How Will You Live Your Life In 2017?

2017 is here and I want to know how you’re planning on living your life.

Life today is full of distractions, fake people, meaningless bullshit that consumes us, and a generation of weak individuals. I don’t mean weak in the physical sense, I mean weak everywhere!

Take a look around. How many people are punctual when you meet them? How many can make eye contact during a conversation? How many do you see driving with their face in a phone?

How many people can go to the gym without having to have the perfect matching outfit? And God forbid you get a scuff on your $150 sneakers, then you’d have to buy new ones right?

People have stopped living for themselves and started living for everyone else. You can’t let what others think become your identity. Do what you want and what you think is right.

Society is greedy and people are turning into monsters. Take a look at a dollar bill… it says “In God we trust” on the back of it. How often do people do ungodly things for that little piece of paper every day?

We are led to believe that if we do anything honest then we must succumb to a life of mediocrity, and if we do things that are selfish then life will reward us.

It doesn’t matter how much money you have because in the back of your mind you’ll know whether you’re the real McCoy or a fucking fraud. I’d rather be honest and hard working and earn my keep than screw anyone over.

Everyone wants the easy way out. Everything has been made for convenience and it’s turning people into fat asses who think they can buy their way out of everything.

You can’t buy 6 pack abs and big muscles. Creatine won’t give you muscles, protein powder won’t give you abs, and steroids won’t do a damn thing for you if you don’t work your ass off and eat right.

I wonder if people get sick and tired of the meaningless day-in and day-out garbage they call a life. Wake up with little sleep, go to work, check Facebook when they should be working, go to lunch, go back to work, come home, check Facebook, watch TV, go to bed… rinse and repeat.

And they wonder why they’re depressed and not getting laid. It’s because everything about them and their life is fake. They attract like-minded people who are fake and when they need help, their fake friends let them down and they go find new fake friends.

Not only are people getting more distracted than ever, they’re also getting dumber. Forget about all the technology bullshit and look at the common sense they lack. They can do everything with a phone but can’t talk to you without sounding like a robot.

EVERYTHING YOU DO HAS TO BE FOR YOU

Kids are raised to think that they’re “supposed to” go to college to get a degree that will get them a good income and a perfect little life. This couldn’t be further from the way life actually works!

Everything you do has to be for you and you only. If you go to school with the mentality that you’re only there for a degree, you’re wasting your time.

You’re there to learn actual skills and to see how far you can go when you apply yourself to something. You’re there to develop a winning attitude and not let an essay or term paper beat you.

Whether you go to college, join the army, or work as a newspaper boy, everything you do has to be for you and you only!

Not everyone working at a grocery store or at a desk has to be confined to a life of mediocrity. For some, these experiences will help. It depends on your frame of mind.

When I was 22, I took a newspaper route on the weekends. While everyone else was staying out late and partying, I was waking up at 3 am to collect my papers and run my ass off to different apartments distributing them.

Of course having a newspaper route would be embarrassing for most people at that age, but I didn’t look at it like that. I didn’t call it work, I called it early morning cardio. I got shredded and made extra money in the process.

It was all mindset.

Going through these periods of struggle helped define who I was. I wasn’t looking for a handout; I was trying to earn my keep and get ahead in any way possible.

Sometimes it takes falling on your face and going through struggles to become stronger and avoid falling in the future. Sometimes it takes a good dose of reality to wake up and realize that everything you do in life has to be for you.

There are two ways you can look at life; an opportunity to grow and help define your character, or an opportunity to complain and ask for a handout.

REINVENTING WHO YOU ARE

I watched my father reinvent who he was. He always wore suits to work and drove luxurious cars. While we weren’t wealthy by any means, we weren’t poor either. He worked in the car business and my mom was a nurse. Sometimes he would have really good years and make a lot of money and other times my mom would have to carry us through.

When I was living on my own, I saw my Dad go through a very difficult time. He was let go from the dealership he worked at for 5 years and was out of money. He looked for job after job but nobody wanted to hire him. He was in his late 50’s and the odds were stacked against him.

My mother left work a long time ago due to health conditions and they had no income other than the unemployment my father was getting. I watched him go from making $100K a year to taking a job at a pawn shop for $10 an hour.

