One Good Think #6: Arnold Schwarzenegger
On the importance of clarifying a vision and copying a model
All my dreams suddenly came together and made sense. I’d found the way to get to America: bodybuilding!
There are two key facts that set Arnold Schwarzenegger towards stardom.
Fact #1 was a circumstance and consequent insight—one that might be hard to replicate.
But fact #2 was a strategy—one that we can and should copy.
Which is why it’s today’s OGT.
Fact #1 - Arnold’s Insight
One day, Arnold was walking in town and saw on the cover of Body Builder Magazine, British bodybuilding champ, Reg Park.
By that time, Arnold was already getting obsessed with bodybuilding. In it, he’d found community, challenge, and that he had a particularly skill and desire for it. Park had been Mr Universe a year before, the top prize in bodybuilding, and was Arnold’s hero.
Usually, Arnold would see Park posing or lifting weights.
But this was different.
Rather than oiled up in competition, Park was wearing a loincloth, and holding a shield and sword. He was dressed for the Hollywood role he’d just landed: Hercules.
You have to understand—Arnold’s dream was to move to America. Only there, he thought, could one be happy, free, and have fun. That’s where he belonged.
So, for the first time in this picture of Park, Arnold tells us in his memoir Total Recall, he saw bodybuilding as his path.
“This story crystallized a new vision for me. I could become another Reg Park. All my dreams suddenly came together and made sense. I’d found the way to get to America: bodybuilding! And I’d found a way to get into movies.”
Fact #2: Arnold’s Strategy
Arguably, the insight is hard to replicate.
It came from a lot of circumstances— America, bodybuilding, Arnold’s wild-eyed dreaming, walking by that store.
But Arnold’s strategy can be copied. Starting with clarifying a vision.
In weeks that followed, I refined this vision until it was very specific. I was going to go for the Mr. Universe title; I was going to break records in power lifting; I was going to Hollywood; I was going to be like Reg Park. The vision became so clear in my mind that I felt like it had to happen. There was no alternative; it was this or nothing.
Arnold elaborated on the importance of a clear vision in a famous commencement speech:
You know how great it felt that I knew where I was going? I was so relieved. Because when you have a goal everything becomes easy.
People would ask me why I was smiling while working out so hard: I told them because I am shooting for a goal. In front of me is the Mr. Universe title. Every rep that I do gets me closer to accomplishing that goal. To make this vision turn into reality. I couldn’t wait to do another 500lb squat. I couldn’t wait to do 2,000 sit-ups. I couldn’t wait for the next exercise.
Anything can be done if you can visualize it.
So the first thing was the vision.
But the way he achieved this vision was just as crucial. And it’s the more practical of the two.
He simply copied someone who had done it.
Reg went from bodybuilding to the movies. He became a smart and successful businessman, and he was the first person who gave me a glimpse of what my life could someday become if I dreamed big and worked hard.
I read that magazine over and over again. The magazine told me how he trained, how long he worked out, how he won all these bodybuilding competitions. How he was discovered for movies.
Reg said that he worked out five hours per day, so Arnold did. It told Arnold what to eat, how to lift, what to work out, and how the process of getting into the movies occurred.
From that magazine, the blueprint of my life was set.
The OGT
First, I would say that even the insight Arnold had was replicable. The fact that he had a dream and a pursuit put him in the frame of mind where an idea like using bodybuilding to get to acting and America could even occur.
Second, I think that the easiest thing to do here is to decide what you want to do, and copy someone who has done it.
So, find a vision, find a model, and, as Arnold says, work like hell.
Now— go think on that.
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