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About Brad Howard

Brad is the co-founder of Adonis Index. He will teach you how to build rock solid confidence and gain control over your social life by building a body with the perfect AI ratio.

He is here to give you some of his lifestyle secrets he has been successfully using for years.

If you want to connect with Brad in our AI Community, here's his profile: Community Profile: Brad Howard

3 Dirty Lies of Chasing “Confidence”

July 20, 2012 by
bradbell
bradbell

I’m CONFIDENT I can’t toss this “bell” over the 17′ bar like the Highland Games pros do…

About 2 weeks ago, Greg had asked me if he could write an article on “confidence”, how to get it, what it’s not, and more.

Initially, I was a tad squeamish about the idea, mainly because I was concerned he may write about how traditional mainstream media describes how to get confidence…

… which I personally view as an exercise in mental masturbation. Fun to do, yet never gets you anywhere and many times has you feeling worse about yourself than when you started.

However, once I gave it a read, I told him to run it – because he knocked it out of the park!

Afterwards, I decided I wanted to do a quick follow up with a few mistakes I see people make when chasing “confidence”. I narrowed it down to 3 of the most important ones I could think of. They are:

1. Confidence is NOT a precursor to success, it is the RESULT of it.

I’ve made this argument a few times. “Confidence” isn’t what people are attracted to… it is what that confidence IMPLIES.

Having confidence is like having battle scars. A person knows you’re a successful warrior if you have a lot of battle scars, yet are still alive.

Confidence works in the same way. When someone interacts with a person with grounded confidence, you inherently assume (“Halo Effect”) the other person has SUCCESSFULLY navigated trials and tribulations. You get a good feeling the other person has what I consider the big 5 parts that make up “confidence: self ESTEEM, self RESPECT, self WORTH, self BELIEF and most importantly, self TRUST.

You don’t magically gain these qualities… you EARN THEM. You WORK for them. You OWN them.

So a big part of confidence is successfully navigating a PROCESS – and understanding what value that has. As an example, having a great body generally instills confidence in the other person, yet it’s not the RESULT that gives confidence – it’s the WORK that went into it COUPLED with the result.

Case in point, many of the guys I know that have used steroids are generally NOT confident people, because they KNOW that they basically “cheated” their way into the body. They have the RESULT, but they know if they take away the steroids, they take away the results. This is where you can see the “impostor syndrome” rear it’s head again due to the fact that they didn’t really CONQUER the issue at all.

(it’s like winning to lottery versus earning the money, one you were given a fish and are afraid to lose it because you KNOW there’s no way for you to get it back, the other you know you can start over and EARN it back if need be)

However, what if you HAVE put in the work and seen success, yet as a whole aren’t “confident”?

Here’s something to consider:

Smart and talented people tend to DEVALUE their abilities, because they ASSUME everyone else is at the same level. Contrary to this, those that are typically inept or unqualified tend to OVERVALUE their abilities. In other words, those that should be confident in their abilities generally are not, while those that SHOULD NOT be confident in their abilities generally ARE.

(since it’s election year, one could make a sound argument that many politicians fall into the OVERVALUE category… as an example)

This is known as the Dunning-Kruger Effect.… (and understanding this has helped me personally, a LOT)

Naturally, this affects your sense of self worth.

Therefore, it helps to take an inventory of your talents and successes – so you can understand you really ARE a bad ass.

(Side note: another thing about getting a great body CORRECTLY is that the success is very OBVIOUS, especially when you compare to others. You know you’ve created something within yourself of VALUE – because people tell you so, and people also treat you differently)

Now, what I’m talking about isn’t mental tricks or CONVINCING yourself you’re awesome (which seems weird… if you have to say you are, you AREN’T in my opinion). It’s about UNDERSTANDING your value – not making up FAKE value for yourself…which leads into…

2. Quit chasing the SYMBOLS of confidence and status when it’s easier just to go for the REAL THING.

It’s no secret: men’s self confidence is positively correlated with their perceived status level in society. And much of that is tied to his work and/or life’s mission.

However, many people chase the SYMBOLS of confidence and status instead of just focusing on getting results and increasing your status level as a whole.

Things such as:

- Cars
- Clothes
- Watches
- Using steroids to “get the body”
- reverse engineering confident or “alpha” behaviors (things such as taking up more space as an example, taking up space is a by product of confidence, it doesn’t CAUSE you to be confident, long term)
- putting up big weights in the gym, for the sole purpose of telling others (competitive powerlifting is different, many are VERY confident people because they are acting in perfect alignment with their goals)

Basically, instead of DOING to achieve confidence, many are looking for the secret “trick” that will make others THINK they are confident. Plus, most of these SYMBOLS actually bring the wrong people into your life as a whole, and sadly you KNOW they are there basically because of the SYMBOLS, so what REALLY does that do to your self esteem?

