The Power Of The Language We Use.

Something that I have come across lately was how I was using my language to either uplift or degrade myself and others.


I realized that if I was truly going to start to grow and take massive action to get to where I want to be in my life I would have to change the way I talk.


I first started noticing myself using language such as "I can't" while working out when I was starting to get to a rep or weight that was "too hard" to lift. This in turn became true, by saying I can't do one more rep, I wasn't able to.


Rather, if I switched to saying to myself "I can" or "give it your best shot" I could usually lift the weight one time if not more, and worse case I would give it my best and end up doing a half rep.  Either way, I pushed and gave it that little extra effort which in turn made me feel better.


Another big game changer for me was in the book Rich Dad Poor Dad, where the author says "Instead of saying to yourself 'I can't afford something', ask yourself 'how can I afford this?'"


So what does this mean for you?  I want you to start to notice where you are using language that isn't helping you become your best version.  Start to really dive deep into how it makes you feel on a daily basis, and how using this language is holding you back instead of helping you move forward?


Once we get used to using language against ourselves or others, it usually turns into a downward spiral from there.  We start to become attracted more and more to using this type of language.


But the oppposite is also true, if we use language that is empowering to ourselves and others we will start to notice an upward spiral.  Sure part of this is positive thinking, but 99% of this is because you are seeing yourself and others in a positive light.  By using positive language you will start to shift your brain to see all the ways that you can do great for yourself and others everyday.


You will no longer have to live life in a state of negativity.  Although the language you use won't get rid of all of your problems, it will help you get rid of some of your problems.


Before I end this I wanted to give you an exercise to try that will help you shift your language from negitive to positive first thing in the day.


Tomorrow when you wake up (if you are reading this when I publish this blog) it will be Monday morning.  I know, the day everyone dreads with a burning passion. 


I know that most likely every Monday you wake up, you probably say to yourself "oh great another Monday and week to get through.  Now what I you changed tou view and language on Monday just a little bit?  I'm not even saying you have to love Mondays, but what if there was something simple that could help you feel a little better about them?  Would you give it a try and see if it made not just your Monday, but week as well a little bit better?  You bet you would!


So here it is, (as a disclaimer this is something I have heard others say that are living great lives and something that really stuck with me since I heard it) what if tommorow when you wake up you say to yourself how greatful you are to be alive another day, not just that but another week!


If you wake up in a state of gratitude tomorrow morning and every other Monday for that matter, how much better are your weeks going to be? By changing your language early in the morning it will help set the course for the rest of the day and week!


Closing thoughts.


I hope that this read has been extremely helpful for you in changing the way you speak in your daily life.  I know first hand that we can either speak in a empowering or disempowering way, and the language that you use will make a dramatic difference in how you live your life.  Whether it be for you achieving goals, or influencing others, the words you use on  daily basis are one of the most important things that will help you become the person that you want to be in life!

Live your life to the fullest,
Brian

Feeling Bad For Gaining Fat While Bulking.

If you have been following me over the past couple months you know that I have been working on bulking to gain as much muscle as I possibly can by the end of this year.  So far I am making pretty good progress on my muscle gains, but I have also been gaining some fat in my belly area.  Although I probably only gained a couple pounds of fat, I have kind of been feeling bad and discouraged because of it.  My goal is to be 135 pounds and lean (8-12% bodyfat) by December, so by gaining fat, I feel as if I will gain the muscle I want, but will have trouble dropping the fat that I need to drop.

Maybe you are experiencing a similar problem with your bulk.  I really wanted to make this blog to help and guide you if you are in the same boat.  So here are a couple tips that will help you along the way of your bulk!

Keep your focus on the end goal.

The first step in helping you is to focus on where you want to be instead of focusing on where you are right now.  If you want to be a certain weight, focus on that rather than focusing on where you are.  By focusing on where you want to be you will train your mind to visualize it and work on making it a reality.

This mindset will also help you not beat yourself up for where you are.  This is actually the biggest reason I am writing this blog right now.  For a couple weeks I was focusing on the fat I gained (although not much) and how it bugged me to be gaining fat while bulking.

As of last week I have shifted my mindset to focusing on my end goal, which is weighting 135 pounds and having8-12% bodyfat, rather than looking at the little bit of fat I did gain so far on my bulk.  And the weirdest thing happened since last week, I started to notice more muscle growth.

I know that may sound weird, but I know that by focusing on my end goal, I started to see myself getting stronger and my muscles growing faster.  I know the same will happen for you when you keep your eyes on your end goal!

