This morning was tough; I’m not going to lie.
I want to share some lessons I learned, or maybe re-learned, and the vehicle that brought these lessons to me was my workout this morning at the gym.
The amazing and enlightening thing was that these 10 lessons I learned through facing, and completing a very challenging workout regime is that these apply to all aspects of my life and my clients lives.
So whether you face a challenge at work, or in running your own business, or whether you face a metabolic challenge like struggles with weight, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, or whatever that struggle is for you…..the lessons carried over to all aspects for me, and I hope they do for you as well.
1. Tough to do DOES NOT equal IMPOSSIBLE to get done.
The workout is 10 exercises, for 10 repetitions, done 10 times, so you end up doing 1,000 total repetitions, and it is a total body workout. The goal for me is to do that program 10 times total, and today was the 7th time. This workout always feels bigger than me. It’s easy to confuse difficulty with impossibility. But “tough” is just the label my brain gives something before I do it. The moment I start, I begin stripping that label away. Hard things shrink once I’m inside them. The workout wasn’t impossible — it was simply unattempted. And once I crossed that threshold, I understood at a deep level the significance of the difference.
2. DOING replaces DOUBT.
Doubt thrives in stillness. The longer I wait, the louder my excuses get. But the moment I act — even a small action — doubt gets pushed out of the room. In this particular round, the 7th time I am facing this challenging workout, the first rep proved to be the most important one because it interrupted the story my mind is telling me. What I learned is that you can’t think your way out of doubt; you can only move your way through it.
3. GRIT rhymes with QUIT.
There’s a reason these two words sit so close together — they show up at the exact same moment. When each of us feel our specific challenge “gets too heavy”, both voices show up: the one that tells you to stop, and the one that tells you to dig in. Grit isn’t the absence of the urge to quit; it’s the choice to keep going despite that urge. Every tough intersection of our personal and professional lives becomes a crossroads where we get the opportunity to practice choosing despite the urge. Be perfect in your practice, rather than trying to practice perfection.
4. The SABOTEUR WITHIN has no idea WHAT YOU CAN DO.
Your inner critic is loud, but not accurate. It only knows your limits from the past, not the potential you haven’t accessed yet. In my case this morning, with this tough workout, that inner saboteur insisted I was done long before my body really was. But that voice isn’t prophetic — it’s protective. And it protects you from growth. When you ignore it and push forward, you show it (and yourself) that it has no idea what you’re actually capable of.
5. FEELING depleted is a long way from BEING depleted.
There’s a huge gap between the moment you feel like you’re running out of gas and the moment you actually are. My workout exposed that gap clearly. This morning, my mind hit the panic button way before my body hit empty. When I kept going, what I discovered is that exhaustion isn’t a hard wall — it’s more like a fog. Push through it, and you quickly realize you still have plenty in the tank.
6. Without HARDSHIP there is no HERO.
Every hero story has a trial, a monster, a mountain — something that demands more than the hero thinks they have. For me, this super challenging workout served the same purpose as a reflection of all aspects in real life. It no longer was a training ground for muscle growth and endurance; it became a training ground for resilience. The truth I discovered was that we don’t become stronger because things are easy; we become stronger because we willingly walk into difficulty and come out the other side. Hardship is the furnace that forges every hero, including me, including you, including all of us.
7. Failure IS ALWAYS an option… don’t make it an OUTCOME.
Failure is always in the room, but it doesn’t have to sit at the head of the table. When you’re pushing through any challenge, in this case for me, a brutal workout, there’s always the possibility you won’t hit the reps or the pace. That’s reality. But outcomes are shaped by choices — not possibilities. By refusing to let failure be the choice you make, you reclaim control. You can acknowledge its presence without inviting it to stay.
8. MORE & NO MORE live in the same moment.
There’s a point in every person’s day, facing something that is overwhelming, daunting, and it appears too tough where you hit a paradox: you’re certain you have nothing left, yet somehow you find a little more. “No more” is your comfort zone talking; “more” is your potential answering back. These two states always coexist at the edge of effort. The one you choose to listen to is what determines your breakthrough.
9. WHAT YOU FEED WILL GROW.
Whether it’s discipline, resilience, self-belief — or doubt, fear, and hesitation — whatever you give attention and energy to expands. Each rep in my workout was like casting a vote for the person I am becoming. Choosing to feed my excuses, and they multiply. Choosing to feed my strength, and it compounds. This applies to EVERYTHING…..You see, my workout wasn’t just physical training; it was mental nutrition.
10. Once DONE, you realize you STILL HAVE MORE TO GIVE.
An undeniable truth surrounded me at the end of this grueling session: I am more capable than I believed. Finishing didn’t empty me — it reveals me. What felt like my limit was just a checkpoint. When the workout was over, and I caught my breath, I discovered a deeper reservoir of power I can tap again. That’s the gift of doing hard things: completion expands your sense of possible.
We all face hard things, the challenge is not in FACING hard things, it is in DOING hard things.
If you want to talk through the hard things you are facing either in your PERSONAL STRUGGLES or in your PROFESSIONAL STRUGGLES, please reach out for a no cost, no obligation conversation……it could be the difference between your GRIT and your QUIT.
