You are now aware of what is waiting ahead if you decide to embark on this life time journey. You may think that I am making such a big deal out of this. After all, it is only working out; everyone is doing it, and no one seems to be crazy about it like I am. Well, but think about it: do these people look good physically, and if they do, were they born that way? Remember, you are not born to be big. Obviously it must takes persistent and continuous hard work to get big and stay big. So here is the deal:

It ultimately goes back to your core values in life. Forget about staying big, even getting big takes one to two years (depending on your current physique, your current situation, and your level of determination, discipline, etc). A long journey like that requires long term planning. And long term planning entails having a clear vision of your life in the next 5 to even 10 years. Training may be your only passion in life, or it can be only a part of your life, but one thing is clear: it is a BIG part of your life that will demand as much time, energy and money as you would spend on your loved ones or your career. So the question is: how does training fit into your schedule in the next few years. Can you commit yourself wholeheartedly to training for at least 1 to 2 years (till you get into the best shape of your life) no matter what may happen in the future?

There are always distractions in life that takes your attention away from your goal of training and a happy, successful life. Your core values are there to help you set up goals in the long as well as short term future. These goals are there to keep you from losing your way, wandering around for years without a clear sense of purpose. And since these goals are based on your core values, it takes extraordinary events to disturb your goals. In other words, you only have doubts and change your goals when you are SHAKEN to the CORE. Therefore, unless you take 2 minutes to find your core values, hardly anything will ever happen that can shake your core values.

Why do you have to go through all these soul searching even though all you want is to lift some weights? Because by now you should know that getting big for ectomorphs is serious business, that glossy magazines and fancy new weight machines and programs are only there to make money, not to help you (MORE HERE). And yet you are not going to spend all your life on training. We all have other big fancy goals. This is not just about training. It is about working for high paid jobs, living a happy life with a wonderful family, enjoying all kinds of fun activities while still maintaining a great physique.

Everyone can get big if that is all they spend their time on. No, that is too easy. We want to get big, and many things else too. That is why we need to do work on many more areas than just training, eating and sleeping. And that is the whole purpose of this blog.

So should you train or not? I personally think that you have more than enough capacities to train for an awesome physique. And I think it is a rewarding experience that you will learn a lot from. However, before you can answer this question, you have to examine your core values (e.g. how much satisfaction will you get out of a great physique), your long-term as well as short-term plan (will you have time to commit to training). There will be many posts by me to help you will this process, but nothing you can find on the web or from me can be as valuable as these two books:

1. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey (My review)

2. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (My review)

RECAP: Know your core values. It keeps you focused once you have decided to train.