Trust the process.

When bulking you will pretty much be guaranteed to gain fat.  The reason being, is that you are eating a surplus of calories, some calories going to muscle gain and others storing as bodyfat.  So the first tip is to not get so caught up in gaining a little bit of fat, as it is part of the process.  But also don't go overboard and eat so much food that you are only gaining fat.

By eating whatever is the right amount for you, realize that it is normal to gain muscle as well as a little bit of fat.  But you always have the ability to eat more or less depending on how much you are currently eating.

Once you get into a good flow of how much to eat on a daily basis, you can start to trust the process more.  By trusting in the process you will be able to be content with where you are and have a clear focus on where you are going!

Closing thoughts.

I hope that if you have been feeling discouraged or bad about gaining fat on a bulk, that reading this blog has gave you some useful advice.  These tips are really what have helped me and I know that as long as you apply these tips to your mindset that they will help you as well!

Live your life to the fullest,

Brian

Feeling Lack Of Motivation? Try This Out.

Over the past couple weeks I have been lacking motivation like crazy.  I've even been unmotivated to go to the gym and workout the past couple weeks.  Usually I love working out but its just been feeling like more of a struggle than fun for me at times.

This being said I am still working out and pushing through this feeling of being unmotivated.  Deep down I think this lack of motivation is linked to things that I want to happen, not happening fast enough.

Today I wanted to share with you how I am learning to get myself motivated in hopes that it will help you be able to motivate yourself when you need motivation.

We all lack motivation.

No one is born motivated to do anything.  Chances are as a child you weren't motivated to try and walk.  Although you probably don't remember this, you most likely wanted to keep crawling around and doing what was familiar and easy for you.

Lack of motivation (IMO) stems from resisting something that you want to do that is a challenge for you.  For example you may want to start reading books, but haven't been much of a reader in the past, you buy a book for yourself but are still feeling unmotivated.  You may want to start reading and create a new habit, but you feel stuck as lack of motivation stops you from achieving your goal.

Its completely fine to lack motivation.  But how are you going to respond to this lack of motivation?  Are you going to let it stop you or fuel you?

What I have noticed is that even if you lack motivation, you still have the choice to push yourself, and reclaim

that motivation!  By doing this you will build momentum, as well as start to feel more inspired and motivated for the things that really matter for you.

Shift your mindset.

In my case I was thinking of working out only to gain muscle.  Which isn't bad, but I also wasn't as motivated lately just thinking that way.  I ended up starting to remember the reason behind why I am working out, and this was because (yes I do want to build muscle) I want to build muscle to help other hard gainers / skinny fat males do the same in the most effective way possible!

By thinking of how your goals will have value not only to you but also the world, you will be able to have more motivation for achieving the goals you have set for yourself.  There will be a bigger purpose behind each goal you set for yourself.

For an example if you want to start reading books just so you can learn more, it might fuel you for a while, but eventually you will need a bigger goal to start reading books.  Maybe you start to read books so you can someday know how to write an amazing book of your own to share with the world.

Closing thoughts.

I hope these tips helped you gain some motivation to achieve the goals you have for yourself, as well as helped you create a bigger purpose for your goals!

Live your life to the fullest,

Brian

A Small Nugget Of Wisdom From Awaken The Giant Within.

Today I wanted to make a short blog on a video I made last week.  I am writing this so that you can have a quick read on something that will tremendously improve your life!

A few weeks ago I was reading Awaken The Giant Within by Tony Robbins and came across a paragraph or 2 that really struck me.  In short Tony was talking about how people flew in to Hawaii and got super excited to see the solar eclipse (which he described as a 4 minute shadow).



He asked the question, "If people got this excited to see the eclipse, why aren't people excited and happy to see the sun rise every morning?"

This is what really made this idea stand out to me.  Sure we may have bad days, but what if upon waking up, we realize how great of a day it already is.  What if the second you get out of bed you think of how grateful you are to be alive another day, rather than focusing on how you will get through "another day"?

A huge part about this is seeing more good than bad during the day.  Training you mind to focus on good rather than bad.  Which believe me is very challenging!

I like to become conscious of when I am thinking thoughts that aren't uplifting to my energy and the second I notice I change those thoughts of negativity to thoughts of gratitude or positivity.

By having gratitude for another day yourself, you will be able to wake up in at least a little bit better mood, which will help you focus on more good throughout the day!

