“You don’t get stronger because the weight is easy. You get stronger because the weight demands something from you.”
Reflection:
Lately I’ve been thinking about something I read in one of the books I am reading which is Nick Bare’s Go One More. He was talking about progressive overload in training and it made me think about how similar the principle is to life.
In fitness if you want to get stronger eventually you have to ask your body to do something it hasn’t done before. You can’t lift the same weight, do the same reps and follow the same routine forever while expecting to keep getting stronger. At some point in the weights of the routine something has to get harder and it made me wonder: why do I understand that so clearly in the gym but sometimes forget it everywhere else?
We talk a lot about consistency in life. Show up and stay disciplined, just keep going. Yes, that matters but consistency alone isn't always enough. You can be consistent and still be comfortable. You can be busy, productive and exhausted at the end of the day without actually challenging yourself to grow. The body adapts to the demands placed on it. If the demand never changes eventually the adaptation stops too.
I think life works the same way.
Confidence doesn't usually come from waiting until you feel confident. It comes from taking action while you're still uncertain. Discipline isn't built on the days when everything feels easy. It's built when you do what needs to be done despite not feeling like it and resilience doesn't come from reading about difficult things. It comes from experiencing difficulty and realizing that you were capable of carrying more than you thought. Something I have noticed is that sometimes we want the adaptation but we don't always want the resistance that creates it.
We want confidence without uncertainty, discipline without discomfort and resilience without adversity. We want to become stronger but we don't necessarily want anything to make us stronger. That's why I still believe something I said in the very first episode of MindForge: The struggle is the mechanism. That doesn't mean we should chase pain or pretend every difficult situation is good. Some struggles are unfair. Some seasons hurt. Sometimes life puts weight on the bar that we never asked for. You don't always choose the rejection, the setback, the loss, the uncertainty or the season that suddenly feels heavier than the one before but you do get a say in what that resistance produces INSIDE you.
You can spend all your energy asking, “Why is this happening to me?” or eventually, you can begin asking yourself: “What is this asking me to become?” Maybe it's teaching you patience, maybe developing courage, maybe it's forcing you to become more disciplined, more resilient or more capable. You don't have to pretend the situation is good like I said above, you don't have to enjoy it. You don't even have to believe that everything happens for a reason but you have a choice to choose to not let the difficulty be meaningless.
There’s another side of resistance too and that is the resistance we choose to avoid. Sometimes we aren't stuck because we don't know what to do. We're stuck because we know exactly what we need to do and we know it's going to be uncomfortable.
You know you need to have the conversation, take the shot, you know you need to start the business, apply for the opportunity, put yourself out there or leave what's familiar. And that's scary because once you try...you can fail but if you never put yourself in a position where you can fail you also never put yourself in a position where you can adapt.
Avoiding resistance can keep you comfortable but it can also keep your capacity exactly where it is.
So maybe the question isn't always, “How can I make my life easier?” maybe sometimes the better question is: “How can I become strong enough to carry more?” The difficult season you're in might not be proof that you're moving backward. It might be the weight. It might be the overload you need, it might be asking you to develop something you haven't had to develop before because growth doesn't always look like feeling better. Sometimes it looks like realizing that the thing you thought was going to break you actually gave you a capacity you didn't have before.
You don't always choose the weight but you do get a say in the adaptation.
So if you're facing something difficult right now or standing in front of something you've been afraid to pursue, maybe sit with this question: Who do I have to become to carry this?
Don't run from every difficult thing, don't assume every obstacle means you're on the wrong path and don't confuse comfort with progress. Sometimes the resistance is exactly what reveals what you're capable of.
⚔️ Weekly Challenge: Don’t Avoid the Weight
Choose one thing you’ve been avoiding because it’s uncomfortable and face it this week.
At the end of the week, ask yourself: What did this resistance teach me?
⚔️ Step into the Forge. Listen, reflect and grow.
This week we're exploring a powerful idea: growth requires resistance.
In fitness, progressive overload teaches us that the body doesn't get stronger by staying comfortable. It adapts when we give it a demand it hasn't faced before and maybe life works the same way. In this episode, we unpack what happens when we stop avoiding resistance, how difficult seasons can develop our capacity and why you don't always have to choose the weight to choose what it builds in you.
Hit play on the YouTube video below to watch the full episode or listen on the go using the Spotify link below.
Ready? Step into the Forge. ⚔️
MindForge Podcast Episode 16 Link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5dy2QunSzvQYUii6ExUt9Q
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