As an example, I used to have a lot of really nice stuff… and I knowingly bought it for the reason above.

You know, the whole “fake it til you make it”.

The problem was, I was so busy FAKING IT and because of the energy and focus demands of keeping up that charade…

… I wasn’t MAKING IT.

That’s the danger of SYMBOLS. Pretty soon, the goal isn’t to be happy and confident, it’s to maintain and grow the layers of bullshit you’ve created for yourself.

(I’ve since sold almost everything “symbolic” I owned. I’m actually happier now, believe it or not)

Now, there’s nothing wrong with fake it ’til you make it. The problem is many people forget the “til you make it” part.

Remember that, because this often can lead into…

3. Confusing “confidence” with “arrogance”

When you are confident, all of your actions come from a place of STRENGTH.

When you are arrogant, your actions come from a place of weakness.

An arrogant viewpoint is “never care what others think”.

A confident viewpoint is “what other’s think is FEEDBACK, and it’s up to me to acknowledge and act on that feedback or not”

Here’s the deal, you DEPEND on others for your survival. PERIOD.

Therefore, what they think about you does matter. Now, people don’t have to necessarily LIKE you or your viewpoints, yet if they RESPECT you as a person, things just work out.

(As an example, plenty of people disagree with some of our viewpoints and/or personalities. For example, some dislike me, but like Barban and Pilon. Some dislike Barban, yet like Pilon and I. However, because people RESPECT what we are trying to do, our products and services still get sold.)

And so I think the whole “never care what people think” is really a “don’t worry if people agree with you”… in context.

In essence, just like with many other “self help” issues, in the attempt to gain confidence, many people resort to arrogance. It’s like people go from one extreme to the other. Instead of “building” confidence, they resort to PROJECTING confidence through arrogance.

Does arrogance work?

Absolutely. It’s better than the alternative of feeling beat down. And at least it’s taking action and trying to impose your will on the world. Unfortunately, it’s also a bandaid (or training wheels) solution. Many times, it’s the continuing attempt to PROVE something to yourself and others.

It’s also overshooting the bow.

Confidence is quiet and humble. Arrogance, loud and obnoxious.

Arrogance is great for short term flings, be it business or pleasure. (people always find out the truth!)

Confidence is LONG TERM.

So give these some thought if you feel like you need to work on your confidence levels. Trust me when I say there is NOTHING WRONG WITH YOU.

Remember that “confidence” is a STATE of being based on a history of navigating tough waters, getting results, and from also understanding the VALUE of those results.

Confidence is a state based on DOING… which is a fun coincidence, since we’re judged based on what we DO and how we ACT more so than anything else.

Confident people create VALUE for themselves and others… that, my friend, is the true secret of it all. Store that in your noggin or tape it to the fridge, it will serve you well… I promise.

Brad

p.s.  This may sound weird, but I reread my own articles from time to time.  It’s odd how simply reminding yourself of certain things helps to keep you aiming in the right direction…

Filed Under: Identity, Sage Advice Tagged With:

Adonis “Effect” on CMT’s Singing Bee

May 9, 2012 by

Watch this quick video, I’ll explain 2 interesting things below as well as why this is being posted. (Fun starts at 14 second mark)

Now you may be wondering why I’ve posted this video.

Well, there are 2 big reasons:

  1. Scotty is one of our clients.  Yes, that’s right, he’s been with us from the very beginning.  In fact, we’ll be doing an interview with him very soon about the changes he’s seen in his life… many just like you’ve seen above.
  2. It’s very hard to EXPLAIN what the “Adonis Effect” is.  More precisely, it’s tough to explain what the EXPERIENCE is like.  Sure, I’ve told stories in emails and videos about the things I’ve personally witnessed.  And you’ve also heard stories in podcasts from contest winners about the things they’ve experienced.  However, I do know that unless you SEE THIS FOR YOURSELF, it’s really tough to believe, and you may even dismiss it as marketing or propaganda otherwise.

Hopefully, after seeing this, it will help you realize the power of what AI can do for you… if you didn’t already know.

It’s just more PROOF that this can change your life – in more ways than you can possibly imagine.

 

Filed Under: Sage Advice

Death of Acuteness (The Theme of 2010)

December 17, 2010 by
Death of Actueness

Every year since we started down the path of the Adonis Index and looks based training, we’ve seemed to have a theme for the year.

