The 13 Rules of the Relentless: How to Be a Fucking Cleaner (Part 1)

There’s three types of people in this world: coolers, closers, and cleaners.

Coolers worry about their competition and where they measure up. These are the guys you can rely on to get things done, but the second things get really tough, they’re not accountable.

Closers study their opponents’ every move—they study them, so that they know how to beat them. These are the guys that you call in when you need shit done, but they still look to others for guidance and leadership.

Cleaners? They’re so fucking good that they make others study THEM. They’re the anomalies, the one-in-a-million. They’re the ones who end things. They’re the fucking cleaners.

And you, my friend? You need to be a cleaner.

The Cleaner Mindset

Lately I’ve been reading a book called Relentless, written by a man named Tim Grover. For those of you who don’t know, Mr. Grover is a world-renowned athletic coach who’s worked with some of the biggest names in the industry.

Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, and more… If they’re a huge name in the NBA, you can pretty much guaranteed that Tim has trained them before.

After a while, though, he started to notice something. He started to notice that all of these incredibly successful athletes all had some common characteristics. He started to notice that they all live their lives under the same principles; they all operate with the exact same mindset.

In Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable, Tim Grover dissects this mindset. He calls it the “cleaner mindset,” because they come in and they fucking clean up. You don’t have to ask them, you don’t have to motivate them, they just fucking do it.

He says that there’s 10 main rules, that each and every cleaner follows. If you want to be a legend when you die, I urge you to follow these rules.

#1 – You Keep Pushing Yourself Harder When Everyone Has Had Enough

Physical dominance is important for any sport. It’s important for basketball, it’s important for mixed martial arts, and it’s important for football. But anybody who’s been involved in any sports knows that physical strength is cheap. You know what’s not? Mental dominance.

Mental dominance is 1,000x more important than any sort of physical dominance, because at some point in the game, at some point in training, at some point in LIFE, your body will give out.

You will be tired, you will be weak, and your body will be screaming: “Stop! Just go home and rest!” But do you know what the cleaner says back? “Fuck you. I’m going to MAKE you keep training, even when every single muscle fiber is exhausted.”

This is how winning is done, and it’s how greatness is achieved. Cleaners don’t give up. In fact, they RELISH in the fact that others leave before they’re even half way through.

A cooler will train hard, and come game time, he’ll do well.

A closer will train for hours after others have left, and come game time, he’ll save the game.

A cleaner is relentless in his training—it never stops. And come game time, he’ll carry the team to the championship.

Back when I was seriously training for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and was heavily considering getting into the amateur fighting arena, something very peculiar took place. I was only about 5’8″ and at the time was a twig—probably weighing in at about 135 pounds.

And we’d have these guys come in, that were 6’4″ and 240 pounds, expecting to kick some serious ass, but do you know what happened? I would beat them every time.

They were shocked, and sometimes got extremely angry: “How the fuck could this little 135 pound guy beat ME?!” I’ll tell you how: I spent thousands of hours pushing myself harder when everyone else had already quit.

When others went home at 9, I was fighting with black belts until I could barely stand. I would stay and fight as late as they’d let me, until the owner came in and kicked us out—and it paid off.

This is the truth about success. People only saw some skinny kid beating giant behemoths, and they thought it was some anomaly. It wasn’t. I beat them, because I was a fucking cleaner that spent thousands of hours honing my craft. Be a fucking cleaner.

#2 – You Get Into the Zone, You Shut Out Everything Else, and Control the Uncontrollable

When everyone else is freaking out and getting scared, you’re calm. When everyone else is worrying about what will happen, you’re not. When everyone else is scared, anxious, and hopeless, you’re at ease.

Why is this? It’s because you focus 100% of your attention on what you CAN control, and you just fucking take action.

There’s this concept known as the Zone, and for years, psychologists have tried to understand how it works on a scientific level. Is it a certain chemical that gets released in the brain? is it just really intense focus? Is it being calm and collected at the same time?

This idea of “being in the Zone,” completely baffled scientists for decades…until one man figured it all out. A Hungarian psychologist, whose name I won’t even try to spell, postulated that flow is literally the most addictive state in all of existence.

That’s right. It’s more addicting than crack. It’s more addicting than meth. It’s even more addicting than heroin. Why?

Because when you get in the Zone, or a “Flow State,” as psychologists call it, you feel fucking unstoppable. It’s a unique chemical cascade of dopamine, norepinephrine, anandamide, serotonin, and endorphins, that makes you feel like you’re a god damn champion.

This is what cleaners have access to—they know how to get in that intensely focused state, where literally NOTHING else matters except your ONE FUCKING MISSION right in front of you. You see this at the gym, a lot.

