January 14, 2025 • 24 mins
The secret 6th core fundamental?!
What if personal growth was as tangible as building muscles at the gym? On this episode of the Sage Solutions Podcast, I, David Sage, promise to transform your perspective on self-improvement by comparing it to the physical act of muscle building. Drawing inspiration from Jeff Olson’s “The Slight Edge” and Darren Hardy’s “The Compound Effect,” we uncover the powerful impact of small, consistent actions that can lead to remarkable personal development over time. You'll learn how just like muscles, traits and skills need regular practice and recovery to thrive.
We explore how discipline and resilience stand out as "super muscles" vital for enhancing all aspects of life. With insights from Dr. K Anders Ericsson's research on deliberate practice and Angela Duckworth's study on grit, you’ll see how these key success factors drive lasting change. I share practical strategies such as focusing on one area for improvement, committing to daily habits, and celebrating small victories. Plus, your feedback is invaluable—so join our community of listeners by subscribing and sharing your thoughts on this educational journey.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the Sage Solutions Podcast, where we talk
about all things personalgrowth, personal development and
becoming your best self.
My name is David Sage and I'm aself-worth and confidence coach
with Sage Coaching Solutions.
I'm so glad you're here todaytoday, because today we're
(00:25):
talking about something thatmight completely change the way
that you think about personalgrowth, how your brain, your
skills and your traits are a lotlike a muscle.
Now, if you've followed thispodcast for a while, you know
that this is not the first timethat I have said something like
this.
This has been a consistenttheme that has come up again and
(00:49):
again throughout the SageSolutions podcast.
This concept is so important tome that I've actually been
referring to it as the secretsixth core fundamental.
It applies to so many differentareas of life that harnessing
and utilizing this cancompletely change the way that
(01:14):
you live your life.
So, in all seriousness, life islike a muscle, so build it, but
before we get into it, our goalwith this podcast is to share
free, helpful tools with you andanyone you know who is looking
(01:34):
to improve their life.
So take action, subscribe andshare this podcast with them.
This is about how your life,your skills and even your traits
are a lot like muscles.
That's right.
Just like you go to the gym tobuild your physical muscles, you
(01:54):
can apply the same principlesto strengthen your mind, your
habits and even the traits thatshape your life.
Now, I'm not saying life isjust about working out.
In fact, there's way more tolife than that.
Not that it's a bad habit tohave.
But just like building musclestakes consistent effort, so does
(02:16):
building a better version ofyourself.
So in this episode we'll talkabout the science behind muscle
growth, how it mirrors personaldevelopment and why some traits
like discipline are kind of likethe super muscles that make it
easier to develop everythingelse.
Plus, we'll dive into JeffOlson's the Slight Edge and
(02:39):
Darren Hardy's the CompoundEffect and how the concept that
both of these different booksreally are talking about the
same thing, and how that conceptis a huge factor in building
the muscles of your life.
So if you're ready, let's divein.
All right, so let's start withthe basics.
(03:00):
We all know muscles grow whenyou challenge them, right.
You pick up some weights, yourmuscles get tired, they break
down a little bit and then overtime they rebuild themselves
stronger.
This process is called musclehypertrophy and it's essentially
your body adapting to astressor so that it can handle
(03:21):
more next time.
But here's the thing it's notjust about the workout itself,
it's about the recovery.
You tear those muscle fibers,then you give your body time to
rest and repair, and when you dothis consistently, you see
results.
But let's get down into thenitty gritty of muscle building
(03:44):
Now.
I am not an expert on the fullscience of how to build a muscle
, and there is some disagreementas to what is the most optimal
way to build a muscle, and thereis the difference between
strength and hypertrophy, orbasically like building for
(04:06):
strength versus building forsize.
People can build forexplosiveness.
People can build more for, likemuscular endurance.
Some people are 100% on the gohard till failure.
Some people are on the.
It's all about load over time.
Basically, you have to pushyourself, you have to challenge
(04:34):
the muscles in your body.
Now I'm going to just talk aboutthe basics of it, not the most
perfect, optimal way to build amuscle, because I'm not an
expert on that.
