just unheard of.

But what he recognized when he was looking at and sort of coming up in the acting world was that people wouldn't aim for the top.

They would sort of get intimidated and they would aim for the middle or the bottom,

Just take the bit parts,

Sort of just accept it.

And he could have easily accepted and been this sort of like this goon character because he's- Goofy thing,

Yeah.

Either a joke or just typecast as like a villain goon guy that gets beaten up,

Right?

Because his body and his physicality would suit that.

Either he's made a joke or he's made to be beaten up by the hero,

Right?

So he could have easily accepted that.

But every time he looked at it and was like,

Okay,

Is this going to get me to the top?

If yes,

He accepted the role.

If no,

He would reject despite being offered lots of money.

And there's one line in there where he talks about this idea of,

He was talking to all of these actors and they're all complaining about not having the money,

Not having the jobs,

Not having the roles.

And he realized that they're all aiming for the middle.

Right.

And you think intuitively like,

Oh,

I'll just aim for the middle because it's realistic- And slowly build up.

Whereas he was like,

No one's aiming for the top.

No one is looking at the best of the best and going,

I'm going to shoot for that.

Wow.

And he's like,

I'm going to do it.

Wow.

And that sort of leads to this visualization.

He talked about this idea of,

You know,

When he wanted to be the best bodybuilder,

He would consider and picture and visualize him winning until it became this truth as in like,

Okay,

This is,

This is my truth.

I am the best.

And then,

Then he sort of just knew it.

That's beautiful.

So when he was up and winning,

He was never quite,

He was never like,

Like he describes multiple times where he's like literally,

You know,

The best of the best in this,

In,

You know,

In,

In,

In his Olympic sports or is the,

You know,

The best movie,

The highest paid movie star or whatever these,

These highest heights.

And he's just like,

Oh yeah.

He's not like,

I can't believe it.

I can't believe it.

He's not celebrating.

Wow.

Cause he's already celebrated.

That's amazing.

Because he's already got it.

Does that,

Does that sort of make sense?

It's like,

It's like,

It's like an inevitability.

So he talks about that and it's,

It's,

So those two things work quite well together.

Aim for the top.

And he would aim for the top in the bodybuilding,

In business,

In.

.

.

Governor of California stuff.

I think he wanted,

I'm not up to this that bit yet,

But he wanted to be,

I think he wanted to aim to be president,

But because he was born out of country,

Despite getting the citizenship,

They don't,

They don't allow him.

So I'm sure he would have definitely got it considering,

Um,

There's been movie stars and stuff as presidents before and,

You know,

Trump and all of that sort of stuff now.

It makes sense.

So very cool.

And the,

The,

The final little thing that I wanted to summarise before we can maybe bring it down to allies and how we sort of,

How I'm sort of relating this and that sort of stuff is this idea of the happy puppy.

He got into,

When he first came over to America and I'm presumably,

You know,

He's a,

He's a,

You know,

Just shooting where I'm up to the book Terminator 2 sort of stuff.

So it's like there for years now,

Like really big.

He's constantly,

You know,

Buying,

Investing and flipping property to buy bigger property.

So like,

Um,

Starting with like a four bedroom apartment block,

Flipping that to a six to an eight to a 12 to like a,

You know,

He just keeps on getting them bigger and buying property with some of his friends,

All that sort of stuff.

Um,

People would always tell him the negatives as in like,

Oh,

If you own an apartment block,

The,

You know,

You're all,

You'll always be fixing this.

You'll always be doing that.

What if they don't pay the rent?

Like always just negative,

Negative,

Negative.

I think we can all relate to telling our friends something and having them all say,

What about this?

Yeah,

Exactly.

Um,

So he's like,

And then,

Then the same thing occurred when he was getting married.

It's like,

Oh,

When you get married,

You know,

You can't do this,

You know,

Your life will change.

This will get bad.

Like they're saying all the negatives and like,

So,

And that's happened a bunch of times,

Once again,

A bunch of times in the books,

Which is why it sort of highlighted it to me is this idea of,

He said,

I can't remember the exact line,

But it's something like,

I just want to go into,

Into a situation as a happy puppy.

I just want to just,

You know,

Like,

And,

And yeah,

Like those things will come up,

But they haven't yet.

And I'll address it when it does.

Yeah.

I'll address it when it does.

So like for the example,

Like the,

Um,

Like the marriage or the,

Or the property,

Whatever it is,

Like,

Okay,

A problem arises,

Address it when it comes.

And I like that logic because it's so easy to get stifled by negativity.

And almost like use it as an excuse to not even start.

A hundred percent.

You can,

You can think about it like for the,

For the property ride.

I,

I had a,

Um,

I had a,

An apartment and this,

This exact thing happened to me and I sucked myself out and sold it,

Right?

It did help.

A unit or something.

