I'm going to start this email off by saying something that's going to sound absolutely insane, but in all honesty, it's the truth:

While I despise the coronavirus and the impact it has had on this world, I'm eternally grateful for what it's allowed me to do over the past year — invest in myself, both mentally and physically.

Truly, the past year has been one of the best years of my life from a personal growth perspective. I've never been healthier, mentally or physically.

And I never would have been able to get here without COVID shutting the world down — I would have just kept running on the same "life hamster wheel", mindlessly wondering why things weren't getting any better.

There's no doubt that the world has suffered this past year. But within suffering we can find the motivation to succeed, and once that cognitive reframing takes place, we start to see problems as opportunities.
 

I had never been happy with my physical appearance.

It started in late-middle school/early-high school.

I was a geek.

Nerdy as all hell.

I purposely wore big, baggy clothes and tried to hide the fact that I was a super skinny, unhealthy little kid.

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The dark truth behind it all was that I had problems eating.

I wasn't anorexic or bulimic, but my home life was "troubled" back then to say the least.

Big fights would occur at the dinner table on an almost nightly cadence.

Yelling, screaming, broken dishes. The whole nine yards.

Other times it was eerily quiet. Nothing was said or spoken. Everyone held their breath for the entire meal.

Those noiseless, muted dinners were sometimes worse than the blowout fights.

Truly, I couldn't wait to get out of the dining room and go down to the basement to be with my dog and my laptop, my two saving graces at that period in my life.

I hated dinner time and that kitchen table with a passion, and because of that, I never ate (nor learned to eat properly) like I should have.

Even at school I wouldn't eat. I went from being in a 30 person middle school to a high school with over 300 kids in my class and over 1,200 kids in the entire school.

Being in the cafeteria was overwhelming with that many people I didn't know.

Most of the time I sat alone at lunch...and lunch itself typically consisted of a bottle of water.

By the end of high school I was 18 years old and barely weighed 100lbs (~45kg).
 

College got a bit better, but I was still unhappy and depressed.

In undergrad I met Jeff, a guy in my Machine Learning class.

Jeff was really into body building and started making me go to the gym with him.

It was the first time I lifted weights in my life.

I started getting stronger, but my eating habits were still really poor due to my childhood.

Back then I was only consuming 700-1000 calories a day, if I was lucky. 

I just couldn't get over my eating issues. Any time I took a bite of food, especially if I was sitting at an actual dining room/kitchen table, I would instantly be filled with panic, anxiety, and dread.

Seriously.

Imagine sitting at a dinner table, and as soon as you put food in your mouth you start feeling borderline anxiety attacks.

That was my life back then.

Most nights I just ate a meager dinner of Campbell's tomato soup and a small sandwich over my kitchen sink, just to avoid having to sit at an actual table.

Yeah, those scars from my childhood ran deep.

It doesn't matter how much time you spend in the gym. If you're not eating properly, you'll still look (and feel) frail — your body doesn't have the required calories to build muscle.

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As the photo shows, I was pretty tiny, even in college. I was only 110lbs soaking wet then.

In fact, my waist was so tiny that I had to wear women's jeans (size 0 from Express fit the best). I wasn't even big enough to wear "big boy" pants yet.

Still, I'm eternally grateful for my relationship with Jeff — he showed me a path I never knew existed.
 

Grad school pushed me and tested me in the best way possible.

I loved grad school.

Not just for the freedom it gave me in my classes and research, but also for the opportunities to grow as a human.

My girlfriend's (who is now my wife) father started a CrossFit gym back when CrossFit was all the rage.

I started working out with him often and got even stronger. 

My eating habits even got a bit better as I learned more about proper diets and how to balance my macros.

I even started talking with a therapist who helped with some of my childhood trauma.

The results were good — here is a photo of me with my old CrossFit buddies back back in 2014:

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Finally, after years of figuring out training and eating properly, I was able to see some level of muscle definition.

And most importantly...I was happier.

After grad school and into the early-PyImageSearch years, I was working out 3-4x times a week and eating healthy.

