Should You Count Your Steps Or Reps In Animal Workouts?

During workouts, we utilize a set/rep scheme to determine our fitness levels whether for strength, conditioning, endurance or how much we can handle during a certain set. In most circles, this can be good to figure out where you are and how you progress but sometimes, reps don't really seem to matter because the main focus is improving your technique, utilizing tension or using timed sets. Red Delta Project emphasizes those three methods together to help you get the most out of a workout.

When it comes to Animal Workouts, most of the time, rep counts don't really matter but more how long can you last before you start breathing hard. In many cases, a few seconds is all it takes. When I play my Animal Dice Game, it consists of using a step method to count how many times you move throughout an exercise. It can be used as a rep count as well but you don't always have to keep a record of how many steps or reps you do during rounds. In some workouts, you can time it and just play around until the time is up or you can just go until you can't move anymore; either one will get you results fast. 

For a period or ever so often, I do keep a record of how many steps/reps I do in a workout especially if the amount is doubled per animal. I kept a record for a month to see how many I can do and during that month, I recorded over 10,000 Steps/Reps of Animal Exercises. The most I ever recorded in a day was around 2000. Consider that some of those rounds have you doing up to a hundred reps or more depending on if you multiply the dice and you keep going. The highest multiplier I did during certain workouts was around 5 times of what the round called for, so if let's say I rolled a 20 for the bear crawl, I would have to take 100 steps and they can be either fast paced or just "walking" it for that amount. In most workouts, I don't do more than doubled the amount which can still kick your ass in less than a few minutes.

Considering that you don't count your reps and do timed rounds for different animals, you can still end up doing up to several hundred to a thousand or more in a workout. That can be brutal but effective training and developing levels of strength and conditioning that would just astound people. When it comes to the ADG, you never know when you'll start to fatigue, it can happen in one round or 30, you never know. I'll always say that's the beauty of it, no workout is ever the same twice and you never know what you'll have to prepare for cause it can be a breeze one minute and stupid exhausting the next. The bear crawl is considered the foundation for Animal Movements and the easiest to start with; with that in mind, if you had to do even 20 steps of the bear crawl, the next one could be 20 Frog Jumps and you can wear out your legs and be huffing and puffing like the Big Bad Wolf needing oxygen after trying to blow the brickhouse down. 

The thing to remember with this specific Animal Workout is that the more times you multiply the amount per animal, the less rounds you'll end up doing. In one sense if you just did the regular numbers and went for 15-25 rounds or rolls, doubling the amount can take you down to less than 10 and you'll be done. Doing multiple rounds or rolls with a 5 times multiplier can be considered a superhuman feat but until you actually do it, you'll never understand the feeling of it. 

One of the perks of the ADG is that you can do this with a partner and do all sorts of games like Tag, Medley, how many yards you can go for and so on. If you're playing tag, roll for an animal and whatever comes up, both parties have to do that animal. If you're doing distance like a race, roll for an animal, next roll is how long the distance is and it can be feet, yards and if you're insane, go for kilometers. Imagine the amount of reps/steps you take with those kind of games. If you were to do these games for a week, the numbers can rack up in the tens of thousands possibly, talk about being in shape or getting in shape pretty damn quick. 

So with that in mind, should you really be counting? IMO, that's up to you but it's also not entirely necessary unless you have a specific goal in mind like doing 5000 Reps in let's say ten days or you want to average out a certain amount per workout. Regardless of what you do, with consistent training using animal movements, results will come fast and you'll develop skills and other attributes that other methods are obsolete to. Get strong, be wild and be amazingly awesome. 

Suspension Training And Other Fun Stuff

Reflecting on this past week has been a great one. We were going to go up camping a second time around but nature told us otherwise (Fires, Thunder Storms) and better be safe than sorry. Made the time though with just being together, enjoying the sun, sitting in the pool and listening to some great tunes. Wife got some vacation time so we made it as fun as we can make it. Went floating up near the mountains with friends and family, went Huckleberry picking this past Saturday and went down to the lake. Just got to soak up that last bit of summer man.

