IRON - Henry Rollins

It's been a while. To make it up to you I'm posting a great article by Henry Rollins.



IRON,
By Henry Rollins

I believe that the definition of definition is reinvention. To not be like your parents. To not be like your friends. To be yourself.

Completely.

When I was young I had no sense of myself. All I was, was a product of all the fear and humiliation I suffered. Fear of my parents. The humiliation of teachers calling me "garbage can" and telling me I'd be mowing lawns for a living. And the very real terror of my fellow students. I was threatened and beaten up for the color of my skin and my size. I was skinny and clumsy, and when others would tease me I didn't run home crying, wondering why. I knew all too well. I was there to be antagonized. In sports I was laughed at. A spaz. I was pretty good at boxing but only because the rage that filled my every waking moment made me wild and unpredictable. I fought with some strange fury. The other boys thought I was crazy.

I hated myself all the time. As stupid at it seems now, I wanted to talk like them, dress like them, carry myself with the ease of knowing that I wasn't going to get pounded in the hallway between classes. Years passed and I learned to keep it all inside. I only talked to a few boys in my grade. Other losers. Some of them are to this day the greatest people I have ever known. Hang out with a guy who has had his head flushed down a toilet a few times, treat him with respect, and you'll find a faithful friend forever. But even with friends, school sucked. Teachers gave me hard time. I didn't think much of them either.

Then came Mr. Pepperman, my advisor. He was a powerfully built Vietnam veteran, and he was scary. No one ever talked out of turn in his class. Once one kid did and Mr. P. lifted him off the ground and pinned him to the blackboard. Mr. P. could see that I was in bad shape, and one Friday in October he asked me if I had ever worked out with weights. I told him no. He told me that I was going to take some of the money that I had saved and buy a hundred-pound set of weights at Sears. As I left his office, I started to think of things I would say to him on Monday when he asked about the weights that I was not going to buy. Still, it made me feel special. My father never really got that close to caring. On Saturday I bought the weights, but I couldn't even drag them to my mom's car. An attendant laughed at me as he put them on a dolly.

Monday came and I was called into Mr. P.'s office after school. He said that he was going to show me how to work out. He was going to put me on a program and start hitting me in the solar plexus in the hallway when I wasn't looking. When I could take the punch we would know that we were getting somewhere. At no time was I to look at myself in the mirror or tell anyone at school what I was doing. In the gym he showed me ten basic exercises. I paid more attention than I ever did in any of my classes. I didn't want to blow it. I went home that night and started right in.

Weeks passed, and every once in a while Mr. P. would give me a shot and drop me in the hallway, sending my books flying. The other students didn't know what to think. More weeks passed, and I was steadily adding new weights to the bar. I could sense the power inside my body growing. I could feel it.

Right before Christmas break I was walking to class, and from out of nowhere Mr. Pepperman appeared and gave me a shot in the chest. I laughed and kept going. He said I could look at myself now. I got home and ran to the bathroom and pulled off my shirt. I saw a body, not just the shell that housed my stomach and my heart. My biceps bulged. My chest had definition. I felt strong. It was the first time I can remember having a sense of myself. I had done something and no one could ever take it away. You couldn't say shit to me.

It took me years to fully appreciate the value of the lessons I have learned from the Iron. I used to think that it was my adversary, that I was trying to lift that which does not want to be lifted. I was wrong. When the Iron doesn't want to come off the mat, it's the kindest thing it can do for you. If it flew up and went through the ceiling, it wouldn't teach you anything. That's the way the Iron talks to you. It tells you that the material you work with is that which you will come to resemble. That which you work against will always work against you.

It wasn't until my late twenties that I learned that by working out I had given myself a great gift. I learned that nothing good comes without work and a certain amount of pain. When I finish a set that leaves me shaking, I know more about myself. When something gets bad, I know it can't be as bad as that workout.

I used to fight the pain, but recently this became clear to me: pain is not my enemy; it is my call to greatness. But when dealing with the Iron, one must be careful to interpret the pain correctly. Most injuries involving the Iron come from ego. I once spent a few weeks lifting weight that my body wasn't ready for and spent a few months not picking up anything heavier than a fork. Try to lift what you're not prepared to and the Iron will teach you a little lesson in restraint and self-control.

I have never met a truly strong person who didn't have self-respect. I think a lot of inwardly and outwardly directed contempt passes itself off as self-respect: the idea of raising yourself by stepping on someone's shoulders instead of doing it yourself. When I see guys working out for cosmetic reasons, I see vanity exposing them in the worst way, as cartoon characters, billboards for imbalance and insecurity. Strength reveals itself through character. It is the difference between bouncers who get off strong-arming people and Mr. Pepperman.

Muscle mass does not always equal strength. Strength is kindness and sensitivity. Strength is understanding that your power is both physical and emotional. That it comes from the body and the mind. And the heart.

