Strongman Training Journal Part 4

My parents are from Belize.  It’s a small, poor, country in Central America that, like most Latin American countries, is poverty stricken.  My father grew up in a house with dirt floors and my mom relates stories about the cockroaches that shared a bed with her.

So, as my parents embarked on the American Dream of raising a family and owning a home…  they went FAR beyond the typical 3rd World immigrants expectations and purchased a HUGE house on Long Island.  This is where they raised me and my 3 siblings.

As did most suburban families, my parents would take us on short vacations once or twice per year.  Usually to places like The Jersey Shore and The Catskill Mountains.  We always stayed in moderate hotels and mostly ate food that was purchased at a local supermarket or prepared by my mom.  This was awesome! and I am eternally grateful to my parents for providing us these experiences.

BUT… there was one type of vacation that practically ALL suburban families would take that my parents were adamantly against.  My parents would never, ever, under any condition consider taking us camping. For my dad, the thought of returning to the dirt floor to sleep and for my mom to again share her covers with insects was appalling!

My dad would say, “Why the hell do you think we worked so hard to come to America?  — So that we can buy an expensive house and then have our children sleep out-of-doors?”

I totally understood… that’s why we (my brothers and sister) never really made a press to go on camping trips.

Buuuut, as the “King of my own castle”… my kids get the honor of resting their heads upon dirt mounds, amongst the wild life, out-of-doors, in the freezing cold!

We went on our 2nd family camping trip last week… as a part of my commitment to “spend less time working like a mad man”, I forced myself to shut off the Blackberry and leave my laptop at home in order to spend 6 days living outside with my 4 women (and the surprise bun-in-the-oven).

Below is a 5 minute video of us doing…. nothing.  Just sharing some sugar and talking about non-sense… just the life I’ve envisioned.

Honestly, I wouldn’t expect you to watch this video… it’s actually pretty boring (unless you love kids).  But I post it here anyway, perhaps as a means to show you that I am making good on my goals and promises for 2010.

*** If you are shocked that my children are eating smores… understand that they are allowed sugar only about once a week.  AND the majority of their diet consists of grass fed, organic meats, veggies and LOTS of whole eggs!  My children literally fight over who is going to get the first dose of Cod Liver Oil every evening… and even more strange is that my 5 year old has no clue who Ronald McDonald is!  (this is also a product of limited TV time)

Think Strong Thoughts!

Like I mentioned earlier my parents are from Belize.  Most of my dad’s siblings lived with him in a small apartment in Brooklyn when the moved to “the states” and my mom was forced to live with he aunt and 7 cousins. Less than a welcomed guest, my mother earned her stay by spending her weekends at the laundry-mat washing shopping carts full of dirt laundry.  She had no social life and spent her days “looking after” her little brother and cousins.

My father is a dreamer and a pragmatist.  With an ever optimistic view on life and rugged discipline he has cultivated what I call his “Iron Will”.  He thinks about what he wants and NEVER settles for anything less.  In fact, when he decided to buy a massive home on Long Island in an “all white” community, not only did the neighbors look upon him with contempt and disapproval… so did his own family!  Everyone (including my mom) thought he was crazy… but in his own words, he didn’t “give a shit” what anyone else said, he WAS going to buy this house!

Not only does my father THINK strong, he is tirelessly DISCIPLINED!  He understands the eternal law that states, “ask and you will receive” as well the old Quaker saying, “Pray and move your feet.“  Clarity, Commitment and Discipline are the qualities that construct his Iron Will.

My parents with my sister and her son.

Clarity

I once heard it said that, “Most people are wandering generalities instead of meaningful specifics.”  And again, “If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.”  (If you couldn’t tell, I love quotes!)

If you ask most people, especially miserable people, “what exactly do you want?”… they usually have NO idea.

This is the first stumbling block towards to fulfilling life.  If you are not 100% clear about what you VALUE, then you will never be content.  Even if you’ve achieved so-called worldly success… if what you have accomplished is not in line with your inner most convictions about what is right and good, you will remain unhappy.

When my father talks about something that he wants (and today it’s usually an intangible goodness), he uses his entire body, hands and face to describe it (if you’ve ever watched me talk you’ll know what I mean :)).  When he’s relaying his VISION to you, it’s as if it is already here and he is showing it to all to you down to it’s last detail.  It’s incredible!

As an adult I now understand, the reason why my father got what he wanted, has the type of family that he wanted, and lives the life that he wants to…. is because he is always very clear and passionate about his desires.

