Making it hard for no reason

Many blue moons ago when I coached people to lift big-money weights, I advised them to do most of their squatting and deadlifting belt-less.

 

Why?

 

Belting up was worth +5% STR, maybe more, in a competition state.

 

Same idea with runners and cyclists who train at high altitude.

 

Zoom out to the general principle:

 

Go harder in training so that the contest is easy.

 

There’s a time and a place to do hard things, and even to make things harder on purpose.

 

But that’s a strategic calculation. Working hard is not the ultimate goal and purpose in life. Difficulty is not valuable for itself, but for what it achieves. It’s an instrument.

 

There’s a lot of people working hard right now in brutally hard and soul-crushing jobs and they aren’t seeing the rewards.

 

Effort spent is not equal to value created.

 

Not all hard work is equal.

 

That Protestant work-ethic says, work hard and ye shall be rewarded.

 

If you can get where you’re going without unnecessary difficulty, then you’re ahead of the curve. Faster results, with fewer resources spent, is a better result any way you shake it.

 

There’s also a matter of time and place.

 

There’s a guy laying roofs in Mississippi right now who can talk to you about hard work. An investment banker on Wall Street might be putting in some hard hours, too. We know which one gets the most return on his time — if we’re measuring in dollar-bill tokens.

 

Forget about labor, manual and otherwise.

 

Let’s talk about how we create difficulty with our beliefs and meta-beliefs.

 

What’s a meta-belief? A belief about a belief, or about a desire, emotion, appetite, feeling, wish, hope, dream, or our whole self-image.

 

“It’s supposed to be difficult” and “I’m supposed to suffer” are two of the nastier meta-beliefs.

 

If you believe them, you’re complicit in your own suffering.

 

It’s fine and noble to toughen yourself up with “mental calluses”. Prepare yourself for punishment, grow that mythical thick skin that protects you from the barbs and stupid opinions of others.

 

Just remember that there’s a difference between leaving the belt off for the purpose of getting stronger…

 

And creating pointless suffering for no reason but to satisfy your self-loathing beliefs.

 

 

Matt Perryman
https://matts.email