Yukio Mishima said that he could not entertain the idea of romance if he was not strong. Romance is such a strong and overwhelming passion, a weakened body cannot sustain it for long. I have some of my most romantic thoughts when I am with the Iron. Once I was in love with a woman. I thought about her the most when the pain from a workout was racing through my body.

Everything in me wanted her. So much so that sex was only a fraction of my total desire. It was the single most intense love I have ever felt, but she lived far away and I didn't see her very often. Working out was a healthy way of dealing with the loneliness. To this day, when I work out I usually listen to ballads.

I prefer to work out alone. It enables me to concentrate on the lessons that the Iron has for me. Learning about what you're made of is always time well spent, and I have found no better teacher. The Iron had taught me how to live. Life is capable of driving you out of your mind. The way it all comes down these days, it's some kind of miracle if you're not insane. People have become separated from their bodies. They are no longer whole.

I see them move from their offices to their cars and on to their suburban homes. They stress out constantly, they lose sleep, they eat badly. And they behave badly. Their egos run wild; they become motivated by that which will eventually give them a massive stroke. They need the Iron Mind.

Through the years, I have combined meditation, action, and the Iron into a single strength. I believe that when the body is strong, the mind thinks strong thoughts. Time spent away from the Iron makes my mind degenerate. I wallow in a thick depression. My body shuts down my mind.

The Iron is the best antidepressant I have ever found. There is no better way to fight weakness than with strength. Once the mind and body have been awakened to their true potential, it's impossible to turn back.

The Iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that you're a god or a total bastard. The Iron will always kick you the real deal. The Iron is the great reference point, the all-knowing perspective giver. Always there like a beacon in the pitch black. I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go. But two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds.

Mental Toughness

Check out this Nike video. Awesome!

Inspirational Story -- Rocky

You've got to watch this video. The story of Stallone and how the movie Rocky came about is truly inspiring. I included the transcript below the video. Enjoy!




(Transcript) Sly Stallone, Sylvester Stallone, Rocky… Rocky's story is this even right? …But Sly's too, Sly is a good friend of mine. And,when I first met him years ago. He listened to my tapes and stuff and he invited me over for dinner, we started talking and I said I heard your story from other people but I really want to hear it from the horse's mouth.

I don't know how much is mythology and Urban Myth and how much is true…so he told me his whole story, he said the essence of it though was, he said he knew his whole life what he wanted to do since he was very very young, he wanted to be in the movie business. Period. I mean Not just TV… Movies.

He said why was, for him, it was a chance to have people not only escape but to inspire people and by the way that drive is what made most of his movies to inspire people what they capable of, overcome unbelievable obstacles, cause of his own life he felt like he did that..

When he was born he was pulled out by the forceps, that's why he looked the way he did, that's why he talked the way he did.

Then he said so I really want to do that and I knew why I want to do it and I wasn't gonna settle for anything else..and he said what happened was, I went out to try and get jobs and its not like they went “Hey Adrian”, they went hey you're a star, it didn't work out very well.

They looked at me and said Hey, You're stupid looking, do something else, DOh Doh…there's no place for you in that stuff you're never gonna be a star in the movies, you're insane. No one's gonna want to listen to someone who looks dopey and talks out of the side of their mouth. And he got No after No after No... after No. He said I was thrown out more then fifteen hundred times of agents offices in New York. I said there aren't fifteen hundred agents in New York. He said, I know, I've been to them 5,6,7,8,9 times.

He said he went to the number 1 guy. I got in there at 4'o clock and he wouldn't see me and I stayed there, I would not leave and I stayed there overnight. He came back the next morning and I was still sitting there. That's how I got my first job...

The guy said, fine, come in here! And he sat down and he went through this and he gave me my first movie. (Tony:) Oh really? I thought Rocky was your first movie? He said, no, this other movie, I'd never heard of it. Well, what character did you play? … I was in it for about 20 seconds. I was the thug that somebody beat up. He said because they made me feel like you know “people hate your guts, you're getting beat up will be a good thing”. And he did like three movies like that…never got anything, kept going out, rejection, rejection, rejection. So finally he realized it wasn't working, so he changed his approach. He said I was starving, by the way, he said I couldn't pay for even to have heat in my apartment. My wife was screaming at me everyday, go get a job. I (Tony) said why didn't you?

He said because I knew if I got a job, he said I get seduced back and I'd lose my hunger. He said I knew the only way I can do this as if it was the only choice if I burnt all other bridges, 'cus if I did a normal job pretty soon I'b be caught up in that rhythm and that stuff and I feel OK about my life and I feel like my dream would just gradually disappear.

He said I wanted to keep that hunger, that hunger is the only thing I thought was my advantage. He said my wife didn't understand that at all. He said we got these vicious fights and he said it was freezing so I was broke, we had no money and he said so I finally went to the public library one day because it was warm. I didn't want to read anything. I went in to the New York Public Library.