Throughout the little festivities, I was training on not just Isometrics but also getting into Suspension Training. Got myself a new door anchor (The EverStretch) that could hold up pretty good, attached the Iso Belt and was testing out various exercises doing rows, curls, pushups, slow assisted pullups, one legged squats, knee pull ins and others. It's been a while since I've done Suspension type training, the most recent was testing out pullups with the belt at a park and before that was maybe a couple years. I figured getting into it being inspired by Red Delta Project's Suspension Calisthenics book which is pretty damn awesome BTW. Figured I'd snatch up the rest of the series which you can find on the right side bar on the blog. 

Although I don't have a ton of experience in Suspension Training, it is enjoyable and right now, my main focus is working on technique and balance. Don't need to rep out a ton yet and even then just get into the habit of controlling the body and utilizing tension while doing technique reps. If there was ever any consistent suspension workouts in my time was doing the rings in gymnastics in my mid 20's. Didn't do the Iron Cross or anything, just keeping form and tension while doing pull-ups and worked on improving little by little. With the Iso Belt and door anchor, the basics are where it's at and taking the belt to a park and wrap it around the monkey bars to work on other exercises. When it comes to Isometrics, I want to test my strength in the Hybrid Pull-Up and see what I can do with that. The Hybrid Pull-Up is taking a strap and tightening the cross between the two poles on the pull-up bar and then you pull-up or chin-up until you reach that stopping point on the strap hitting both that Overcoming & Yielding Iso combo.

Training is an adventure and should be something you're excited about. Even taking the most basic exercises and turning them into something fun and interesting is where the ultimate goal should end up. That's what I love about Red Delta Project; it's runner Matt Schifferle, has this amazing attitude and enthusiasm for training that's awe inspiring. No question he's one of the best trainers around today and part of the new generation of Physical Culturists but his positivity is where many are drawn to. He doesn't shame anybody and doesn't go for that "my way or the highway" type of attitude, he's relatable, fun to listen to and utilizes his knowledge in a sense where whether you're a complete beginner or a veteran athlete he gives you a rundown that makes you want to do something no matter how small. His ideas may not be completely brand new but he takes old school exercises and tackles the classic formats of muscle control and balance to develop workouts that although low in skill, create the best versions of muscle building and conditioning training. 

Check him out and his YouTube channel. Be safe, be strong and be amazingly awesome. 

How Long Should Animal Playouts Be?

People in fitness tend to give a general ideal of the amount of timing someone's fitness is at. Some say 10 min. is a good start, 15, 20,30 even sometimes an odd number like 13 minutes but for me it ought to be much lower. When someone starts out, they don't know what the hell they're really doing and just going through the motions. I say once you have them getting used to certain movements, start them off with 5 min. to start. Why 5? Isn't that a little short and very easy to start? Well, you want to build up an individual's stamina and strength and for health purposes, 5 min. is more than most can handle.

Once their consistent, build it up minute by minute. I started out with barely 10 min. before I gave out and wanted to die LOL. Everyone is different so they can't always go by the same protocol and plus, some take longer than others to get used to the movements. Depending on your fitness level and coordination for the animals you're good at, start with what's right for YOU!!!

When you're at a level where 10 min. is easy, do 20, then 30 and after that if you're in world class shape you can go 45 min to an hour or longer. Because animal moves are very intense, it won't really take that long to get really winded, even the greatest athletes in the world have fallen prey to short and intense playouts of the animals. Now really when it comes down to it, you don't need to go more than 20 min. to be in awesome shape. That's the main reason I love the animal dice game; after a while the numbers can get boring and you need a challenge; how do you do that? Double the reps on the dice, too easy? Triple them and so how you really do.

It makes me laugh that people say bodyweight exercises or animals are only great for warm-ups; if you tripled the reps on this dice game alone; you'll be begging for mercy within minutes if not seconds. I once did a total of 1000 reps worth of animal exercises within 45 min. to an hour doubling the reps on the 20-sided dice. It was exhausting and packed full of whole body movements that many consider easy, keep going and overtime, the exercises get harder and it becomes more difficult to jump, crawl, walk and hold certain animal postures. Play the dice game long enough and tell me how easy it was; I guarantee it'll make a world class athlete humble after going beyond double reps. I once did about 10-12 rolls tripling the reps of the movements and I was spanked.

