The Little Black Book 

of Workout Motivation

By Michael Matthews

Categories: Mindset/High Performance

Content: 234 Pages 

Chapters: 
Who is Mike Matthews, and Why Should I Care?
The Reinvention of Jennifer
How to Use This Book

Section 1: Cultivating the Right Mindset
The Little Big Things About Building a Better You
The Great Art of Sacrifice
The Trouble with Waiting for Perfect

Section 2: Setting Goals
The Greatest Common Denominator of Greatness
The Wrong Way and Right Way to Set Goals 
How to Not Suck at Achieving Your Goals

Section 3: Doing the Work
You Can Fight Resistance Now or Hate Yourself Later
Can You Carry a Message to Garcia?
Excuses or Progress: Choose One
Shut Up and Train 

Section 4: Staying on Top
So, You´re Having a Shitty Workout . . .
The Curse of Complaining
The Positivity Paradox
Beware the „Self-Made“ Myth

Farewell . . . For Now
Would You Do Me a Favor?
Free Bonus Material (Guides, Tools, and More!)
Other Books by Michael Matthews
Bibliography
References

The Book is about motivating highly motivated people, it talks about a lot of successful people and
what they did to get to where they are. It also has prompted things you should do while reading this book
for example a seven-day challenge where you sacrifice different things sugar, caffeine or have a cold shower, and so on. It also contains scientific research about these topics and all the references to the included studies.

My opinion: I enjoyed the book so much I read it in one day, for me it was purely motivating,
I wanted to get work done or work with every page I read.

Although always get little confused reading things from Mike, because he starts with everything in
the fitness industries is wrong. Then I get worried for a second because a lot of people that don´t know
what they are talking about often use this, but once I read on I  realize that I am in a very small niche of
the fitness scene that uses science and that he is right and most of the fitness area
truly is full of scams and bullshit.

What I liked reading the introduction is that he makes it very clear that this book is not for people
that are completely demotivated not willing to work for anything looking for a quick fix, it is for the people that already are motivated to do a thing and fall off track due too self-sabotage or being unsure
that what they do is the right thing. The book tries to help you focus on what is truly important and
where you want to go it helps you find the exact “why” to what you are doing.

I will read the book again to truly appreciate it and be able to do all the tasks it gives you.
I believe the book was so motivating to me because it talks about so many successful people
but does not sugar coat it. It says yes they are talented but they still had to work extremely hard and put hours over hours into their craft. To be something special you have to put special effort into what you want.

What I also liked is the little reading prompts it gave you (Recommended read “this” by “Author”).
And of course, it references all studies it uses to back up the claims made.

I honestly can't think about one thing I didn´t like, and can only agree with all the claims made by the book.

Oh, one more thing I found that says a lot about what mike is about and the end he says you shall pass
the book on to others for reading, it is more important for him to get good information
out there than to make money and that says a lot about him.




Best for: high performers that need a little help to go the extra mile, and/or stay on track.

Favourite quote: „ Why devote so much time and energy to whining, when it´s scientifically proven to increase stress and anxiety, sour mode, lead to more negative thinking, and hamper progress towards solutions and goals? ^1
Why do it, when one-tenth of that time and energy put into finding solutions would dramatically improve conditions for the better?“