I started lifting weights regularly about a year and a half ago. My reasons for getting into weightlifting are pretty practical. It’s good for my health, I feel like being in better shape will make me more castable as an actor, etc. These are all good reasons. But they aren’t inspiring reasons.
None of these reasons are motivating enough to get me out of bed in the morning and to send me straight to the gym. Or are energizing enough to make me decide to lift weights rather than watching the next episode of my favorite Netflix show. If those were my only reasons, I probably wouldn’t lift weights at all. However, I have another reason: I lift weights to be more like Indiana Jones.
I love Indiana Jones. He’s my childhood hero. And as you know, at least if you’ve watched Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom anytime recently, Indiana Jones definitely lifts weights. I mean, LOOK at this guy!
That’s why every time weights I wear my Indiana Jones fedora. Embracing my ‘why’ and keeping it present gives me more strength because if I ever wonder what the point is of doing another set of pull ups, the answer is right there.
Is this the most logical reason to lift weights? Maybe not. But it certainly is compelling.
I know that doing pull ups isn’t going to turn me into Indiana Jones, but it’s going to make me healthier, and more castable, and all those logical things. And making lifting weights into a game about becoming more like Indiana Jones makes it fun. It taps into an energy that’s harder to suppress. It reaches beyond the mundane and connects with my innermost fantasy of who I want to be. And that’s energy is irresistible.
I apply this in other aspects of my life and career too. For every 10 casting directors I reach out to because they cast projects I’d be a good fit for, I reach out to 1 casting director who could put me in the next Star Wars movie.
Don’t get me wrong. I would love to book a role on Law & Order. But being in Star Wars is the thing that 10 year-old Alex would lose his shit about. The answer isn’t one or the other, though. It’s both. Keeping the fantasy in the mix motivates me to do the work I know I should be doing, but probably wouldn’t find the energy for otherwise. Working this way infuses ordinary tasks with the enthusiasm I have for my wildest dreams, and accomplishing those tasks makes my dreams feel possible.
Try it for yourself. Take an ordinary thing and connect some piece of it to your wildest aspirations of who you want to be and the life you want to live. Take a piece of the dream and put it in the mix. Wear your Indiana Jones hat while you workout, reach out to that long-shot casting director, or whatever it is that makes you feel like your actions and your dreams are pushing you in the same direction. The best case scenario is that somehow your dream comes true, the worst case scenario is that you make the things you were going to do anyway more exciting and purposeful.
Really, you can’t lose.