Also, and this is very important, he is NEVER stressed out about anything.  As passionate and aggressive as he is, nothing really ever gets under his skin!  Worry never stops him or slows his mission.  He has an almost child-like sense of confidence and optimism.  If things don’t work out as he planned it… he sets his project aside and takes a nap.  His sleep is never interrupted by anxiety or depressive thought.

This is very important to understand.  Knowing what you want with super-clarity is critical, but you must also develop the peace of mind that allows you to set aside all distractions (and there will be many) as you move towards your hearts desire.

Commitment

I have recently shifted my desires from material things (and I really didn’t desire much material stuff prior to this shift anyway) to VALUES or ideals and VIRTUES or character traits.  In previous journal posts I relayed how important time and freedom, as values, were to me.

Most people would agree that these are good things to value and that we would be well off structuring our lives in order to maximize our ability to cultivate these values…. just like any other goal, material or intangible.   But what made my statement about these goals CONCRETE was that I chose specific steps and took immediate actions towards making them a reality.

The act of drawing my “Leverageable Business Model” and marking my 2010 calender with the 8 weeks where I’ve forced my myself not to work (and go camping) set my mind, as well as the powerful unseen forces of our universe (ie. God) to work in my favor to bring this ideal into reality.  This, in the same fashion that my father stated, “I don’t give a shit what anyone says… I’m going to buy this house.” over 30 years ago!

When you “burn the boats” (see the video below) you destroy any opportunity, in your mind and then reality, to backslide.  You slam the door behind you SHUT and never, ever consider turning back to face it.  That option no longer exists.  You are 100% committed, with out a single fraction in your consciousness, to MAKE what your heart’s desire a reality.

“10,000 Angels” will come to your aid…

Discipline

Brian Tracey once said that “disciple is the glue that hold your dreams together.”  He also said that in order to cultivate it, you must consistently do what you need to do, whether you feel like it… or not.

I have to be honest with you… this particular VIRTUE is at the top of my list for character traits that I aim to strengthen.  I have my father’s capacity to dream with clarity and I have a semi-dangerous ability to commit wholeheartedly (this explains a part of my talent as a football player… everyone knows that you’ve to to commit to smacking the shit out of your opponent or you’ll be the one on the stretcher).

But, when it comes to the “daily grind”… I have had the tendency to drift.  I am sure that you would agree that it is in the “carrying out” of our plan that most of us fall short.  Yet, it is precisely THIS capacity that “glues your dream together”.  The day-in, day-out, mindless, emotionless commitment to DO exactly what you have set out to do… weather we feel like it or not.

Most of us would agree that the temptation for achievement in absence of disciple pervades every aspect of our lives.  People want to lose weight, but they don’t exercise EVERYDAY.  People want better families, yet they fail to tell them how much they love and appreciate them EVERYDAY.  People want to make more money, but they fail to serve others EVERYDAY.

The magic is in the EVERY-DAYS.

Super Virtues

Aristotle is often considered the Father of Modern Western Philosophy.  It has been said that for the past 5,000 years, all philosophy has simply been footnotes to Aristotle.

Well, according to the father of western philosophy… “An intelligent being can only be happy if it acts virtuous.”

If I had to pick only 3 virtues that, if practiced and cultivated, would bring about the most happiness and success in the lives of those who made them goals… they would be CLARITY, COMMITMENT, and DISCIPLINE.  These are the Super Virtues.

My father came to this country in the early 70’s with nothing but his “Iron Will”, the combination of clarity (knowing exactly what he wanted), commitment (staking his claim with an immovable mindset) and discipline (even today he awakes at 4:45 am in order to exercise and train his body for everlasting health).

With his “Iron Will” as his only asset, he built a life that he often smiles and “cackles” a giddy laugh about.  He sits at the head of his living room table and propounds in his wise, yet child-like way that, “Life is pretty awesome.”

He was “poor” in flesh but rich in spirit and now swims in the warm waters of his dreams.

Most of us have been born into relative affluence.  We have food, clothes and cars… yet we are miserable.

And guess what? — It’s our own fault.

We are responsible for our thoughts, thus we are responsible for our words, our words dictate what types of actions we’ll take, our repetitive actions become our habits… these habits become our character.

Your “outer life” is a mirror reflection of your character, the values and virtues you’ve chosen to cultivate, or not.

First Steps

Hey we’ve all got to start somewhere… right?

Like when I first started Strength Camp, most all of my training equipment was either found in the trash or I made it.

=> How To Make Your Own Gym Equipment

Well, yesterday was a BIG day for my family…

As you know, I have 3 daughters… the youngest, Simone is only 14 months old.