Some guys are there just to fuck around, and you can see it immediately. Most guys are there to train. Every once in a while though, you’ll see a guy that’s there to fucking achieve greatness. He’s there on a mission, and you’d better not stand in his way, because he will plow the fuck through you if you’re dumb enough to try and stop him.

“A cooler gets everyone cranked up and emotional before the game.”

“A closer gets himself cranked up and emotional before the game.”

“A cleaner never gets cranked up or emotional. He stays cool and calm and saves it all for game time.”

-Relentless, Tim S. Grover

When I was training for Body of an Alpha, I got into this state a lot—and because I was in this state, I could easily recognize others that were in this state. One guy, who will remain anonymous, made this very abundantly clear.

He was squatting 800 pounds, and he asked me to take a video so he could see his form. He squatted 800 pounds for 10 fucking repetitions—most guys can’t even squat 200 for 5 repetitions. So, I complemented the guy: “Nice job man, that’s pretty impr-“

Before I could even finish my sentence, he IMMEDIATELY told me: “It’s not enough.”

“What?” I said, somewhat shocked. “Arnold squatted 900 for 10 reps. It’s not enough,” he said. I could see the fire in his eyes, the hunger for more.

That man was a fucking cleaner.

#3 – You Know Exactly Who You Are

On your journey to greatness, very many people will try to derail you. They will try to distract you, they will try to bring you down, and they will try to tell you that you’re insane.

Don’t listen to a fucking word that they say. They’ve been dead inside for years, and don’t understand the fire that dwells within you.

When you’re a man on a fucking mission, and you’ve made a decision that THIS is how you want things to be, you need to recognize that part of yourself. You need to know who you are, or other people will try to sway you from your path.

Who are you? You’re the cleaner. You get shit done, and you get it done without anyone having to push you or help you. If you have an important decision to make, it’s easy to make the decision, because as far as you’re concerned, if it helps you attain your goals you’ll do it.

If it doesn’t? You won’t. It’s that simple. You need to have a deep understanding of who you are and what you want, in order to succeed.

“A cooler thinks about what he’s supposed to think about.”

“A closer thinks, analyzes, and eventually he acts.”

“A cleaner doesn’t think at all. He just knows.”

-Relentless, Tim S. Grover

When you’re just made that decision that you’re going to be successful, NO MATTER WHAT, you don’t need to think. You don’t need to get stuck in analysis paralysis, you just fucking act. If you’re trying to get jacked and look like a Greek statue, what do you do?

“Oh I don’t know if I feel like going to the gym today. Maybe I’ll just take it easy and go another time.” Is that what you say?

FUCK NO. You just GO, because it’s who you are. You cease to act like the man you want to be, and you just fucking BE the man that you want to be.

This is what cleaners do, and it’s what you need to fucking do.

#4 – You Have a Dark Side That Refuses to Be Taught to Be Good

We all have a dark side, that we rarely ever show to the world. It’s when Bruce Banner transforms into the Hulk, when Batman puts the cape on, and when Dr. Jekyll becomes Mr. Hyde. It’s when you realize that the time for thought has ended, and the time for action has begun.

Tapping into your dark side means accessing that unlimited reserve of dark, primal, egoic energy—that fierce, predator “killer instinct,” that every man has. It means unleashing the fucking beast within.

Regular society may view this as uncouth and think that they’re above it, but do you know what? That’s why they’re not fucking cleaners. That’s why they’re not even coolers. They’re so pathetic that they’re not even good, let alone relentless.

“A cooler tries to fight his dark side and loses.”

“A closer acknowledges his dark side, but isn’t able to control it.”

“A cleaner harnesses his dark side into raw, controlled power.”

-Relentless, Tim S. Grover

Letting out the dark side means taking no-holds-barred approach to whatever it is you’re doing, and just fucking taking action. You don’t think, you don’t contemplate, you just DO. It’s your ability to let go of all your bullshit self-imposed limitations, repressed emotions, and social inhibitions, in order to just get shit done.

Have you ever watched UFC 1? The original, no rules fighting competition, that drew fighters and martial artists from all over the world, for a chance to taste the glory of victory? If you have, you’ve seen the dark side in Royce.

Look at his eyes, below, and tell me that you don’t see the fucking dark side coming out:

Do you see the fucking primal, animalistic glare that he has? THAT is an example of the dark side coming out—the killer inside of you, that we all have, that only comes out in serious situations. Learning to tap into that instinct, that raw energy, is one of the most powerful things that you will ever learn.

When you learn to channel your killer instinct into a productive pursuit, nothing is impossible. That same instinct that your ancestors used to kill 5 ton woolly mammoths? It’s still there, inside of you…just waiting to come out.

Click here for Part 2 and Part 3.