Spartan Up!

Are you ready for some inspiration!!? Do you need inspiration in your life? Feeling kinda down or lacking any energy to do anything? Well I suggest you read this book. But before I begin my review of this book, Spartan Up! by Joe De Sena, I must clarify a few things. 1. There are many profanities in the book so if that upsets you, be prepared for it. Plus my post will have some swears too, sorry! 2. I have not done a Spartan Race, yet, but the book does give me inspiration/fear of doing one (maybe in the future). 3. If you are a literary scholar this book may slightly disappoint you since it does go in funny circles, sometimes lacks structure, plus there are some typos. 4. Lastly, I received this book for free since I offered a giveaway which provided 1 of my followers a free race code for any event of their choice. 

Now with all that being said you can go on to www.spartan.com or https://www.facebook.com/spartanrace to find out more about this treacherous mind & body race that will test the limits of even the most in shape person.

I found these parts of the book very inspirational and I hope I don't disclose too much of the book's contents to ruin it for you, but I still think that reading the book cover to cover is worth it! Also take the time to read my entire post too :)

pg. 5 "My goal wasn't to help them to prepare to win; it was to help prepare them for the unknown."
when doing the Spartan Races you must be prepared for ANYTHING! 

pg. 21 "Michael Phelp's coach prepared Phelps for the Olympics by breaking his goggles before practice, so that they'd fill up with water while he swam. When Phelps' goggles broke during the 2012 Olympics, he was able to push through it to win gold."

pg. 59 "Grit entails working strenuously towards challenges, maintaining effort and interest over years despite failure, adversity, and plateaus in progress." Do you have Grit?? 

Plan For Success (somewhat abbreviated from the book: pg. 59)
1. Write out your plan for success. Establish your baseline, set a goal, define a clear path toward that goal.
2. Share the plan. The recipient should be someone who is supportive yet can offer constructive criticism when needed. 
3. Eliminate distractions.
4. Keep a journal of your successes and failures. Give yourself a gold star for exceptional performance and success.
5. Adjust as needed. Always work on solutions.
6. Don't give up! Don't let setbacks become failures. Learn from them and keep moving forward. You must remain committed to your goals.

pg. 68 Joe's wife was freaked out because, "One day at our farm a guy showed up unannounced just to thank me for changing his life." 

pg. 119 "School is a mountain. Heartbreak is a mountain. Divorces is a mountain. Obesity is a mountain. Layoffs are a mountain. The death of a parent is a mountain. They come at us one after the other. The Spartan Races demands that you climb over hills and overcome obstacles - because life does this to each of us."

pg. 120 "The way to improve your attitude is to push through adversity. Once you have seen the dark side, you push through until that dark phase comes to an end, and everything after that appears brighter, more hopeful."

pg. 130 "Your values in order should be:
1. Health
2. Family
3. Business
4. Fun
Most people have these priorities upside down."

pg. 147-148 "A healthy lifestyle includes at least 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep per night. Without it, you're more likely to suffer from obesity, cognitive decline, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and perhaps cancer...........You should also avoid using laptops, iPads, iPhones, etc for at least an hour or two before bedtime. The intense blue light emitted by many of today's most popular gadgets shine directly into the eyeballs, confusing the brain, suppressing melatonin production, and disrupting the circadian rhythm developed." -- I'm so guilty of not following these! Are you? 

pg. 150 "Healthy foods, healthy attitude, healthy relationships, healthy mind, and healthy body together define a complete Spartan lifestyle."

pg. 166 "Inform but don't dictate. Share information freely, but allow people to decide their own fate. Allow them to take responsibility for their own happiness." 

pg. 175 "We look for shortcuts, gadgets, and processes to make things easier, seeking what we consider personal fulfillment. We believe that there are things we can do and things that we can't do, and we become conditioned to that distinction. It creates our everyday reality, and it makes us feel secure, because we think we know what to expect of the world and what to expect of ourselves."

pg. 180 "My theory is that you need to rewire your brain to undo the constant onslaught of advertising and convenience and shortcuts that have been thrown at you for decades."

**** This book has come to me almost like an angel since I have been in a slump... BIG TIME! I have gained a lot of weight since my father passed away in 2007. I've had a lot of sucky disappointing life events since then and professional challenges. There are many stories of success in the book that give me faith, strength, inspiration and hope. Joe has been through a lot of life challenges so when you read a book about someone else who has been through a lot of SHIT but has reached success, wealth, and happiness you listen to what they have to say. Thank you Joe for writing this book and creating the Spartan Race. You've changed so many people's lives for the better, including mine!

buy the book at Amazon.com

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