Progressive overload is an exercise term created by Dr. Thomas Delrome during World War II. It’s defined as ‘the gradual increase of stress placed upon the body during exercise training’. In plain English, it means taking things one step further than you were before.
I’ve preached and preached about the importance of progressive overload throughout my exercise site, but at as I think about it more and more, I realized that one of the secrets to life fulfillment is a constant need of progressive overload in ALL aspects of your life.
Motivational speaker Anthony Robbins once stated that one of the 6 human needs of a person is the need for personal growth. Simply put, “we either grow or we die.” That’s the same way with every living thing on this planet.
So how do we ‘grow’ in all aspects of your lives? The same way we grow and develop our muscular and skeletal system: PROGRESSIVE FRICKIN’ OVERLOAD. Many people outside of fitness simply call this, “stepping out of your comfort zone.”
Doesn’t that make sense? When we want to be better at something, anything, we step out of our comfort zone and eventually we grow to meet the demand, just like in exercise. It just takes small, incremental, steps beyond where we were before to exhibit this growth. Eventually, we’ll take a look back and realize how far we’ve come.
Let’s take Donald Trump, for example. His comfort zone could’ve easily been working under the wing of his father, Fred Trump, also a very successful real estate tycoon. In fact, if it wasn’t for this own ambitions, Trump could have easily been a male version of Paris Hilton, one who rides the coattails of her father’s success.
Instead, Trump decided to break away from his father’s work and set out on his own journey. Like a beginner not stepping up to a 500 pound deadlift, Trump didn’t try to start huge (Trump Tower wasn’t even on his radar). He started in smaller increments, steadily and gradually pushing past his comfort zone. He started first at the Penn Central Rail yards, rebuilding and reestablishing them, before transforming the old Commodore Hotel to the Grand Hyatt. Little by little, property by property, he built them up, even survived a real estate crash of the early 90s, to steadily build the empire we all see today. Yes, Trump’s Casinos have seen some hard times, as did many real estate moguls for the past couple years, but my opinion about real men of power being able to endure, I’ll save for another day.
So, how do we relate the exploits of ‘The Donald’ to our own lives? It’s simple. Life’s fulfillment comes from feeling like life is a journey, from one point to another, and not a spinning wheel that goes no where. Learn something new, try something out, take on a project you wouldn’t have before. Make every year ‘your year’ so that way when another candle is added to your cake, you can look back and say, “that was a great year. Here’s to an even better one.”
Stay DRIVEN, folks. Spartan, out.