One day I went to a flea market with my Dad to sell some things we didn’t need anymore. We enjoyed the nice weather, had a couple cigars, and made about $200 each. I don’t think either of us looked at that day as an unfortunate event and it probably wouldn’t have happened if my Dad stayed at his former job.

I learned a lot from watching my father go through that transition. I learned that it’s possible to reinvent who you are and step up to the plate no matter what happens. It all depends on how you look at things.

If you look at things hard enough and get off your ass and do something about it, you’ll see that things can be gained from almost anything.

The problem a lot of people face is that they live in the past. Everyday is a new day and you have to look at things as they are, not at how they were. Sometimes when you’re going through what seems like hell, you’ll look back on that as something that empowered you.

You can reinvent who you are with a change of mind and following through with it. Ask yourself “Who do I want to be?” Some people won’t know the answer to that, others will.

Next, create a world for yourself where it’s possible to become the person you want to be. Don’t let negativity come into your world. People who have no significance to you are only distractions.

Would you spend 20 minutes talking to someone if you have no intention of getting to know them? If the conversation enhances your daily life then that’s one thing. But if it’s a negative conversation then this person will distract you and hold you back from becoming what you want to be.

It’s human nature to go along with negative talk and once you do, you become negativity itself. You’ll attract negativity and not have any good fortune come your way.

It doesn’t matter if you’re sweeping a floor for minimum wage or running a million dollar business. Your mind-frame is the ultimate predictor of your well-being. With the right frame of mind you’ll get ahead, no matter which path you choose.

It all starts with one question; “Who do you want to be?”

DO NOT FOLLOW THE SHEEP

Sheep exist to live like everyone else. They do not live for themselves and their happiness is defined only by what others think about them.

For example, everyone at the gym wears Nike sneakers, but I don’t feel obligated to buy a pair. I wear Merrell hiking boots to the gym because they’re comfortable and rugged. I don’t care if someone thinks my boots don’t go with my sweatpants.

I don’t buy a new phone just because the latest model came out. I’m fine with my older phone and it’s good enough for me. I don’t frequent the places that most people do and prefer local coffee shops that aren’t part of a chain.

When everyone else is going out on Friday nights, I’ll go out on Monday nights. I prefer to relax rather than listen to noise and yelling. Everyone else is fine with “It’ll be a 45 minute wait” but I can spend that 45 minutes doing something other than standing in line.

My life is better from not following sheep around. I used to be guilty of doing what everyone else does. Society has a strong influence on what we think we need to do in order to be happy or successful.

But you have to ask yourself “Am I happy with what I’m doing or am I a puppet going through the motions?” Are you going to knuckle bump because that’s what everyone does or are you going to say “Fuck this, I’m not knuckle bumping anymore because I can’t tell anything about you without shaking your hand.”

I can tell a lot about someone from a handshake. It’s pretty simple; shake my hand like a pussy and don’t make eye contact with me and we have nothing in common.

 LIFE LESSONS CAN BE LEARNED IN THE GYM

The gym can teach you many things about about life.

For example, if you do the same routine in the gym, you’ll eventually stop getting results. When you do the same things in life, you’ll eventually stop getting results.

Eating a lot of food to grow can be uncomfortable, just like taking on more in life can be uncomfortable. But if you’re consistent, you’ll find that hard work pays off.

Life is no different. That paper route I had was a change I didn’t want to go through. But I took on more and got leaner because of how I looked at it.

Doing wide grip pull-ups can be difficult, but they provide my back with some of the best results. Starting a business can be difficult, but it can provide you with a life you may not have if you were doing “life’s lat pulldowns”.

Take 2 guys for example; one is using steroids and half-assing his nutrition and training and the other is natural and puts 100% into his nutrition and exercise regimen. The guy taking steroids spent a bunch of money and wears $150 sneakers. The natural guy spent his $150 on chicken and steak instead.

From the outside looking in, it appears that the guy who is using steroids has it all together. He talks a good game and does all the exercises that make you look strong with every piece of equipment you could ask for.

Nobody sees the guy who is natural. He’s training in his garage using what he has available to him. Maybe it’s bodyweight exercises such as push-ups and pull-ups. But he is focused like a laser and doing this for himself and nobody else.

Now put him next to the guy who is king shit of the local Gold’s gym….what a shame it can be! I once heard a phrase; “While you’re in that state of the art gym training for a competition, there’s some nobody training in his garage getting ready to destroy you.” I like that phrase a lot.

