And I'm not suggesting you work out to look good, though that's a plus. Sure fitness makes you more physically attractive to women and has positive side effects like increasing testosterone production, and releasing other good for you hormones, but more significantly for our purposes is the positive effect on your mental state.

A high-school one-itis of mine recently told me she looks out for guys who are fanatical about martial arts--it's indication of self-esteem issues. Her telling me this was like a falcon punch to the solar plexus, because I remembered that at the time when I was madly in love with and desperately chasing her, I had been fanatical about martial arts, myself.

I doubt she even remembers that, but it hit me pretty hard, because in my case it was definitely true. Nice. I got to be a case study for her titled, "The Twelve Types of Men to Run Away From Screaming"(I think I saw that one on the cover of Cosmo).

There's nothing wrong with having self-esteem problems, or any other "problems"--as long as you're working to change them. In fact there's everything right about a problem(did I say problem? I meant) RESULT you want to change, because of who you become through the process of working towards that change.

Grand isn't it?

Working out is good for your mental state because it's about challenging yourself and improving. It proves to yourself that you have the ability to move forward in your life by exercising increased amounts of power.

And when you prove to yourself that you have the ability to apply power in one area of your life, even in small ways, you can know that you have the ability to exercise more power in other areas of your life as well.

People miss this--I know I did for a long time. They don't realize that everything is cumulative. I once read a great analogy about the space shuttle. You can what a space shuttle launch looks like at http://www.pickupasia.com/boot-camp/space-shuttle-launching

You'll notice that the rockets are firing away...I mean massive amounts of fire spewing from the bottom of those things. And you'll see how slowly it actually lifts off. In fact, it almost looks like it's just hanging there for a few seconds before it starts inching up.

It will ultimately break the sound barrier, but before it gets there it has to expend A LOT of energy. And did I mention that that big orange tank that's actually LARGER than the shuttle is full of fuel and that it's only purpose. It needs all of that effort to escape the Earth's atmosphere, but once it's out into space, a small nudge can carry it all the way to Mars.

Do five push-ups right now...I'm not going anywhere.

I said, RIGHT NOW!

See, that wasn't so hard. I bet you feel better about yourself already. That small amount of effort just started to rewire your brain and your self-image.

It's the whole snowball thing. Hard work in the beginning, but then as it builds momentum, it grows increasingly faster and with less effort--sweet!

That's the real benefit of working out. So, get the (snow)ball rolling.