Also aa a side note, if you have a day that you perceive as bad, start to shift your focus on "how can this circumstance help me?" rather than focusing on how the circumstance is bad.

Closing thoughts.

I hope that his quick read helped you have more excitement in your day, and gave you some insight on gratitude / making each day a little bit better!

Live your life to the fullest,

Brian

How You Can Manage Time In The Age Of Social Media.

Time management is something I believe almost everyone struggles with.  I struggle with it and you probably do as well, otherwise you probably wouldn't be reading this right now.  If you are anything like me maybe you spend 30 minutes to an hour a day on Instagram getting lost in funny memes, pictures of cars, or nice houses.  I go on Instagram to find a picture to post, or to post my own picture, but a lot of the time one picture that has nothing to do with why I opened the app in the first place will take me to a bunch of other pictures, and afterwards I will find myself wondering why I wasted my time looking through those picture that brought me nowhere towards my vision.

If you feel the same way and you take those same actions like I do, then keep reading on!  I wish I could say I had perfect time management but I don't.  In the world today we have become so used to little dopamine spikes from texting and social media that it can be hard to put your phone down for 5 minutes or more.  Try it right now as you read this blog post.  Set your phone down a few feet away from you and just be here with me while you read this (unless you are reading this on your phone).  I am completely with you on this, it is hard, and I feel like looking at my phone right now.  But since I told you to put your phone down, I also have to put mine down for the whole time I write this to be fair and present with you right now.

What does being on the phone have to do with time management?  Do you ever notice that when you are working on something and you pull out your phone to text someone or open social media it takes your brain a minute or two to get focussed back on the task you were doing?  Why is this?  Well there are scientific reasons for it, but I would like to share my experience with you as a human being, not as some study that was done on 153.5 people.

If you are editing a video for example and picking up your phone every two minutes to respond to all your texts and go on social media, you are going to find that the video won't only take a longer time to edit, it will also turn out pretty mediocre.  You may be thinking "this is just multitasking, what does this have to do with time management?"  I would say multitasking has to do everything with time management.  It takes your brain at least 30 seconds to get back on task to editing that video each time after you answer a text.  So if it usually takes you 45 minutes to edit a video it would take you at least a hour if you are multitasking.

Even right now as I am writing this blog post I wanna pick up my phone and see if there are any messages, and check my Instagram.  But I know that wouldn't align with my goals and bigger vision at this time.  What it boils down to is to focus on one thing at a time and give it your full attention.

The next form of terrible time management that I see many people fall into including myself is spending too much time on time wasters.  This can be television, Youtube, Netflix, video games, and still Instagram, Facebook, and texting.  Most people will come home and manage their time horribly. They will sit down and spend a couple hours watching TV and that is the highlight of their day.  Maybe you relate maybe you don't.  If you are someone who relates to this type of behavior, like I do a few times a week as well when I feel like I have completed "enough", then what I would say to you is to reflect on your biggest goals and dreams in life.  What are they?  How does it feel in your mind to think of achieving these goals?   Just asking yourself these questions will usually bring you to not do these time wasters as much.  

These are probably the biggest time wasters today for most people.  We are conditioned that it is normal to spend your weekends just doing the same stuff that doesn't benefit you or lift you up higher.  The last thing I want for you is to be 80 years old and realize that you wasted too much time on a bunch of useless activity.

Closing thoughts

What did you get from this blog post?  How are you going to apply these lessons to your daily life to free up more time for your own goals, and become the greatest you that you can be?

Live your life to the fullest,

Brian

Reading Books vs Audiobooks. (Pro's and Con's)

For a little over 3 years now I have really gotten into learning from people that are where I want to be in life.  Whether it be through books, audiobooks, youtube, or even courses learning from people who are high achievers, and winners in life is something that has made a huge impact on my life.  It helps your mindset to take a shift from the normal life most people live to the prosperous life that these high achievers live.  It shows you ways you can work to get to their level.  Although I still have a long way to go to be at my highest level in life, the mindset that I have is that I can always learn from others.

Today I wanted to share with you the difference in books and audiobooks.  I hope this will help you learn which form of reading works best for you so you can accelerate the learning process in your life.

Regular Books

Let us start off talking about good old regular books.  The reasons I like reading an actual book that you can hold in your hand is because if you want to mark something that you want to go back to in the future, it is very simple and easy to do, you just circle or underline what stood out to you and mark the page and you are all set.  You will know exactly where you want to go when you re-read the book the next time around or when you want to go and look over the things you found useful in the book before.

