#51 Pack a Lunch Mentality

What's That Mean?

It all starts with an old story from my coal mining days.  My stepdad, Randy Thompson, was someone who instilled the value of working hard.  He's the one that got me the job in the coal mine.  He’s the one who got me thinking I could pool enough money together to get out of my situation to try and live my dream to be a personal trainer and gym owner.

He would talk about the 80-90 hour work weeks, one time logging 93 hours.  He took care of himself, never smoked, rarely drank, and ate well.  He still takes great care of himself over today, and even benches over 300 pounds in his sixties.

Better Pack a Lunch

"People who want to work with me, they better pack a lunch.  People want to mess with me, they better pack a lunch.  I'm not going to run out of gas."  He just had this mentality.  He’s not someone with crazy amounts of swag, but he exuded confidence from the hours of work he put in.  I began to realize that I was willing to do things that other motherfuckers weren’t willing to do.  

I started putting in 12-hour shifts.  Then I was doing my 12-hour shift plus half of the next shift.  My mentality was that I was there to fucking work.  I’m here to pack a fucking lunch.  I ain't going home, because I ain't going home until I got enough fucking money to get the fuck out.  Once this mentality took hold in my mind, I started applying it to everything.

First Experiences

When I started personal training, I was fortunate to be taught by one of the trainers there that was already balling.  There also were two other guys there that were good, better qualified, and had more background.  But I knew they weren’t willing to do what I was willing to do.  They weren’t going to give the level of service I was going to give.  And guess what?  They were giving me their clients when they left.

It was the same story when I opened my first personal training gym.  There’s this or that person down the road that’s not willing to do what I’m willing to do.  I just wear motherfuckers out because I won’t fucking quit.  I don't know how to quit.  I'm going to continue to wear you out, I’m going to continue to produce, I’m going to continue to get results, I’m going to continue to push myself, and I'm going to pack a fucking lunch.

What About You?

Are you packing the fucking lunch?  Are you bringing that mentality in your situation?  Be willing to do what others aren’t willing to do.  They're not willing to come early.  They're not willing to develop their craft.  They're not willing to bring the fucking next level shit it takes to get that nod.  

It all comes down to work and belief.  If you have these, you will wear motherfuckers out because they don’t want to pack a lunch.  They just don’t want it as bad.  It's the shit that David Goggins talks about… you take their soul. I don't give a fuck what anyone says, if you want to go to success, you don’t have to step on anyone, but you have to outwork them.  You have to outthink them.  You have to be willing to do what they're not willing to do.

Since 2010

It’s been 10+ years since I signed up for Twitter, and I've answered every fucking direct message.  Same story for Instagram when I joined.  That, to me, is what packing a lunch looks like.  These are the things that the competition isn’t willing to do.

It gives me a vision of my coal mining lunch box, which is an old bolt box, for you guys that know coal mining.  It sits in my gym at my house.  What's interesting is, for some reason, a really long time ago, I put the first sample of Assault in there.  And it's still there, because that was the mentality of when I started that business.

Other companies thought they were too sweet.  Little did they know, this little lime green company was going to come out of nowhere and take fucking BSN off the ring at the UFC, take the fucking market share of GNC, and fucking blaze the motherfucking content at Bodybuilding.com.

This is the Way

This mentality is the way you operate.  I got that from a guy that worked 35 years underground.  I watched him do it, I watched him wear motherfuckers out, and I watched him make a better living than them.  He invested his money, was about his business, and I applied many of the same principles to my life.  

It's the same thing with the lunges.  All of these things are challenging.  I’m willing to put in the work, day after day.  Sure, I have peers and rivals that beat me from time to time, but the great separator is being willing to do what others aren’t willing to do. 

So, I ask you, are you going through the motions, or are you packing a fucking lunch?