How Failure Defines Your Successes

There's no such thing as achievement without struggle. If you want to break through your biggest barriers, start by studying failure.

Welcome to the positive corner of the internet. Every weekday, we make sense of the confusing world of wellness by analyzing the headlines, simplifying the latest research, and offering quick tips designed to make you healthier in less than 5 minutes. If you were forwarded this message, you can get the free daily email here.

Today’s Health Upgrade

  • Monday motivation

  • The sleep-dementia relationship

  • Jumpstart your week

  • Workout of the week

Arnold’s Podcast

Want more stories from Arnold? Every day, Arnold’s Pump Club Podcast opens with a story, perspective, and wisdom from Arnold that you won’t find in the newsletter. And, you’ll hear a recap of the day’s items. You can subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Google, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Arnold’s Corner
Monday Motivation: Overcoming The Fear of Failure (Part 4)

We’ve been talking about how to lose your fear of failure for four weeks. If you missed part 1, on assessing the actual risks of failure, part 2, on the fear of embarrassment, or part 3, on the real risk of regretting not trying, make sure to catch up.

I don’t want any of you held back by your fear of failure any longer!

For our final step in fighting your fear of failure we are going to think about your heroes, your idols. But instead of focusing on their successes, which everyone knows, we are going to focus on their failures.

It is powerful to learn that even the greatest have failed many, many times. Because we have a way of forgetting the struggle and imagining they just naturally succeeded, that they had something no one else had when what they really had was the wisdom to keep going even when they failed.

Michael Jordan has a quote I always share about this:

“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

And that’s the greatest basketball player of all time! 

The greatest baseball player, Babe Ruth? His batting average was .342. That means 65 percent of the time, he didn’t get a hit. He struck out over 1,300 times. Imagine if that made him give up.

But maybe sports aren’t your thing. Maybe you love leaders like Abraham Lincoln or John F. Kennedy.

Abraham Lincoln lost runs for the state legislature, the US Senate, and the Vice President of the United States. He had a nervous breakdown. He failed at business. Think about if he looked at any of those failures as a reason to just give up and live his status quo?

John F. Kennedy is famous for his incredible leadership during the Cuban Missile Crisis. But before that? Right in Cuba, he had the Bay of Pigs disaster. Hundreds of people died in that failed invasion. It was called a catastrophe by every newspaper. The whole world wondered if he was too inexperienced.

You can look at that failure as embarrassing because, in his case, the eyes of the whole world were actually on him. Or you can recognize that his failure became the experience he needed to lead the way out of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

No matter who you idolize, they have failed. 

I know some of you say I’m your hero. I’ve failed more lifts than I can count. I lost three bodybuilding competitions, including the first one after achieving my dream of getting to America, which made me cry all night. I’ve had movies like Hercules in New York and other movies that bombed at the box office. I had an election as Governor where every single one of my initiatives failed. I’ve had failures in my personal life.

This week, your homework is fun.

Go back to whoever your hero might be, and this time, try to learn about their failures instead of their successes. Write down their failures, how they moved on from them, and how they learned from them. Put it somewhere where you remember it every day.

The difference between them and those we don’t idolize is that they failed and learned. They failed and never gave up. 

Even in the Pump app, we see people who have joined the 1,000-pound club, lost 100 pounds, reversed a pre-diabetes notice, completed their first pull-up after decades of trying, or deadlifted or squatted 500 pounds.

People are inspired by their stories.

The biggest difference between them and you (right now) is that they didn’t worry too much about failure to get started, and when they failed, they just kept going. And here’s the best part. You have the power to change that right now.

Commit to the diet you’ve been putting off or half-assing. Increase the weight on the lift that scares you. Start moving toward that vision that’s been popping up over and over. Apply for the dream job. Talk to your crush.

Don’t let failure hold you back anymore. I’ve given you the tools. You just have to use them.