Now take this analogy and look at life. There’s some guy who goes through all the motions. He talks a good game, makes good money, drives a new car, but he’s half-assing it and living for everyone else but himself.

Now take another guy who is doing what makes HIM happy… regardless of how it looks to other people. He may not talk much, nobody knows who he is, but he lives a life with hardly any stress and he’s active and healthy.

While the guy who has it all figured out sat on his ass and got drunk last weekend, the guy nobody knows went on a whitewater rafting trip and had a blast!

GET AHEAD AND WITHOUT LOSING YOUR SOUL

There’s nothing wrong with getting wealthy and getting ahead. Money makes life easier, but gaining wealth should never be done at the expense of losing your soul. Once your soul is gone, everything is just a fallacy and you have nothing.

I wonder how many women who went into the adult film industry realized this later in life. But your livelihood shouldn’t depend on what others think, right? I just doubt that having sex with 500 guys is making them happy. But as long as they’re driving a new Mercedes and looking successful, it’s all good. Yeah sure.

I always try to do the right thing, regardless of financial outcome. But if it costs me my integrity to get it, it’s not worth having. The funny thing is, when I do the right thing, regardless of what the outcome will be, that’s when I’m the most successful and at peace of mind.

So I say do what is in your power to gain wealth and success, but don’t lose yourself in the process. Also, define what success is for you. I’m sure my idea of success isn’t the same as yours, and that’s okay because nobody should let others define THEIR SUCCESS AND IDENTITY.

The year is 2017, and I don’t know about you, but I’m not following the sheep around. I’m living the life that I want to live. Fuck yesterday, today is a blessing, and tomorrow is never a guarantee!

I’ve been working hard on my new book “The John Doe Bodybuilding Bible; Ultimate Physique Transformation” and packing everything I can into this book to give you the best tools to build your body and your life!

If you enjoy articles like this one, you’re going to love the JDB Bible. It will be the best resource for advanced physique transformation and making bodybuilding and life work hand-in-hand to enhance each other.

Train hard.

– JD

No-BS Bodybuilding ebook

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:

16 thoughts on “How Will You Live Your Life In 2017?”

  1. Outstanding article John!
    The world needs more people who have the balls to say what people really do need to hear. The whole world seems to have become so damn sensitive and everyone is a social justice warrior now!
    The world doesn’t owe anyone anything and all we are entitled to is what we EARN for ourselves.

    Reply
  2. Absolutely outstanding article John!
    The world needs more people with the balls to say what people need to realize. Everyone is so damn sensitive about everything everyone seems to be a social justice warrior anymore.
    The world doesn’t owe anyone a thing and it doesn’t guarantee success to anyone. The ONLY thing we’re entitled to is what we EARN for ourselves!

    Reply
  3. “there’s some nobody training in his garage getting ready to destroy you.”

    Worth putting on a frame on the wall. Or a T Shirt. Love this article.

    Reply
  4. Good words to hear at start of a year. Last year was one of my harder ones, but just did what I could to work through it. Even when life turned to shit kept plugging away working, at life and gym and ended up being better for it. I look at pictures of even 2 years ago, same weight and worlds different in appearance!

    Reply
  5. Hey Brother JD, you said “Going through these periods of struggle helped define who I was. I wasn’t looking for a handout; I was trying to earn my keep and get ahead in any way possible.” This is why I respect you and also why you are a champion. This wonderful article you wrote here is how I live my life as well. You are truly inspiring. God bless you JD and keep moving forward brother.

    Reply
  6. John, you’re such a stud man. Thanks for that article. I’ve always respected your honesty and integrity. Can’t wait for the new book!

    Reply
  7. Thanks much for your work John, I always like your stuff. It is army straight and fun to read. Happy 2017 to you and your family!

    Reply
  8. John enjoyed the article. I try to live life like you discribed. I see guys doing biceps curls 100 to 150 lbs. I up to thirty lbs and my biceps are much bigger. I’m diabetic and work at the VA and see the results of not taking care of yourself. And it’s drives me to live healthily.

    Reply
  9. John, terrific article, straight from the heart and soul to the keyboard. A great read to start the year, no motivational BS, just the conclusions from a lifetime’s experience. Thinking for yourself and adopting the right attitude towards situations goes a long way.

    Reply

Leave a Comment

Item added to cart.
0 items - $0.00