Jeff, do you look up to and respect Lance Armstrong? He is an example of someone who has the attitude. He has even shown the two variations of this type of person. He has over come cancer, he has won the Tour, again. It comes from the same place but he has gone below the bottom and still ended up over the top. It’s about heart.
Giving Jeff a pep talk is great guys but something called reality has to be accepted. Although I’m sure that Jeff can improve, he’s not gonna be Ronnie Coleman or even Frank Zane no matter how much “heart” and “drive” he’s got. Look around the natural bodybuilding world Jeff and find a guy that’s built similar to you. Send him some e-mail. I think you might get some useful info. The rest, of course, is up to you.
I just had a good example of attitude during my workout yesterday.
Was doing box squats, and nearing the end of my sets. I put on 10 pounds more weight I have ever box squatted (just started doing them a month or something ago so it’s not much) and went down and then didn’t bounce well (felt sorta flat since I ate like crap yesterday) and ended up just sitting there on the box.
Sat there for about 10 seconds, weight still on my shoulders, and wondered if I should just bend down a little and drop weight onto safety bars or get back up. Decided to suck it up and get back up. Wasn’t that hard either…
So then I got pissed that I was considering wimping out. Stacked on another 20 pounds (this was now more than I have used in rear squat for reps) and pounded out 3 reps with the weights bouncing off my shoulders at the top. Just kicked it’s ass.
That, my friends, was attitude.