When I was in my early twenties, a lot of my friends were becoming very successful. They owned homes and nice cars. They traveled a lot and had disposable income. I wanted to be like them, but I just wasn’t. I was a high school dropout, so I didn’t have many options other than the manual-labor jobs you get when you’re a dropout. I painted houses, I was a personal trainer, I worked in retail, and I was a cocktail waitress. I worked hard. And then, when I was twenty-six years old, I got a job as a salesperson at my local Family Fitness Center, which was part of a chain. I loved my job so much. It was a really good fit for me at the time.
Whenever there was a company meeting, they would talk about peaking. This is how they explained it: When you fill the pipeline full of clients and referrals that are passing your name along, that will help grow the business and your cash flow. But, they told us, you can’t make a puppy a dog. You have to grow into being a dog. You can’t just become a dog. You have to grow. The years have to go by until you become a dog—and that’s the peak.
When they talked about filling the pipeline and pushing, I would get so frustrated because I knew I had it in me, but I also knew that I was still the puppy and there was nothing I could do to make myself grow faster into being the dog. I tried to speed up the process anyway. Oh, did I hustle. I’d get to that gym at five thirty in the morning and I’d go up to all the people already working out on the treadmills, and I’d give them a guest pass and tell them to bring their friends.
The gym was smart and awarded a prize every month for the top salesperson. In June, the top salesperson would win a mountain bike. And I really wanted the mountain bike because I couldn’t afford to buy my own. I’d be rolling calls for hours, telling clients or newbies that they won a free guest pass to the gym. The next month, the prize was a weekend in Catalina, and I really wanted to go to Catalina but I couldn’t afford it, so I would roll calls for hours on end and sign up new members. The next month, the prize was a day at the spa. It was the perfect prize because I’d get two massages in one day.
My strategies worked, but when I kept winning, my colleagues got mad. They thought it wasn’t fair that I won the prizes every month, and decided the award-giving was rigged. They said I was stealing leads or going around and taking the names out of the membership boxes. I was steamed. “You know what?” I told them. “I invested in my own membership boxes and I put them in all of the local businesses and I established a relationship with those people and I filled the pipeline. I did the work.”
What I didn’t say—but what I knew in my heart—was that this couldn’t possibly be my peak, even though I was a champion salesperson. I knew for sure it wasn’t my peak when someone told me that at other gyms, salespeople were making $10,000 a month. I could not believe somebody actually made that kind of commission selling gym memberships. Then my friend Marcus told me that the aerobics teacher was making even more money. I remember thinking, Wow, I don’t know if I could do that. That aerobic teacher’s really got it together. She was super organized. Every song was perfectly placed.
At the time, to me that was the epitome of ultimate control. And now that’s exactly what I do when I teach. I’m not the puppy anymore. The puppies might know what the pieces are, but they don’t yet have the wisdom and experience to put them all together. It took me many years, but I know that I’ve finally grown into the dog I was meant to be.
What I learned was that if you feel like you’re about to peak or have peaked, you need to find another peak. (Look at Warren Buffett. He didn’t make his first million until he was fifty-three, and he’s now one of the richest men in the world.) I would climb one peak, find a new, higher peak, and then, when I was ready, start climbing again.
In other words, your intentions, goals, and life are not about one solitary peak. Your life is a whole range of mountains. You’re going to go up and down. For almost everything in life, for every positive there is a negative, for every push there’s a pull. (Everything is in twos—which is why this book is called Two Turns from Zero.) Dealing with this duality is what you should try to focus on, because if what you’re doing isn’t working one way, it’s going to work a different way. If you’re down from one peak you know you were up before, look at the next peak and ask yourself how you’re going to go up again. Get your MAP and figure out the route. It’s a different journey to another peak.
As long as you keep moving.
MOVEMENT = MOTIVATION
Movement is what’s going to make the changes in your life start showing up. Moving is what sets the energy in everything in motion. It’s not just you moving the ideas in your head around or moving from one house to another—it’s getting your body in motion, which is the most important trigger for you to LET the sunshine in. To Love, Eat, Train, Repeat. Over and over, in perpetual motion, until you find the Ultimate Center.
In other words, your thoughts, goals, and dreams have to be backed up with action. Not just the everyday action that gets you out of the house. The kind of action that pushes you out of your comfort zone. Let’s take this book as an example. I am a high school dropout, as you know. It was a struggle for me to go back to the classroom as a twenty-year-old to finish high school, but I did it. It was uncomfortable and embarrassing. Thank God I did, and my beloved grandma Stella still has that diploma up on her wall to remind me of that accomplishment. The thought of writing an entire book was something that seemed out of my realm of possibility. So I got help.
My coauthor, Karen, and I talked and wrote and had endless back-and-forths for months, in person, on the phone, and on the computer. The more we worked, and as the book took shape, the more I realized that not only was I enjoying it, I was doing more writing and editing than I ever thought I could do—and I was good at it! Me, the worst student in the world! I mean, if you’d asked any of my teachers if they ever thought I could do this, they would have said, “Yes, Stacey . . . if you apply yourself.” That was my demise in school—application and effort. For school I had zip; for sports I had 110 percent. First kid to practice, last kid out of the gym. I would sweep and mop the basketball court when I got there. I would put all the balls away when I left. I was the coaches’ pet on every team, and MVP on most. I wanted it, and I always did what it took to get it. I found my skill set, and I focused on it. The problem was that I didn’t like learning anything from a book. How ironic that I am writing one.
