Lifting HEAVY in Personal Development (A Strategy For Building the Personal Development Muscles We Want)

Did you know that strengthening the mind is VERY similar to strengthening other muscles in your body? Did you know that the popular strategies offered by "personal development" gurus today are teaching us to use strategies that cause our minds to atrophy in strength? I want to offer a new approach in 2024, to your personal development. I want to offer a strategy that will have you flexing some POWERFUL mental muscle, and creating a life you TRULY desire. So, listen up. You DO NOT want to miss this.

Enjoy!!!

Transcript

Unknown: 0:09

Welcome to the authentic life connection podcast. I'm your host, Seth Lusk. I'm a master certified life coach, author, personal trainer and nutrition specialist. For over a decade, I've been helping people with their dreams and goals for their life and health. I spent many years watching people get frustrated with their journey in life and giving up on taking actions towards their goals. So I dug in deep to find answers to why so many of us face this same frustration and struggle in life. So in this podcast, we're gonna dive in deep on topics surrounding what it means to consistently live a fulfilling and authentic life, where you are unstoppable and taking action towards your dreams and goals. So the only question is, are you ready to start living your most authentic and fulfilling life once and for all? Then let's get started. Shall we? Hey, everyone, welcome back to the podcast. Those of you listening in for the first time, welcome, welcome. I'm laughing a little bit right now, because I'm being tested at the moment. And you'll understand why by the end of this episode, but I just spent 30 minutes talking to you all, only to find out that my microphone wasn't plugged in. And it did not record. So I just, I just finished recording this podcast for you all. And now I'm redoing it. And guess what, I'm not hating on it. I'm not hating on it. And here's why, guys the message that I have to offer you all today. And you know what, after doing it one time, I think I'm going to be better at it this time, I think I can I can deliver the message a little bit stronger now. Because I've got the experience literally just under my belt. My friends, I am not a huge promoter of waiting until the new year to do something new do something different because my whole approach to life is we don't need to wait for it to be uncomfortable enough. We don't need to wait for it to be the right time. We just need to see where we want to go and choose in that moment to make the decision that changes the direction that we're moving. Take the actions that will change the direction no matter how uncomfortable they feel. We take the action then. Because if it's all about trying to wait until I life is uncomfortable enough to want to get away from that discomfort, then your growth is going to be about avoiding discomfort. And that's what I want to talk with you all about today a new way for us to look at our personal development in 2024. And I want to compare it to something that I think will bring it home for a lot of y'all maybe some of you all don't know this, but I think a lot of you will do so this will make sense. For those of you don't know this, you welcome for the biology lesson. When we go to the gym, when we work out my friends, what causes us to have results from working out what causes us to gain strength, what causes us to gain endurance, to have those muscular gains that we're looking for those strength gains, those endurance gains that we're looking for, it is the stress that we put the muscles under, and how long we're willing to be under that stress if you go to the gym, and your goal is to just get out of there as fast as possible. If you have a certain number of repetitions for every exercise, you have to say you have five exercises and you have a certain number of repetition per exercise. So if your goal is to hurry up and get out of there as fast as possible, guess what you'll do, you'll pick lighter weights, because you can do the repetitions faster, you can catch your breath faster, you can we can recover between sets faster, move on to the next, exercise and finish. So many of you all approach your personal development in this way you're out here looking for these people that offer these quote unquote sexy, flashy solutions of get results in six months get results in one month, get results in two weeks, get results in seven days. And you're looking for this this flashy, quick, fix. Easy, make it easy, oh, it shouldn't be a struggle. It should be easy for you. If it's a struggle, it's not for you, it what's for you is just going to come and it's going to be easy, easy, easy, fast, fast. And you know what your muscles reflects that your mental muscles reflect that. So many of you all are looking for these kinds of solutions in your personal development because we've bought into this idea that life should be easy. Life should feel happy. Life should feel good all the time. But the truth is life is 5050 Life is 5050 And the point is for us to choose the struggles that create the life we want. The pain pleasure paradox, my friends is a real, we only experience pleasure because we can can experience pain and reading a book currently called dopamine nation. And this author