By Brandon Cook
One of the most amazing things about making a true commitment to transforming your weak, scrawny framed body into the strong, ripped, muscular version of your ideal self is the impact that this journey will have on your entire life. For the better I might add.
Nothing we do, say, or think in this world acts in isolation from the rest of our life situation. Everything is connected and intertwined and has a ripple effect that moves outward into other areas of our life and even further beyond the boundaries of our own lives.
For example if you begin by making simple changes to your diet in an effort to eat healthier, more nutritious and muscle-building foods, this change will also effect: the way you feel (i.e. your emotional state), your daily energy levels (i.e. your vitality), your interaction with others (i.e. your relationships), your ability to work, focus, and get things done (i.e. your career) and so on.
Beyond that, people will take notice and see the improvement that this effect is having on your life, which could lead them to make more conscious dietary decisions themselves. In other words, you’ve become a positive example to others merely by making the decision to transform your body, and this decision is having an impact not only on your own life but in the lives of others.
When you make the commitment to transform your body, you are, in effect, making the decision to radically transform every aspect of your life.
The WHY is MORE Important than the HOW
Now I realize that the reason most people want to transform their body is not for such a noble cause, but rather to look good naked and to attract the opposite sex. 
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to look good naked, I mean when you think about it who doesn’t want to look good naked? Furthermore, who doesn’t want to attract the attention of the women or men we find appealing? Most of us do.
But is “looking good naked” or “attracting hotties” a strong enough, and compelling enough reason to drag your butt to the gym and put yourself through intense, grueling workouts day in and day out?
Is it a strong enough reason to totally change your dietary habits and eat massive quantities of food spread out over 5-7 meals a day, every 3-4 hours?
Is it a compelling enough reason to make sacrifices, go to bed early, give up bad habits, and do all the things that are required to make a transformation of this magnitude?
Is it a strong enough reason to pick yourself up after you’ve failed or injured yourself once, twice, or more times, to revaluate your plan and give it another go?
Maybe it will be and maybe it won’t be. To some it can be very motivating. To be honest, that’s one of the reasons I started working out and it’s still one of the reasons I work out. It’s a perfectly valid reason and it does have some motivational value to it, but it is not by any means my only reason. And if you’re to succeed at this, it shouldn’t be your only reason either. You need a reason so big and powerful that it will propel you towards success.
The number one secret to transform your body and thus your life is to have a burning desire to do so and in order to fuel this burning desire you have to have a strong enough reason, or list of reasons, as to why you are putting forth the effort to make this transformation. So ya best to start writing!
Facing the Reality of Your Mission
As a hardgainer you have your work cut out for you. The last thing I’m going to tell you is that transforming your body or your life is as easy as 1-2-3, because it’s not. It takes commitment, dedication, persistence, discipline, purpose, passion, and confidence.
Now don’t worry if you are lacking any of these character values, because that’s one of the great benefits of weight training. As you: (1.) Develop your strength through consistent training, (2.) make the necessary dietary changes required to nourish your body and build muscle, (3.) give up bad habits and delay gratification to get the body and life you TRULY desire… you are building and forging these values and furthermore, this whole transformation process acts as the catalyst for the emergence of such values naturally.
This is what I mean when I say that transforming your body will transform your life. It has a spill over effect into all other aspects of your being. As you are disciplining your body and your mind through intense physical training, you are forging a stronger character like a blacksmith uses fire to forge the resilient Katana sword of the Samurai.
Thus, like a Samurai, you must be willing to face the harsh reality of your mission and your goals in life. You must be willing to face the truth about what your journey will demand of you and you must ask yourself these tough questions:
“Why do I want to transform my body and my life?”
“What is it going to take for me to transform my body?”
“What are the steps I must take to realize this goal?”
“Am I willing to fully commit myself to achieving this goal?”
“Am I willing to read, study, and learn what it takes and then to apply what I learn?”
“How should I be training for my body type?”
“Where can I make improvements in my diet?”
“What must I give up in order to get what I want? What must I sacrifice?”
“Do I truly believe that I can make this transformation my reality?”