The animals (pun intended) become second nature after practicing the movements so that's when you test out your stamina and conditioning by doing the dice game or picking and choosing certain animals for time or as a circuit. They can be done in some many ways its not even funny. They can turn a weakling into a powerful human being within weeks with solid practice. They don't build bodybuilding muscle because when applied correctly, animal moves utilize the body as a single unit and have you using practically every muscle. Many are so intense that a minute or more moving would spank most people in a heartbeat. They build insane conditioning for anyone, even the very best in sports have done them; some are used in gymnastics, wrestling, MMA, Football, the military and other factions of law enforcement for the sole purpose of targeting the entire body and strengthening it from all angles even areas regular bodyweight and weight training can't touch.

Go as long as YOU see fit, build up and see how far you can go. The most I will ever do is an hour but at times i'll be so into it time flies by. Amazing source of functional fitness, hormone builder, testosterone booster, getting excess energy out, lung enhancement, heart strengthening, tendon builder & provides insane stamina for your daily life.

Animal Kingdom Conditioning 1 & 2
Wild Animal Fitness For Kids

Training Under Stressful Times

    At this moment in my life something unexpected has come up. I have the "pleasure" of moving. Notice came around the day before Independence Day and it was just one of those "what the f*ck" moments and I'm leaving for California sooner. For those that know, moving can be extremely stressful, it was for me back in '11 when I moved up to Idaho and had to adjust quickly to the seasons and surroundings of a new state and town. However as stressful it can be now, I believe something awesome will come out of it, a better place, better surroundings and fun will be much greater.

 
    Despite helping move very heavy boxes (and one day doing 5 hours of moving those boxes into storage) I still train everyday even for a few minutes. Why do I do it; it makes me happy and distresses me. Although I'm having slight shoulder issues on my right side in the front deltoid, I still manage to have great workouts and recently it's because of DDP Yoga. I've been raving about this crazy Yoga thing for a while and I will get more on it in a later article but I will say this, it is challenging as hell but it's also fun and interesting. I'm not fond of doing someone else's workouts although I will from time to time to ease up creating a workout from the exercises but still I'm happy and I don't like being frustrated otherwise I can't get stuff done.

 
    This is where you have a choice. Even under great stress you still have a choice to find something that makes you happy (not easy but it's possible) or you can choose to mope and just be miserable. Being miserable is easy and many people rather just rather let go of everything and end up feeling like shit. You have a choice. I choose to hold my head up high because I've been in far worse situations. When I couldn't walk at the age of 20/21 years old there were times where I felt I could never walk or run the same way again but I chose to do something about it and ended up rehabbing myself with no doctors or physical therapists because I wanted to fight for my body and make it stronger on my own terms and in doing so, I learned many things about training especially on an emotional level. I chose to be happy and yes I do have my moments of frustration and anxiety but I'm human it happens but to balance it out I do things that keep me smiling and loving what I do. It's a choice.

 
    Although moving is a real pain in the ass and there is someone who you live with is looking for places to live and it's stressing them out it can divert back at you, you can make the best of things and make moving an interesting adventure even if you have to down the road. Do things that give you hope and something that brings joy to your life; for me its training, writing and reading a few books. It may not be the same for everyone but you get my point. Use that part of you that gives off radiant energy and love so when things later on occur it was meant to be, everything happens for a reason. Be awesome and do the best you can to be happy even in tough situations because being miserable is a disease and it causes too much crap in your life like depression, sadness, grief, not letting anyone you love help you; it's a bitch I've been there believe me. Take it up a notch and use what you love to help you bring joy into a stressful situation. It's a hell of an experience.

 
Be awesome everyone and do what you love.

Anything But That

            The way some people look at fitness or certain fitness methods is pretty funny sometimes. You ask someone who doesn’t like weights and you might hear this (especially from women) “Ugh, anything but weights, they’ll make you bulky and you will just get injured.” Weights aren’t always as bad as you think. Some people prefer other things which are awesome. But it’s not just weights but many methods that this type of thinking or similar thinking comes around. Some can say something similar to other methods like say bodyweight exercise “Shit, anything but bodyweight stuff, that’s just endurance work and strength isn’t much of a factor.” I’m sorry but I got to laugh at that shit that just tells you, they have no clue what they’re talking about.