is bringing up things that we've actually known since the 1960s. But we're not focusing in on and it's the fact that a reward system our dopamine cycle is a pain and pleasure cycle. And the brain does not like this being tipped in either direction, either towards pain or towards pleasure. Your brain will find a way to balance it out. If there's too much pain, your your brain is going to shut things down till you hate too much. We need to tip towards the side to pledge a little bit more your your brain wants, it's like a seesaw, your brain wants to seesaw level. And so many of us are buying into this bullshit, that life is about feeling happy, feeling good. And if it doesn't feel happy and good, then you're probably doing it wrong. And you should feel good, you should be happy. And so we're seeking so much to feel this pleasure of happiness, that what we don't realize is we're making it harder and harder to experience happiness, because the brain is now fighting us on it. Our brain literally can only experience life through contrast, the more we seek happiness, at the avoidance of pain, the more we open ourselves up to our ability to experience pain, and the harder and harder it is for us to experience happiness. And so many of you all I see it, I see it with you all. And I've been sitting back here patiently waiting for you all to listen to me. And that's what I want to talk with you all about today. This ability that I have to sit back in discomfort, and watch you all seek these quote unquote, sexy solutions out there. Well, I know, I know, it's not going to work for you. And I'm not getting the quick results that everyone's out here looking for right now. But guess what I'm building up something that you all don't even understand how to build up, because you're buying into this bullshit, that your personal development is all about feeling happier and better. Because it's not. It's about being able to choose the discomfort that will build the life you want. And how long can you stay under that discomfort will bring it back to that comparison to the workout in the gym. As I told you all before, if you have X number of exercises to do X number of repetitions per exercise, and your goal is to hurry up and get through that. So you can quote unquote, finish as fast as possible, which is what so many of you all are doing with your personal development, you just want to hurry up and get to the results. And the result is the finish. So your goal is to just hurry up and finish. And anyone who's finishing before you you're looking at them as if there's someone to admire because they finished before you. And so you're thinking Oh, I must have done something wrong, because I'm not finished yet. And I've been working at this longer than them. So I need to I need a better strategy to hurry up and finish finish, Finish, finish finish. And that's what you all are looking like these people that go in the gym. And their goal is to just hurry up and finish. So they lift light. They they hurry up, they rush through the repetitions, they rush through their sets, they rush through everything with lighter weights. And then they sit back and they look at the people who are struggling under the weight and sweating and grunting and screaming and dropping weights and falling down and not being able to finish the lifting to finish before you look at me. I'm done. I'm done. I'm done. And you're not done. And you're still working and look at me. I'm getting to enjoy the pleasure of finishing the results and getting the workout done. And you're still working and struggling and sweating and what's wrong with you? Why aren't you like me, and we're buying into this bullshit message. But what's interesting is when we look at it with strength training, we understand we understand the person that's in the gym and grunting and sweating and dropping the weight because it's too heavy for them and then getting back under it and struggling to lift it again and dropping the weight because it's too heavy for them, until eventually they can stand up with that weight. We know that that person six months from now a year from now, their muscles, their body is going to show it they're going to have the muscles and the strength in those muscles to show that they had been willing to be in that discomfort to lift heavy. Most of y'all out here, your quick results in your personal development show that you've been lifting light. You've been light lifting in your personal development in your inability to experience and be in discomfort to be in uncertainty to be in that pain, emotional pain and discomfort of struggling to build a new strength, your inability to do that. It's showing it showing that you are a light lifter in your personal development. It's showing that you were in a rush to get through your results to hurry up and make that quick 1 million. But then when the circumstances no longer support that one strategy to build that 1 million guess what you're lost. And you have no idea what to do. And you're like, Oh, I gotta do another quick strategy to make another baby. And your high pitch little squeaky voice and your little teeny tiny muscles are showing but guess what you don't know how to struggle to find a new solution because guess what you rushed through the discomfort the heavy lifting to get to a quick result. And your inability to