We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Pierce Gard a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Pierce, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
My work ethic is deeply rooted in my upbringing and personal drive. Growing up, I watched my parents work long, grueling hours, even when they didn’t want to. This intense work ethic has surely translated to me. Another major factor is that I’m goal-driven, which makes the work process easier. If you truly imagine what your goals are, you’ll be motivated to work towards achieving them. I write down all my goals on a piece of paper and print an image of each goal beside it. Therefore, I can both read and visualize exactly what I want to achieve. A goal that I am striving for currently is to reach 100k followers on Snapchat. I have written this goal down and beside it there is an edited picture of my account with 100k followers. This allows me to remain focused and to work hard every single day towards my goals, even when I do not feel like it. This blend of inspiration from my parents and my structured approach to goal-setting keeps my work ethic consistent and focused.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
My name is Pierce Gard, and I am a fitness content creator known for taking on mind-blowing gym challenges. A few of my most notable challenges include bench pressing 135lbs for 500 reps, doing 1000 push-ups and squatting 135lbs for 100 reps in a row. I’ve also done other crazy things like creating the world’s heaviest dumbbell that weighs 500lbs. I am currently training to be able to lift it. My passion for the gym developed in a very unexpected fashion. For a decade, I was a dedicated hockey player. During that time, I sustained many injuries. The worst one being a knee dislocation. I was out for an entire season and was absolutely devastated by the injury. I sat in the stands and watched my teammates play without me. The doctor told me that I may never be able to skate again. So, I attended physiotherapy and it was here that my mindset and love for the gym developed. I wanted to get back to playing hockey so desperately that I did every exercise my physiotherapist prescribed, and I would do them every single day no matter what. I took this training very seriously until I strengthened my knee enough to be able to skate again. I got back on the ice and played hockey for about half a season before dislocating my knee for a second time. I was set back to ground zero. Not able to walk or skate. I returned to physiotherapy and went through the recovery process all over again. Playing a final season where I obtained a cut from a skate near my femoral artery. The cut was very deep, and I had to get stitches, but if the cut had been an inch higher, it would have been life-threatening. At this point, I was graduating high school and was left with a choice to continue playing hockey or to hang up the skates. With all the injuries, I decided to leave the hockey world behind and was left with a massive void in my life. That void was soon filled by my newfound love for bodybuilding, discovered during my countless physiotherapy sessions. The process of rebuilding my knee sparked a passion for becoming stronger. For the past three years, I’ve dedicated myself to bodybuilding, training every single day and living by my slogan: ‘No Rest Days’. Through my content, I aim to inspire others to embark on their fitness journeys and challenge themselves. Whether it’s through insane fitness stunts or challenges, my mission is to show people they are capable of much more than they realize.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The most important qualities in my journey are consistency, improvement and mentorship. Consistency is key to achieving your goals. I train every day because every day is an opportunity to get closer to your goals. Consistency is especially important for those early into their journeys. Consistency builds habits that are very hard to break. If you only work on your goals when you feel like it, you will be prone to taking extra days off. But if you have a consistent schedule you ruthlessly follow you will not break that habit easily. In addition to consistency, you also need to focus on improvement. You can work toward your goal every day for a year, but if you keep doing the same things, you may end up in the same spot. I track my progress weekly to determine if I am actually improving. Every Monday, I review my training and diet from the previous week. I analyze whether I’m lifting heavier weights and if I’m losing or gaining weight. I then make adjustments to my training and diet to get closer to my goal. I recommend beginners find a numerical metric they can track to determine if they are getting closer to their goals, whether that metric is money, weight, or something entirely different. These metrics are great for measuring your progress toward your goals. Another impactful aspect is mentorship. Finding a mentor to help you achieve your goals will be worth every moment together. I have worked with a few personal trainers and they have skyrocketed my progress to levels I couldn’t imagine beforehand. They will help you avoid so many mistakes and setbacks. They will also teach you tips and tricks you never would have thought of. Whether this mentorship comes from a person you hire or just videos from an expert on the internet, mentorship is a crucial part of the journey and will speed up your progress drastically. Remain consistent, seek ways to improve and find mentors who can guide you, in order to create a strong foundation to achieve your goals.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
The book Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins has been instrumental in forming my mindset. This book chronicles the difficult life of Navy SEAL and ultramarathon runner David Goggins. Each chapter tells a story of Goggins’ life and concludes with a challenge for you to complete in your own life. These challenges played a large role in shaping my ‘work hard’ mentality. One concept that really stands out for me is the “Cookie Jar”. The cookie jar is a list of your personal achievements, obstacles you have overcome, and moments where you have failed but tried again in order to succeed. Goggins emphasizes using this tool to remind yourself of your resilience during tough times. If you’re going through something difficult, you can think back to the cookie jar of all the hard tasks you’ve completed. This serves as a reminder that you can do much more than you realize. This has helped me push my limits and achieve goals that once seemed out of reach. For example, I ran my first half-marathon with this mentality. Another key takeaway from the book is the 40% rule. This is a Navy SEALs concept that Goggins references in the book. It’s the concept that your mind tells you to stop when you are only at 40% of your true capacity. For example, if you’re doing bicep curls and reach the 8th rep, your mind might tell you, ‘I’m tired; I shouldn’t do another rep.’ But in reality, you still have 60% left in the tank. This concept has helped me push myself much further in the gym and in life than I thought I could go. Goggins’ lessons are not just inspiring but deeply actionable. They’ve helped me build resilience, embrace discomfort, and achieve goals I once thought were out of reach. I’d highly recommend Can’t Hurt Me to anyone looking to improve their lives.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://gardgear.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/piercegard_/profilecard/?igsh=dmI5Z2EyNnFzMXZw
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1AwxKunLnn/?mibextid=wwXIfr
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@piercegard?si=Xa52mjR5_QF6m19u
- Other: Snapchat: https://snapchat.com/t/rWF02Z59
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