Health
The Sleep-Dementia Relationship

If you’re still not trying to improve your sleep, listen up:

Research suggests that not getting enough sleep is associated with cognitive decline and dementia

Dementia occurs when there’s an abnormal amount of buildup of two substances — amyloid and tau. Studies have found that cutting back on sleep appears to accelerate the buildup, and the risk only increases as you age. 

And it’s not just the amount of sleep you get (7 to 9 hours is the preventative range); it’s also your sleep quality. A study just last year suggests small reductions in your deep sleep (slow-wave sleep) can lead to nearly a 30 percent increased risk of developing dementia

All sleep is important, but slow-wave sleep is most restorative and helps clean up any waste or buildup in your brain. This is likely why you see the link between sleep loss and increased dementia risk after the age of 40. As you get older, you will likely experience less deep sleep. 

However, there’s no reason to panic. There are many DIY fixes to prioritize sleep and maintain or improve how much deep sleep you get each night. This includes:

  • Exercise and movement

  • Having a consistent bedtime 

  • Keeping your room cool 

  • Sleeping on a temperature-controlled mattress (Eight Sleep is clinically proven to increase deep sleep by up to 34 percent)

  • Not eating 2-3 hours before bed

  • Sleeping in a dark room and limiting exposure to artificial light at night

  • Avoiding stimulants and alcohol before bed

  • Meditation and other stress-reduction techniques

Jumpstart Your Week

Does Cooking Protein Harm Digestion and Absorption
No!

Protein “denatures” when cooked, which can be good for digestion. Denaturing means protein is “unfolding,” which happens in your body when you break down and digest protein. This allows you to use the amino acids (the building blocks of protein and all the cells in your body). 

So, cooking protein supports the work that your body normally does, meaning — if anything — the cooking process might make it easier to digest and absorb. 

Short Read 
Why Walking Backwards Can Give You Healthier Knees

How To Increase Cancer Prevention
A new study came out with a simple — and powerful — takeaway. Nearly 50 percent of all cancer-related deaths are linked to controllable factors. In fact, about forty percent of all cancer cases in the United States were linked to three behaviors alone: excess weight, smoking, and drinking alcohol.

Other primary risk factors include not getting enough exercise, too much exposure to UV rays, and not consuming enough fiber. The message isn’t that cancer is completely avoidable — but that there are many things you can do on a day-to-day basis to reduce your risk. 

Workout Of The Week

You know we love workouts that require minimal setup and maximum effort—and that’s exactly what you get from this week’s plan. It consists of one exercise and a different way of counting reps that will push your body to become better.

How to do it
Each day, you’ll select a different exercise focusing on a primary movement. Select a weight you can do for 5 to 8 reps.

You can use any equipment, such as barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, rucksacks, weighted backpacks, bands, sandbags, or your body weight.

Perform three sets of 5 to 8 reps, and make sure that you can’t do more than 8 reps. If you can, the weight is too light. Rest 2 to 3 minutes between each set for the first three sets.

After you finish the third set, drop the weight slightly (think about 10 to 20 percent) and do as many reps as possible. Once you can’t do more reps, rest for 20 seconds, drop the weight again, and do as many reps as possible. Keep following this process until you have completed 50 reps in total

Monday: Squat

Any variation of front or back squat, single-leg, rear-foot elevated split squat, leg press, or bodyweight squat.

Wednesday: Pull or hinge

Any variation of row, pullup/chinups/inverted rows, or deadlift.

Friday: Push

Choose from chest presses, shoulder presses, pushups, dips, or machine presses.

When fatigue starts to kick in, you might not be able to use additional weight. That’s fine and shift to bodyweight movements. Or, you might need to modify and do an easier version of an exercise (if you’re doing pushups, you might do weighted pushups, regular pushups, and then pushups from your knees or an incline pushup). 

Give it a try, and let us know what you think! 

Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger

Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell


Get Arnold's Official Merch