Another reason I prefer books is that if the book has an exercise to complete it is much easier.  Lets say the author has an exercise for you to write down a few specific things you learned throughout each chapter.  In an audiobook it would be 100 times harder to go back and listen to the chapter to find the answer.  In a regular book you can flip through and find the exact location the answer would be in.

This even applies to if the book has an exercise about helping you come up with a plan for your life.  In a regular book there is usually already a spot for you to brainstorm and write down your plan.  This will save you time and energy compared to if you are listening to an audiobook.

Why is this?  If you are reading / listening to an audiobook with an exercise in it, you will have to pull out a piece of paper and write down the exercise question and then answer them, which can cause you to be more likely not to do the exercise in the first place since you would have to exert "way" too much energy compared to a regular book.



Audiobooks

With all that being said audiobooks have tremendous benefits as well that regular books don't have!

Audiobooks are actually what I now prefer.  I used to love reading regular books, and yes from regular books it is easier to learn from, since taking down notes is super easy and simple.  However with a regular book I cannot read it while I'm driving, in the shower, cooking, or whatever I'm doing.

With a regular book you literally have to sit down in a quiet environment and read it.  With an audiobook, on the other hand you can listen while you are doing almost anything.

If you have a long daily commute to work audiobooks are even better for your life.  Music is awesome and can be fun to listen to in the car.  But every once and a while (about half the time I drive) I like to listen to an audiobook. The reason being is like I said music can be fun, but why not feed your brain while you are waiting in traffic?

Closing Thoughts 


There is a time and a place for books as well as audiobooks.  To use them both in combination is a great idea.

What I mean here is that both books and audiobooks are great, but if you are driving on a road trip you can't just pull out a book and start reading without putting your life and others in danger. but you can connect your phone to your radio and put on an audiobook.

On the other hand if you are in a quiet or peaceful environment reading an actual book can be very relaxing and feel great to do!

Really audiobooks are great for when you are on the move or super busy.  They are great time savers but if you want to learn better and retain more information I would recommend actually reading books.

Like I said both have their benefits in different situations.  From what you have read above what sounds like a better fit for you, reading books or listening to audiobooks?

If you want to take your life to the next level check out some of my recommended books below and get a copy of your own!

Thank you so much for reading, as always,

Make the best of today,

Brian

5 Things You MUST Stop Doing Right Now To Take Your Life To The Next Level.

In today's blog I want to share with you 5 things you are doing in life that are keeping you from moving forward.  Being able to make a mindset shift and stop doing these 5 nasty habits will help you make the first step in taking your life to the next level!

Eating junk food on a regular basis.

If you are new to the Ganifit blog you may not know about my backround.  Until I was about 15-16 years old I mostly ate junk food every single day. I rarely drank any water (only sugary pop) and usually ate tons of processed foods.

At the time I didn't really notice what these foods were doing to my body, but I saw myself gaining some fat and I was not happy with how I looked.

Although I wasn't severely overweight I still had a little gut and some man boobs.  I was lucky enough to start to become conscious of what I was eating around the age of 16. Although my bad habits didn't change instantly, over time they got better (and still are as I learn more and more about nutrition).

From my personal experience I noticed no benefit from eating these foods except the instant gratification I got from the taste of these foods.  I have multiple cavities from drinking so much pop, eating ice cream, and other sugary foods as a kid.

Now whenever I go and eat some kind of junk food, I notice I feel completely different from when I am eating food that fuels my body.

I feel tired and unmotivated (especially if I eat white bread or processed carbs.  When I was eating processed carbs all the time, I never noticed how it really made me feel.  It took me changing my eating habits to notice how eating a burger or pizza really makes me feel afterwards.

Although there are times I eat junk food, I keep it to a minimum because it dramatically will affect
my health and productivity if I eat junk everyday.

This is also the reason most people will eat lunch and come back to work more tired than before.

So if you want to level up in life, changing your eating habits to healthier eating habits is the first step.  Not only will you be less at risk for major health problems, you will also have more energy to actually focus on improving your life!

Gossiping/judging others.

Judging others is one of the biggest things that holds so many people back in life when they are trying to get ahead.  Most people are stuck in the trap of gossiping or judging others because almost everyone is always doing it, which makes it easy for you to get sucked into.

I am currently working to overcome judging others and I wanted to share a couple ways that can help you stop judging as well.