What I will say is that, ingeneral, the way that muscles
work is that the most importantprinciple is use it or lose it.
(04:57):
If you don't use a muscle atall.
Over time it will start toatrophy at all.
Over time it will start toatrophy, meaning you will lose
muscle mass.
And skills and traits work thesame way.
If you completely stop usingthem, the muscle of a skill or a
trait that you've built up willslowly start to dissipate.
(05:19):
Now, if we take aging out ofthe equation, it's much easier
to rebuild a muscle that youhave built up in the first place
back to where it was than topush yourself beyond where
you've ever been before.
So if you have gotten verystrong in certain muscles and
you've let them atrophy some,you will get back up to where
(05:42):
you were much quicker than youwill pass that threshold.
And then there's another factor,which is muscle memory.
Let's take this when I was awrestler, I was stronger and in
better shape than I am right now, and in addition to building
muscles and building endurance,I also built skills.
(06:03):
I built specific wrestlingmoves.
I've built awareness.
I built many other peripheralthings that came with it, and
those were all built like amuscle as well.
But I also built muscle memory,and that muscle memory stays
with me, which makes it so that,even if the muscles that I have
to do a specific thing, like ahalf Nelson have fatigued, are
(06:29):
not as strong.
I still have the muscle memoryof how to do it, which puts me
way ahead of somebody that isjust first learning it.
And the same goes for any skillor trait.
While not using it may havecaused the muscle of that skill
to atrophy or weaken and fatigue, you can build that muscle back
(06:49):
up quicker and you still havethe muscle memory of how to do
it, putting you at a hugeadvantage.
So don't beat yourself up ifyou've let certain skills or
traits or even mental musclesfatigue because you have so many
things going for you to buildthose things back up way faster
than it took in the first place.
(07:10):
But we're not just talkingabout getting skills and traits
back.
We're also talking about how tobuild them up in the first
place.
From both my personal experienceand the statistical data around
the subject, consistency isking when it comes to building
(07:30):
muscle.
Yes, pushing yourself hardmaybe going to failure can be
really important.
Things get better at it withthe muscle memory and is going
to have consistently betterresults than the person that
(07:59):
once every month goes absolutelyham in the gym, blows their
muscles out and then doesn't usethem again for a month.
Consistency is king.
Are there other ways to buildmuscles?
Sure, it's possible, butstatistically speaking,
consistency is the best way togo.
You can combine differentthings and push yourself really
(08:20):
hard once in a while to helpspeed up your progress, but
consistency is what's going tomake it work.
Consistency is what keepspeople going to the gym,
consistency is what gets it done, and that is what we are going
for here when building ourlife's muscle skills.
And in order to be consistent,it doesn't have to be big,
(08:43):
strong, powerful things.
We are just looking for thedaily disciplines, the small
things.
We're looking to, over time,build habits and routines to
make these things automatic sothat we can continue to improve
on them in the background.
This is the beauty of the slightedge and the compound effect
(09:04):
and how they apply to buildingmuscles, both physically and in
all areas of life.
A quote by Robert Colliersuccess is the sum of our small
efforts, repeated day in and dayout.
Now let's talk about the powerof these small, consistent
(09:27):
efforts and how we can makethose small, simple steps work
for you.
This is where the powerfulideas in Jeff Olson's the Slight
Edge and Darren Hardy's theCompound Effect can be game
changers when it comes to makinglasting progress.
So let's start with the slightedge.
(09:48):
Jeff Olson talks about how smalldaily decisions have a huge
impact on your life.
He says you're only a fewslight edges away from success.
It's those simple little habitsincluding things like getting
1% better every day, likereading for 15 minutes or doing
five more pushups, that add upover time and create massive
(10:12):
change.
And while all it takes is theselittle slight edges, jeff
points out that these things areeasy to do, but also easy not
to do.
Darren Hardy's compound effectis similar.
Hardy talks about how the small, seemingly insignificant
actions that we take every daycompound over time, creating
(10:36):
huge results.
