Posted by John Brackett | Posted in Mental Performance, Optimal Nutrition, Personal Energy, Strength / Conditioning | Posted on 23-08-2010
Tags: adaptation, challenge, challenges, give value, health, learning and education, playful, playfulness, satisfaction, the growth response, weight training
How would you like to *guarantee* your upcoming success in every area of your life?
What I’m talking about isn’t some ancient practice of manifestation from the past. What I’m talking about here is how your mind – and your body – both adapt to new challenges through a natural growth response. A perfect example of this is found in weight training. If you go into the gym and lift 40 lbs x 6 reps during your workout for the first time, your body is going to respond to that challenge by building more muscle – and more strength – to accomplish the same task easier next time.
Where it gets tricky is here: most people haphazardly lift the same weights workout-after-workout, week-after-week…sometimes even month-after-month. While this is great for being active and getting a sweat to clear out toxins and get the lymph system moving, it’s not providing a stimulus for growth (keep reading). Anyone who gets consistent results with weight training will tell you that you need to either add more weight to your lifts, or increase the number of reps per set. Small, consistent increases over time continually provide that stimulus for growth…and the results that go with it.
While this is all well and good, what’s the real importance in YOUR life? You may or may not be inspired by the idea of weight training and consciously sculpting your body, so here’s some of the good stuff: applications to YOUR life.
Examples-In-Action: “The Growth Response”
* Career/Vocation: If you continue doing the exact same job at work, day-after-day, you’ll continue to stay right where you’re at. If you love what you do and are happy with your financial condition, you can choose to focus on other areas of your life that may be drawing your attention! If not, however, realize this: you need to challenge yourself and GIVE MORE VALUE to provide that growth response. If you consistently give more value over time, your income will rise – one way or the other. If you’re in a career you love, your satisfaction will also grow through providing more value to others and yourself.
* Learning/Education: If you’ve found yourself in a pattern where you’re just working, eating, watching TV and going to sleep at night, you’re also “stuck”. There’s nothing wrong with any of these lifestyle choices, but I’m here to give you the awareness that you can make more powerful decisions – and they’re not hard. The idea is this: once again, you need to provide a stimulus for growth. To increase your intelligence, you need to be taking in new information every day – preferably through reading NEW books, watching NEW inspiring movies or educational DVDs, going to NEW seminars or live events; in short, anything that challenges your mind and gives you new information and experiences to grow through.
* Health/Fitness: Continuing with the same dietary path will keep you at the same level of health for the most part (besides other factors such as working out, being active and keeping stress levels normalized). If you eat the same few meals, day-after-day, you’ll continue to get those results via cause and effect! It’s so simple from a birds-eye-view. If you want to increase your health (”grow” your health and energy levels) you need to provide that stimulus – that challenge that forces the body to adapt and build itself back at a higher, more intelligent level. Give your body better and better foods, day-after-day and week-after-week, with small, consistent progress and you’ll find that your health will follow in tune over time.
Increase the amount of nutrition in your foods, moving at least to mostly organic and then slowly to 100% organic to completely eliminate the intake of toxic chemicals/pesticides in your body. Increase the amount of green, leafy vegetables and your dietary balance between protein, carbs and fats. See what works for your own physiology, as well as your own choice of lifestyle. This isn’t an exact science, but rather an exploration with incredible benefits around every corner. Create a playful attitude and take yourself to the highest possible state of health and enjoyment of life that you can.
* Love/Friendship: What I consider to be one of the greatest tragedies is the loss of passion in relationships. Routines take form, habits happen and many people become jaded over time, losing that sense of wonder and excitement in their lives. They then find themselves in stale relationships, whether with their partner or their friends – or worse, both. This can ALWAYS be turned around. The way to break that “stuck” state, as you’ve seen by now, is to provide that stimulus for growth! I’ve personally found the most inspiring attitude in relationships to be one of playfulness. When you’re playful, you’re enjoying life; you’ve tapped into an a feeling state that allows you to really have the best time ever with others. You feel connected, tuned into the present moment. You’re not thinking about what’s happened in the past, or what you expect to happen in the future. Rather, when you’re playful you’re truly playing the game of life!
This can be hard to swallow if you’ve been out of that feeling state for so long that it’s hard to imagine. Just think about the best memories you have of your relationships from the past: roadtrips, adventures, marriage, spontaneous dates, concerts…the list goes on and on. I’m willing to bet that MOST of your fondest memories of times past have been centered on a feeling of being playful – being “in the zone”. The lesson here? To enhance your personal relationships, GIVE more love and playfulness to others to receive more of the same! The magic of love and friendship can only happen when you’re in a state that’s receptive to receiving that energy. Being playful is that state.
We ONLY experience satisfying growth through challenging ourselves at new levels. When we build our physical strength, we enjoy more capable and self-sufficient bodies. When we build our mental development, we enhance our ability to think clearly, solve problems and come up with solutions, and so much more. We enjoy satisfaction at that precise moment that we’ve become aware of this growth in any or all areas of our lives. When you make the extra income, take a look at your before-and-after pictures, find playfulness and happiness in your personal relationships. All of this is possible, and all of it happens through one basic cycle: challenge and adaptation…“the growth response”.
Unleash Your Vitality,
– John Brackett
=> Your opinion matters. Leave a comment below and let me know what you think!
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Inspiring words. Keep the blog up. Very interesting stuff.
John, Thank you for your very interesting posts.
You are right John! I read a book years ago titled “Are You Fun to Live with?” I have forgotten the author’s name but it definitely changed how I viewed people. And it is a giving-attitude…. very loving , really…. thank you for reminding me !!