#16 Fighting Slumps with Patrick Schwarzenegger

Cory:

I got my homeboy Patrick Schwarzenegger on today, and we're going to talk about slumps because everyone has slumps. Patrick's going to talk you through something that’s going on and how he's battling through it. He’s going to show you that it doesn't matter who your dad is, who your mom is, what business you're in, or how many Calvin Klein ads you're in, everyone deals with this stuff. Right, Pat?

Patrick Schwarzenegger:

Slumps are part of everybody's life. We were just talking about what kind of topics we should talk about. Cory asked me about something I was currently going through, and I'm currently on the outs of a slump. I would say January was overall a slump month. I'm sure that you and your listeners have gone through many of your own slumps.

But when you're a human like me or you, I mean, you're even crazier than I am. You're up at 4:00am grinding every single day, and I'm up at 5:00am usually just getting going. Rituals and routines are such a large part of my lifestyle. Not just the physical portion of the actual working out in the gym, but the ritual of the day and how much my gym and my working out in the mornings impacts the rest of my day. The rest of my week and everything like that. When I had shoulder surgery recently, it really just cramped everything.

Cory:

Wow.

Patrick Schwarzenegger:

When I say everything, I mean from what time I was waking up, to what I was eating, to not being able to work out, to my work ethic, to every single thing that was getting let go. It's fine for a few days because I was on the pills they give you post-surgery, and you really can't do much, but for someone like myself or you or my dad or anybody that lives that lifestyle, it just destroys you.

Cory:

Throws a wrench in everything.

Patrick Schwarzenegger:

It throws a wrench into everything. It was something that I just could feel myself going through. My girlfriend could see it. My family could see it. My mom felt so bad for me because she knows how much that my rituals and my days revolve around working out. I'm not someone that's big and all jacked up and stuff, but it's just something that allows my day to always start with a win. Getting up at that certain moment and actually going and doing it. With the surgery, it just destroyed me.

Patrick Schwarzenegger:

It was fresh in January, so it was just after I had gone and did my goals for the year. I orchestrated a goal session for everybody else and was helping them on their goals. I had just done mine. I didn't even have any workout goals. I mean, in the past I had done certain things like wake up at 5:00am or something like that, or make sure to work out five days a week. Then I went back and forth with my own self, "Should I put a goal?" I'm curious to see if you do that; but I was like, "Why even put something like waking up at 5:00am or working out five days a week?"

Cory:

That's just how you operate now.

Patrick Schwarzenegger:

That's just how I operate. It became a ritual.

Cory:

That's the norm.

Patrick Schwarzenegger:

Yeah, and it was no longer a goal. It's exactly what you said, it became a ritual. I just said, "You know what? I don't need that on my goals board. It's just taking up room and taking my mind away from the other things that I actually do need to progress in."

Cory:

For sure.

Patrick Schwarzenegger:

Three or four weeks later, I was waking up at 8:00am. I wasn’t working out. I was doing all these things, and I was like, "Shit, you know what? I should go back to that," but I couldn't because of my shoulder surgery. I decided to post that on Instagram. I've been trying to do more inspirational, motivational things. Things that I've learned from my dad, my family, and certain mentors that I've had in my life. Everything is always pushing positivity and the motivational side. I had decided that in the last month, just to share what I was going through, because Instagram on its own is a highlight reel. It's your SportsCenter Top 10.

Cory:

Hey, you've got some highlights lately, too, bro. You can just keep pushing them outside.

Patrick Schwarzenegger:

I do. I really do; but at the same time, I also have the slumps just like every single other person out there in the world. Whether they want to recognize it or not, whether they want to do something about their slumps or not, that's the difference maker between a lot of different people.

I think that's when I decided to share that video of just telling people, "Look, man, I'm going through this, and it's killing me mentally and physically. It's just dampering my mood. It's dampering my work. Hey, I'm going through it. I know that a lot of you guys are probably going through it. You don't want to tell other people.”

First off, when you just say it and you speak it out, you already feel it. When you recognize that you're going through a slump, that's one thing, but then the biggest question is how do you get out of it? How do you progress out of it? How do you change your habits so that you’re no longer spiraling out of control?

That was a big thing for me of when I said that to people and I recognized, "Okay, Patrick, you can't progress on any of your physical goals. You can't progress on staying in shape and working out at this time." I remember messaging my mentor and I was like, "Man, this is killing me." He goes, "How lucky are you that you still can wake up at 5:00am every day; and instead of working out for that hour or two, you can supplement that time with reading, with listening to podcasts, or with something else."

Cory:

Yeah. That's what I was going to say.

Patrick Schwarzenegger:

He's like, "Go back to your goals."

Cory:

Feed it something else.

Patrick Schwarzenegger:

I went back, and I wanted to read a book a month. I wanted to start this book club. I wanted to continue to learn and gain as much knowledge as I could from people that I look up to. In turn, I could use myself as a medium to feed other people this information.

He was like, "Dude, this is fine. This is God's plan for you. You have so much more time to do all those things that you put on your goal sheet this year. Go ahead and use that time."

It was an enlightening experience for me, and I heard this quote that goes, "Enjoy the time off the field." When you're someone like us, we're always wanting to be on the field.

Cory:

That's true.

Patrick Schwarzenegger:

He was like, "Being off the field is the only time that lets you get the outside perspective of other people that are on the field. You can say, "Okay, Patrick, are you doing the things in life that you're wanting to be doing? Are they bringing you joy? Are you working with the people that you should be working with? Are they helping you? Are they promoting that lifestyle?"

You get the external view on your whole lifestyle when you're off the field. Very rarely are people like us off the field. For you to take that time, sit back and try to enjoy it and see what's going on, and then come back much better.

Cory:

Wow.

Patrick Schwarzenegger:

It's all about perspective and how you look at different moments in your life, but I think the biggest shock for me was to see the responses.

Cory:

Makes you relatable, Patrick.

Patrick Schwarzenegger:

Yeah, yeah. It does.

Cory:

Look, in Hollywood in general, or any type of people that have a stature, it's hard for them to be vulnerable. You're just being honest because everyone does deal with this. I don’t think you can do enough of this if you want people to relate to you.

It's tough. Dude, I'm not even close to the level of people that know me, but they're like, "Dude, you're always a machine. I feel like I can't operate even close to you." So, when I bring out and say, "Same thing with me." I had the injury and I think it's the best thing that ever happened to me. Honestly, it gave me a ton of gratitude for these 20 crazy years I’ve had.

I thought weightlifting was taken away from me. I ripped the supraspinatus. They're talking about being down 10, 12 months, and I hadn't missed more than a week's workout since I was 17, bro.

Patrick Schwarzenegger:

Only you, man. Only you.

Cory:

Being vulnerable will help your followers and fans continue to be like, "Man, this guy's a real guy." I think it's hard for people to identify sometimes.

Patrick Schwarzenegger:

It is, it definitely is. That's something that I'm learning from an outsider's perspective… how do I really relate to other people? Especially when I'm trying to talk about business or I'm talking about motivational things or giving advice to kids that are in school or dropping out of school.

I come from such a specific background. It's always trying to find what's the best way to speak to that audience. I'm never someone that's going to shy away from the people that have helped me get to where I am today. I wouldn't be anywhere without my parents, from the mentor side, to the financial side, to everything. I've still gotten to learn a lot from that.