Hard Work and Determination Pays Off
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- Date Submitted: 02/13/2012 08:36 AM
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Hard Work and Determination Pays off
by Arnold Schwarzenegger
I started way back as a weightlifter. From the first moment when I gripped a barbell and lifted the steel up over my head, I felt this was exhilaration, and I knew then that this was something that I was gonna do.
I remember the very first real workout that I had. Eight miles away from my home village in Austria there was a gymnasium, and I rode to that gymnasium with a bicycle. And there I trained for half an hour; they said that after half an hour you should stop because otherwise your body will get really sore. But after half an hour I looked at my body, and nothing had happened. So I said, “I’d better work out for another half hour.” So I lifted some more. My strength didn’t improve, I didn’t see the muscles pop out or anything like that, so I trained for another half an hour. And then after another half hour I trained another half hour, and all together I’d trained (for) two and a half hours.
After that, I rode my bicycle home. And after the first mile I got numb, and I couldn’t feel anymore the handles of the bicycle, and I fell off the bike and I fell into the ditch at the side of the road. The next morning when I got up, my body was so sore that I couldn’t even lift my arms to comb my hair. I had to have my mother comb my hair, and you know how embarrassing that is. But you know something? I learned a very important lesson, that pain means progress. Pain is progress.
After two or three years of discipline and determination and working out hard, I actually changed my body, and I changed my strength. And that told me something, that if I could change my body that much, then I could also change anything else. I could change my habits, my intelligence, my attitude, my mind, my future, my life. And this is exactly what I’ve done. I think that lesson applies to people, and it also applies to countries. You can change, China can change, everyone in the world can change.
I remember the...
by Arnold Schwarzenegger
I started way back as a weightlifter. From the first moment when I gripped a barbell and lifted the steel up over my head, I felt this was exhilaration, and I knew then that this was something that I was gonna do.
I remember the very first real workout that I had. Eight miles away from my home village in Austria there was a gymnasium, and I rode to that gymnasium with a bicycle. And there I trained for half an hour; they said that after half an hour you should stop because otherwise your body will get really sore. But after half an hour I looked at my body, and nothing had happened. So I said, “I’d better work out for another half hour.” So I lifted some more. My strength didn’t improve, I didn’t see the muscles pop out or anything like that, so I trained for another half an hour. And then after another half hour I trained another half hour, and all together I’d trained (for) two and a half hours.
After that, I rode my bicycle home. And after the first mile I got numb, and I couldn’t feel anymore the handles of the bicycle, and I fell off the bike and I fell into the ditch at the side of the road. The next morning when I got up, my body was so sore that I couldn’t even lift my arms to comb my hair. I had to have my mother comb my hair, and you know how embarrassing that is. But you know something? I learned a very important lesson, that pain means progress. Pain is progress.
After two or three years of discipline and determination and working out hard, I actually changed my body, and I changed my strength. And that told me something, that if I could change my body that much, then I could also change anything else. I could change my habits, my intelligence, my attitude, my mind, my future, my life. And this is exactly what I’ve done. I think that lesson applies to people, and it also applies to countries. You can change, China can change, everyone in the world can change.
I remember the...