“How can I guarantee the success of this mission?”
Remember, you’ve got to have forceful, convincing, and undeniable reasons, and a purpose for realizing this goal. You must put in the time to develop this “Why” and document it to paper. You must read it every day or even twice a day to remind yourself why you are doing all of this. This “Why” comes by asking your self these tough questions, by coming up with the answers, and doing other introspective soul searching to create and develop a burning desire and commitment to transforming your body.
Don’t fool yourself into thinking this is easy and that you’ll add 50 pounds of muscle in a month or two or even six months without even trying. Thousands of people sign up for new gym memberships every day (people with better muscle-building genetics than you), and within less than four weeks they’ve already thrown in the towel, never to step foot in that gym again. Don’t be like them, set your self up to be successful.
I’m not trying to discourage you, I want you to succeed and to believe in yourself and to realize that you can and will transform your life, and you’ll do it by first transforming your body, one step at a time. My brother and I, as well as, Vince Delmonte, Sean Nalewanyj, and Jason Ferruggia are all here to help you and make sure you have the tools you need to complete your mission, but it is YOU who will inevitably bring about the change you seek by taking focused, disciplined action.
We just want you to realize that this requires a conscious pursuit of both physical, mental, and even spiritual growth. You will be pushed and challenged every day. You will want to give in, give up, and run out on this goal before you have achieved it, but only the true warriors will be able to find the strength and courage within themselves to persevere and follow this path to where it leads… to the strong, confident, muscular being that lies dormant within each and every one of us.
Cultivating the Awakened Warrior Mindset
I want you to become a true warrior, not someone who is out fighting wars and killing people, but an Awakened Warrior; someone who stands up for what they believe in and gives their life for the greater cause. I want you to become a man or a woman who has a higher purpose and a mission for their life and never settles for mediocrity or complacency. You may not know what your purpose is right now, but have the confidence and courage and the heart to believe that you have one. Know that at any moment your mission will be revealed to you.
Yet keep in mind that our purpose is not something we discover in life, but rather it is something we create for ourselves.
The Awakened Warrior accepts full responsibility for the success or failure of his or her life and makes personal growth and development a conscious part of their everyday experience.
Weight training, cardio, nutrition, meditation, etc. are all a part your growth experience and development into a highly conscious being. And that’s what it means to be human: to be fully conscious, to continually evolve in our consciousness, to seek the truth and purpose behind our existence, and to fight for what we believe is true. And when I say fight, I mean to be the example of.
The Awakened Warrior does NOT need, nor want the approval of other men or women. The only approval she needs is her own self approval. The Awakened Warrior is strong, wise, grateful, purposeful, radiant, confident, powerful, compassionate, and a leader to the men and women in his or her life. He leads by his example and by how he carries himself in this world. He lets his actions speak for themselves.
“Okay, well what does this have to do with transforming my body and life…?”
It has everything to do with it!
Who you are, how you think, how you speak, how you act, how you react, where you go, what you do, what you don’t do…. All of these things determine the outcome of your life. Your thoughts literally create your reality… you may have heard of the law of attraction (and we’ll get more into this in later blog posts), which says: people’s thoughts (both conscious and unconscious) dictate the reality of their lives, whether or not they’re aware of it or not.
Now I know there’s a lot of people out there who think this is a new age, hocus pocus, pie-in-the-sky theory… but it’s not. It’s actually a very radical and scientific universal law, if you will, that has been known in metaphysical studies for decades, and is just now being proven by quantum physicists.
Like I said, we’ll get into all of the nuances and details of this law in the near future, but for right now I just want you to take some time to think about this and wrap your mind around this powerful concept.
Your Thoughts and Beliefs Create Your Reality
In other words, that which you think about comes about, that which you believe to be true (or not true) is reality for you. Now, just because you think of an apple, does not mean an apple will magically appear in the palm of your hand, although that would be a pretty cool trick!
