If you want a perfect body, you need to be vain. Ignore all the nonsense from other people who try to make you feel guilty about it.

Although the word "vain" has taken on lots of negative connotations, there's nothing fundamentally wrong with it. If taking an interest in yourself and in your appearance is vanity, 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.)

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. Let me make something clear though: I'm not saying you should be rude, or walk around with an attitude or anything. Being vain doesn't mean being arrogant.

Another great thing about vanity is that it indirectly makes you take care of your health. This might seem like an odd thing to read in an article about exercise, but I'm not really interested in talking about health. To be honest, I switch off when I even hear the word "health." I find the whole thing terribly boring. You see, what most people consider as "health" is pretty darn 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. If you're going to put effort, time and money into exercising, don't settle for being merely "healthy." Make yourself extraordinary. Set your sights on having a perfect physique, like one of the Greek gods of ancient mythology for example. Yes, you'll be getting stronger, healthier and more mobile from doing your training, but you should view all that as 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 ever landed 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 most conversations about health - and, more recently, "wellness" - to be as boring as talking about mortgages and pensions. You need to view your training as something akin to winning the lottery or starting a business. It's about the excitement, the rewards and, yes, it's about the glamour too. Can you think of any good reasons why you shouldn't have any of these things in your life? I certainly can't.