I continued that trend for years and have been much healthier since...

...and then COVID happened.
 

COVID made me a relentless animal.

You know the COVID story.

The world totally shut down.

No bars, no restaurants, no travel.

Nothing.

So, instead of binging shows on Netflix and Hulu, I made a pact with myself:

"I'm going to get into the best shape of my life, and once and for all conquer this eating disorder/trauma from my childhood."

And that's exactly what I did.

I started working out 11x a week (yes, eleven — that's not a typo).

There were some weeks where I spent more time in my garage gym lifting heavy things up and putting them down than I did in front of my computer.

I also learned the proper macro balance for my body type, my physique, and my goals.

And finally...finally...I can sit down at an actual table and eat a meal without feeling overwhelming anxiety (don't get me wrong, it's still there, but I can control it better).

And the result?

Well, I'll let you be the judge…

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All the hard work paid off:

140lbs (~63kg) of lean, dense muscle and 9% body fat.

I've never been more proud of how I look and feel. I feel great and most importantly, I have the energy to do the things I love each day.

And for that, I have to tip my hat to COVID — thank you COVID for forcing me to make myself better. I appreciate the opportunity to make myself better and prove to myself what I'm capable of.
 

There's an animal in you. Let it out.

Life, like fitness, is a journey.

It's not about how much money you have, what floor of the highrise your apartment is on, how ripped you are, or how good you look…

...what's important is the journey and the discipline you learned along the way.

Yeah, I feel great with my shirt off nowadays, but what I really gained was an unrelenting, unfaltering, unforgiving discipline to push myself, and not just break through barriers, but utterly destroy them with my bare @#!%-ing hands.

It took me years to obtain these results...but the journey is what got me there.

The same is true for you too.
 

My challenge to you.

I challenge you to learn computer vision and deep learning this year.

But I'll level with you...

If you're serious about learning computer vision and deep learning, you need to commit to it, accept that it's going to be challenging at times, it won't be easy, and it may take awhile…

...then unleash that inner animal and attack that goal like your life @#!%-ing depends on it.

Seriously.

Convince yourself that your life, your family's well being, everything you want or hope to be, is dependent on your success studying computer vision.
 

This technique is called "cognitive reframing".

Everyone has a past, a history, that is scarred in some way...but it doesn't need to define you, the rest of your life, and the paths you are going to take.

If something sucks in your life, tell yourself:

"Good. This is just an opportunity to make whatever is wrong better."

Take ownership of your life.

You are the master of your own destiny, and fortune favors hard work.

As legendary NHL hockey player Wayne Gretzky once said:

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

Take a shot. If you miss, so what? Good, at least you learned something so you'll be better when you try again.
 

It's time to sink or swim.

I won't sugar coat this.

My books and courses aren't for everyone.

Instead, they are for:
  • Smart, ambitious developers who see opportunities where others see problems
  • People who believe — just as I do — that fortunes are made in uncertain times like these
  • Students who want to create their own luck by making the best of a tough situation
  • Researchers who want to use the chaos of the last 18 months to come out ahead...stronger, wiser, and paper in hand for publication at the next CV/DL conference
If you think that you'll be able to skim my articles, watch one or two videos, and run a few Python scripts, and all of a sudden you'll be a "computer vision master", sorry, that's not how it works.

My books and courses are for people who are willing to put in 1.5x the effort of an average person, and in return, reap 5-10x the benefits from their hard work.

If that sounds like you, I'm offering 25% OFF all my books and courses until Monday at midnight EST.

My recommendation.

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If you want my personal recommendation I would say you should go with PyImageSearch University.

It's the most affordable online course we've ever created — and best of all, we add new lessons to it every month, so it's a great way to keep up with the state-of-the-art in computer vision and deep learning.

But here's the deal:

It's time to choose — are you in or out?

I can only show you the path. You need to walk the path yourself.

But don't worry though!

If you choose to take this journey, I'll be here to help you succeed.

Adrian Rosebrock
Chief PyImageSearcher