One of the easiest ways that I have found to instantly change how you view other human beings is to start to realize that they are human just like you.  We all have faults and judging someone on their's doesn't change anything and you will end up feeling bad for it in the end.

When you start to see people as other humans just like you, you will realize that they are just doing the best they know how to in life.  Also realizing that each person has a family can help as well (think of how you would feel if someone judged your parents).  Would you want someone judging your family?  Probably not, so why would you judge someone else when they have a family just like you?

Another great way to stop judging others is to realize that no one else has to be your image of perfect.  I would often find myself judging someone for being overweight and thinking "why can't he or she just get into shape?"

Judging people for this reason made me realize that no one has to live the way I want them to live.  Judging them is not going to change anything either, so start to see where this person is doing good in life, or just simply wish them the best.  But don't go around judging someone just because they aren't how you want them to be.

Realize that you can only control yourself, not strangers, or even friends and family!


Living without any goals.

Without having anything to achieve or stand for in life you will constantly be bored, or even worse try to escape life in any way possible, through TV, video games, and even drugs in extreme cases.  Having a goal or purpose in your life will give you a sense of accomplishment each day that you work toward them.

Maybe you have been in the situation before where you had no goals.  How were your days planned out?  Did you have anything exciting or was it just the same old boring day on repeat?

I remember when I was in school, I would always wait to come home and play video games for hours on end.  Although sometime around the time I turned 16, I started to get more interested in building an online business.  The only problem was that I never wrote down my goals for at least another year.

This resulted in me still playing video games on a regular basis, as well as getting information overload on different types of online businesses but never taking any action.

If I didn't set goals for myself I would still most likely be sitting on the couch playing video games for hours every single day.

By setting big goals, as well as monthly goals, and even daily goals, I give myself a roadmap of where I want to go.  I give my life purpose.

By creating meaningful goals for yourself you will start to live a more worth while life and be on your way to taking your life to the next level!


Staying in a comfortable environment.

So many of us get comfortable where we are in life.  We work 9-5, come home watch TV, eat some junk food and repeat.  This becomes a normal process and what we get used to.  The days start to blur together and you are never challenging yourself.

Chances are you are surrounding yourself with people that make the same amount of money as you (or even less).  You never put yourself in situations where you are uncomfortable and thus never grow.

One of the biggest things in my life is getting to the gym and hitting a hard workout.  I know when I go in there that I am going to be one of the smallest people there.  This is a great challenge, I used to be insecure about having smaller muscles than others, but now I realize that I am being challenged.  I can stay home and cry that I don't have big muscle or I can go to the gym and be around people that have bigger muscles than I do and get motivation from that.  Yes it makes me uncomfortable, but I do it because it will help me grow.

What is it for you?  What areas of life can you start to be the least experienced in the room and challenge yourself?  If you can't get around people that challenge you, go on Youtube and search for people who are where you want to be and learn from them.  Yes it'll be uncomfortable, but it'll be worth it!

Watching TV on a daily basis.

I want to start this section off by saying that watching TV isn't always bad.  There is a time and a place for it and it can be a great way to relax.

Believe me, I used to be there, I would watch TV almost daily.  I love TV but I realized that it won't help me get to where I want to go if I watch it all the time.

Personally I have started to set a goal for myself to only watch TV 2 days per week.  And at the most on those days I will watch about 2 hours of TV.

So how can you start this new habit of watching less TV so you can have more time to upgrade your life?  This goes back to the section where I told you to have some big goals set for your life.  Without big goals you will usually just do whatever is easiest since you have no motivation to accomplish any goals in the first place.

Or maybe you use TV as an escape.  Maybe you are someone who likes to come home after a long day at the office and just watch TV till you go to sleep.  You watch it to numb yourself and forget about your long day.

Although this may feel great in the moment, it will only dig you deeper into the trap.  After a while a habit will be built to not have any ambition or goals.

To start out I would recommend that you keep track of how much you are currently watching TV for one week.  Then replace one hour of TV per day with a goal that you truly want to accomplish.  This way you are starting off slow and building a brand new habit that will help you get to the next level in your life!

Closing thoughts.

I truly hope that reading this gave you a TON of value and insight on how you can start to take your life to the next level.  This is all stuff I had to learn so far along my journey (and even still am in some cases).

I believe that these will really help you start to transform your life if you practice all of these tips on a daily basis.

Thank you so much for reading, as always,
Make the best of today,

Brian