His journey began when he was younger as he says,” I think even as a kid, I enjoyed competition.” (Moving his hands in an intense way.) Once he knew that he loved competition, he used that to motivate himself. The competition is against yourself, not anyone else. Anderson also had a role model growing up or somebody he looked up to. “Just when I was a kid watching NFL games, I’d have to do 10 handstand push ups, but I remember always being  physically driven as a kid. Then the first time I ever worked out on my own was after my senior year. I just liked building routines.”Growing up with a family dynamic of having a routine, competition, and physical activity has an impact on how he is today. He could have thrown that all away. He has used the way he grew up to find what he likes to do and realized that from a very young age, which he may use as his kids grow up: being a good role model. Having two kids he shows good decision making, structure, and determination.

        He advises having goals, we are not always going to succeed.“If you fail, and you know, you don’t learn from those experiences or failures then I don’t think it’s very helpful for that individual, but if you learn from the experiences, it’s going to help you.” Anderson has had his share in failure and setback, as he reflects, gazing off as his voice lowers and gets quieter as he thinks to himself. “I was training for a marathon and broke my leg,” Anderson expresses, I was training for a specific goal to have a time low enough to get into the Boston Marathon, and right before the race, I broke my leg, and that was probably the worst I’ve felt because I couldn’t do the things I wanted to”. Everyone is going to have a setback, not everything is going to be perfect, the way you want it to turn out. He conveys with his facial expressions showing despair with his body tensed up. “That was probably the worst shape mentally I was ever in.it was really hard to not like. I enjoyed working out, and I could only work out my upper body. I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t get around. That was very hard for me, getting out of that, though, and working on only body weight training and kind of like rehabbing myself.” Anderson says. Everything happens for a reason, this has made him who he is today. He has been able to grow out of that mental state and get back to where he was mentally and physically. He has been able to get the motivation and drive back to get back to where he is now.  “I think that everybody kind of falls into that it’s not necessarily motivation to do the routine, because I always still wake up and go, but I think some days are always going to be better than others, because at a certain point in time you’re busy with other things.” Lots of the time we don’t know where your head’s at. He believes that it’s not all motivation to achieve your goals, it is about routine and structure. 

           The reason you may not want to do something is because of the structure, the chaos, it’s too much, overwhelming. When you find the way you like and what you like you’re more likely to do it, you have to make good habits, as he says the following: “When you have certain habits, I think it just becomes easy, Anderson claims,  what I’ve done is like I wake up at the same time every single day, I go to bed at the same time, so that way I’m never tired. I think that generally I switch up my workout routines per day that I get excited about my next workout. It’s the first thing when I wake up in the morning that I think about but I do think that sleeping, going to bed at the same time and waking up at the same time helps one be not tired and then motivated to continue to keep doing it.” Within his routine he finds the simple things that make it easier to keep the routine. Having the form of routine that he has is just a habit because he has done it for so long. Having the routine makes him feel better physically and mentally. If you are not mentally able to keep the habits then you’re not going to be successful, that’s why finding the things that work for you and you like is key. Also finding your time alone for yourself as he says, “My time is my morning time. So from, you know, four to six, six o’clock. You know, my daughters aren’t awake yet, my wife still sleeps in. That’s kind of my time. So balancing your schedule is probably the key to being successful at having a routine finding time for yourself.” As growing better as a father and husband he still makes time for himself. He makes it mandatory for himself to have that time to keep his mental health in check. This has made him grow mentally and become better within himself. Going forward Michael Anderson will always find the good in what he needs to do. He will always have a driven mindset leading as a role model, and growing mentally everyday.