be in the struggle when that strategy no longer works long enough to find a new strategy is what shows that you rushed through your personal development and so many of y'all, I'm sitting out here watching you do it. And I want to encourage us to look at our personal development in a new way. The same way we look at lifting weights. It's not sexy to hurry up and finish and get results. Because five years from now, 10 years from now, you're in your inability to persevere your inability to be in discomfort, your inability to be resilient when things don't work in your favor is going to show that you lifted light and fast And that's not sexy. I want to teach you all to stop buying into this flashy, quick result. message that a lot of the quote unquote personal development industry is throwing out, they just want to make a quick buck. And their inability to be resilient is going to reflect in about five to 10 years. When coaches like me who are telling you be in the struggle, be in it, lift heavier, is it difficult, good? Is it moving you towards building a muscle that will make something easier for you 10 years from now that everyone else is going to be struggling with good than struggle while they hurry up and finish the workout struggle while they're hurrying up and getting results. And 10 years from now, you're going to be the one that's teaching them. Oh, you don't know how to do that. Here. Let me show you how to lift that weight. I want to teach you all to be the real badasses in personal development, the people that are unstoppable when circumstances change, instead of being the flock of sheep that are looking around, like give me your hell give me your hell give me hell when the circumstances change, and the old house no longer work. I want to teach you all to be the leaders that will everyone else is going to help me help me. You're the one saying, Oh, that's cute. You don't know how to do it here. Let me show you how to lift that. Let me show you come here. This is how we lift that amount of weight. When the circumstances changing, the weight gets heavier. Will you be one of the people that's teaching other people how to lift heavy? Oh, will you be one of the people that's looking to the people that stayed in the struggle during this time that stayed under the weight during this time and struggled and dropped the weight and struggled and dropped the weight and struggled and dropped the weight until they figured out how to pick it up? Will you be one of those people showing everyone else who's scrambling around for a solution. Here's how we lift heavy guys. Let me show you how we find solutions in this new set of circumstances that you all aren't prepared for. Because you didn't want to lift heavy and learn how to create a how to you wanted to lift light and take somebody else's how to personal development, my friends is not about getting to the result faster by using someone else's how to the real strength is in the mental fortitude, the resilience, the perseverance, the endurance, of being able to say you know what, no, I'm not going to use your how to, I'm going to find my own, I'm going to choose the struggles that build the authentic life that I want in my own way. And building that kind of mental fortitude is what 10 years from now is going to put you in the position where you're the one showing everybody else. Let me show you how to lift a little bit heavier now that the circumstances have changed, I'm not scared of changing circumstances, because I know how to be in the struggle of changing circumstances to find my own new solution, instead of waiting on someone else to struggle through it, and give me their solution so that I can hurry up and get fast results and continue walking around with weak mental muscles. We understand this with strength training. But so often we overlook it with our personal development. We think it's not sexy to be struggling in our personal development, we think it's not sexy, to be working and working and working and working and not having the results that other people are having. And I'm here to tell you, that's the sexiest thing you can do. Because 10 years from now, when the circumstances change, and their strategies no longer work. They're going to be the ones coming to you being like I don't know what to do now. My strategies didn't work. And this was what somebody else told me to do before that was not working anymore. What do I do? What do I do? And you're gonna be the one to say, Hey, listen, here's how we create a new solution. We got new circumstances. Now let's take a look at elicit back, you're going to be chillin, and you're going to be ready for that struggle, you're going to be ready for that difficulty, you're going to be ready for that mental pain of you know what, old strategies don't work anymore. Let's get let's get under that weight. And let's lift heavy here. You're going to be the one that knows how to lift heavy when circumstances change. And the old easy lightweights no longer work. I want to teach you all that kind of personal development, that kind of perseverance, that social media right now is teaching you isn't sexy. It's about how fast can we get to the results lose 10 pounds in seven days lose 10 pounds in 48 hours just by taking this pill and you know, get these results with your body in just 30 days by doing this magical