You know the guy. He's full of ideas. Big ideas. Conquering-the-world-and-make-millions ideas. He's going to lunch a company and run a marathon. He's going to lose 25 pounds and write a book. He's either going to ask out the hot girl in marketing or propose to his longtime girlfriend.

He might actually sketch out some business ideas and print up business cards. He might start working out and going for runs some mornings. He might change his eating habits and even lose a few pounds. He might start a book treatment. And he might work up the nerve to say hi to the marketing babe or to start looking for rings.

Months later? He's still doing the same dead-end job. He has stopped running regularly and is getting soft around the middle. The book treatment is still a one-pager.

And both the hot babe and the girlfriend have moved on.

The guy is a classic Starter, and unfortunately there are a lot of guys like him out there.

Starters are great at the gun, but they never finish the race.

They're talkers, not doers.

They're creative thinkers who couldn't turn their thoughts into anything tangible, workable, or sellable—in other words, anything real—even if the prize was a date with Eva Mendes.

There are plenty of reasons Starters can't finish. Often their ideas sound good but fall apart because they haven't thought through the realities. I've lost track of the number of people who've come to me pitching a new print or Web-based magazine. But after I've asked about their competitors, their endemic advertisers (and why they'd advertise with them instead of their competition), their business model, and how much capital they would need before reaching profitability, they slink away with their mouths agape.

I'm not trying to be mean or to diminish their dream, but it' hard out here. It's hard for anyone to transform an idea into reality. And if I don't ask the tough questions, someone else surely will.

It happens. It happens every day.

Now, some Starters are Finishers. They take their idea, assess its viability, do their research, then pursue it like Clint Eastwood pursues bad guys.

Anyone can be a Starter. You want to be a Finisher.

How? Start small. Take an achievable idea ("I'll start working out three days a week," or "I'll drink 36 ounces of water a day"). Make it happen. Finish it.

Next, come up with a bigger idea ("I'm going to reduce my body fat by 5 percent," or "develop a business plan or book proposal"). Now make it happen. Finish it.

Soon you'll be able to go all Usain Bolt—exploding out of the blocks and powering across the tape with your Big Idea.

Be a Finisher. Strike a pose. You win.

Onward,
Roy S. Johnson
Men's Fitness
Editor In Chief

The serratus anterior muscle looks like fingers pointing from your ribs to your six-pack (raise your arms, and you may be able to see yours). It's vital for healthy shoulders and makes you look especially ripped. But most guys just aren't lean or muscular enough to reveal theirs. To boost yours, do 10 to 20 reps of any of the following moves before your regular workout.

A) DIP SHRUG
Get on parallel bars as you would to do dips. Keeping a slight bend in your elbows, let your body sink down between your shoulders (it will look like you're shrugging) and then spread your shoulders and rise as much as you can. Your arms shouldn't move.

B) SCAP PUSHUP
Get into pushup position and lower your body between your shoulders without bending your elbows (you'll only move a few inches). Then spread your shoulders to come up. Be sure to keep your core braced throughout. It's the same idea as the dip shrug.

C) ONE-ARM SPLIT-STANCE CABLE PRESS
Attach a D-handle to a cable pulley and hold it at chest height. Get into a lunge position. Press the handle forward, keeping your shoulders square with your hips.

Men's Fitness

recently caught up with the sexy star of TV's hit series Modern Family. Lucky for us—and you—the stunning Colombian revealed her most important rules when it comes to relationships:

BE REAL AND READY
"When I meet someone and know I'm going to be in a relationship with them, I don't play games. If I like somebody, I'll go out with them and whatever happens, happens. You don't have to screw around when you feel attracted to a person."

 

ABSENCE MAKES THE . . .
"The good thing about being in a long-distance relationship is that you don't have to live the day-to-day routines. Every time you see the person, it's as if you're on vacation. You've been waiting, and you're anxious. You don't get tired of them."

IT'S THE DETAILS
"Make your girl feel special—take the time to think of her and show her you care. I guess that's why Latin men are always known for getting the girls. They are brought up like that. They know how to give a woman attention."

SEX MATTERS
"Good sex is definitely important to a relationship; whoever says it's not is lying."

Angelina Jolie's daughter Shiloh wanted a "dead pet".

The 35-year-old actress has revealed the four year old found a deceased bird and asked if she could keep it.

Angelina couldn't let Shiloh keep the animal because of the hygiene issues but she did come up with an unusual solution.

In the December issue of US Vogue, she said: "She (Shiloh) came in and said, 'Can I have a dead pet?' And I'm, 'Uh-uh, I don't think it's healthy, honey. I think they have to put him in a box,' and I had to run out to find, like, a taxidermy bird. I just worked it out for her.

"I figured that I couldn't keep the actual dead bird from the yard, so I swayed her toward one that had been cleaned, at least."

Although Shiloh spends her time finding dead birds, her six-year-old brother Pax is more interested in cooking.

Angelina said: "Sometimes. I'm not the best cook. Pax is a better cook than me. Pax likes to cook. But I try to when I can. Any house that we're in, we all chip in. But the kids are very sweet, they're very enthusiastic anytime I cook."

The 'Salt' star raises six children - Shiloh, Pax, Maddox, nine, Zahara, five, and two-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne - with her partner Brad Pitt, but admits she never imagined she would have such a large family.

She added: "I only planned for two! To each his own. It's one of those things. How you build your family - you have to know what you're capable of handling and how your children will relate to each other. Maybe if you have one child and that child has a lot of needs, you realize you cannot give more attention to another. Sometimes you just know as a parent. We felt we could handle more children, and we have a very happy, very full home."