Imagine this If you're saving alittle bit of money each day or
eating just 100 fewer calories,that tiny change doesn't seem
like much in the moment, butover the course of a year those
small actions will have amassive impact.
Here's an example from musclebuilding.
When you lift weights, youdon't start with heavy weights.
(10:58):
You start light and work yourway up gradually, increasing the
load over time.
Those small increases in weightadd up.
The same goes for skills orhabits.
You don't need to tackleeverything all at once.
Just focus on improving alittle bit every day and you'll
see progress.
(11:19):
A quote by Darren Hardy in theCompound Effect is small, smart
choices plus consistency plustime equals radical difference.
Now let's take the concepts wejust talked about and apply that
to the brain and to personalgrowth.
(11:40):
Just like muscle building,developing new skills or
changing habits requires you topush yourself out of your
comfort zone.
You have to stretch yourself,maybe even fail a little, but
each time that you do it you getstronger.
It's the same idea.
(12:00):
And just like physical muscles,your brain can get stronger
with practice.
This process is calledneuroplasticity your brain's
ability to reorganize itself andcreate new connections in
response to learning andexperience.
Researchers have shown thatwhen you learn something new,
your brain literally grows.
(12:20):
So if you want to improve askill like public speaking or
problem solving, you've got towork at it, and just like
physical muscles, you're goingto need time to recover.
A quote by Dr John Rady thebrain, like the body, responds
(12:42):
to the stresses we place upon it.
In his book Spark, therevolutionary new science of
exercise and the brain.
Now let's talk about buildingtraits and skills.
Just like you wouldn't go tothe gym and expect to get ripped
after one workout.
You won't master any new skillovernight either, but over time,
(13:04):
as you keep working on it,you'll see progress.
What are some examples ofthings that are built like a
muscle?
Discipline, confidence, memory,critical thinking, courage,
self-compassion, grit,mindfulness, focusing on your
(13:25):
locus, building your actualfocus and attention span,
thinking in shades of gray,willpower, taking control of
your conscious perspective andreally building habits with the
habit loop that we talked aboutin our episode about holiday
discipline are also built like amuscle over time.
(13:47):
So just think about that for asecond Building any skill,
whether it's leadership, writingor even emotional regulation,
is like working out your brain.
You have to put in the time andkeep going.
The other important thing is,while some people might
(14:07):
naturally build physical musclesor specific skills more quickly
, we can all build just aboutany muscle in our body if we
take the right approach and wepush ourselves consistently.
Even just using those muscles,even if you're not pushing
yourself, is helping you stopany fatiguing of those muscles
(14:32):
and keeping them active andkeeping the muscle memory fresh.
If you think about your lifeand all of these different areas
as the many different musclesthat make up your body, you want
to be using all of thesemuscles, even if it's in flexing
it for a little bit or in smallways, just so that you don't
have any of them fatiguing.
(14:52):
And I'm both talking about yourphysical muscles and your
skills and traits.
If you've ever thought aboutman, I wish I was more blank.
I want to learn blank.
Any skill or trait that youwould like to develop, you can
do it.
It's just like a muscle.
(15:13):
You just have to work at itconsistently and push yourself
and practice over time.
Personality isn't permanent.
Any skill or trait that youwould like to develop, you can.
This opens up an incredibleworld of possibility.
It makes your life anincredibly different experience.
(15:36):
You can become or be anyone youwant to be.
Now, am I saying you shouldn'tbe you?
Absolutely not.
You are you, you are enough,you are great.
But that doesn't mean that youcan't continue to grow and
improve and become the you thatyou truly want to be, you with
(15:56):
this trait that you've alwayswanted, you.
Who knows this skill thatyou've always wanted to have, or
improve upon what you'vealready got?
Don't focus on the lack of whatyou don't have, but focus on
how you can continue to improve,fall in love with the process.
Here's something interestingthere are some muscles that,
(16:19):
when built, make it easier togrow other muscles.
One example of a muscle thatcan make other muscles grow
faster is strengthening yourcore and your back.
By having extra stability, youare making it easier to do many
(16:39):
other different exercises and bemore stable and less likely to
get injured and, as a result,you will be able to grow those
muscles, those other muscles,faster.