The best conversation Karen and I had when we started working together took place in a car. I had to go downtown to a photo shoot, so we got in the car the studio had sent, and we headed down New York’s FDR Drive, along the East River. We weren’t actually moving, but we were in motion (there aren’t any stoplights on the FDR, so we didn’t get stuck in traffic). It was one of those incredible experiences where, literally, two people who didn’t know each other all that well yet just looked at each other and bam! Out flew the ideas. I was able to articulate exactly what I wanted this book to be.
The entire ride couldn’t have been more than twenty-five minutes or so, but they were twenty-five indelible minutes. After that, I had the confidence to move forward. Whenever I felt stuck, I just visualized the feeling of that car ride, the ideas zooming out of my head, and the wonderful, deep satisfaction that what I wanted to share with the world could, in fact, be shared outside of my classes. It was just incredible.
Movement always enhances learning. I said this earlier in the book—good professors or lecturers are always in motion; they’re pacing back and forth as they talk. That’s because if you look at the actual structure of the brain, the motor cortex is located in the Broca area, attached to the section of the brain that handles speech. When you make any kind of movement, it goes back and forth to the Broca area. It’s all connected.
The best professionals in any realm know this. Actors and musicians rehearse. Speakers and teachers go over their notes. Models walk up and down the catwalk before a fashion show. Athletes, in particular, know this. At some Olympic events, for example, you’ll see the a
thletes, especially divers and gymnasts, literally walking themselves through their routines, in place, before they do them. Why? They were physically embodying their creative visualizations. My inspiration, Tony Robbins, was famous for doing this with tennis player Andre Agassi. He made Andre go through the entire match of the US Open point by point until he won. From the very first point to every volley and every single point. Game, set, match.
These athletes moved like this not to make themselves feel invincible, but because they knew they needed the utmost preparation. They had a plan. MAP it out. Make a Plan. Visualize what you want. State your intentions. But don’t think that just stating things will bring you everything you want. Yes, it is the ideal start. But it’s still up to you to give yourself that burst of energy and get you moving to make your words real. Get going. Make moves toward the MAP by calling, texting, e-mailing, carrier pigeon—whatever it takes. Talk and talk and write it down and follow through!
MAP-ing it out allows you to expect the unexpected. You’ve thought things through. You know what can go right and/or wrong. Your preparation gives you flexibility. You’re in a state of what I like to call Flex Appeal.
When I went to India to study yoga, I was so not flex. But after two months, I could wrap my arms around the bottom of my feet, and do a handstand, a back bend, and all kinds of other crazy shit I never thought I could do. All I did was stretch every day, because that’s why I was there; I had an intention to get good at it, so the motivation was behind it. That gave me Flex Appeal—physically and emotionally.
One of my students, “Matty Moo,” told me a dramatic story of how flexibility saved his life. He’d been a regular in my class for years, and was also an avid yogi and experienced skier. When he had a traumatic fall on the slopes—he hit a lift pole between his neck and his shoulder; I know, ow!—the ski patrol arrived with the stretcher, expecting to find a body, and couldn’t believe he was still breathing. Not only was he still alive, but the doctors at the hospital told him he’d survived and would have a much speedier recovery because he was in such superior physical condition. They could tell even after an accident that he was lithe and strong. Flex Appeal saved his life.
Flexible people are more successful than tightly wound ones. Tightly wound people use vocabulary like “I can’t,” “I won’t,” or “That hurts.” Flexible people change their language and their muscles. They start to say things like, “I can,” “I will,” and “This feels good.” Flex Appeal is a metaphor for how we have to live our lives and inhabit our bodies. To be flexible is to be ready to change and take on new challenges and grow. It means being ready to twist and turn and not get hurt.
I want you to find new solutions and keep learning, because that, too, will increase your Flex Appeal.
Visualization for Motivation
This is an excellent visualization for forward-thinking and to make you feel safe.
1.Sit comfortably and close your eyes. Imagine that your body is a house or an apartment that you’re renovating. You weren’t able to actually go see the renovations take place because you had too many other commitments. Picture yourself in winter, with cold and snow, and then spring, with rain showers and flowers poking themselves out of the ground, and today is the day you’re finally going to see your new and improved home. The home of your dreams.
2.Take your time walking up to this new home. Savor the anticipation. Be as thrilled and excited as a little child opening up the birthday presents and blowing out the candles.
3.Turn the knob and open the door. There it is. The new and improved home you’ve wanted all your life. Everything you’ve dreamed of is there.
4.Celebrate your renovation. Bask in how amazing that feels. Run your fingers over the shiny woodwork and the smooth texture of the paint on your walls. Smile at how perfectly these renovations match your vision.
5.Drop your chin, and as you do, feel the gentle stretch open up the back of your neck. See your best self, standing there in the sexy, strong, and confident body you know you belong in.