workout. Screw that. What if we struggled for an entire year to get those results, and we learned what it meant to be in the gym every day for an entire year and struggled through workouts for an entire year to get those results. You know what we're gonna have? We're gonna have strength that these other people don't even understand. In a workout. We're gonna be able to endure things that these people can't even think about possibly going through. In order to create results. We're going to be the real badasses. That's what I want to teach you all to do is to be able to see what you truly desire in life so clearly, that you can choose the struggles, the pain, the discomfort that create that, that create that for you, and then move into it with perseverance and an unstoppable it that looks just like how did this person do that? You know how they did it, lifting heavy, and your personal development? So when I ask you, what's your personal development looked like for the last year, two years, three years, five years? Do your mental muscles reflect the strategy you've been using? Are you looking for ways to distract yourself from the discomfort of your life, he tried to drink it away, eat it away. Video game it away, app it away, social media it away, news that away, Netflix it away, vacation it away. Because you don't quite understand how to be in that struggle and build those muscles. To create a life that you want that you don't need to distract yourself from that you don't need to run away from, that you don't need to hide from the pain of because it's the pain you want to create the life you want. Is that been your strategy because your muscles or your lack of muscles are showing right now. I want to teach you how to be to build the real mental muscle that personal development is supposed to be about. It's about, not about hurrying up and getting to the end and finishing. It's about everything that we learn. And we strengthen along the way by choosing to be in the discomfort to be in the uncertainty to be under that weight. And struggle under it long enough that we're stronger, more resilient, more able to endure. That's, that's the strategy I want to teach you all. And it only works. It only works when we know and see clearly what we truly want for life. Because when you're chasing after things that life is telling you, oh, you should want this, oh, you should want that, oh, you should do this, oh, this will make you a good person. When you're chasing these inauthentic goals. No, you're not going to want to be under that wait long enough to bear the discomfort to bear the weight, the load of that weight to bear the pain of it. To strengthen what you need to strengthen to build it because you don't even authentically want it. You just want to hurry up and have the results so that you can feel better about yourself. Well, if you want to hurry up and feel better about yourself, you can do that right now by dropping the weight and eating a candy bar by dropping the weight and having a little martini or having a glass of wine or dropping the weight and watching a little Netflix show and getting that little hit of dopamine. So many of you all your personal development muscles are showing that this has been your strategy that is all about hurrying up and getting somewhere to feel better about yourself. What if personal development was about choosing to be in a struggle that developed muscles and mental fortitude that people around us look to us? And we're like, how do you do that. And we're like, that's cute. Let me show you how we lift this weight. Let me show you. I've been under this weight for long enough. This is easy. For me, this isn't even hard, and they're still struggling with it. That's how we build up these personas, these personalities, these character traits, these abilities that that almost look super human. It's not by hurrying up and trying to get results. It's not by hurrying up and trying to finish. It's by being the person it's by being the tortoise not the hare, it's by being willing to be under the weight, it's by willing to be that lifter that lifts more than they're actually capable of and takes a little bit longer to get their 10 reps in and struggles and doesn't look sexy doing it. It's by billing, being willing to be in that process long enough to build up those mental muscles. Just like we build muscles up in our body. And so many of you all it shows, you've been lifting light and your personal development. Let's make 2020 for the year that we lift heavy, we lift heavy, we struggle we sweat, we grunt we don't look sexy doing it the next year, while everyone else is scrambling around. How do we do this? How do we do that? Because the circumstances have changed, which by the way, I think you all have learned by now in 2020. For the last four years have shown us circumstances circumstances can change drastically, resources can go away like that. Strategies that that were working for years ago no longer work just like that. If you all haven't learned that lesson by now wake up, wake up the universe is trying to tell us as humans, we can't control circumstances, they will be unpredictable. The the more we rely on a circumstance to give us something and the less we rely on our mental fortitude and ability to struggle through finding new solutions when things don't work. We're going