How Making Life Harder, Makes it Easier

Working out is hard. It sucks getting up early. It sucks lifting those heavy-arse weights. The reason for it sucking is resistance. Something that gets in the way of your movement.

Waking up is hard because sleeping is great. Staying in your warm bed when it’s cold outside is great. However, resistance builds discipline. Other difficult decisions become easier.

Lifting weights is challenging because the muscles are literally tearing apart at the microscopic level. This is why you get sore and this is how the muscles grow. The resistance, this time physical resistance against gravity helps you get stronger.

So how does getting huge in the gym make you a better thinker and leader? Seeking resistance.

Disregard Comfort

We surround ourselves with experiences to prove how great we are. It is safe and it feels nice. We want to be the most beautiful, funny, creative person in the room, however, if we sat back and thought about it, we probably aren’t and will never be (And if you are, find a better room to be in).

That is why there is a saying to step out of your comfort zone.

You are the leader of the group, the boss, and everyone listens to you, this creates no resistance in how you are thinking or approaching problems. If you are never challenged, how do you know your ideas and thoughts are any good?

Find Resistance

Like lifting weights to make you stronger, seeking resistance in your ideas and philosophies will make your conclusions stronger.

If you stay in your echo chambers where everyone reinforces your ideas or simply just agrees with you then your thinking skills don’t face any resistance.

Seeking people with counter positions to you will allow you to think more deeply about your position. This thought process can confirm that you are correct or allow you to learn something and maybe update your thinking.

Learning

The huge output of resistance is you get stronger, with lifting it is physical, with ideas it is intellectual.

Learning that you are wrong with your conclusion is an afterburner for improvement if you are brave enough to challenge those assumptions.

Resistance is uncomfortable and challenging, but it makes you stronger. Go find some.