So I was hanging out there, sat on this chair and somebody left a book there and he said I looked at this book and it was the Poems, the stories of Edgar Allen Poe and he said so I started reading it and I got totally into Edgar Allen Poe and he knows everything about him, so he goes on for another 20 minutes telling me about Edgar Allen Poe he knows everything, how he died, what it was about, what really happened and I said What did Poe do for you? He said Poe got me out of myself. He got me to think about how I can touch other people not to worry about myself so much. And he said he made me decide to become a writer I (Tony) said just imagine “Rocky the writer".

He created the movie script, Paradise Alley, and managed to sell it for $100, but it did not lead to anything. Finally, he was so broke that he hocked his wife’s jewelry. This was basically the end of their relationship. They had no food and no money. There was only thing he had left, and he loved him more than anything. It was his dog and the unconditional love his dog gave him, unlike his wife.

He was then forced to sell his dog. He waited in front of a liquor store to sell his dog for $50. He finally met a man to buy it, but he haggled him down to $25. He walked away and cried. This was the worst thing in his life.

Then 2 weeks later, he watches a Muhammad Ali fight a white guy and gets an idea. He writes for 20 hours straight. He had created a script that would eventually be known as Rocky. He knew what he wanted and why he wanted it. "I took the action, now it's time to deliver." Now, all he had to do was find somebody to buy it.

After a series of rejections, he finally meets a couple of guys who wanted to buy it. They offered him $125,000 for the script. Even though this was an unbelievable amount of money, Stallone said he would only accept it if he starred in the movie. Remember he was starving? "That is my story, and I'm Rocky" As a no name, he was rejected, these guys wanted Ryan O'Neill to play the part of Rocky. He turned down the money because he refused to compromise. A couple of weeks later, the same guys offered him $250,000 to NOT to star in his own movie. He turned it down. They came back with a final offer $325,000. He turned them down. He knew he had to be Rocky.

They finally offered him the chance to star in his own movie, but they didn’t want to pay him much as it was a risk to them. They ended up paying Stallone $35,000, which included a share of the profits.

The first thing he did was go back to the liquor store to find the man who bought his dog. He waited three days before he finally did find him with the dog. He told the man he would do anything to get his dog back. He offered $100, $500, and $1,000, but the man refused to sell the dog back.

What did he do? "I knew my outcome & took massive action." He changed his approach and finally got his dog back. He paid the man $15,000 of the $35,000 he received from the movie script & a part in the movie.

The dog in "Rocky", Butkiss, is Sly's dog.

The movie, "Rocky", ended up costing $1 million to make, and it grossed over $200 million and won an Oscar. Right before the Oscars, he read all the rejections, all the things people had said, he'd written it all down. Sylvester Stallone told Tony Robbins that the greatest revenge is massive success.

Monster Warrior

Some people let obstacles get in their way of achieving their goals and dreams. Duane Stevenson didn't. Check him out!



Do not let excuses, disabilities, or apathy get in your way. Achieve!

Are you willing to die on a treadmill?

Check out this video of Will Smith. It's an older video, but he has some great things to say.

Eye of the Tiger

How bad do you want it? Do you want to be the best? Do you want to achieve your goals? To many people are lazy or just plain apathetic. These people will never accomplish much. There is no half way. You need to have the eye of the tiger and push yourself until you become the best you can be. Push yourself in the gym. Push yourself in life. See what you can do.

Do not limit yourself!

All to often, we limit ourselves. I truely believe that in order to be successful, we must dream big, take action, and refuse to place any limitations upon ourselves. Watch this video and be inspired.

Why I workout

Why would I choose to get up at 6:00 a.m. every morning to lift weights? Why do I constantly push myself to the point of failure? Why do I try to live a healthy life? Personally, I do these things because of the following:

1. My family. I want to be able to wrestle with my sons, protect my wife and children, intimidate those boys who have eyes for my daughter, and live a long life. I do not want to be restricted physically in anyway in doing things with my family.

2. My self. I personally like the feeling I get when I exercise. Nothing quite compares to the rush you get when you lift heavy weights. Additionally, lifting weights is a great stress reliever. I also firmly believe that lifting weights and exercising teaches a person self-discipline and the rewards that come with sacrifice. Finally, and to be honest, I like being strong.

3. Others. I lift weights to be an example to others and to teach others the benefits of exercise. I have noticed that my boys now have a keen interest in exercising and staying healthy. This interest they now have will likely stay with them for the rest of their lives. Finally, I have also seen those I train reach their goals. I have found great joy watching athletes and weekend warriors find success and achieve goals they never thought were possible.

Exercising is not easy. That's why most people who begin lifting weights and exercising quit. However, for those of us who have stayed "with it", and have developed a love for strength and health, we will find that our work and sacrifice will pay dividends not only for ourselves, but for those around us.