Yeah,

A little,

A little unit years ago and it was old and things were breaking in it.

And back then I didn't have the confidence or the skills or really the money to,

To,

To fix what I thought might happen because a pipe broke,

There was water going everywhere and I'm like,

Oh,

This sucks.

And then I'm like,

Then I compounded that to like,

Oh my God,

This is going to happen again and again and again and again,

Despite the fact that it only happened once in the four years I was there,

Psyched myself out and therefore sold it.

I wish I had have kept it because it would have,

It's in a very good location.

Yeah.

Point is,

I love the happy puppy approach because it's,

It applies to absolutely everything.

Yeah,

That's beautiful.

You know,

Like you could have a kid and like you could,

Things could go catastrophically wrong in the,

In the birth.

You know,

A couple of episodes back we talked about calm birth and you've mentioned how,

You know,

Some,

Some horror stories of birth and.

.

.

You do hear some stuff,

Yeah.

You know,

And then,

Then you have a kid and what if the kid dies?

What if the kid.

.

.

Yeah.

.

.

.

Turns to drugs?

What if,

You know,

There's,

There's an infinite.

.

.

What if he hates me when he's a teenager in 15 years?

There's an infinite amount of.

.

.

Yeah,

Stuff to think about.

.

.

.

Stuff to think about.

So I just really resonated with that of like,

Like,

And then actively telling people,

Like,

Just,

Just stop.

I don't need to.

.

.

So he tells them?

Yeah.

It was like,

Guys just.

.

.

Look,

He's.

.

.

He says he tells them.

Who knows?

Just trust him.

Sure he tells them.

But like,

It was more that like,

It's like,

Yeah,

Like,

You're right,

But just like,

Shut up.

You know,

Like,

It's like.

.

.

So he says to,

So his friend says to him,

Oh,

When you get married,

You're not going to have sex anymore or whatever.

And then he says to his friend,

Hey,

Don't tell me stuff like that.

I'd like to be a happy puppy right now.

I'm sure he says it in his way in fact,

You know,

With a bit of,

You know,

His charisma.

But yeah,

It was more like,

I think.

.

.

I like that.

Yeah,

With,

With the.

.

.

But it's not,

It's not just like,

I mean,

People are going to talk shit all the time.

People are going to criticise and demean.

Like,

I train martial arts four days a week,

Right?

I talk to people that don't train and they're like,

Yeah,

But you're going to get an injury.

Yeah,

But you're going to do this,

Yeah.

Like,

And it's just negative,

Negative,

Negative,

Negative.

And they're right.

I might get an injury.

Like,

I've,

I've dislocated my finger.

I was pulling the wrong way.

That sucked,

Right?

Yeah.

Wasn't fun.

However,

If I was worrying about it beforehand and I'm still worrying about it happening now,

Like it's so much worry.

It happened once.

I dealt with it.

It sucked at the time.

But I tell you what,

It's far more like the,

The worry about it happening is more actual problem than it happens.

Yeah.

There's a whole thing about worry.

You know,

Like.

.

.

Being a bigger problem than the actual problem you're worrying about.

100%.

Like,

Like,

My fear of breaking a bone is far scarier than the actual thing that happened to me.

Yeah.

Yeah,

Yeah,

Yeah,

Yeah,

Yeah.

You know,

And,

And like,

Dealing with that,

The,

The thing that happened at the,

The,

The,

The,

The house that I had,

The,

The unit,

Right?

The fear was bigger than the pipe bursting.

Yes,

The pipe bursting,

I dealt with it.

It got fixed.

But then I psyched myself out with fear of it happening again and again and again and again and again.

Yeah.

Like,

Because it's like I was playing this scenario of Nova.

So,

Point is,

Is,

You know,

And same thing,

People would tell you all the things that can go wrong with having investment properties and rentals and old houses and all this sort of stuff.

So,

Yeah,

Tell people,

It's like,

Hey,

I appreciate that,

But like,

You know,

Let's,

Let's focus on the positive here.

What can go right?

Yeah,

I love that.

But then also just,

People are going to say that stuff anyway.

So he had this idea of like,

When you're,

You know,

Combining with these other two things,

Aiming for the top and the visualisations,

Right?

Yeah.

He might have to deal with some fixing up,

But his plan isn't to hold onto this property.

He's going to flip it and get something bigger and better.

Yeah,

He's got a bigger idea.

He's aiming for the top.

He's not,

He's not going to go,

I'm just going to grab and hold this for,

You know,

His first apartment was like four bedroom,

Like a four,

A four unit block or something.

Okay.

Yeah.

He's not going to be like,

Okay,

I'm just holding onto that forever.

And,

And worrying about the burst pipes and stuff in this.

In that,

In that four,

Yeah.

He's got bigger things to think about.

He's like,

Okay,

Well,

I'll,

I'll sell that,

Get something better,

Sell that,

Get things.

