If lack of motivation is a major reason that keeps people from exercising, maybe we need a little more envy. Envy is a great motivator. So … I can envy Daniel Craig, Jason Statham, and Gerald Butler, right?
As a Cube Dweller I tend to read information from many different sources to keep up with the accelerating pace of change. I ran across a blog post by Adi Gaskell(@adigaskell) entitled Envy is Your Way to Improvement. In the post Adi explores some new research by Niels van den Ven. Here is a quote from Adi:
Benign envy was when you believe someones achievements were deserved.
When they had benign envy however they increased their efforts as a result.
So how do you produce benign envy? What kind of circumstances enable it?
They did some research into this as well and the findings should be of interest to all managers. When people believed that someone achieved success through hard work and effort they experienced benign envy. When they believed that all of their efforts would be futile it resulted in malicious envy, ie the destructive kind.
I think that is pretty important so bears repeating. An ‘effort pays’ culture delivered extraordinary effort, whereas an ‘effort is futile’ culture produced destructive results.
That suggestion has great payoff in multiple settings in life: work, relationships, and … in the gym. Reading about stories of people who have a build we aspire is good; when we can see the work they put into it. By connecting the work and the desired output we can generate benign envy and get us motivated to exercise. Envy is a great motivator; we just need to learn how to use it.
Envy Is A Great Motivator For Your Fitness
To make it so you just need to do two things:
- Identify people that look they way you’d like to look
- Uncover the amount of work (exercise and diet) they perform to get there.
Build benign envy to shape your fitness. Understand that everyone’s build is different, so match your target to your build – a little realism. Let envy become your great motivator for exercise and diet.
Click on the image below for a video on how to get that Hollywood-look. Let envy be your motivator to build muscle.
Daniel Craig
He built for his role as James Bond and pulled it off. I found an article where Craig talked about his transformation on Ask Men. In the article Craig says…
Your diet is about 75% of the equation, while the work you do in the gym accounts for the remaining 25%. Before beginning your journey, you should organize a diet plan and commit to it.
Focus on diet!
Jason Statham
Statham is one versatile guy and is in great shape. In this article in MensHealth Statham talks about his diet and exercise program to pack on muscle.
It is mixed with variety, but each workout had three basic components:
- Ten-minute warmup – the easy part
- Ten minutes at medium intensity
- Interval training
Simple, but effective. Statham had this great quote about the interval portion of his workouts…
Gerald Butler
For his role as a Spartan in 300 he worked out hard for 4 months. This article in Men’s Health outlines his training.
The 300-rep Spartan workout
Without resting between exercises, hit these 300 reps.
- 25 pullups,
- 50 deadlifts with 135 pounds
- 50 pushups
- 50 jumps on a 24-inch box
- 50 floor wipers
- Lie on the floor holding a 135-pound bar straight overhead. Keeping your legs straight and touches your feet to one plate, lowers them to the floor in the center, and then raises them up to touch the other plate. One rep.
- 50 single-arm clean-and-presses using a 36-pound kettle bell
- 25 more pullups
Brutal workout and that was his “prep” workout program of his training.
What about you?
Two things: if motivation is getting your way and envy is a great motivator, then decide who has the build you desire, and uncover their work.
Envy is a great motivator — it could be just what you need to change your diet and kick start your fitness.
Take a look at Visual Impact for Men and Visual Impact for Women. They are two programs from Rusty Moore to build that look you envy. (Find out more about Rusty at his blog Fitness Black Book or on Facebook Fitness Black Book Fan Page)
About Troy Pesola
Troy is the founder of Cube.Dweller.Fitness. He's an innovation catalyst in several areas of life including business, marketing, and process improvement. Outside of work he's actively involved in fitness, health, and living vibrantly in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.
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