Today's guest is Austen Alexander!
Creator. Fitness Enthusiast. Veteran. He is the founder of AMA Marketing and The Battle Bunker.
Austen is a California-based digital media producer, host, entrepreneur, fitness enthusiast, and Navy Veteran. ​
He grew up in Florence, Alabama - dropped out of college to join the Navy in 2013 and spent 7 years as Naval Security (MA) working in Harbor Patrol. ​
He merged his passion for fitness and video, and founded AMA Marketing in 2017 during his time in the Navy.
Shortly after the Navy, he pursued this full-time, producing commercials, social media shows, and fitness videos for YouTube, Snapchat, Facebook, and other social channels.
Here are some key points that I would advise you to concentrate on
You can decide to change your life at point of your life. Start now and go for your goals. Austen taught himself to swim using YouTube. It is ok not to know everything and ask for help and look for resources that can help you transform. Goals are unique to you. It is up to you the journey you want to follow in life, stop trying to live someone else's life. There are many different ways to become fit. You don't need to live in the gym to get fit. "You have to give yourself specific goals" What gets measured gets managed. Anything else is just a dream. When you get specific, it becomes a goal that you can achieve. "The body likes to stay comfortable". You need to work through your comfort zone, that voice that says to stay in bed etc. Challenge yourself each day with micro-adversity to build up your resilience each day so when the comfort zone comes calling you aren't listening and can chase your own goals. "It is important to be well rounded" in terms of your general fitness. A key aspect that Austen utilizes to help people succeed is to add in a challenge aspect. How can you challenge yourself and team during workouts etc. Can you add in a punishment, a financial prize etc, something that helps push ourselves against others. Trying different sports etc, will help identify your weak sports in your fitness and health. Once you identify the problems, you can then work on improving these and becoming more more well rounded. Adding in a cognitive challenge to the challenge as well, can really help you learn how not to panic, to stay in the zone and stay focused when you are tiring and not go off kilter like others. The military taught Austen how to avoid 'going into the black' to avoid being paralyzed by analysis and controlled by adrenaline. This is where the cognitive challenge and pushing yourself in all areas of fitness etc, can really help you improve. Jiu-Jitsu is a great all body exercise. Your training should mimic real life, your training should help you be functionally fit in life and do the things you need to do, like walk up stairs, pick up your kid off the floor and so on. Austen tells his competitors to take the obstacles one step at a time. This is a great tip for life, treat each day as it comes, each obstacle as it comes. not the past, not the future. Be in the present and build yourself today, to do the things you want to do and achieve tomorrow. Start small, and grow. Focus on making, creating and growing and build as you can. There is no rush, the journey is often much more fun than the destination. "Standardise then optimise". You don't need to know everything when you start. There are plenty of amazing resources, many free, that can help you learn the skills that you need to achieve your goals. Being social is a skill that can be learnt. "Be authentic," be yourself, everyone else is taken! Schedule time for connection with your partner, friends and family. Fitness should not be all you have in your life. Be a mentor for others, help others on their journeys too, so their learning curve doesn't need to be as sharp as yours. Never settle, always be looking to improve, and evolve.