The importance of having a partner that motivates you

I am currently reading the book, secrets of the millionaire
mind by T Harv Eker. And what I have picked up from that book is that to be
successful you must surround yourself with like-minded people, you must have
positive energy and surround yourself with people with positive energy because
negative people bring negative energy and negative energy is contagious like an
infectious disease. What would you do when you hear that someone has measles,
you stay away from that person to avoid getting measles. Even though this book
is about getting rich it has a lot of lessons that can be applied to many areas
in life where you want to be successful.

In terms of getting in shape or bodybuilding its always the
best to have a gym partner who is positive and has similar goals to yours, a
partner like that will be committed and never miss gym sessions, they will
motivate you and remind you of your goals when you start slacking, instead of
making excuses for poor diet and not being able to make it to gym, when you
have a good gym partner you will always make a plan to make up for whatever is
happening in your lives that is affecting your gym schedule. In my experience I
have found it to be hard to find a good, reliable and consistent gym partner,
so I always end up going by myself because not having a gym partner is not a
good excuse. If you are lucky enough to find a like-minded gym partner, it’s
good to have a gym partner who is positive and believes that if you put in
consistent work and you are progressing in terms of the types of exercises you
are doing the amount of weight you are able to pick up then you will get the
results you deserve. It’s good to have a realistic gym partner who does not
expect results immediately as muscles don’t work like that, there is no muscle
lottery. You don’t need negative energy, or people who think good results are
achievable only by using steroids. I do not support the use of steroids by
normal gym goers who don’t compete at a level where everyone is using steroids
but I do know that whether a person is using steroids or not they still need to
work hard to get their body to look amazing and champion level so there is a
lot to learn from anyone with a better body or a body like the one I want to
have.

Another sort of partner that’s important in achieving and
maintaining your dream physique is your wife/husband or girlfriend/boyfriend. I
have realized that I can be attracted to someone who is out of shape and not
into the gym lifestyle because I find them facially attractive and they have a
great personality but long term we would start having problems because my
belief and their believes when it comes to fitness and body image are not the
same so eventually I would end up hurting the girls feelings or I will convince
them to join the gym and get in better shape. It’s important to have a
like-minded partner, someone who will support you and push you to be your best,
not someone who will judge you and put you down for being obsessed with the
gym. I have had many people tell me that I’m obsessed with the gym and that it
was a waste of time and what was being buff getting me? I have always been
confused by those negative statements because going to gym is my hobby it makes
me feel good and it’s how I destress, and gym is a priority for me, other
people have hobbies as well which consume their time and you don’t hear people
complaining about them and trying to bring them down because of their hobbies.
And I find it’s usually out of shape people who are negative about my being gym
obsessed.

Luckily I have a girlfriend who is supportive of my gym
habits and she actually wants me to stay in shape and always reminds me to go
to gym and to eat up so I don’t get skinny, and also since we started dating
she has become a gym junkie herself. People will think that I was the one who
made her go to gym but she actually wants to go by herself, Yes I encourage her
to get in shape. I always say that we are in our 20s and now is the best time
to look the best and feel the best we are ever going to be, before old age,
marriage and kids enter the equation. I always say if you can’t get in the best
shape in your life when things are still fairly simple then its highly unlikely
that you will be in shape when things are more complicated because then you
will have more excuses, some people can do it but it’s rare.

As I was saying like attracts like, associate yourself with
like-minded people, people who motivate you, people with positive energy. How
often do you see a couple where one is extremely fit and the other is at the
opposite end of the spectrum? I have never seen that, but I bet it’s rare you
usually find overweight people with overweight people and fit people involved
with other fit people because people are comfortable around people who are
similar to them. I know here in Africa you find couples where the husband is
skinny and the wife is fat or big, but usually the husband is naturally skinny
not that he is fit or into the health/fitness lifestyle. And there is this
whole obsession about “thick” girls now and I get it, I’m also into curvy woman
but to me there is a difference between being curvy and being fat and
overweight.

 If you want to be a
certain way, you have to surround yourself with people who are the way you want
to be. It’s no use surrounding yourself with negative people who always bring
you down.