Arnold at 20 in the Bavarian Alps, dreaming of bigger things.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of the all-time great motivators. His life story—his rise from a skinny teen in a hilly village in Austria to a seven-time Mr. Olympia, a worldwide movie superstar, a mega-successful businessman, and the governor of California—is one of persistence, continually challenging himself, and overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds with an indefatigable will to succeed. And Arnold is frequently chronicling the lessons he learned along the way in order to inspire others, in and out of gyms. As his new book, Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life, is released, The Barbell took a deep dive into Arnold’s “advices.” What follows are Arnold Schwarzenegger’s best motivational quotes.
“There are no shortcuts. Everything is reps, reps, reps.”
“You have to remember something: Everybody pities the weak; jealousy you have to earn.”
“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.”
“If I can see it and believe it, then I can achieve it.”
“If you want to turn a vision into reality, you have to give 100% and never stop believing in your dream.”
“When you fail, you can always get back up. You have to take risks. Without taking risks, you can never break a record. If you have a 400-pound bench press and want to bench 420, but you’re afraid to fail, then you’ll never even try the 420. Relax! Don’t be afraid. A failure is someone who falls and never gets back up. A winner falls, gets up, dusts himself off, and keeps moving. Don’t be afraid to fail! Everyone around the world fails. Don’t be afraid to attack that goal. You can’t be paralyzed by fear of failure, or you will never push yourself. Keep pushing because you believe in yourself and in your vision and you know that it is the right thing to do, and success will come.”
“Forget plan B. To test yourself and grow, you have to operate without a safety net.”
“I’m a big believer in hard work, grinding it out, and not stopping until it’s done.”
“I love it when people say that something can’t be done. That’s when I really get motivated; I like to prove them wrong.”
“Dreams are for the dreamers. Goals are for achievers.”
“The pain you feel today will be the strength you feel tomorrow.”
“To be successful, however, you must be brutal with yourself and focus on the flaws.”
“Where the mind goes the body will follow.”
“How many times have you heard that you can’t do this and you can’t do that and it’s never been done before? I hear this all the time. As a matter of fact, I love it when someone says that no one has ever done this before, because then when I do it that means that I’m the first one that has done it. Pay no attention to the people that say it can’t be done.”
“What is the point of being on this Earth if you are going to be like everyone else?”
“Just like in bodybuilding, failure is also a necessary experience for growth in our own lives, for if we’re never tested to our limits, how will we know how strong we really are? How will we ever grow?”
“For me life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.”
“The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent.”
“Have trust in yourself, craft your own vision, and go after it, no matter what anyone else thinks. Once you have a strong enough vision, you can work like hell to achieve it.”
“The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they’ll go through the pain no matter what happens.”
“Positive thinking can be contagious. Being surrounded by winners helps you develop into a winner.”
“The better you get, the less you run around showing off as a muscle guy. You know, you wear regular shirts-not always trying to show off what you have. You talk less about it. It’s like you have a little BMW—you want to race the hell out of this car, because you know it’s just going 110. But if you see guys driving a Ferrari or a Lamborghini, they slide around at 60 on the freeway because they know if they press on that accelerator, they are going to go 170. These things are the same in every field.”
The preceding quote is from the book Pumping Iron. We have more quotes from that book here.
“Be hungry for success, hungry to make your mark, hungry to be seen and to be heard and to have an effect. And as you move up and become successful, make sure also to be hungry for helping others.”
“I knew I was a winner back in the late sixties. I knew I was destined for great things. People will say that kind of thinking is totally immodest. I agree. Modesty is not a word that applies to me in any way. I hope it never will.”
“I do the same exercises I did 50 years ago and they still work. I eat the same food I ate 50 years ago and it still works.”
“Life’s six rules for success. 1. Trust yourself. 2. Break some rules. 3. Don’t be afraid to fail. 4. Ignore the naysayers. 5. Work like hell. 6. Give something back.”
“You can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.”
“It’s important to have fun in life, of course. But when you’re out there partying, horsing around, someone out there at the same time is working hard. Someone is getting smarter and someone is winning. Just remember that. Now, if you want to coast through life, don’t pay attention to any of these rules. But if you want to win, there is absolutely no way around hard, hard work. None of my rules of success will work unless you do.”
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