In 2008, the theme was “attraction” (consequently, as an aside, Tim Ferriss quotes the “attractiveness ratio” for men as 1.6ish in his new book, so it seems a lot of our concepts are poised to hit the main stream in the near future)

In 2009, we focused more on the “health” aspects of the ratio and talked about genetic fitness as an indicator of health.

In 2010, we focused on “Acuteness” (and false constraints) and also Boundary and Initial Conditions (real constraints). To summarize the year, we found most people were having problems and making errors by judging things on a day by day or even hour by hour basis. Things that come to mind are:

1. Daily calories (as a threshold not average over time)
2. Daily Protein intake (as a threshold not average over time)
3 Pre and post workout meals
4. Sharing their goals with everyone
5. Intervals versus steady state
6. Imposed dietary “rules” based on daily macronutrient content or food “types” (also can be as a threshold not average over time)

All of which ultimately are false constraints.

These acute or “zoomed in” and exact approaches seemed (and still seem) to a lot of people that being on top of every little detail at every point during the day was causing a lot of stress, confusion, and non-results.

Couple the fact that most of the “effects” from acute based approaches are only measured within a corresponding acute based time frame and don’t measure the “compensatory effects” of said effect on the body, you can start to see how errors really stack up. In other words, you’re not getting both sides of the coin. You get told about the additions, but not the subtractions that the additions cause. Which obviously leads to non results and feelings of despair.

(remember, we don’t know EVERYTHING about the body, and new things, hormones, etc are being discovered everyday)

So… in 2010, we “killed” acuteness.

How?

Simply by zooming out our measurement time frame to a weekly basis instead of a daily one. This offers the CLARITY that most people need to make the best decisions for THEMSELVES based on their initial and boundary conditions (lifestyle constraints).

By doing this, we’ve now proven time and time again that any CONVERGING SOLUTION for fat loss and/or muscle gain is PATH INDEPENDENT, so long as total calories, intensity, and consistency are accounted for.

(Calorie and “type” of food diets are selectively converging solutions, where overall convergence depends on initial state and the boundary conditions)

In other words, if you want to lose a pound a week on average, it doesn’t matter how you eat for the week, so long as the total calorie content of your food for the week is 3500 kcal less than your usage. However, to get even MORE accurate and to eliminate water “noise”, zooming out to a month or even year gives even more confidence (as multiple studies have proven, long term diets with similar caloric loads give the same results).

We’ve also seen this in transformation contests, as winners have adopted all sorts of different, lifestyle driven ways on the path of “rippedness”:

- high carb
- fasting
- low carb
- higher protein
- no sugar
- sugar
- no “junk food”
- daily “junk food”

Below is a “graphical” representation of the synopsis of 2010 and how “killing” acuteness can work for you:

Death of Acuteness

Death of Acuteness

A) Represents the time it takes for you to discover a “converging solution” based on your inital conditions and your boundary conditions. Boundary conditions are constants that you CAN’T or won’t change. For example, having 3 kids, wheat intolerance, having a broken leg. You can also call these “lifestyle constrants”. These also involved “social” responsibilities. Initial Conditions just means the conditions where you start. Are you thin? Weak. Overweight, etc.

This phase is the “finding, confidence, and gaining momentum” phase and for some (like Jason, ahem!) can last even longer than the actual results getting phase.

B.) Is the “rapid” results phase and the slope or speed is generally governed by the dance between intensity (or aggressiveness) and consistency. There’s a sweet spot you have to navigate. Too much intensity (3 a day weight training or no eating for a month) can sabotage consistency, but so can a LACK of intensity (slow or no results). At B) you have FULL CONFIDENCE in your solution.

C.) Is the point of diminishing returns. At this point, should you wish to proceed farther towards maximum capacity (or minimum when it comes to fat loss), a more delicate and PATH DEPENDENT dance is needed.

D.) Is the area of NONacuteness. In other words, you can use nonacute solutions to power your way up to the point of diminishing returns. The beauty of nonacute solutions is that they can get you 90-95% of your possible results while using up only 5-10% of your available time and brainpower. This area represents a true “lifestyle” oriented solution. Nonacute solutions focus on the CUMULATIVE effects of your efforts over time and are PATH INDEPENDENT.

E.) Is the area of ACUTENESS. This is where you literally live, eat, sleep, and breathe your solution. It will take 90-95% of your life efforts and thought to get the 5-10% of results that are left for you to attain. Acute solutions focus on day-by-day and minute-by-minute calibrations of how you live, are PATH DEPENDENT, and your results can vary day-by-day and minute-by-minute.

