GET TO THE CHOPPER

OMG I actually saw Arnold Schwarzenegger!  Actually, not even 10m away.  In the flesh.  He's in Australia doing, well I don't really know, but he came to a gym in the western suburbs to give a talk. It was a kind of, well, inspirational.  I was surprisingly in awe of Arnie, standing there, chatting away about his life.  I kept having to remind myself to listen to what he was saying because I kept getting distracted by the fact that it was Arnie!!!

We know how to welcome them in the West!

Anyway, so Arnie came to a gym near me, which is apparently the largest gym in the Southern hemisphere.  Go figure.

We only bought general admin tickets, because while I'm a huge fan, I'm not quite a VIP-$700-ticket fan.

There were about 1000 peeps in the crowd, but even then we were only 10m away from the Governator.  I took my super duper zoom lens with me, and got a few snaps of his royal Schwarzenegger-ness.

It was kind of funny to watch all the cameras and phones come out when Arnie first appeared.  I'm not making fun - I was one of them!

So I mentioned the talk was inspirational.  He gave a talk about his 5 steps to sucess, which weren't mind shatteringly novel, but coming from such an impressive figure, I found his words to be particularly weighty.  Here are his 5 steps to success, with some of the messages that particularly struck in my mind, albeit paraphrased below.

Arnie's 5 steps to success

1. Have a vision

If you don't have a vision with yourself you will just be floating.  With every rep I did, every set, I was thinking about lifting a trophy.

2. Think big

You can't fail from aiming high.  Even if you fail, as long as you get up that's not a failure. 

3. Ignore the naysayers

They told me not to be an actor because I had too many muscles, they said I looked like a monster.  They said I had a crazy accent, but it made me the perfect terminator because I sounded like a robot.

4. Work your ass off

You sleep for 6 hours, what are you going to do with the other 18 hours of your day?  Oh you want to sleep for 8 hours?  Well I sleep faster than you.

That's Danny Green there interviewing Arnie, for all you boxing aficionados. 

5. Give back

Give back to those less fortunate, share your success and it will make you happier.

Happily, he also spoke about his movies and answered some questions.  I took a short video of him talking about the formulation of his most famous line.  Danny Green was so cute totally fanboying over Arnie, describing to him his favourite scene from Commando.  (You can also hear me laugh when Danny Green says "let off some steam Bennett")

He also gave a shorter version of his steps to success:

1. have 20 inch biceps
2. have a charming Austrian accent
3. be able to kill a predator with your bare hands

Someone had an Arnie doll! 

I found him charming, very articulate, engagingly funny and really inspirational.  Arnie was extremely down to Earth, ready to make fun of himself, his 'crazy accent' and his ridiculous last name, 'what is it, Schnitzel?'  He also spoke about the importance of being happy, and only doing things which make you happy.   I'm already feeling more positive and enthused about changes I can make to contribute to my own success!

Do you have a favourite Arnie movie?  I'm a huge fan of Last Action Hero and Total Recall.  I feel an Arnie-a-thon coming on!

~Tan

P.s.  my friend showed me this video recently, and it needs to be included with this post!