And like,

It's very easy to look at someone.

I always think there's like,

He's uber successful,

Right?

But all throughout the book,

It's,

There's,

There's so many failures,

But he just,

He doesn't dwell on it.

He's like,

All right,

That didn't work,

Bang,

Next thing.

Yeah,

I love that.

He,

He had an idea to buy some property close to somewhere where they thought a supersonic air,

Um,

Airport was going to go,

But due to the governmental stuff it ended up falling through.

Okay.

He's like,

You know,

So he lost,

He lost in the short term a bunch of money,

But then he just,

He had this feeling,

Held onto it,

Over the long term,

Made money off it.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And same thing with body injuries,

A whole variety of stuff,

But it's,

It's,

I don't know,

There's this,

There's this,

I have a lot of anxiety issues.

So to be able to try and just go down the path,

Like,

Well,

I can go right.

Yeah.

So I don't know.

I like,

I sort of appreciate this whole approach,

Particularly like,

Um,

Yeah,

Like those three things aiming for the top because there's room there.

Yeah.

That's phenomenal.

Isn't it?

It's a whole new way to look at something,

Isn't it?

So how are you going to aim for the top?

I have no idea.

So,

So maybe we can sort of talk about a,

Um,

Like a take action here.

Yeah.

Because it,

You know,

I can talk you through it.

How can I do that?

How can you?

Yeah.

Because like,

Like obviously I'm reading this book,

Um,

And that sort of stuff and in terms of like,

You know,

Career progression where this might apply,

I'm a bit further along than you.

Mm.

Um,

For those playing at home,

Um,

Maria's getting into,

Finally got some online presence,

Getting into blogging,

Um,

And has started releasing,

Uh,

Uh,

Recipes.

Yeah.

And they're good.

She,

She cooks,

Um,

All day every day,

Loves it,

You know,

Doing the typical ethnic woman,

But she's,

You know,

She's always reading recipes,

Always practising,

Always trying,

Getting good.

So there's like,

How can she take that to the next level and,

You know,

Give something back,

Make some money,

The whole,

The whole thing.

Yeah.

Recipes into recipe book into that sort of stuff.

So the take action,

I would like you,

Maybe we can play through this.

Okay.

Okay.

Yep.

What is the absolute top in that area?

Now I'm not saying that you need to,

This needs to be your goal,

But we're just,

We're just pretending here.

So,

So if you're,

Let's just pretend and I know it's not cause you've got other,

Other things you want to do,

But let's say you want to,

You're,

Let's,

Let's talk about the top of,

You know,

At home cheffing or chef book booking or,

Or,

Or,

It's hard to even know like what to aim for.

And I actually think I said this to you when your first homie,

You read that this in the,

In this book,

How do you even know?

Like it's easy for Arnie to say,

Oh,

I'm going to be the top movie star,

But like,

Where did Arnie even get the idea to become a movie star?

Like how do I put it?

How do you even know what to aim for?

Like say,

I say to you,

Okay,

I'm going to aim for the top,

But then I'm like,

Hang on,

What am I even aiming for?

So many people go through life.

They don't even know what the goal is.

Let alone know how to be the top of the goal.

He,

He,

From this book,

He's,

I'm currently up to the bit where he's at the top of the movie game,

But then he recognises like that wasn't even the thing.

Like he's just,

He's constantly whatever he's doing,

Whatever he gets an interest in.

He's like,

What's the top of this thing?

It's like,

I'm going to do bodybuilding.

So I'm going to be the best bodybuilder of all time.

Yeah.

But like,

I just don't think it's in me.

Like if I was to go to an exercise class,

I'm not going to be like,

Hey,

I'm going to be the best person.

But that exercise isn't your passion.

Okay.

So I have to,

So you're saying in my passion.

Okay.

Yeah.

So,

So,

So in terms of,

In,

In terms of,

In terms of a passion,

If we talk about cooking,

Right,

Cooking is clearly a passion of yours,

Right?

Now his thing and like,

He's got a unique mental state where he's able to aim for the top,

Believe in himself so,

So much that he's like,

Yeah,

I can do that.

Right.

And it's intimidating.

So I look at,

From a writing,

I'll put it back on me for the moment,

From a writing perspective,

Right?

I reckon,

Like I would love to be a best-selling fantasy sci-fi author.

Yes.

Right?

Like,

And I've got ideas in my mind and I'm,

I'm looking at,

I'm reading the best people now and I'm trying to go like,

Could I get to that level?

Yes.

Right.

I think I can.

I think you can.

However,

I'm,

I'm,

I'm,

I'm hyper aware of the gap between where I am and where I want to go.

Yeah.

So,

So for me,

Like that's like,

It's like,

Okay,

So like I do martial arts,

Right?

I love it.

I,

I train,

Like I said,

Four days a week,

But that's not,

I'm not going to be the best in the world.

