How Much Stronger Can You Be?

In today’s world that, for many of us, is plush with both material and now cognitive comforts (e.g. movies, social media, etc.), it has become increasingly difficult to break free.

If you want to do more creating and a little less consuming, it can feel nearly impossible to escape the gravitational pull of your daily routines.

After a long day of work, who has the energy to pursue a new interest or hobby or project?

It’s true.  Breaking the routines we build for ourselves is both a physical and mental effort.  

And often times, the mental effort feels significantly more challenging.

When we try new things or go to new places or meet new people, it requires us to experience the anticipation / fear leading up to the new experience.

We feel vulnerable.

We feel silly.

We feel discomfort.

And that feeling of discomfort is strong enough to prevent millions of us everyday from taking a step in a new direction.

Two ways I work on this with clients are things we have mentioned before.

Establishing a new underlying identity that is powered by a different set of beliefs.

And mastering neutral thinking in order to have a different response in the moments of fear or doubt.

Those frameworks and strategies are very effective structures for the long term.

But I also focus on building knowledge.  The more we understand about ourselves intellectually, the more sturdy we are psychologically.

Which brings me to the concept of “antifragility” coined by Nassim Taleb.

Fragile things break easily and get weaker when they come under a certain amount of pressure.

But antifragile things do the opposite.  

As Jonathan Haidt describes it in The Anxious Generation, antifragile is used to “describe things that actually need to get knocked over now and then in order to become strong.”

Think of our immune system.  When it gets exposed to new viruses, it learns to defend itself better in the future, which makes it stronger.

Our minds are also antifragile.

New experiences make us stronger.

So remember that every time you put yourself out there to try something new - a new behavior or hobby or program - you are inherently making yourself stronger.

What is something that you have wanted to do, but are afraid to?  

How will it make you stronger?

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