            There are people who are so harsh about certain methods that most of the time, they don’t realize it’s most likely something they might enjoy. I have even read somewhere that someone was so harsh on Animal Training it just made me want to slap them. Just because you read a marketing ad and think it’s bullshit without ever stepping foot into the program, that just makes you dumb and ignorant. People can say whatever they want but until you actually have done it, don’t be so harsh. I have trashed some methods before but that was because just what it looked like it just didn’t seem appealing. People who can’t stand certain methods try to dismember and trash it to the point where it takes away what fun it could be for someone else. Granted there are programs that are a complete joke like the Shake Weight or Hip Hop Abs (its aerobics done in a different form) but if someone likes them and it works for them, cool I’m not going to take that away from you.

            There are plenty of people out there who try to advise you on what method works and what doesn’t and will tell more negative stuff than the positive. Granted certain people I’ve been around have told me to stop what I’m already doing and do this other thing so I can look even better and help me in other areas, these same people have no real clue what I do and only have seen a glimpse of it. People will tell you can do this but never do that because of whatever reasons; common injuries, death, it didn’t work for them so why should it work for you and a favorite of mine; that’s pretty dumb and you look like an idiot doing it, well thank you. You have a choice and no matter what you choose there are pros and cons in all of them, but if it works right for you, that’s all that matters, screw the others.

            Want to know something really funny; I’ve done methods that are fun but to others it’s ugly and gnarly because it’s different and they don’t understand it. Most people that don’t understand will turn it into something that it really isn’t. There are some people that a friend of mine likes to call Wile E Coyotes, they’re the type of people who are obsessed with those that have programs that work for them and try to tarnish and ridicule them because not only does it not work for that person they try to destroy others for it. Most of these types of people are just keyboard ego maniacs who don’t have a clue what real training is.

            If you love what you do, hold on to and guard it with your life. If you’re good at it, help people find out about it but don’t preach the negatives, teach them by suggesting it and helping them find out about it. There are a lot of people who have methods that work but also try to destroy other ones so they can keep getting the bucks. We all need to make a living I get that but being an asshole doesn’t always work out so well. You can brag that whatever works for you will work for the rest of the population and beat down other methods just so you can be the top dog but in the end, every method is a suggestion from the endless variety that you can choose from.

            I take different methods and find the best ones by taking little pieces of them and mold them into something awesome for myself, it’s like creating your own puzzle, and you find the pieces that go with the picture in your mind and putting those pieces together.

Be awesome my friends. 

My Own Version Of A College Education

             When I was 19, I had a lot of dreams but I also wasn't in the happiest place in my life at the time. One of my best friends passed away 6 months before Graduating high school and it devastated me. I just didn't want to be around many people and I gave up doing a third year of Track & Field. Although I did go back to weight training and drama, it just didn't feel right anymore and half-assed most of the semester. I did dream of being broadcaster because I was adamant announcing for a major sports team like the San Francisco Giants or the San Jose Sharks. After a week in College I quit and it pissed off many people especially my dad. I just didn't have the desire anymore.

            After going through two and half years of going to the gym, doing a couple jobs and recovering from my broken legs, I went back to college on the encouragement of a girlfriend at the time and just took fitness classes. I really didn't have the dream of honing a degree someone else wanted me to have and just chose to take classes that seemed to make me happy. I took up gymnastics, swimming, Intro to Physical Education and Functional Fitness that including weights, cables, running and all sorts of stuff. I loved it.

            During that time between 25-26 years young, I got to teach during my Functional Fitness class. My coach saw me warm up with Animal Movements before class and asked me if I could teach those movements to the class once a week and I jumped on that like a bat out of hell. It taught me how to train not just a group of people but people of different shapes and sizes. My coach would jump in to help out beginners but for the most part that segment was mine. This drove me to find my own education.

            As of now I’m certified in Massage Therapy and a certificate of completion in Superhuman Training so to me that’s like getting a degree. The type of education I'm teaching myself goes beyond fitness and strength training; there’s History, Mythology, Film, Physiology, Massage Therapy, Chi Kung, Mental Techniques, Body Mechanics, Writing and other things. I believe what I’m doing works far better for me than sitting in a classroom filling my head with bad textbooks and boring teachers (not the fitness ones they were awesome). I get to learn from very knowledgeable people and some of the coolest cats in the strength world. I get to utilize my interests and expand my horizons that’s fun, exciting and always coming up with new ways to learn.

