If you're looking to grow muscle, then you know that you need to work with progressively increasing weights. As you get comfortable doing a certain number of repetitions with a certain weight, there isn't any growth to be had by continuing to work with the same weight. It is time to progress to the next higher weight.
So the goal of someone doing strength training is to be able to pull off more weight. More weight for their deadlifts, more weight for their benchpress and more weight for their squats.
This is an easy concept to grasp in the gym. As the resistance is immediate (it is immediately harder to lift a heavier weight), and the reward is immediate (the growth you see in the days after you start lifting heavier weights is apparent).
When it comes to our mental capabilities, the strength of our ideas and our execution, our skills at the workplace, our skills in social settings, the concept is harder to grasp. Neither the resistance nor the rewards are immediately apparent.
I'm trying to apply the principle of 'more weight' outside the gym too, and especially at the workplace in order to get better at what I do.
When I was a kid watching football and when football stars would leave to play for a bigger club seeking a new challenge, I wasn't able to comprehend what they meant by a new challenge. I would just assume that they were moving for the money. After all, why would a player who was the best player on a smaller team playing every game and making an impact move to a bigger club where he would sit on the bench and isn't guaranteed to play every game?
I've since grown up to understand that that uncertainty is the new challenge. The player will have to get even better and compete at a higher level and earn his place in the team all over again. And that is what will lead him to grow as a player.
At the workplace too, continuing to operate at a level where we aren't stretched, where we aren't pushing the boundaries, means we aren't learning and we aren't growing. It is like lifting weights that we are very comfortable with while doing strength training. That isn't the point of strength training.
The goal is always to add more weight, and more weight in all aspects of our life, to continue to push boundaries and to grow.
So the goal of someone doing strength training is to be able to pull off more weight. More weight for their deadlifts, more weight for their benchpress and more weight for their squats.
This is an easy concept to grasp in the gym. As the resistance is immediate (it is immediately harder to lift a heavier weight), and the reward is immediate (the growth you see in the days after you start lifting heavier weights is apparent).
When it comes to our mental capabilities, the strength of our ideas and our execution, our skills at the workplace, our skills in social settings, the concept is harder to grasp. Neither the resistance nor the rewards are immediately apparent.
I'm trying to apply the principle of 'more weight' outside the gym too, and especially at the workplace in order to get better at what I do.
When I was a kid watching football and when football stars would leave to play for a bigger club seeking a new challenge, I wasn't able to comprehend what they meant by a new challenge. I would just assume that they were moving for the money. After all, why would a player who was the best player on a smaller team playing every game and making an impact move to a bigger club where he would sit on the bench and isn't guaranteed to play every game?
I've since grown up to understand that that uncertainty is the new challenge. The player will have to get even better and compete at a higher level and earn his place in the team all over again. And that is what will lead him to grow as a player.
At the workplace too, continuing to operate at a level where we aren't stretched, where we aren't pushing the boundaries, means we aren't learning and we aren't growing. It is like lifting weights that we are very comfortable with while doing strength training. That isn't the point of strength training.
The goal is always to add more weight, and more weight in all aspects of our life, to continue to push boundaries and to grow.
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