 Before we dive into the video, we are live right now with our Summer Essentials accessory pack, man. We got pint mug collectibles, Frisbee socks, lanyards, tons of goodies over at 3sb.co. We will sell out, and again, everything's small bath, so once it's gone, it's gone. No restocks, check it out for me, and enjoy the video. Ladies and gentlemen, Salam Mike. Welcome to the video today. We're gonna talk about how to stay motivated, how to stick to your cut, how do I stay motivated after training over 15 years in the gym. Tap in, the shreds continues, my low weighing is 206. We're gonna talk about it, how I got here, how you can get here as well. Be sure to like the video, subscribe. Let's go get it, I got back and by today, but we're talking motivation. I used to probably think like most of y'all, and it is the most common ask question. I literally just went to my high school and spoke to 100 kids at a basketball camp, and they're like 10 years old, 12 years old, they're like junior high, and they're asking me about motivation, which just to me tells me that like the entire vision, the entire society and culture around work ethic is upside down. Because we can't wake up every morning, do a back flip out of bed and say yippee, I get to go grind bench today and deadlift today and count my macros and work 10 hours at my startup business and be successful with a big old smile listening to DMX, think you're gonna run through a wall. It simply doesn't work that way. I've been there, you know, from ages probably 18 to 24, I trained strictly alone, sometimes out of a garage, sometimes in a commercial gym when powerlifting wasn't a thing, so I'm headphones in all by myself, the only one using heavy barbells, and I thought the same, so I'd be at home and I'd be watching Arnold Schwarzenegger videos and Ronnie Coleman videos, listen to the loudest Eminem and Meek Mill I could to get all angry for every single session for three years, but the truth is that probably did very little to my actual training session in a positive manner, probably burnt me out, sure there's some fun there and trust me, I'm just like you, I wanna be motivated, I wanna be inspired, but the beauty lies in the grind in the process, and I know a lot of this is gonna sound cliche, but if you have a goal, choosing goals and goal setting, building a path to that goal, that should be all the motivation you need. If you need to have that goal on your home screen or your phone, if you need to do affirmations and tell yourself that goal, if you need to write it down and put it on your fridge or where you brush your teeth or where you eat breakfast, so you read and observe that goal as a reminder, but reaching that goal and allowing yourself to live through the process should be enough. So what does that actually look like? What does it look like to have a plan to have goals, to find this motivation, to actually hit what you wanna do and at the bottom level, it's self-respect, because you're telling yourself that you're gonna do the X, Y, Z, and every time you don't do X, Y, Z, you're lying to yourself. So we already have issues with people lying, people talk about snakes and fakes in the world. If you can't be honest with yourself, how are you supposed to be honest with the ones you love or the ones you share in the world? So step one is just self-respect to follow through on a plan you have. On the more X's and O's, I'm setting a goal, right? Like right now I gotta lose weight, right? We wanna get down to 192, 190 pounds is my ultimate goal. From there you build a plan. The bigger plan, right, is just like how many calories you gotta eat, what your workout regimen looks like, what your sleep protocol looks like, and you tap that in. And then I just think of each one as a step or a stair leading me to the top of that goal. So I have to eat a certain amount of calories every single day. All right, then even within that, you can branch off to be as complicated or as simple as you want. I have to eat 1,700 calories a day. I have to train six days a week. I have to do cardio six days a week for my health and my calories. Then within those, right now I'm not breaking down my training program as complicated as I want. I just have to push pole legs. I'm trying to have fun with it. But my calories, and that could be different for you, but your calories, what you can do then there, is to reach that goal because you have a daily goal to hit 1,600 calories. What's the step to get there? And for me, that's grocery shopping on Sundays. That's meal prepping every day. That's not having snacks around the house. That's not eating out. Those are all part of the steps to reach the 1,600 calorie goal. Which if I do that enough days in concession, then I'm gonna reach my ultimate goal of the 190 pounds. If your goal is to deadlift 600 pounds, okay? Set a date, get a training regimen. What's the easiest way to get there? Is it a program? Is it a coach? Is it getting a new and training environment with good gym and good equipment? Then every day, what time are you training? Lock that in. That's something, a habit I've already had built. But we build these small habits on the hour, on the day that are steps to the bigger habit that will hopefully lead us to that goal. One of the things I actually struggle with most myself is kind of celebrating small victories and allowing yourself to have the ups along the way. I'm so self-critical and my head's just stuck in the sand. Some people commend that on the internet and I actually think it's wrong and bad because you shouldn't wait just to celebrate the largest victories. Because by the time you hit those huge peaks, you're gonna be too worn out and they won't even seem like tall peaks. So let's work on setting those long-term goals, medium-gold, short-term goals and it's okay to be proud of yourself for just doing the basics. It's okay at the end of the week if you hit your macros, you got your sleep, you got your water, you hit your training sessions to pat yourself on the back. Say, man, week one, I crush that shit. Move on to week two, follow up, do the same thing with better effort. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. As soon as we set this huge goal like mine's 190 pounds, the leanest, most muscular I've ever been in my life, as soon as I get there, we gotta set another goal to continue going. This whole value of practicing, setting habits, hitting goals are lessons in themselves to allow us to build the life we want. What's the point of any of that if we don't enjoy it? What's the point of any of that if we don't acknowledge our hard work and our efforts along the way? Otherwise we're literally just on a hamster wheel wasting my time, my energy, your time, your energy. So let's try to work on setting the long term, the medium term, and give a little pat on the back. You know, just because you hit your macros doesn't mean you go get to eat a whole ice cream cake, but you can mentally acknowledge you can maybe take yourself out to a movie or something small, enjoy it. Even just a pat on the back, acknowledging the hard work that it took to get there because it's hard, it's a grind, there's gonna be days you don't want to, there's gonna be days where it's not fun, there's gonna be days where progress goes backwards. Right, my low is 206, but I was 210 this week also. That doesn't feel good to say, but that's a reason why we monitor our progress. That's why I love strength training, that's why I love tracking my nutrients, that's why I weigh myself every morning when I'm cutting. You can write it down and physically see the progress and hopefully be proud of yourself along the way. Chug it away, man. Sometimes it ain't pretty, sometimes the motivation ain't on all these highs and these small talks and these peps, if you need a pep, by all means use it, but use them sparingly. You can't get fired up with the most evil thoughts before every set if you're gonna do this for 15 years, so build yourself on foundation, habits, rituals, man, style of Mike, appreciate you all. 3SB.co, snag your shorts, best PE shorts in the game, brand new drop coming real soon with our summer essential accessory collection drop. So if you want some fun items, a lot of y'all, the crowd's been saying they wanna rep 3SB more than just apparel, so I got a lot of fun things in the mix that are dropping July 10. So stay tuned if you wanna get involved, goodcompanydiscord.com, son of Mike, I'm out y'all.