            Why the hell am I telling you all this? It’s because there’s more to education than a textbook, classroom, desk and some teacher. I don’t go to an Ivy League school or a highly academic academy but I get to be educated in ways these types of schools can’t teach. You want to be more educated, learn what you love to do and expand it to wherever you want to take it. You may love things that I can never understand but we both are reaching for the same goal and that’s finding what we love to do and create a future with it. Education is important in any endeavor and we aught to be educated that’s according to our interests.

            Learning should be fun, exciting, interesting, the way it gets you up for the day and you can’t wait to learn and have an adventure. Most college programs have none of that and that’s why I left for good and started educating myself and I've never looked back. When was the last time you got up in the morning and said “Time to learn some awesome stuff and have a blast”? Isn't it about time to have that feeling everyday? Have fun and learn what you can that makes you happy. That’s the best education of all.

Moving With Freedom

           In most exercise programs, you usually see someone in one spot doing a plethora of moves and routines whether it’s running on a treadmill, riding the elliptical, moving weight up and down or whatever it happens in one particular spot. As much as I admire that type of thing for certain programs I feel one should move around in more than one spot. Why stay in one place when you have more room than what you have?

            I get it, not many people want to move around in more than one spot and if you're in prison, being in different places is more of privilege and you have no choice but to be in one spot or the other but on the other hand; if you have a place to move around and the weather is decent you have the freedom to move wherever you want. It’s like playing as if you were a little kid again. Kids run around all over the place, their energy is boundless and can do all sorts of things. As adults we “grow out” of this phase of our lives and become more analytical and focus on not getting hurt rather than just have fun. Stop that and when you exercise, have some fun with it.

            Playing and moving your body is essential to fitness success. Sure if you’re passionate about it and are serious about what you want to do that’s ok too but at the same time it’s important to not take most things so serious. It’s about taking it one step at a time. If you're new to training yes it’s important to start out slowly but also don’t be so serious it becomes stressful, smile and be open to things. I have a mother who is serious about line-dancing and rarely ever really exercises but she makes the line-dancing fun with moves and music that are just crazy to dance to but brings joy to them.

            A personal favorite type of training is moving like a wild animal or mimicking an animal. The reason why is because it gives me freedom to move however I want and it teaches you how to be aware of how you move and which direction you want the body to go to. You can’t stay in one spot with this type of training unless you imagined you’re an animal in a cage. Unleash your Animality, hone the animal that is within you and have fun with it. My Animality is the Ape because for some reason in my mind moving like an Ape is just fun, exciting and deeper as a being than any other animal. I’ll bet you big time that if you practice moving like an animal in the jungle, there will be one that you’ll find the most exciting, the one that just has your mind on more than anything else, that’s the animal you want to bring out and have fun with.

            Be free and put in the effort to move different ways in not feel like you’re in a cage, move around damn it.

Absorbing Power To Increase Strength

            We all have a power within us in some form or another that can give us the strength we need for everyday life. To harness it takes practice but eventually it becomes second nature and no matter what goes on in your life, you can channel your energy to create the strength you want. Scientists say we use no more than 5% of our strength capacity, what if we can upload that to even 1%, would you like to know how?

            Everything we do starts with a thought. We think about stuff all the time but what if we took the time to use our thinking to increase our energy, to increase our movement and to create super strength in the snap of your fingers. How we think creates different actions, different energies and different processes. If you have a thought of happiness, your body’s energy tends to have you move with better breathing, you’re smiling, you’re focused and using less tension. Got a thought about being stressed out and needing to do a bunch of things, your body tenses up, you scrunch your shoulders, your focus is off balance. These are examples of how we think and how our bodies react to that thought. A different thought creates a different action. You can create strength and power just by using your thought with focused intent and trajectory and having certain points that will allow you to move any way you want.

            Think of a kid. As kids we had great imaginations, we made stuff up and created sounds for them, seeing things that aren't there except in our minds. Our breathing was congruent with the way we move and it was fluid and fun. We've lost the ability to use our imaginations and become more analytical. We think too much and don’t really just let things be. Be like a kid, picture what you want to happen, move the way you want to, your breath will be congruent with the way you move.

            Unleashing our chi is simple but it works with our focus and intent with our breathing. It doesn't matter if you’re a strength athlete, a business man/woman, trainer, entertainer or whatever, you can increase your power no matter what you are. If we can increase our power just by a small percentage and have it be consistent, it would help your life in ways nothing else could. Take your strength into the stratosphere and never look back. Take your imagination to places no one can take and be fluid and cunning. Shoot for the stars and beyond the planets and expand your universe. 