She still drools all over her chin, crawls and, mommy nurses her.

But last night as soon as I walked through the door after leaving my gym… she came RUNNING up to me with the biggest smile ever!

Check out her very first steps:

The Tao Of Dad

If you are anything like me and countless other men on this planet who have healthy relationships with their fathers you’ve taken notice of the incredible evolution of admiration and love between a father and son.   Movies like The Lion King where the son (or in this case, the cub) spends his early years admiring his father until the day that he must take his place; or Big Fish where the dad is misunderstood and despised by the son until the young man realizes that he is just like the “old man”, depicts the typical tales of the father son relationship.

My father emigrated to the US from a small country in Central America named Belize.  There he spent his former years climbing trees, swinging from vines and living a generally care free Caribbean lifestyle.  His home had dirt floors, he shared a bedroom with his 5 other brothers, often sharing the same bed as well, and his father was a pig farmer.  My mother often jokes, “Your father was raised like a wild animal.”

The truth is that my dad was raised to be “wild”.  He would often go days without eating prepared food (although his mother DID cook great meals) on account that he was “out playing” , so he would simply fill his belly with wild growing fruits and eggs that he would steal from sitting hens.  He was enrolled in school, but would often choose to spend his days playing soccer with a coconut or catching fish with his bare hands in a nearby river instead.

Although his formal “education” may have been lacking, my father’s wisdom… realized along with snake bites and “butt whoopings”, far outweighs that which would be afforded by a modern university degree.  Upon first impression most typically conclude that my father is just another “brown skinned dude with a bad attitude”.  But beneath his rough and relentless exterior is a roaring flame of passion and excitement about life.  He often bears an giddy smile and randomly exclaims, “Man… life is awesome, huh?”

He has very little tolerance for laziness, mediocrity and people who call themselves “depressed”… and he’s not afraid to tell you about it.  People who come to my dad for advice get straight talk, he never reserves his harsh judgment in order to coddle your ego or enable dysfunctional behavior.  Consequently, fewer and fewer people come to him for advice.  But he is the first one that I go to when I’m unsure about a life principle.

Growing up “wild” had afforded my dad experiences that most people only read about in books.  The lessons he’d learned, his ability to apply them and his cantankerous form of communication has developed in my father what I call “Crude Wisdom”.

Although I have evolved into being able to understand, appreciate and even admire my father’s Crude Wisdom… there was a time that I despised him for it.  He would often make harsh, offensive and explicit statements like, “There is no such thing as having ‘friends’…” or “that woman is useless…” which would make most people think that he was insensitive and arrogant.  But as I have gotten older (30 this year) and have my own family, I find myself not only verbalizing these very statements but defending them in my mind and using them as a frame work for my values system.

Below I have listed several Crude Wisdom remarks that I remember my father reiterating throughout my childhood.  Below each one, I give a valid interpretation that I know he would affirm and approve of.

WARNING! - if you are overly sensitive or easily offended by harsh realities then DO NOT READ the rest of this article.  But, if you enjoy wisdom and truth in ALL of its most pragmatic and practical forms… enjoy!

#1 - “YOU just take care of YOUR shit and don’t worry about anybody else!”

Jesus once said the same exact thing but he used a little bit more diplomacy, “Why do you look at the speck of dust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the log in your own eye?”

BOTH meaning to say — that instead of pointing fingers, being a victim of or complaining about other people… take a good look at yourself and where YOU may be causing pain or dysfunction in your life and the lives of others.

Spend more time working on YOURSELF than worrying about the inadequacies of other people!

#2 - “Do you want me to tell you, ‘You did a good job’?”

Don’t expect praise or pay for sloppy service.  It’s funny how many people feel ENTITLED to payment, praise and acceptance when they have only offered a half-hearted effort. They want to be told or shown appreciation where none is really due.

For example… I had once spent several hours cleaning the living room in our home, when I told my father that I was complete, he strolled into the room and immediately began pointing out all of the spots that I had missed.  In the typically rebellious teenage manner I charged my dad for not being appreciative and being overly critical.

He then asked me… “Well, would you LIKE me to tell you that you did a great job? — even though you didn’t?” Then he began to demonstrate sarcastically as if he were proud of me and the wonderful job I did cleaning the living room.  His fake praise and sardonic show of appreciation was ridiculous– and it taught me that I was ridiculous for expecting it!

#3 - “You need to be BRAINWASHED!”

Just think about the word “brainwash”.  Besides it’s negative associations, it is really an incredible word!  Consider that most of us are walking around with a brain full of garbage.  Bad habits and conditioning, negative thoughts, poor self esteem and the 7 O’clock News all sully our brains.  It may actually be a GREAT thing to wash your brain every once in a while!

