Evolution by Joe Manganiello
Inside the mind of one of the fittest people on the planet - and his philosophy to leveling up your fitness and personal success.
Joe Manganiello is a beast and he plays one on TV (True Blood).
This actor (Magic Mike, Sabotage, Spiderman), producer and director is notorious for being one of the fittest and hardest workers. He was awarded Men’s Health’s 100 Fittest Men of All Time and Men’s Fitness’s 25 Fittest Guys of the Year.
Even fitness icon Arnold Schwarzenegger took notice of Joe’s approach to fitness:
“This is someone who truly believes in fitness, not someone who crash-diets because his contract says he has to look great with his shirt off. He’d still have those biceps if he never got his break and was laying bricks. Most importantly, he believes in old-fashioned hard work above everything else.”
While many fitness books recycle and repurpose the same advice – Joe’s book Evolution is a refreshing and unique journey into his mindset, work ethic and physical development.
If you see photos of Joe, it’s easy to think he was simply born with “stellar genetics” but his story shows he didn’t start that way. He shares his personal evolution of starting skinny and struggling to gain weight to finding his footing with strength training. And then slaying inner demons along the way to build a legendary physique and successful career in Hollywood.
In fact, you can see how doubling down on his fitness and personal development at key points became a catalysts for helping him rise up to higher levels of career success.
While I didn’t know much about Joe until recently, I’ve been extremely impressed with his fitness and success principles. And in his book, his intensity comes through as a guy who walks his talk. Even if you don’t wish to build a super-hero physique, just a small amount of Joe’s wisdom can help you level up your fitness game.
Here are a few impactful lessons from Evolution that can greatly support your athletic mindset and fitness journey (wherever you are at).
Enjoy,
7 High-Octane Fitness and Motivation Lessons from Evolution:
#1: Act As If It’s Going to Work
Something that sticks out in Joe’s book is his conviction and total certainty for finding a way if he’s determined and committed enough. Whether it’s in fitness or chasing professional goals – there’s something to be said about cranking up our inner certainty several notches. You tend to leave no stone unturned and not simply do your best – but do what’s required.
“When I trust my gut and go at a goal with 110 percent effort, and act as if I’m 110 percent sure that what I’m doing is going to work – that’s when the incredible happens.”
#2: Channel Negative Emotions into Positive Momentum
If you can find a way to channel disappointment, discouragement, rejection or failure into a positive direction, very little will stop you. Because every time you get knocked down you’ll keep getting back up and learning new distinctions about how to pursue your goals more intelligently. This is something Joe mastered on his journey.
“That internal fire can never burn without some fuel, and that fuel can come in the form of disappointment, embarrassment, and even jealously. The poison, no doubt, is in the dose, as these traits are incredibly corrosive if held on to for extended periods of time, but if you can learn to convert them into positive actions, they can help you tremendously.
I benefitted from failure. I needed to feel it. I needed to sit in it. I needed to know what losing felt like, and I needed to get angry about it and never want to feel that way again. Without it, I would have been robbed of the lifeblood that has propelled me all these years later. “
#3: Positive Habits Lead to Positive Habits
After landing a role in Spiderman, Joe didn’t get a role for four years. He thought he had ‘made it’ and spiraled into heavy drinking, smoking and burning all sorts of bridges. It wasn’t until an NHL player asked him to train with him that he started to rebuild his self-respect and his fitness. He started boxing three times per week which helped him give up smoking and build even more positive habits.
“That good habit led to other good habits, and just like that, my entire mind-set began changing. I was no longer seeing what I could get away with; I was seeing what I could do.”
#4: The Anti-Ego Mentality
Even after getting back in shape and turning his life around – his recklessness had cost him.
He was three years sober, two years without smoking and he still thought his acting career was over. Agents weren’t calling him back and he needed to pay the bills. While debating his options, he was haunted by a scene in the book, The Fountainhead where the main character, a skilled architect, decided to get a job breaking rocks at a quarry. Joe wondered, Why would he do that?
So he decided to get a job on a construction crew and find out for himself:
“Working that difficult job epitomized the anti-ego mentality that I needed to begin really succeeding… The monotonous, repetitive physical labor was a cleanse of sorts for my head and my soul. I was alone in my bubble every day finding out exactly what I was made of. I was taking inventory and digesting everything I had been through. I still thought my dream of an acting career was over, but in the meantime, I was going to become the greatest shoveler, cement mixer, and jackhammer operator of all time.”
#5: Don’t Wait for a Break
“Most guys don’t realize that the hard work they put in isn’t enough. They look around and wonder why everyone else has success. They want to know why they can’t catch a break. You know why it doesn’t happen for them? It’s because those who reap the benefits of life don’t wait for breaks to happen: they make them happen. It’s an aggressive approach to life and an endless pursuit that will lead to what you want.”
#6: Peace of Mind from Doing Everything You Could
Right after high school, Joe auditioned for Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama and was rejected. So he reconfigured his plan and attended University of Pittsburg instead because he could afford the tuition, it had a theatre program and it was in walking distance of Carnegie.
There he took as many theater courses as humanly possible… auditioned for every play at the college… auditioned for every casting notice he could find (even if they were non-paying)… and volunteered for photo shoots with new photographers (so he could get free headshots)… and built his audition monologues.
A year later, he auditioned for CMU again and became 1 of 17 accepted out of 800.
“After being rejected by CMU, I spent every single moment of that year making myself better and finding out how much I could change and grow. If I was going to be rejected a second time that year, then I needed to be able to look back and know that I did everything I possibly could. That was the only way that I knew of that I could possibly walk away from my dream”
#7: Fight as Hard as Humanly Possible
Today there’s a lot of talk about the importance doing your best. And while ‘bettering your best’ is one of the most empowering mindsets in fitness and life - sometimes we can use ‘trying our best’ as a way of holding ourselves back.
“Looking back at my life, it was the obstacles, the shortcomings, and the failures that forced me to fight harder, to reach inside and pull something truly extraordinary out of myself that I didn’t even know existed. My failure was essential to my growth, because every time I failed, I learned that it was because I did not fight as hard as humanly possible. Notice I didn’t say “fight my hardest.” There are a lot of people who try as hard as they can. But their ceilings and limitations are perceived barriers that restrict what they achieve.”
Final Thoughts:
Evolution is an inspiring ride and powerful example of what’s possible when you level up your drive, focus and intensity towards your dreams.
More so, it’s an inspiring ‘war cry’ to awaken our highest and best selves inside each of us. Whether it is health, fitness or crushing it in your career – Joe’s mentality and personal example make an undeniable and lasting impression.
“We don’t know what we can really do until we push past the farthest point we’ve ever been and go where we’ve never gone before. There is a place beyond the conscious perception of what is achievable and that is where real success occurs.” - Joe Manganiello
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