As you can see, you don’t have to “live the fitness lifestyle” to get great results. In fact, NONacute approaches allow you to get clarity and therefore about 95% of your possible results, without committing a lot of time and/or energy as they only focus on true PRIMARY DRIVERS.

What remains to be seen?

Whether the “perfect” Adonis Index for your height represents the maximum results of nonacute solutions.

Wouldn’t that be interesting? Showing that “attractiveness” and “health” is ultimately determined by you NOT making a big deal out of it all and not making it your overall ‘goal’ in life.

It’s a thought :)

So what’s in store for 2011?

My initial feeling: “GROWTH” (but its yet to been seen, it ultimately all depends on the problems and maturity of our community as a whole)

Thanks once again for making 2010 a fun ride filled with results and success. We truly couldn’t have done it without you.

Filed Under: Sage Advice

Are You Focused On Local Optimums?

November 9, 2010 by

The Weight Loss Research Explained podcast was one of our best yet from a content/eye opening perspective I’d say. So, in the spirit of extending the conversion beyond what we covered in that podcast, I want to expand on something that we touched on briefly.

Focusing on local optimums.

Or in other words, trying to maximize one specific part of your weight loss or muscle building system regardless of it’s effects on your “throughput” or productivity as a whole.

Sounds like high tech mumbo jumbo doesn’t it?

It’s really not.

Let me ask you this.

How many times have you attempted to improve one specific area of your life… and you improve it… only to have it NOT have a profound effect on your life AS A WHOLE?

I know I’ve done it a bunch of times myself.

I’ve tried the eating 6 meals a day to “optimize” my energy and insulin levels.

I’ve done the bouts of interval training to “optimize” my fat burning potential.

I’ve pounded out squats and deads to “optimize” my muscle building hormone profile.

Heck, I’ve even pounded a 6 pack of beer to “optimize” my perceived communication abilities with the ladies… HAHA! (tell me you haven’t).

But guess what?

Not one of these optimizations have gotten me the results I wanted and in fact, once I STOPPED focusing on these local optimums and started to understand what the real goal and the real measurement of that goal was, did I understand exactly WHY I wasn’t getting the results I wanted.

There is a difference in a “controlled” environment and a “free range” environment… and almost all of us operate in a “free range” environment – yet almost all of the advice given in health and fitness today is based on a result from a “controlled” environment

And, it’s tough to translate a result that someone gets in a study… or even with supervised training… which in essence holds one or more important variables in check… when you couple that with the fact that the makeup of YOUR life is completely different than everyone else’s.

All of the variables are different. (notice I said LIFE and not body)

But even personal trainers have a tough time getting people results a lot of the time.

Why?

It’s simple. The trainer or coach only has access or control of 2-4 hours of a person’s time per WEEK. So no matter how optimized the training protocol, which is the area that the trainer has full control over… unless there’s some sort of strategy that addresses all of the other compensating effects, all of the OTHER important variables… then the person being trained may only achieve certain performance improvements, but not the “looks” improvements that they desire.

Here’s an example:

5 or 6 years ago when I was in the health club game, I set up a program with our trainers that was COMPLETELY HARDCORE. It was group training and used a lot of the principles you hear about on most of the fitness blogs out there today.

- intervals
- supersets
- bodyweight exercises
- etc

… but, after 8 weeks, there was one woman that just wasn’t getting ANY results.

Zero.

(And this was the start of me REALLY starting to understand local optimums.)

Why was it that given the SAME workout protocol, could some people get great results, and others get none?

Naturally, I found out my answer as one of my trainers escorted this woman out to her car to get her check for the next months installment of training… and when our client opened the door to her car… imagine my surprise when a floorboard full of McDonald’s wrappers fell out of the car.

No joke.

Now, of course, you’re probably thinking to yourself “Well duh, no wonder she wasn’t getting results” – and you’d be right.

But that’s not the point.

The point is that this woman was convinced that all she needed to do was participate and make sure her “workouts” were “optimized” and the fat would just drip off of her. This is the primary danger of focusing on local optimums. You lose sight of what the “primary driver” of your results really is.

It’s like John pointed out in the podcast. There’s more to the puzzle than just saying something is “best”.

“Best” for who?

“Best” in what situation?

And, what makes it even more difficult is when you allow people to make their own assumptions based on the advice you give, where the biggest assumption is ALWAYS more is better.

If I say one interval session is good… you’ll do 3.

Again, in an effort to maximize this local optimum.

So what’s the real answer?

Simple.

You have to maximize the productivity of the ENTIRE SYSTEM AS A WHOLE!

