” As you progress in your workout, the weight begins to feel familiar. This is your moment in time where you add that 5lbs of resistance.”
The analogy
Most of us may not understand the title of this writing today so let me give a brief explanation and you’ll understand more of what this means. To start, a “gymrat” in its simple definition is a person who spends a lot of time working out and has great care for their performance as well their physiques. Sounds great but media has portraited this person as a loner or someone who only workouts because they have nothing better to do with themselves.
So if you haven’t gone to the gym before, progressive overload is your best friend. It’s how we progressively get stronger as we continuously go in and out of the training sessions. Smaller adjustments that are higher than our last so we can continue moving forward instead of a stiffened position. I wanna take this a step further by adding this can be used into real life scenarios and situations.
Some of us live in a fear. An anxiety for the worse to come. Fearing that the next conversation won’t be that easy. Fearing the job won’t accept us for where we are (Yes I’m writing this a bit about myself as well). We stop our progression before attempting to continue. And soon, we become stagnate where we stand. Too afraid to move further. We become complacent where we are. Let me tell you that everyone has these moments in life. Everyone and i mean EVERYONE has some form of a problem, fear, precaution, or anxiety about what’s next to come.
To counteract this, I introduce to you Progressive overload. You see, we people are born to solve problems its what our brain does best. Not only does it like to solve problems but, it also likes to make the simplest answers in order to save or reserve energy. There is more science behind that obviously but, the point is that we want to solve a problem and once we do, we have no clue what is next in a field of familiarity. To make a solution of this, might i suggest we try it again with a bit more edge of difficulty to it?
You see, Since we are automated problem solvers it becomes easier to solve the real world situations we see day to day. In our interpersonal lives, we recognize the patterns of our household or friends and how we can help them. But within ourselves sometime, we like to think this is all we can do. Granted there are moments of patience that are dearly needed, we should also continue to work that brain as such the muscles in our body.
The brain can be trained just as the biceps or the Side deltoids. With consistent pressure and tension the muscles break down, absorbs the nutrients of the body, and repairs itself stronger. After that, it requires a stronger fatigue point to get under the same stress. For the brain, The mind can sit on a problem until it is solved. In those moments of finding a solution, you can often times sit frustrated and even angry that this requires such effort. But, once its solved all those negative feelings go away and instead are traded with positive sensations that make days, months, even years feel worthwhile.
The key here is to recognize the problems as they come in a basic form. ” What is the question I need to ask myself?” “What is this teaching me?” To find what really is “weak” in your mind, you should determine by your fears. I have sometime a fear of interacting with people. In a sense of blindly walking and saying words to develop a conversation. I hate cold calling. With that, I knew that I should spend a lot of my training ( Not the gym) making small arrangements for me to feel more comforting in that position. Whether that be simply to say hello to the next 5 people that walk pass me or to talk to that one person that was on my mind.
Hidden Solution
It might sound basic as ever, but your only solution to it is to develop the confidence until it is apart of you. Building that rapport of confidence shows that you’ve done this type of thing so many times that eventually you can start to play with it. If your fear of talking has lightened and your able to talk to your peers more, Find a conversation that engages you to an end that you’re not familiar with. Afraid of the weight, give it a shot. Once you get from under that bar, you’ll see where you need work done. Finding that missing work is key to your improvement throughout life.
To say we’ve done enough, is only a limitation to what we are comfortable with doing. I’m not here to say that you should always be uncomfortable. But you should be seeking a daily challenge of something that has carried with you before. The real challenges are the ones you fear the most but also think about the most. Those dreams of other sides and what would the sensations of it feel like. Those are the sides that you belong to as they call for you.
And who knows? You might not even like it over there. Could be too cold. Could be too warm. But it also could be the calling that changes your life for the better forever.
Light in the dark 