When I started to train seriously, training was my only goal for three months.

But it is more complicated than that:

How many times have you set a big goal and actually achieved it? People set goals after goals because they think one goal is too easy, but they never really reach any of these goals. A great general thousands of years ago ordered to burn all of the ships that took him and his troops to a distant land. They had no other option but to fight and win the battle. And they did win! Having too many goals makes it impossible to focus your mind. It also gives you the excuse to fail in some goals for the sake of some other goals (usually you’d end up reaching no goal).

Set a big goal, and you can focus all your life on it. Set two goals, and each goal is only 1 tenth the magnitude of having only 1 goal. Setting three goals? It is even worse.

Once you have sat down and done some serious thinking, you’ll realize that there are only 2 to 3 things in life that you really want. Everything else is trivial. Then you can set your goals.

Training to get big for a skinny guy like you is serious work. It deserves a lot of attention and energy. But I know, it is not your (nor is it my) only goal in life. So what now?

My solution: set a goal of gaining 15 pounds of muscle in 12 weeks. Make it your only goal for these 12 weeks. You will spend all your free time working on this goal. You will think about it constantly. It will be your last thought before falling asleep and your motivation for waking up in the morning. In other words, you are obsessed with it. It is all you talk about. That will be your life for the next 12 weeks.

Everything, no matter how trivial, matters in your training (here). You will need these 12 weeks to make sure you understand everything, to make training your habit, to get into the life style of a serious trainer. Once you have gained these 15 pounds of muscle:

• You look a lot better
• You know everything about how to train to gain muscle and look awesome
• You understand your action
• You live right, eat right, train right and sleep right

After that, you set another training goal: maybe gaining another 15 pounds. However, now you can add one or two more goals (one is best). Why? Because now you don’t have to think so much about training anymore (you still can if you want though). Your life style is now the life style of a serious trainer: you can still get amazing results without having to think about it as much as before. In other words, you are like a satellite that has escaped Earth’s gravity-the hardest part is now over. Just keep your mind in the right direction and you will get there.

RECAP: Set a training goal for 12 weeks and make it your only goal for these 12 weeks.