to suffer when circumstances change. And this is what the lesson that humanity just keeps skipping over for the last four years. And I'm over here saying Hey, guys, you're missing the point. You're missing the point trying to hurry up and quote unquote, get back to normal and feel better. No, the universe is trying to show you be in the struggle. Learn how to lift heavy in your personal development when old strategies no longer work. Instead of it being all about having a quick fix strategy. When you're the person that's willing to be under the weight, willing to be in the struggle when circumstances change and old strategies no longer work and everyone else is backing up and screaming and scrambling and looking around at everybody else. Like what do I do? What do I do? You're gonna be the one walking up to the wait and saying here here's what We do Kalon we're gonna struggle with this, we're gonna we're gonna grunt we're not going to look sexy. And here's how we lift that. Which person do you want to be 2345 10 years from now? Do you want to be the sheep that's looking for how to? Or do you want to be the shepherd? That's creating the how to? Are you going to lift light in your personal development? Are you going to grunt and lift heavy. I'm here for those of y'all who are ready to lift heavy in your personal development, to develop that mental fortitude, to develop that resilience and perseverance. And you can ask anyone in my life, anyone in my life that knows me as a person. And they will tell you, if there is one character trait that they see in me that trust me, it's not there, because of the kind of person I am. It's there, because I chose I chose to develop it. That trait will be resilience, perseverance, and they will even sometimes call it stubbornness. And unlike Thank you, thank you for that I am, I am very stubborn. When I see what I want. You can't stop me, you'll have to kill me. That's the kind of tenacity resilience and perseverance I want to teach to other people. Stop letting life's circumstance changes to show your lifting light. Some of you all it shows circumstances change. And I can tell you've been lifting light in your personal development. I want to show you how when circumstances change, you're not caught with your your legs up in the air, your panties down, whatever, you know, analogy metaphor, you want to use the hair, I want to show you that to be the kind of person that when circumstances change. You're the shepherd, not the sheep. You're the one that says hey, yeah, that looks really heavy right there. Let's let's lift it. Let's let's see how we can move through this here. Let's find let's create a strategy to move through this new new circumstance, instead of cowering back and fear and looking to the past and be like, why can we go back to that there was so much more comfortable, we know how to do that, Oh, my God, how can we make it happen again, and again, you're going to be that person that says, Yeah, that looks scary, right there. Let's do it. And you're going to be the one that gets up under the weight, and struggles and lifts it while everyone else is looking to you to tell them the solution. I want to show you how to be that person. That's what I've got for you all 2024 We're going to lift heavy and personal development, we're going to stop letting the lifting light muscles show and our personal development, I want to teach you all how to be unstoppable and persevere. It's not a character trait that I was born with. I can point to all of the events in my life where I wanted to stop. Everything in my brain screamed, stop. This is too painful. This is too hard. This is too challenging. This is too scary. And I looked at my brain is that I love you. I get you. We're pushing forward. I want to teach you all how to do that in your own personal development. And while everyone else has cowering back, you're the shepherd, not the sheep. lifting heavy and personal development. Let's get under the weight. Let's be under the weight as long as we can. Let's grunt let's sweat. Let's do it ugly. Let's do it messy. And 10 years, five years, two years, three years. I don't know how long from now when circumstances change and everyone else is freaking out. You're going to be the one standing upon that weight going. Come on guys, we can do this. That's where I want you all to be. I love you all. Let's lift heavy and 2024. Talk to you next week. Until then, ciao. Thank you for joining us today. I hope you enjoyed the content of this podcast. If you did, please subscribe so that you're one of the first people to know when I release a new episode each week. If you have any questions or if you have interest in learning more about the coaching that I do with my clients one on one, then just head over to my website at WWW dot life coach seth.com that's www dot life coach seth.com there you're going to have the ability to reach out to me for questions that you might have or to book your free discovery call with me to discuss what one on one coaching with me might be like for you. You can also check out and order your copy of my book to get a taste of what I'm all about as a person and as a coach. I'm so happy that you joined us today and I hope to have you here again next week. So until then, let authenticity be the guide to your most unstoppable and fulfilling journey of life.