Here’s a secret:

Maximizing the entire system MAY NOT require you to run ANYTHING at a local optimum!

It’s about CONSISTENCY and COMPETENCE.

Look, we’ve been through 6 iterations of the Adonis Index Systems, and each time, we adjust something due to “free range” conditions.

And because of it, a higher percentage of people are seeing awesome results.

It’s all based on giving you the TOOLS to maximize the productivity of the ENTIRE SYSTEM… not local optimums.

But only YOU can truly do the maximizing… and it’s NOT by us… OR YOU… focusing on running one little teeny part of your life at 100% efficiency.

After all, it’s about building a better life for yourself… and if that’s not the overall end goal, then none of this truly matters.

B

Filed Under: Featured Articles, Sage Advice

Howard’s Updated Photos

October 29, 2010 by
1028back

It’s been a while since I’ve updated some pics.

I took these at the gym today, they aren’t great, but L wasn’t around to take them with the regular camera. I’ve got about 5 more lbs I want to drop.

Stats on these pics:

Height: 5′ 11″
Shoulders: 51″
Waist: 32.5″
Weight: 178.5
Arms: 16″
Calves: 16″

This is also in a pretty low cal state so I may end up having bigger measurements once I get to 172 ish and back to normal eating.

B

Filed Under: body image, Stories

Hijacked! Your Goals Are Your Responsibility

October 15, 2010 by

Clipped from: sethgodin.typepad.com (share this clip)

People are just begging to be told what to do. There are a lot of reasons for this, but I think the biggest one is: “If you tell me what to do, the responsibility for the outcome is yours, not mine. I’m safe.

That’s a quote from a Seth Godin post I read yesterday. It got me wondering if this was the real reason people have problems when it comes to gaining muscle and losing weight.

Here’s my big issue: By giving the responsibility of your results completely to someone else, you run the risk of having your goals completely HIJACKED by the “fitterati” (that’s what I’m calling ‘em)… the people that have new products and new solutions to the same problems that their old solutions supposedly solved, while giving you a new “identity”, with new goals (I’m a powerlifter, I’m a crossfitter) that MOST LIKELY aren’t congruent with what you first started out to do.

(whew)

In other words, you become victimized by the daily drive by gun down of the latest “you’re gonna die” if-you-don’t-do-it-my-way fiasco that keeps you second guessing yourself… always consuming… but never doing.

Listen, your goals are your responsibility.

You need to have them written down and LOOK at them daily. If you see a piece of advice, compare the advice back to what your ORIGINAL goal was. Don’t change your goal to fit the advice… find NEW ADVICE to fit your GOAL.

Here’s a fun quote from Pilon’s blog that might also help put the “fitterati” in perspective for you:

…stems from the fact that we like to think that the people giving us diet advice are somehow ‘perfect’.

Living perfect lives, with the perfect bodies with the perfect jobs etc.

This creates a situation where it becomes difficult to have confidence in ourselves because we simply do not measure up to these seemingly perfect people.

However, Nobody is perfect.

So here’s the truth…

    • That diet guru with the awesome abs that everyone thinks eats ‘perfectly’…He’s a chocolate FIEND.
      The 600 pound bench presser who constantly gives advice on training..He’s had three shoulder surgeries and bone spurs removed from his elbows…as a direct result of his benching.
      The Hollywood celebrity touting his super dedicated workout program he used to get in shape for “Kiss of Death 32?…He forgot to tell you he’s on various anabolic steroids.
      The Paleo Princess who thinks that HFCS is made directly form the essence of the devil…She secretly loves the occasional Coca Cola when at the movies.
      The shredded diet guru…who is actually about 60 pounds overweight (the pictures you see on-line are from 2001)
      The dozen or so magazine covers you see every month…They are a result of Photoshop mastery.

    • The point is:

    No one is perfect, so don’t freak out when you discover that you’re not perfect either.

    The idea of having shredded abs 24/7 without even flexing is just as foreign to the professional fitness model as it is to you.

    Remember, what you want is what you want. Don’t let someone bully you around (because that’s really all it is) because your goal isn’t the same as theirs.

    If you want a great looking body… there’s a way to do that.

    If you want to bench 400 lbs, there’s a way to do that too (that’s DIFFERENT than the “great looking” body way)

    It’s your life and your body. Protect your neck! Be proud of what you want, own that goal, and GO GET IT.

    And to hell with anyone that gets in your way.

    Stay cool,

    Brad

    p.s. Make sure to “like” our fan page in the sidebar. We’re gonna start doing some really cool stuff (like cool product giveaways) up there starting next week. Do it!

    Filed Under: Sage Advice
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