Because my dad is notorious for being brutally honest… whenever extended family members, cousins and friends have hit the absolute rock bottom in their lives they would often seek his advice (but usually never return for another dose!).

I remember a time when someone (I won’t say who) came to my dad for some family and relationship advice.  When they concluded their story, my father explained that they needed to be “brainwashed”.  But the crude sound of that term was so offensive to the receiving party that they argued that my dad was cold hearted and mean.  But, they should have understood that that’s the type of term you should expect when you go seeking Crude Wisdom!

I have taken my dad’s advice and “wash” my brain daily through meditation.

#4 - “Go do something… I don’t care what it is!” / “You have to FEEL some pain”

Often times when people are upset or unsure about a decision to be made they “sit on the fence”, waiting for something magical to happen.  They become paralyzed by their fear and indecision and end up depressed.  These people are more interested in maintaining their false sense of stability rather than expose themselves to the possibility of failure.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.”

My father’s point is that ACTION breeds confidence!  Rather than sitting down and making yourself sick, get up and do SOMETHING… ANYTHING, it really doesn’t matter what.  He taught me that in order to grow you are going to need to feel some pain.  And that if you can accept that WHICHEVER choice you make will be the “wrong one” and develop the courage to act anyway… then you will be a success.

You can’t tip toe your way through life being afraid of failure.

#5 - “This is just the way I am… and I don’t give a shit if you like me or not!”

Most people move through life in a very apologetic manner.  They seem as if the are constantly apologizing for who they are — but not my dad.  He says what he thinks, does whatever he wants and gets results “with or without you”, and whether you like him or not.  Either way he doesn’t care.  “Don’t do me any favors” is another one of his favorite terms.

“I’m not going to change just because YOU have a problem with me… that’s YOUR problem, not mine.” This may sound arrogant and mean to someone who doesn’t have a keen sense for Crude Wisdom,  but if you listen a little closer and pay attention to the context in which it’s relayed…. this is one of the most profound statements that my old man has ever shouted.

Contrary to appearance, my father exhibits a great deal of humility, he thanks God for all of his blessings and helps anyone who is willing to help themselves,  but understand that he also balances this equally with a great deal of confidence and self respect.  These are 3 values that many men lack today.

Fathers Day is in 3 days…I invite you to consider all of the ways that your father has taught you to be a man.  Like my father, his words may have not been the kindest and he may have even been absent, but you learned SOMETHING from him.  And he has had a hand in the shaping of your mind and character.

Please comment below with a short story about your dad and maybe even how you plan on showing him your appreciation this weekend.

To my dad, Edmund Hulse… I bow to your Crude Wisdom and all that it has taught me

Happy Father’s Day!

Strongman Training For Kids (or just my kid ;)

Last week I met a guy who had 3 sons, he seemed to think that the fact that his children had penises and mine didn’t somehow made him more of a man than me.

I’m pretty confidant in my manhood and it takes a lot to offend me.  Besides my arrogant and stubborn nature allows me to shed the ridiculous opinions of morons, while simultaneously accumulating evidential ammo for the next attack.

While his sons are at Chuck-E-Cheese filling their little bellies with purple soda and Hot Pockets… my GIRLS are swallowing raw eggs and tossing heavy objects around for fun - or something like that

Elliott Hulse Strongman & His Mini Van

Every so often I receive an email from one of my fans who reads HulseStrength.com and watches my Strength Camp TV shows asking me…

“Elliott, how do you do so much?  Your business, your training, your family… how do you get it all done?”

Well, instead of my typical, arrogant rant about how everyone should live - I’ll just show you HOW I live on a day to day basis.

This is the first show in my new Strength Camp TV series called “The Strongman & His Mini Van”.

Ok, I can’t help it… I’ve got to relieve at least one “rant” (confession) about priorities on you.

Guess what? - As much as I love football, I have ZERO clue who is in the playoffs this year… the Superbowl will be in my city and I have absolutely no idea who is a contender.  I don’t even know how my beloved NY Jets have done this year with Brett Favre.

This, not because I don’t love football but because instead of spending hours watching games on Sunday and viewing countless re-runs of SportsCenter… I work on my business, train my body and care for my family. (the things that matter MOST to me)

I have the same 24 hours a day that everyone has, I just choose to JAM PACK it with constructive, creative and resourceful activities that yield a high return… a life I love!

How have you PRIORITIZED your life to meet your goals for 2009?

Tell me by posting comments below!

Here’s the show: