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The Loser’s Mentality and How NOT to be Great
June 4th, 2014
By Rich DeAngelo
Why have you come to this article? Is it out of curiosity, or do you actually want to improve yourself? The purpose of this post is because I’ve just about had it with a personal pet peeve of mine the past few weeks. That is the Loser Mentality that so many people fall victim to, and why it stops them from being great too.
We’ve all seen these guys whether it’s in the gym, on YouTube comments, at the mall, anywhere really. They're usually your average Joe, who is afraid to become something more than average. They usually hand out backhanded compliments, or spew negativity and put others down for being great. These people I’ve just described are losers and will never become winners until they change this poor mindset.
Now this mindset doesn’t only affect their performance and results in the gym or the athletic fields, it even holds them back in other aspects of their lives, their jobs, friendships, relationships, etc. The losing mindset affects everything.
The past week I can think of two specific instances where I’ve dealt with a loser. The first, I was at a friend’s barbecue where we watched a video of Joe Mazza who is the world record bench press holder in the 165lb weight class Raw benching well over 500 pounds. This is an absolutely incredible feat, and I have all the respect in the world for Joe Mazza and other great lifters like him, but a guy who was viewing the video with us had to downplay Mazza’s performance stating “If I had to the move the bar only 6 inches Id bench 500 pounds too.” Now don’t get me wrong, yes Mazza does utilize his great leverages to get every pound he can out of the bench, and yes this guy happened to be about 6 foot 4 with long arms, so you can make the argument that he does have a point. But that’s besides the fact. This guy’s jealousy and self-doubt came spewing out of his mouth. Instead of respecting and admiring the performance he downplayed it. Maybe instead of complaining about not having T-Rex arms, you can work hard like Mazza and build a respectable bench press you can be proud of instead of making excuses. Bottom-line is you need to make the best of the cards you’ve been dealt. So what this guy has long arms which naturally gives him poor leverage on the bench press, I bet if he were to work at it he would be a hell of a deadlifter. But no, he suffers from the loser mindset and opts to make excuses instead of making greatness.
Scenario two happened last week as well. In the gym I overheard two average looking guys yapping about a fellow lifter who happens to be in tremendous shape. I’ve seen this guy workout and he is nonstop working hard and breaking his ass. He has put in the hard work and his results have shown! Yet these two fellows were saying things like “Oh he has to be on the juice, look at him.” “Yea you can’t get like that naturally.” And other comments like that. I firmly believe this guy is not taking any PED’s because although being a low body fat percentage, he can’t weigh much more than 190 pounds, and I’m there the same time as he is every day and he’s busting his ass day in and day out! But hey, even if he does happen to be dabbling into PED’s so what?! He still has to have the discipline, dedication, commitment and work ethic to achieve these results regardless of what he’s putting into his body! The two gawkers are just afraid to put in the hard work like this guy has. They go to the gym they do a few sets of chest, they do a few sets of bicep curls, then they do some cardio and talk shit about the people who are there actually TRAINING, not working out(working out is exercising at random, training is following a specific periodized exercise program designed to produce specific results). Their fear of working hard, has earned themselves the loser mentality.
If you think you are falling victim to this loser mentality, a few steps you can take are:
1. STOP MAKING EXCUSES
2. }Success leaves clues, maybe if you can emulate how the jacked and tan guys are training, than you too can achieve similar results
3. Stop being afraid to work hard
4. Stop working out and START TRAINING; find yourself a coach who can help you out with your programming, and nutrition. We provide programs like this at ISF to fit your needs, and there are also plenty of other companies and individuals who provide similar services.
Another thing I happen to love is Dr. Gilbert’s Success Cycle:
1. The harder you work, the more you accomplish.
2. The more you accomplish, the better you feel.
3. The better you feel, the more you like it.
4. The more you like it, the harder you work.
Follow these tips and they can help you achieve greatness and get out of that rut of falling into the loser trap, and never reaching your potential.