How Arnold Schwarzenegger Helped Me Become A Bestselling Author 

When I say that Total Recall – the *chef’s kiss* perfectly named memoir of Arnold Schwarzenegger – changed my life, people think I’m being ironic. I’m not. I’m being deadly serious. 

I’m pretty sure Total Recall was the first book I ever pre-ordered. Back in 2012, it was a whopping £9.99 on Kindle and there weren’t many Kindle books I’d have stumped up a tenner for back then. But all things considered, it turned out to be the bargain of the century. 

I bought it because I grew up on Arnie films and I love to weightlift. And a little bit for the gossip. But here’s the thing, Arnold Schwarzenegger is not just the films, or the muscles, or the politics (where I do diverge). At his core, Arnold Schwarzenegger is an extremely driven, life-long learner who is dedicated to personal growth. And there’s a lot to learn from his life lessons. 

I first wrote about this some years back:

[Arnold] gets stuff done. Irrespective of circumstance and raw materials, he focuses on something he wants to achieve and then achieves it. In his book, he likens this to weightlifting: reps, reps, reps. Maybe because I also love to weightlift, this stuck with me. Everything is improved with practise, it just is.

The other thing that struck me in Total Recall, was Arnold’s annual list. This is not the same as new year resolutions, which seem to be overwhelming negative in most cases: what you’ll give up (often by going cold turkey) or the weight you want to lose rather than the strength you want to gain.  

The Arnold List – as I call it – is different. 

Every year, Arnold writes his list of goals for the year ahead, one by one he crosses them off. This is a lot more focussed than a resolution, and can either be achieved through reps, reps, reps or by seeking out a good teacher. (Arnold is a big believer in reaching out to get help and advice from experts).

At the end of 2012, I was floundering in quite a few ways. I’d been working out and running, which gave me a lot of pleasure but was a bit directionless, I was trying to stay the course on an Open University module that was interesting but not quite the right choice, and I’d been noodling with the first draft of a novel since 2010. 

So in January 2013, I wrote my first ever Arnold List: 

I can see now that it was a too broad. I put goals on that I thought I should achieve rather than really cared about. The short story was one such thing. And while I did pass that Open University course, I didn’t get a 2:1 for it and it didn’t really matter. 

But the goals I really cared about, I finally nailed them. Squatting 80kg and running a half marathon were really significant to me because I’d never seen myself as sporty, or even standing a chance of getting fit. This showed me that when I set aside those negative assumptions and just worked every week towards the goal, giving myself the time to do it and – essentially – following a proper plan to get there, the seemingly impossible was in my reach. Reps, reps, reps.

And that top item on the list: Finish final draft of TLD. 

TLD was the working title for Try Not to Breathe.  

Every early morning or late night, every snatched bit of time, every TV show I stopped watching, every lie in I gave up, I was always thinking about this top goal. I mean, the ‘final’ in this sentence was optimistic but hey, I finished a submittable draft! 

The following year, I focussed solely on top goals. All killer, no filler, as I believe people used to say around the turn of the century.  

My 2014 Arnold List:

These are some big ticket items, I know. And how I went about the first two is the subject for another post. (And get your minds out of the gutter because I’m not writing about the third one…)

But these were my absolute priorities and I did everything in my power to work towards them. This included saying no to other things that got in the way of me editing ‘TLD’ until it was ready for submission, as well as seeking help from experts when needed (both health and publishing related experts). 

Here’s 2015’s Arnold List: 

That the script went nowhere in the end didn’t matter. It wasn’t an unrealistic aim like “get a script optioned and made into a blockbuster film”. It was realistic: a first draft. A beginning, middle and end. I was pleased with it, and one day I’ll come back to it and work on a second draft. 

I’ve always wanted to write for screen as well, and I wanted a new challenge. Like Arnold, I didn’t want to stay on the first rung, however sought-after that rung was. I wanted to constantly grow and develop. I didn’t just want to be Mr Olympia aka the greatest bodybuilder in the world, I wanted to star in action films! 

I won’t share all of the lists from over the years as that’ll get boring and this is already nearly 800 words about me and Arnold Schwarzenegger that you didn’t know you were going to read today, but I will share 2019’s:

As you can see, I also learned how to do ticks and crosses on my phone. 

‘ODT’ was One Dark Turn, which turned into After Dark which became… The Hit List. The event I spoke at was the brilliant Breakthrough Festival, and I loved every minute despite my nerves. I didn’t start a screenwriting MA in the end, though I did a lot of research and spoke to experts. It wasn’t the right route or the right time. So although it’s a cross… it’s kind of still in the spirit of the thing. 

And that last item… that’s been lifechanging. It wasn’t about giving up altogether, or about dry January, it was about acknowledging my unthinking reliance on alcohol and developing a more positive, healthy approach. 

At first, I reset my relationship with alcohol by stopping all together for a few months. I needed to uncouple booze from the celebration and commiseration cycle and shrink it back down to size: it’s just a drink, not a magic pill or a friend. It was sapping my energy, ratcheting up my anxiety and getting in the way of my fitness, which I’d worked so hard for, all those Arnold Lists ago. 

Anyway, getting to a place of moderation in 2019 was the best thing I could have done ahead of 2020, and all its challenges. 

Speaking of 2020:

Although, if I’m honest, I did reach for the bottle too many times during the first lockdown, I was able to break that habit because I knew from the previous year that I really didn’t need it. Instead, the third item on the list was a lifeline. I’d had to stop running a few years ago due to injury but I finally felt healed enough to try. I’d stayed active at the gym and through swimming but running was my first (fitness) love and the headspace it provided was the best balm I could have had through 2020. 

The middle one is still secret but perhaps I’ll tell you all about it next year…

And it seems I’m always destined to have ‘finish book x’ on my list, but every year that is one of my non-negotiable goals. It’s the backbone of my creative life. The Arnold Lists from over the years has helped me to ruthlessly identify what really matters to me, maybe they could help you too?  

—

Holly Seddon is the bestselling author of Try Not to Breathe, Don’t Close Your Eyes, Love Will Tear Us Apart and The Hit List. 

You can find her on Twitter @hollyseddon, Instagram and Facebook @hollyseddonauthor.

Find out more about her on her website: http://hollyseddon.com/

She is also an editor and mentor for Jericho Writers https://jerichowriters.com/freelance-professional-editors/ and runs the FREE community at https://community.jerichowriters.com where you can get feedback, ideas and connect with over 3,000 other writers at all stages of the writing journey. 

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On the anniversary of her husband’s accidental death, Marianne seeks comfort in everything Greg left behind. She wears his shirt and cologne, reads their love letters and emails. Soon she’s following his footsteps across the web, but her desperation to cling to any trace of him leads her to the dark web. And a hit list with her name on it.

To try to save herself from Sam, the assassin hired to kill her, Marianne must first unpick the wicked web in which Greg became tangled. Was Greg trying to protect her or did he want her dead?

Praise for The Hit List
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