No, this isn’t a fairy tale. However, the consistent thought (burning desire) for an apple may lead you to your fridge, to opening the fruit drawer, to picking up a delicious apple and then enjoying it. Or if you’re getting really good at mastering the law of attraction, someone else may happen to come into your presence (i.e. you attracted them) and then they offer you an apple. And that’s almost as cool as it manifesting it in the palm of your hand.
Of course this is an oversimplification, but you can begin to see the possibilities.
Instead of an apple, maybe you have a burning desire to create a muscular body. Now just because you have the thought of envisioning your new muscular body, the universe will not instantaneously transform your skinny @ss into the form of the Greek God of Physical Perfection.
Again, this is not fantasy land. Nevertheless, the focused thought and burning desire for that muscular body might lead you to turn on your computer, type something in a search engine and land on a website (much like this one) that gives you the secrets and principles you need to transform the thought of a beautiful body into your reality of a beautiful body. And you thought you just accidentally stumbled upon this blog! 
Although that’s just the beginning… by focusing on the thought and your desire to transform your body, you may decide to join a gym. Already you are attracting information, events, and people into your life that can help take your idea (thought) and manifest it into physical form (a muscular body.) Maybe at the new gym you joined you meet a friend or trainer who is able to explain some fundamental concepts to you, or perhaps become your training partner. According to the law of attraction, this chance meeting wasn’t just a mere coincidence, you’ve actually attracted this individual into your life by resonating on the same vibrational frequency (energy level) as this individual.
As you continue to act and fuel your burning desire by giving it attention and intention even more people, things, and events will begin to be drawn to you that will help you to arrive at your desired outcome (given the fact that you do not push them away by thinking contradicting thoughts, harboring negative thoughts or subconscious feelings of self-doubt, etc.)
Surely, there’s a lot more to the law of attraction than this, but by learning about and mastering the principles of this universal law, in time you’ll be able to create your body and your life in any way you can imagine… but of course only within the confines of your beliefs.
So, Do You Truly Believe that YOU can Transform Your Body and Your Life?
Well, that is a question you will have to answer for yourself. The only way you’ll be able to make such a huge transformation is if you have the deep belief and knowing that IT IS possible for you. Otherwise, you’ll click away… never to return to this site again.
Unfortunately, for many of you that is exactly what will happen. Realize however that this is your choice. You can choose to be successful. Success is a choice you will have to make daily. You can either choose to keep learning or to click away. At this moment in time, that is your most important choice.
Just look at what you’ve learned already from reading this article;
So far, you’ve learned that by transforming your body, you will begin an amazing journey that will not only make you stronger, healthier, and more muscular, but will also have lasting implications on your entire life.
You’ve learned that you’ll need a strong and powerful list of reasons as to why you will complete this transformation.
You’ve learned that in order to be successful you will have to face the ultimate reality of the mission that lies before you and make a firm commitment to completing your journey.
You’ve learned that transforming your body and life is not the easiest path and that to follow this path where it leads you will have to cultivate the mindset of an Awakened Warrior, who will never give up in the face of adversity.
Finally, you learned that your thoughts and beliefs drive the creation of your reality and experience of life. This is the basic premise behind the law of attraction, a law that when mastered will give you the power to recreate your life and your body into the dream version that currently exists only in your mind.
You still have lots of work ahead of you, but the training has begun… grasshopper!
Believe in your self, in your mission, and in your ability to transform your body and your life. There are many lessons I have to share with you and that I believe will only make you stronger in body, in mind, and in spirit. However, I am not sure that you are ready. In fact, only you can know for sure. When you are ready… I’ll be here.
To Your Success in Training and in Life,
Brandon Cook
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About the Author:
Brandon Cook is creator of The Awakened Warrior Blog, and co-creator of HardgainerMuscleBuilding.com, a website specifically designed to teach the ectomorph the laws and scientific principles for building a classic, muscular and functional physique.
HargainerMuscleBuilding.com features a free email class covering the basic principles of training naturally, eating a nutritious, muscle-building diet, and understanding the truth about supplements. The website is filled with free articles, videos, and the programs you need to create your ideal body.
Please visit us at http://hardgainermusclebuilding.com
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