Vanity is Good!

I'm often accused of being vain. Since I spend a lot of time being accused of being lots of things, it doesn't bother me much anymore. But what does bother me are some of the emails I receive from readers. They'd love to start my program, they confide in me, but they feel guilty at the thought of spending all that time and attention on their appearance. And they're terrified that other people will condemn them for that most awful of sins, being vain. So I thought that a brief discussion on that topic was appropriate.

Here's my thought on it: Although the word "vain" has taken on lots of negative connotations, I really don't believe there's anything fundamentally wrong with it. As far as I'm concerned, if vanity means taking an interest in yourself and in your appearance, then so be it. What a backward world we live in, where keeping your car or your house clean and attractive is praised as "being responsible" and having "pride of ownership," but paying the same attention to your own body is condemned as being "vain." (Oh, I see - it must be because you can buy another body, but you can't buy another car. Yes, that must be it.)

As Michael Douglas in Wall Street might say, I believe that Vanity is Good! All too often, emotions like anger, fear and yes, vanity, are considered to be bad things; but when harnessed properly, they can all be incredibly motivating forces. Anger at being thrown off a "whites only" train prompted Gandhi to take up the fight against racial discrimination in South Africa and later on the struggle for India's freedom. And as any professional fighter or soldier knows, fear keeps you aware and alive. Anger and fear can be good things, so why should vanity be any different?

The truth is that it isn't any different. As long as you stay in control of your vanity and use it to push you to succeed then that's a great thing. I'm not talking about walking around with an attitude, or bullying people, or being rude or anything like that. There's a big difference between being vain and being arrogant.

The other huge bonus of vanity, at least as I promote it, is that it indirectly forces you to take care of your health. This might seem like an odd thing to read on a website about exercise, but I'm not really interested in talking about health. Frankly, I find the whole topic of health to be very boring, and I switch off when I even hear the word.

You see, what most people consider as "health" is pretty damn pedestrian and unglamorous. For most people, being healthy means little more than not being sick. Look at the newspapers or the television and you'll see that most people are concerned about things like heart disease, blood pressure, aching joints, diabetes, asthma and stuff like that. To them, if you're not sick with any of these conditions then you're "healthy."

Now, obviously I'm not saying that people shouldn't be concerned about these illnesses; of course they should be. But the absence of illness really shouldn't be considered anything special, or something to aspire to in life. That's your birthright - the minimum you should be prepared to accept. If you can touch your toes, or mow the lawn without straining your back, well, that's nice and all, but it's really nothing to get excited about in my opinion.

The Apollo Program is about being extraordinary. I'm interested in giving you an exceptional body, one that makes you look like someone out of a legend. Sure, you'll be getting stronger, healthier and more mobile from doing the program, but as far as I'm concerned, that's all a side benefit. Last time I checked, no woman ever looked at a man on the beach and said, "Oh wow, he's got low cholesterol!" And I'm pretty sure no-one's going to land a modelling contract because they've got a healthy heart and arteries or good "core stability" either.

To draw an analogy with money, I find all this talk about health - and, more recently, "wellness" (whatever the hell that means) - to be as boring as talking about mortgages and pensions. The Apollo Program, on the other hand is like winning the lottery or starting a business. It's about the excitement, the rewards and, yes, it's about the glamour too. If you can think of any good reasons why you shouldn't have any of these things, I'd like to hear them. Send me an email; I have time, really...