The secret to success by Arnold Schwarzenegger (Video and text) - Limits that don't exist

Of course, people ask me all the time, they say to me, "What is the secret to success?"

The first rule is: Trust yourself.
But what is the most important is that you have to dig deep down, dig deep down and ask yourselves, who do you want to be? Not what, but who. And I'm talking about not what your parents and teachers want you to be, but you. I’m talking about figuring out for yourselves what makes you happy, no matter how crazy it may sound to other people. So rule number one is, of course, trust yourself, no matter how and what anyone else thinks.

And, of course, rule number two is: Break the rules.

There's so many rules in life about everything. I said break the rules. Not the law, but break the rules. It is impossible to be a maverick or a true original if you're too well behaved and don't want to break the rules. You have to think outside the box. That's what I believe. After all, what is the point of being on this earth if all you want to do is be liked by everyone and avoid trouble? The only way that I ever got any place was by breaking some of the rules.

Which, of course, brings me to Rule number three: Don't be afraid to fail. Anything I've ever attempted, I was always willing to fail. So you can't always win, but don't be afraid of making decisions. You can't be paralyzed by fear of failure or you will never push yourself. You keep pushing because you believe in yourself and in your vision and you know that it is the right thing to do, and success will come. So don't be afraid to fail.

Which brings me to Rule number four which is don’t listen to the naysayers. I mean, how many times have you heard that you can't do this and you can't do that and it's never been done before? I love it when someone says that nobody has ever done this before, because then when I do it that means that I'm the first one that has done it. So pay no attention to the people that say it can't be done. I never listen that, "You can't." I always listen to myself and say, "Yes, you can."

And that brings me to rule number five, which is the most important rule of all: Work your butt off. Believe; leave no stone unturned. Mohammed Ali, one of my great heroes, had a great line in the '70s when he was asked, "How many sit-ups do you do?" He said, "I don't count my sit-ups. I only start counting when it starts hurting. When I feel pain, that's when I start counting, because that's when it really counts." That's what makes you a champion. And that's the way it is with everything. No pain, no gain. But when you're out there partying, horsing around, someone out there at the same time is working hard. Someone is getting smarter and someone is winning. Just remember that.
But if you want to win, there is absolutely no way around hard, hard work. None of my rules, by the way, of success, will work unless you do. I've always figured out that there's 24 hours a day. You sleep six hours and have 18 hours left. Now, I know there are some of you out there that say well, wait a minute, I sleep eight hours or nine hours. Well, then, just sleep faster, I would recommend.

And that takes me to rule number six, which is a very important rule: it's about giving back. Whatever path that you take in your lives, you must always find time to give something back, something back to your community, give something back to your state or to your country. And let me tell you something, reaching out and helping people will bring you more satisfaction than anything else you have ever done.

Remember those six rules:

Trust yourself, Break some rules, Don't be afraid to fail, Ignore the naysayers, Work like hell, and Give something back.


Now this is a blog for psychiatric patients. I don't want you to sleep only six hours a day; because I am a hard worker but I still believe that sleep is the most important thing for patients like us. But when you feel that it's difficult to sleep do some chore and the sleep will come. This way you will improve your work. One thing I totally agree with Arnold Schwarzenegger: I'm always willing to fail, not because I don't like success, but because I want to try every possibility with as little fear as possible. When one creates too much expectation of winning he or she becomes too afraid of making mistakes and is hindered by fear.

Of course there are limits in life. But most people focus in limits that don't exist. Arnold Schwarzenegger himself knows that there are some things that he just CAN'T do and he probably wish he could do them. He always knew that there were some limits imposed by Physics, for example. He probably wanted to fly like Superman... I always wanted to do that... but I know that the laws of Physics limit me. But we must look at the overall of Schwarzenegger's advices, knowing that there are limits, but anything that other human beings did can be done by any one of us. And many people in Human History did things that most people deemed impossible putting limits that didn't exist. That's the point.