The FINAL Tony Horton Fitness Camp in Scottsdale Arizona was absolutely FANTASTIC. I tried to take plenty of notes, but, often found myself all caught up in the action and/or laughing hysterically. I’d like to share some of the messages from the last seminar. It was some keys to success according to Tony. Specifically;
12 points in a Circle of Success.
Although the points look kinda obvious, the stories and explanations he gave were very motivating. I’ll do my best to relay those to you.
1. Ask for what you need: This was a main theme of the weekend. We should always realize that we don’t need to settle for what is offered. Ask for what we want. This applies to every aspect of life. E.g. your nutrition, Sex (Tony went into some examples of this and Tracy got all embarrassed and had to stop him J ) Finances… everything!! The worst that can happen is that they say no and you are back to where you started.
2. Don’t get fooled: Tony went around the room and asked people if they had ever been fooled. He said that after you are fooled, it causes stress. STRESS IS TOXIC. So, don’t get fooled more than once. Change your ways. He had a saying… If you get called an ‘Ass’ once, then no big deal, shake it off… If you get called an “Ass” twice, you might want to be curious and think about it… If you get called an “Ass” three times, then…. Get a saddle… J
3. Do scary things that don’t kill you: Get out there and do stuff. Don’t be afraid, just don’t get killed. Anything that doesn’t kill you will enrich your life. He gave an example of extreme skiing where he skis around and checks the jump for rocks and danger, and then he goes back up and does the jump. He says “thrive in life… don’t just survive”
4. Who is your mentor: Get one!! It can be someone you know well or someone you don’t know at all. Learn from others. Use books or seminars. Enrich your life… Don’t live in a toxic environment. He told the adage about the frog in the frying pan. If you put a frog in a frying pan and turn up the heat quickly, the frog will realize that his environment is becoming toxic and he will immediately jump out. But, if you put a frog in a frying pan and you slowly turn up the heat, the frog will not realize that his environment is killing him and he will try to survive in it. Don’t be the frog in the frying pan. Get out of the toxic environment. If you have people around you who are toxic, then get rid of them. Get around people who are good for you. Tony reminded us that throughout the weekend, he and Missy have given us the foundation to improve our environments… Now we should go out there and pay it forward. This is what I love about Tony and his training. He is all about paying it forward.
5. Think outside of the Box: Be creative!! Tony talked about how he designed the pushup bars. He said he called friends and it took a while but finally found a friend of a friends brother in law twice removed (or something like that) who build ladders. So, they made the prototype. Now they are modifying it to a hard plastic based style. He noted that Julienne from Biggest loser uses them (she also uses P90X)
6. Do Nothing: In order to stay balanced we should spend 15 minutes just doing nothing. This is the Yin part of the Yin/Yang energy that we need. Some people meditate. He can’t mediate for that long… but, he has a bench outside his house that he sits on and just looks out at the gorgeous view and thinks. He brings a pad of paper with him. He says, if you can, try to do it in the sun shine because none of us get enough sun. It is hard to justify this but we need it. We will need to plan it into our day… He asked who feels like they don’t have 15 minutes to do nothing… lots of people raised their hands including the guy who gets 12 hours of sleep.. boy did Tony bust on him J
7. Finish it (unless you hate it): You have got to DO something to BE somebody. Here in America we can do just about anything we want. Let’s do it. If you start something finish it so that you have DONE it. Here he started talking about how people work. Some are multi taskers and some are not. He said check into yourself to see if you are a multi-tasker. If you are not, then don’t try to be one, you will never finish anything.
8. Find a Hobby: Do it NOW. Find your passion and pursue it. Do it for your spirit. Don’t be afraid. Passions can become careers. Here he told a story about a guy who was a software engineer but loved bicycles. So he got a part time job on the weekends working at a bike shop. Five years later he owned the shop.
9. Right over Wrong: There are choices that we face every day. Each choice has a consequence. The wrong choice is never right. Here he started talking about relationships. You have a choice as to how you approach a person that you are in conflict with. One way will feed the conflict and cause it to continue, the other way will work to heal the conflict. He said ‘anger’ is only good when used in exercise.
10. Be Amazing: This was GREAT!! “How can you be amazing in your life?” He asked people around the room this question. Most were related to helping others. He wanted us to really think of something we could do this week that would just BLOW PEOPLES MINDS. He talked about reconciling with someone you are in conflict with. He told a story about when he was practicing this a long time ago. He used to play basketball at a gym and there was a guy there who treated him like a jerk. So Tony decided to do something unexpected and nice to the guy. The guy had been complaining of being out of shape. So, Tony forced himself to go over to the guy and offer to train him. To Tony’s surprise, the guy took him up on it and after a while that guy introduced him to Carl Dykler and the rest is P90X history. This won’t always happen, in fact, when you do something nice for someone, DON’T expect anything in return!
11. Money: We all need it to survive. But if life becomes about the money then it is ruling your life. $ is good, Debt is bad (he has seen both). So just like health is not about the weight loss, life is not about the $. We need to get in financial fitness… Remember… ask for what you need.
12. Find the Funny: LIGHTEN UP PEOPLE NOW. If you are more serious now than you were in high school…. STOP IT! See the lighter side of things. Run from gloomy things. When people treat you like crap, then say something weird to them. He talked about “passive aggressive” people who will smile at you and tell you something that makes you feel like crap” He suggested smiling back at them nod in agreement while saying something like “You are good at passive aggressive aren’t you, because even though you are smiling at me you are making me feel like crap.” (when he did it, it was hilarious)