Take as much time as you can give here in this meditation. Think about what is going to happen after you open your eyes. Go through the checklist of motivation tools that you’ve already learned in the book. Take this time right now to reinvigorate your spirit, turn all systems on inside, and when you open your eyes, you will have the power and energy to go out there and take care of the things you need to take care of. Do it now!
I have always been a dreamer, a fantasizer, a wanderer of thoughts. It’s something I can’t control; it’s part of what makes me the creative channel I am. Some of my thoughts make absolutely no sense, and some are pure delicious creativity. I encourage you to try to channel and practice your creative thoughts, keeping in mind the difference between reality, fantasy, and goal-oriented visions. The more realistic you are in your thought process during your meditations, the better chance the universe has for lining them up “with” you. In my belief, if they’re going to get caught by the universe, they’re going to have to match 100 percent of your reality.
Thinking about motivation reminds me of a story my friend Gina told me about her college days, when she decided to do something she’d always wanted—to get stronger and row on the crew team. “At the first meeting, we sat in the dusty old gym, and the coach was describing the kind of workouts we’d have, where the boats were, and the commitment we’d need to make,” she said. “One of my classmates was sitting off to the side, listening intently. She was overweight, but she had this look on her face that I can still picture clearly, decades later. It was the face of pure determination. It was almost as if I could read her thoughts, because I could tell just by looking at her that she was going to go far. She was fierce. Something in her had clicked. She didn’t want to be in that body anymore. By the end of the year, she’d dropped fifty pounds. She was buffer than buff. Even better, she’d become the captain of the crew team. I was so proud of her—and she was a lot prouder of herself. She’d earned that right!”
I often see this look of pure determination on the faces of my students. One of my favorite things as a teacher is to see someone who is out of shape but has the steely-eyed look as they start riding—the muscles might not be toned yet, but the attitude is there. That is a person who is going to succeed. And I would much rather teach students like that than the most physically fit students who have the attitude that they’re stuck on the bike. They’re just phoning it in. When I see that, I want to say, “Coming here to this class was your choice. It was a premeditated choice because you had to reserve the bike a week ago. You set this up. So come on! What are you waiting for?”
HOW STACEY GETS ME MOTIVATED
By Super Body Super Brain author Michael Gonzalez-Wallace
I’d heard about the energy, music, enthusiasm and motivation in Soul-Cycle classes many times over the years. When I finally decided to go, I was lucky that I had a unique instructor, Stacey Griffith.
As a professional in the fitness field for more than twenty years, I knew the drill. I was not expecting to encounter such an inspirational instructor, however—one who not only connected mind, body, and soul, but who was also able to connect the three in more of a metaphysical form where past, present, and future coexist simultaneously (as our old, much-admired professor Albert Einstein would express in his theory of relativity). Yes, these concepts can be applied to exercise as well, but it is a very rare fitness instructor who is able to bring them together.
Stacey’s music selection and her complete emotional involvement while she’s teaching go beyond that of a regular instructor. Every beat, every exercise had a point where it was a clear “Come on,” and you had to do it and do it well. There was no way you would decide not to do it.
At some point in the class, Stacey talked, almost in a holistic way, about how we are all part of a continuum . . . an ongoing process where love, health, work, and friendship are in perpetual motion. Constantly moving. If we refuse to accept this irrefutable law of life, then
this is what will make us get stuck. If, on the other hand, we are able to adjust dynamically and engage in the continuum process of perpetual motion, then this is where we are able to transform our lives from the inside out. Deciding to take class and work hard that day—or deciding to engage in any form of exercise on any given day—was exactly part of that dynamic process.
What surprised me the most was that Stacey’s energy level was extremely high and her words strong, yet she always remained calm. She reminded me of the best basketball coaches I’d had when I played semiprofessionally in Spain. No matter how tense the game was, the good coaches remained calm and in control. They knew they needed to do so in order to make clear decisions with a focused mind and a serene heart.
I also realized something during class. I was getting chills from the combination of cycling in such a darkened room, coupled with the sensory activation of that inner sixth sense, those messages from the divine, that we all have—but that are often interfered with or ignored when there is, literally, too much light. Stacey’s class took me right back to the past, to the year 2000, back in Madrid, Spain. At that time I was an investment banker, working at Santander Bank. The gym I used to attend in Madrid was called Holiday Inn. One day—actually it was Saturday, September 8, which I remember with perfect clarity so many years later—I showed up for my usual Spinning class at eight A.M. It was one of my favorite classes, as it wasn’t just riding the bike but incorporated push-ups and entire body movements like Stacey’s class does.
The room was packed, and the clock was ticking. The instructor didn’t show, and people were starting to get frustrated. I asked Diana, the manager, if I could take over, and she said sure. I was so happy afterward, and luckily my fellow riders were, too, and I was then asked to teach three Spinning classes every week. I was a banker by day, Spinning instructor by night! I moved to New York City a few years later, and I always wonder what would have happened had I not gotten up to teach the class that night. I don’t know if I would have shifted from a successful career in finance to an even more successful career in fitness. Spinning is what did it for me.
Two Turns from Zero Page 24