I know that.

I'm too old.

I'm not good enough.

And there's not really space at the top of that one.

Well,

Not for,

Not for me because I know that I'm not,

It's not a drive that I have,

Right?

I,

I'm not,

I'm not aggressive enough.

I'm not competitive enough in my sense.

It's like I do a competition with someone,

But I don't,

I sort of,

I don't have that,

That same drive down,

That thing.

I love it.

It's great for my mental state.

It's great for self-defence,

But it's just,

It's not this deep thing.

Whereas with writing,

I have something to say.

I can do that.

Yeah,

Okay.

So,

So I guess even before maybe,

And this is maybe,

Maybe why the cooking thing isn't a good example for you because it isn't your thing.

You love it.

You can start working towards it,

But it would be a stepping stone to something else.

But I can see what you're saying.

Like I could say to you,

I'm going to release a cookbook that people actually want to read,

You know,

And I.

.

.

Go higher.

Higher than that.

A cookbook that people want to read.

A best-selling cookbook.

Okay,

Okay.

The best-selling cookbook of all time.

Of all time.

See,

That's laughable.

See,

It makes me laugh to even think about it.

Exactly,

Right?

It's laughable,

But someone's going to write that.

Yeah,

But Aunty would be like,

Yeah,

That's exactly what I'm doing.

Exactly.

No,

No,

No,

But exactly,

Right?

So,

So like there's,

There's something that sort of relates to this that,

That really helped,

Helped me.

So,

So like,

Let's say you aim for that.

Yeah.

Right.

But then you,

You,

You don't get that,

But you get 1% of that.

1% of the best-selling sales.

That would be enough to live off,

You know,

Like that's.

.

.

Yeah,

And it would be phenomenal.

Exactly.

Yeah,

I agree.

So if you aim for the top and then you miss,

But you're aiming high.

It's like,

Okay,

Well,

What would the,

What would someone that's going to be the,

To write the best-selling cookbook of all time?

Because someone will.

Yes.

Right?

Someone will.

Now,

If we just brainstorm cookbooks,

It's like,

Okay,

You need to have a good understanding of,

Of how recipes are written.

You need to,

You would eventually need to work out,

Either hire a photographer or work out the best way to do photography of the thing.

You would need to get a relationship with a publisher that's multi,

Multinational.

You need to.

.

.

See how we're sort of brainstorming all of these things that you would need to do.

Yeah.

And then you could brainstorm it down to the space that you are and then take those steps.

So,

So for me,

Right,

For,

For me with the authoring,

It's like,

Okay,

I know I need to,

One,

Learn how to write better.

So I'm reading and listening,

Like reading how to write books and listening to how to write podcasts and stuff.

I'm reading the best in the world right now.

So I'm looking at how they're doing it.

Yes.

And I'm practicing.

Perfect.

Yeah.

Right?

And then,

And then the next thing would be looking into publishing houses when I've got something that would,

I would consider like,

As in I do self-publishing,

But considering like externally publishable quality.

Yeah.

So it's like,

They're the steps that I need to take to be the best.

Yeah.

So it's like,

So let's,

Let's,

We're coming up on time.

So let's call the,

The take action,

Have a consider,

Like,

So we've debated this back and forth and we could,

We could get down to the nuances of this more so.

No,

This is a good exercise.

I like it.

But consider,

First of all,

Pick the thing that you're most passionate in your life.

Yeah.

Number one.

Number two,

Consider what the absolute top of that is.

Yes.

Number three,

Consider,

Think about what it would take to get there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then number four,

What's the first step you can take to get there.

Yeah.

On that journey.

Yeah.

I like the exercise.

Does that sound reasonable?

Yeah.

So yeah,

I mean,

It's,

It's obviously,

His logic with that is that like,

Yeah,

I said like,

Oh,

Bestseller of all time.

You're like,

Ha ha ha.

And instantly like that can't be me.

Yeah,

I know.

But like people do that a lot.

What?

Like,

Like laugh.

Of course.

No,

And that's exactly the point.

He didn't.

Yeah.

And he went from strength to strength to strength to strength to strength.

And what would I do if I didn't downplay him?

Yeah.

And if he was like,

Oh,

I'm just going to be an okay bodybuilder.

Cool.

We've never heard of him.

Yeah.

Wow.

So I guess,

I guess that's the thing.

Aim for the top.

That's really absolute top.

But it's scary as hell.

But my God,

Do you have to change?

Yeah.

Anyway,

It's time for us to read another book and for you to take action and get some abundance into your life.

What do you think?

All right.

We'll see you next time.

Cheers.

Reviews

Hi Zachary, really interesting topic you discussed and good summary of actions!
However, your part of speaking was about 99% and it would have been quite interesting to hear more from her …
Best regards, Joe

Thank you 🙏