After my accident in 2019, I spent the last 3 years investigating various ways to improve my overall health with the aim of increasing my strength. During this time, I tried most forms of fitness training, right from the easiest to the hardest. I think that every form of exercise has its own benefits, However, in my opinion, when it comes to strength development nothing beats training with weights. Because weight training is 10% of the health set and 90% of mindset.
By the way, I am an entrepreneur, intentional living mentor, and writer by profession and not a trainer. I don’t spend hours and hours in the gym for that perfect body, neither I am competing with anyone. The goal was never to become some kind of model or trainer, but to use these tools to improve my physical, mental, and emotional strength and most importantly find out what makes these normal-looking people become great achievers in life.
It’s been six months that I’ve been training myself in a gym. Surprisingly, I was struck by two valuable lessons about how doing hard things helps one grow in life and business and I’ve realized that weight training is one of them.
lesson 1: Pain produces growth
I started with regular weight training three months back after avoiding it for the first three months of my tenure, very cleverly limiting my workout activities to cardio and walking. I did this because I just wanted to enjoy doing things that are easy and that make me feel good. Whereas, weight training is completely the opposite experience. It upsets you. It makes you confront your limited self. It makes you feel the ‘Real Pain’. And yes, the physical exertion while lifting and the body soreness post-workout are nobody’s favorite body sensations. And why would it be? It bloody hurts. I call it ‘feeling your fear and causing pain’ and this feeling of change is definitely not enjoyable.
There has been no athlete in the world who didn’t know what he or she has signed up for. They signed up for a most boring, hurting, and hateful process to change. They know that fear and pain is a pre-requisite to transformation. Weight training teaches you the same. It puts your body into fear of the unknown and then into pain which is access to change. It helps you become stronger, flexible, and mobile and this quality comes only after you pay a price — pain, and persistence. These traits of greatness can never come from a mindset of pleasure but from a mindset of growth, knowing pain is necessary for growth.
Lesson 2: Comfort is your frenemy.
Everybody has at least one friend who seems to be your well-wisher but is secretly praying for your failures. This is the friend who will take to you the ways of pleasure and away from the desires for self-improvement and growth. Keeping a friend like this in life is dangerous, right? Similarly, living in your comfort zone means having friends like them who will backstab you when they have full control of your life. Comfort is that friend in disguise, who is actually your enemy.
On the other hand, discomforts are like true friends who activate your potential. They are aware of your interests and goals and will encourage you to make choices that are good for your personal growth. They are the friends who make you feel uncomfortable at the start. They will have tough conversations with you because they are honest and real and then help you build your strength by removing your blocks, exploring your potential, and allowing you to be your true version.
Lifting weights is like a choice to become comfortable with uncomfortable. It is about putting yourself in a situation where you really bad, I mean you really suck at the start, to really becoming worse in the middle, and then slowly with concentration, you are getting better at it. It means discovering the true friend who wants you to grow, change, develop, and do things that are courageous.
Following a vegan lifestyle. Running a startup. Managing a family. Writing blogs, books, and articles. Lifting weights. Saying no to distractions. Living intentionally. Did these things become easier after three years? No, they didn’t. They are still hard. The only thing that I got now is making them my friends.
