“No one's going to come to your house and make your dreams come true.” — Grant Cardone
He is loud, he is obnoxious, and he will call you out on your bullshit! This is exactly why New York Times bestselling author Grant Cardone has a huge following on social media. Grant has one of those personalities that will lead you to either love him or hate him. His outlook can be refreshing but you can easily find yourself hating what he has to say. Often times, the truth hurts. In his book, The 10x Rule, Grant provides some points that we all need to hear. His points in the book can be applied to business and life, but here we will apply them to lifting.
Take ownership.
When things go your way it is easy to take ownership and all the glory. Conversely, it is easy to push blame to everywhere but yourself. No one wants to feel that something is their fault, but you could have done something. Grant takes every situation and takes ownership.
As a lifter, it is up to you to make progress. It is not your coaches, the program, the judges, your handler, training partners, or your mama’s fault that you didn’t make the progress you think you should have. You are the one who didn’t squat deep enough, work hard enough, eat properly, sleep enough, or take care of a host of other variables that you have ownership of.
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If you are a coach, the same goes for you. When your lifter doesn’t make progress, it is your fault. Take ownership of their progress. Their job is to execute your training but it still falls on you to get them to perform it exactly as you want them to do it. If they don’t, it is your fault. Take ownership of their failures because it is ultimately your fault.
If you are going to take all the praise and accolades, you need to take the ownership of all the problems as well. Taking ownership is having control. Control means less stress, and I believe that leads to more long-term progress. Take ownership and you will be better for it.
Create new problems.
In training, nobody wants problems. Even worse is a new problem as soon as you fix the previous one. Training for strength is truly about creating new problems. Your training should be improving weak points so that something else becomes a problem. In the squat, when you get your low back up to par then hamstrings or upper back will be the new problems that must be fixed. Once that is improved, something else is a problem. You must keep pushing until something else is a problem.
I use muscular weak points as an example, but it includes more than that. Your technique might change with improvement to weaknesses and weight class changes due to more muscle or less body fat. As you improve and reach new levels, you will create new problems that will need to be solved. Creating new problems are never a bad thing. It is just the next problem to be solved. Keep solving problems and keep making progress.
Dominate, don’t compete.
Do you think Chuck Vogelpohl worried about competing? Fuck no! He was out to dominate and kick ass. Chuck would bury any training partner he could because he wasn’t there to compete — he wanted to dominate. This is why Chuck is Chuck and you are not. He would make sure he did everything he could to dominate. This mentality is why he is one of the best all-time lifters.
I am going to flip this around just a bit. Beginners are too often worried about competing with the other guys in their weight class. As a beginner, you need to dominate your old numbers. When you get to a national or world meet then you can worry about beating the other guys. Domination of yourself must come first before you can dominate any opponent.
Once you can dominate your training, nutrition, sleep, and stress levels, you will truly understand what it will take to get to a level where you can dominate your competition. With that said, you will continually have to dominate yourself to push to higher and higher levels. Enough years of self-domination will take you to that place where there is less and less competition and only competition with yourself will push levels even higher.
Don’t be a little bitch!
Poke around on social media after a big meet and it will be easy to think all powerlifters are a bunch of whiners, complainers, and crybabies. This is the exact definition Grant gives when he talks about being a “little bitch." Social media is where the whining and complaining come out.
Social media is the fastest way to feel validated in our opinion. All the likes on your post are like saying, “I am right and you are wrong, and all these people agree." I get it. There are things that I hate and disagree with but I have enough of my own problems. I don’t need to worry about what someone else is doing.
There is so much crap on Facebook and whining that goes along with it. Guess what? Your post won’t change a damn thing. Stop whining and take action. That is the only way to win. If you want real change you need to go to the root level to do it. Become a judge and throw those red lights.
In lifting, you create your own success. No matter how bad you want it, no one can just give you a 2000-pound total. You have to put in the work and your lifts will tell you exactly how well you are doing. World championships and all-time world records do not happen to you — they happen because of you! They are not just handed out like participation trophies. You must take ownership, dominate yourself, stop being a little bitch, and worry about your own training. If you focus on those four things you will be in the right place to become as strong as you possibly can.
Header image courtesy of grantcardone.com