Is Everything A Competition???

           Many of us have that competitive spirit, the will to not give up until we have accomplished a goal or try to beat another person or group of people. Why do we become so competitive that it overshadows our way of being a good sport? I’m not saying competition can’t be positive, it is but to a degree. We compete to be the very best over something else (mainly sports) and beat our rival or over run a team.

            You don’t always see the smallest sides to competition and most of the time they don’t always matter at all but on the other hand, competing against something else that truly matters and not always competing just for the sake of competing. We all find something that we want to beat or just make a note of it whether it’s in business, sports, culture, exercise or whatever and we want to find that edge that trample over what we have to overcome.

            In m opinion, you can find fun in competition. It’s not always trying to over rule your opposing man and finding a way to hurt them whether physically or mentally that’s not fun at all. I understand that it sucks when you lose but also it’s not always pleasant being a winner. Learn to value that you fought through it and still came out alive. I get it that there are certain things at stake but you made those odds or you got caught in the cross fires and now have to deal with certain modalities. Having fun with certain forms of competition can give you a sense of no matter what the outcome you’ll either learn a valuable lesson or you use strategy on how to be better and not so much bitch about it and make it the end of the world.

            When it comes down to it, there’s one competitor that you have to deal with no matter where you go, who you’re with or whatever happens in your life from the time you’re born to the day you die, it’s YOU!!! That very same person you look at in the mirror is your ultimate competition and how you handle it is up to you. You cannot compete with anyone else because everyone else is temporary but you’re still there.

            I know what it’s like to fight myself and beat myself up in my own mind and there’s no such thing as a perfect record. To this day, yes I have issues but I’m not going to let that part of me take over what I truly want in my life because if you let your personal issues, demons whatever you want to call them get in the way of what you desire and what you want to accomplish, than you haven’t learned how to face them and make them your personal bitch. We all have issues and problems no matter what but that doesn't define us unless we choose to make it.

            Learn to love who you are, have fun with what you have, become what you desire and giving you a reason to keep living with vigor, vitality and great health. You are more than you ever think you can be and there’s no reason why you can’t be truly happy and climb that ladder of success because you have the power to do so. Be strong, be happy and use that competitive spirit to overcome the very things that try to tackle you down. 

Discovering What You Love

            

             Fitness is about discovery, finding what drives you to be in shape and live a better life physically, emotionally and spiritually. Some find it and learn to keep it going with changes, new ways to challenge and again learn, others take years and don’t get anywhere because they don’t know what really works and drag themselves along and then there are those that just hate it and let’s leave it at that.

            Being in shape is great don’t get me wrong, you look awesome and can do cool things but it’s important to explore new possibilities. What can you do to challenge yourself and create different goals and setting them? There are people who get in shape just to look like a hot shot and impress others, more power to them for that but that can only go so far, if you look awesome but you’re an asshole what good are you? Find ways to not only stay in shape but have the strength and endurance to back it up. Explore what is out there, moving in different directions, being out of the gym and having to find a way to train. In the gym it’s automatic; there’s weights, machines, mats, cardio stuff all there for you but it’s a closed in space. Now go outside and find how to adapt and move freely with the environment around you, very different huh?

            One of the things I believe in is using your instincts, valuing intuition and sensing how you do things, feel and understand. It’s like the Force in Star Wars; you sense things around you, how you think and using your intuitive powers to find different meanings. If you trust your instincts and follow your energy and understanding it you’ll discover things you never thought before but there’s a dark side to it (just like Star Wars) you have to pay attention or your instincts can betray you. Learn and pay attention to how your body and mind respond to certain things, just because you think them doesn't always make them true. Follow how you respond to things, the more positive they are, the more likely you’ll love doing it but also pay attention to the negative things, if you are in pain or just don’t feel that something’s right, then you need to adjust and find something different.

            Have fun with what you do, keep it interesting and learn to get better at it. Learn to flow with things and do what you can to resist pushing too hard too fast (I've done it and I've paid for it). Have patience and make it a habit to be strong and believe that things will go the way they’re suppose to. The universe works in odd ways but there’s always a way to make it work for you. Learn the attitude, trust in yourself and be joyful to make things in your life happen.