The Truth About Psyching Up

Blood curdling, Primal Scream at the top of his voice… aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!

Slapping himself in the face with both open hands.  whap, whap, whap, whap!

Punching the padded gymnasium walls until his fists were numb. pap-pap, pap-pap, pap-pap!

Sprinting full speed at a wall and then as he approaches the wall he leans back and begins sprinting UP THE WALL!

This, all in the name of getting FIRED UP!

Yep, that was me.

When I played high school football I was that kid that always seemed to be the most fired up.  I would bang helmets with my teammates, shout outrageous affirmations like “I kill entire tribes and eat their young!”; I even scraped the word KILL vertically on my helmet to ensure opposing lineman that I intended to do nothing short of murdering them.

And of course, I was the shining example for the other players as to how to get psyched up… that’s why I was usually the player to lead the team onto the field carrying the Baldwin Bruins team flag.

College was different.

Completely by accident, I discovered the power of visualization.

During my rookie year of college football a movie about dinosaurs called Jurassic Park was released.  In the movie were these highly skilled, quick and viscous, meat eating lizards called the Velociraptor (or Raptor for short).  I fell in love with the athleticism and ferocity of these bad-ass creatures and even bought some toy models of them to play with (always a big kid!).

Well, before games I would sit in my locker and imagine that I was a Raptor!

There in my locker I would close my eyes and visualize myself as a Raptor sprinting down field on a kick-off where I honed in on my prey (the kick returner) with desperately hungry intention to literally devour him!  — I could see myself sprinting, with impregnable focus, maneuvering around anything that came between me and my desire… and then as I approached my prey I’d attack him as if my life depended on it.

An example of this type of focus:

Today, as I have competed in both the business world and as a professional strongman I continue to use several motivation / inspiration techniques in order to deepen my desire, sharpen my focus and strengthen my fortitude…

But there is a BIG DIFFERENCE between how I go about getting “psyched up” as a coach, pro athlete, father and businessman… and when I was a crazy kid full of “piss and vinegar.”

And the truth is that experience had shown me that my new methods for getting fired up are far, far, FAR more effective than when I was younger… AND the tools that I am going to teach you are scientifically sound and so powerful that they’ve been used by martial artists and gurus to exhibit feats that most would insist are impossible!

First, let’s get something clear… there are two types of motivation:

Extrinsic Motivation vs. Intrinsic Motivation

Extrinsic Motivation is stimulated via an outside-of-the-body stimulus (or extrinsic).

This can be achieve by the use of something like yelling; slapping yourself; listening to high tempo / heavy beat music; watching a motivational clip; listening to a motivational speech and with stimulants such as ephedrine, cocaine or coffee.

The problem with this type of “motivation” is that it is FAKE.

- It is shallow, never penetrates the level of base emotions (anger, anxiety, rage, etc)

- It is temporary, never lasts long enough to carry you through challenges and adversity. And in the case of music and movies… what happens when the music stop or the high wares off?

- It is draining, most extrinsic motivation drains your catabolic hormones, energy and can lead to adrenal fatigue… this is BAD if you actually have a game to play after you’ve gotten your feather all ruffled!

Intrinsic Motivation rises up from within.  It comes from your heart and deepest intentions.

Intrinsic motivation comes from within.  It is a deep reservoir of intention that resides within AT ALL TIMES.  It is always there, you never have to “turn it on”.  This burning fire can be accessed by using a few simple “Jedi Mind Tricks”  that I will teach you later.

The great thing about this type of REAL motivation is that, well… it’s real!

- It is calm, focused, mature YET outrageously powerful.  It can be compared to a mighty river.

- It is enduring and never fades away, or can’t  be taken away!

- It ENERGIZES you all the days of your life.  It gives you the drive to work with no sleep; train when others are tired; focus when chaos ensues and brings all of your latent powers together in order animate your TRUE greatness.

As you can see… most athletes and high achievers are going about psyching themselves up with superficial, inferior and essentially ineffective tools.  Music and Tony Robins CDs stop motivating you a few moments after your iPod battery dies.

But INTRINSIC motivation, that lives deep within your soul, can easily be accessed by using techniques such as “emotional triggering”, and NEVER DIES!

Oh, and now when I compete (and whoop ass!) in strongman or need to motivate myself for anything else, I simply stoke the “internal flames” and then use my favorite emotional trigger.

See it here: