Fit for Life: Tactics From the Best in the World

Saturday, August 31, 2019

Matt Espeut, GoLocalWorcester Health +Lifestyle Contributor

Matt Espeut

I try to seek knowledge wherever I go, and I make an effort to follow the top badasses in their respected industry, so I can learn from the best.

I read leadership books by guys like Bill Belichick, the founder of Southwest Airlines Herb Kelleher, Bedros Keuilian from Fit Body Boot Camp, and leadership guru John Maxwell, just to name a few.

When I make larger investments and fly to the West Coast to attend conferences, I follow the same pattern. Seek out the best in the industry, so I can learn their tactics, hear their mistakes, and do what it takes to become successful.

My most recent conference was in San Diego and it was one of the best I ever attended.

Everyone on stage over-delivered, educated and brought value to the audience. Again, these were ultra-successful people that were willing to share their knowledge and experiences with the intention of making us better.

I go to these things so I can get better and be able to share my knowledge and make my team, members, and audience better by creating value to other people’s lives.

In this article, I will share some of my biggest takeaways from some of the presenters that I saw at the conference, and hopefully, it will help you get better on some level in your life.

The man behind the event and founder of FBBC was Bedros Keuilian. He opened with a great presentation stating that to be a successful entrepreneur you need to incorporate the 3 R’s into your mindset.

The first being Resilience.

We will face struggles, setbacks, criticism, and negative people trying to bring you down and knock you off your axis. These are things we need to ignore and move on if we want to complete our mission and conquer our goals. If you are not resilient you will wilt and die from all the adversity you will face.

You also need to be Resourceful. Not everything will work out as planned, and we will face speed bumps, and setbacks. Being resourceful means being able to course correct quickly whenever necessary and find solutions for problems. Problems will come, and we have 2 choices, dwell or overcome by being resourceful and finding a solution quickly before it escalates into a bigger issue.

Relentless is the third R we need to incorporate into our daily lives. This means showing up every day and taking action on the things that will bring you success. You don’t practice something once and expect to be good at it, you need to be relentless in your pursuit of excellence. This means getting in the reps and keep coming back even when the odds are against you and you have failed before. Never quit, be relentless, and pursue your goals every day.

This doesn’t stop with business owners, in order to achieve success on any level, you need to have all these elements in place, or you will likely fail at whatever you do.

Another great presenter I heard for the first time was a major player in the real estate world name Kent Clothier.

His main focus was on using the short amount of time we have on this earth as wisely as possible.

Some great quotes from him were:

“Life is a gift not meant to be wasted, it’s to be lived” is a powerful statement when you think of all the time, we waste doing meaningless things. From surfing the internet, to laying around watching tv, we are all guilty of wasting this precious commodity, so we need to be aware and realize we have limited time and to use it wisely.

“Acting like you have time is irresponsible and reckless. Time is limited, be in a hurry”, means that we can’t wait until tomorrow and need to take massive action every day. If you think you have all the time in the world, you are assuming, because you will never know when your last day could be and the things you put off may never happen.

“Fear regret more than failure” to me means that you can’t get back something you regret doing or NOT doing, however, you can always recover from failure. Actually, you can learn a lot from failure, but you will have to live with regret because regret is something that happened in the past and the past can’t be brought back.

In other words, take chances and go after your goals and dreams, and do the things that matter most to you because you never know when your time will run out.

The most impactful speaker to me was Navy Seal Jason Redmen.

I say this because I have a great deal of gratitude for people that put their lives on the line to protect the rights, freedom, and privileges that we enjoy on a daily basis.

This guy nearly lost his life during battle overseas, and his message was something NOT to be ignored.

In the military, when you are in the line of fire, the term they use is “You’re on the X’.

He related being on the X to any adversity we encounter on a daily basis in our civilian lives.

His philosophy is that the ones that get off the X the fastest will succeed and thrive.

Some of his tactics that he shared were:

Overcome mindset. You have to have the emotional capacity to overcome adversity and choose to be the victor NOT the victim.

We will all face some kind of adversity, so don’t take it personally, and compartmentalize yourself as a victim. Lose the why me mindset and learn to overcome the problems that come your way, don’t let them fester and bring you down.

Preparation and training: This is a common denominator for success on any level. From combat, to competitive sports, to business, to life in general, we always need to be prepared, and we can’t stop training to get better. Everything requires repetition and consistency so keep working and practicing the things you need to do to become successful.

Balance. Another quote I heard from a Navy Seal was “Shoot, Move, and Communicate”, and this doesn’t always need to apply to battle. This is a good example of balancing all the things that matter in our lives and create a formula to succeed.

You want to work hard, then recover so you can repeat the process.

You can’t give what you don’t have, so if your energy is gone, it’s impossible to help others.

Creating balance means to lead yourself first before you can lead others, because you can’t get others to comply when you are not dialed in yourself.

His closing statement was “The world owes you nothing, and you are entitled to nothing, so lead yourself to success and get off the X.

These are only a few of the amazing people I had the opportunity to meet and learn from. I have notes from over 10 different presenters, and they all added value to the way I conduct my daily life.

I hope these short “cliff notes” of my experience create some impact for you and you can implement them in your everyday life and maybe share with others.

Remember, knowledge has no real value until you share it with someone else.

Committed to your success

Matt Espeut, GoLocal's Health & Lifestyle Contributor has been a personal trainer and health & fitness consultant for over 25 years. He is the owner of Fitness Profiles, a one on one, and small group personal training company, as well as Providence Fit Body Boot Camp, located at 1284 North Main St., on the Providence/Pawtucket line. You can reach Matt at (401) 453-3200; on Facebook at "Matt Espeut", and on Twitter at @MattEspeut. "We’re all in this life together – let’s make it a healthy one.