So an example of that, when itcomes to skills and traits,
would be discipline.
Like think about discipline.
It's like a super muscle.
(17:00):
If you work on building themuscle of discipline
consistently, it not only helpsyou stick to your fitness
routine, but it also spills overinto other areas of your life.
You've developed this skill,this trait of discipline, that
you can now apply to manydifferent areas of your life.
You've developed this skill,this trait of discipline, that
you can now apply to manydifferent areas of your life.
Suddenly, it's easier to workon your communication skills,
(17:24):
your financial habits or evenyour emotional intelligence,
because you've developed themuscle of discipline, which
leads to consistency.
To give another example of asuper muscle trait, let's take
resilience.
Resilience is like a mentalmuscle the more you face
(17:48):
challenges, and the more youbounce back, the more you're
strengthening your ability tohandle adversity.
It's not that you enjoy thetough moments, not to say there
isn't plenty of power inenjoying overcoming obstacles,
but with each challenge you getbetter at dealing with them.
And guess what?
That resilience will help youin just about every area of your
(18:13):
life.
There's actually a powerfulstudy by Dr K Anders Ericsson
which found that expertise isn'tabout talent, it's about
deliberate practice.
He showed that to reachworld-class performance, you
need roughly 10,000 hours ofconsistent practice.
Yes, 10,000 hours to mastery.
(18:35):
But here's the good news youdon't need to go all in all at
once.
The key is steady, focusedeffort over time.
Grit is a trait of mentaltoughness and passion and
consistency, of discipline andcourage over time.
(18:57):
It includes persistence andperseverance.
It is the number one predictorof success for any individual,
according to a study by AngelaDuckworth, who won the Genius
Award for her research on grit.
I am personally working ongrowing the muscle of grit for
(19:21):
myself, and grit is a compoundmuscle.
It has multiple differentmuscles within it that I am all
trying to build at the same timeto help cultivate more and more
of this trait of grit withinmyself.
So just remember grit makesgreatness, consistency is king,
(19:41):
persistence is power, practiceis the purpose.
The obstacle is the way, actioncures everything, discipline is
destiny, courage is calling andgrowth is the goal.
So how can you actually applythis philosophy to your life?
(20:04):
It's pretty simple, but itrequires consistency and
commitment.
So here is the easiest way tostart.
First, pick one area to improve.
Don't try to change everythingat once, whether it's improving
your communication, buildingdiscipline or learning a new
skill.
Pick one area to start with.
(20:25):
Focus all your energy on that.
Second, commit to consistency.
Set aside just 10 to 15 minutesa day to work on that area.
It doesn't have to be a hugechunk of time, but it does need
to be consistent.
Remember small efforts everyday are the key.
Third, track your progress.
(20:46):
This part is important.
Keeping track of your progress,even if it's just journaling a
bit at the end of each day orreflecting in your mind every
day on how it went, can make amassive difference over the long
term.
You'll be amazed by how muchyou've accomplished when you
look back after a month or two.
(21:07):
Fourth, embrace the journey Likebuilding a muscle.
There will be moments when youfeel like you're just not
progressing, but trust me, everytime you feel challenged or
even frustrated, you're actuallygrowing.
Every time you feel challengedor even frustrated, you're
actually growing.
Don't be afraid to fail.
Failures are just opportunitiesto adjust and learn.
(21:28):
Pivot and try again.
And, lastly, celebrate yourwins.
Even the small wins deserve amoment of celebration, whether
(21:49):
it's doing one more push-up thanyou did last week or sticking
to a new habit for a whole week.
Take a second to acknowledgeyour growth.
It'll help keep you motivated.
So take action.
Start building these muscles.
Remember action is success andoutcomes all outcomes, good and
bad are learning.
How do we get ourselves to dothese things?
Reduce the friction, make themsmall, simple steps.
(22:11):
This isn't about gettingimmediate results.
Throw that out the window.
Practice is the purpose.
Fall in love with practicing.
Small, simple steps, easy to do, easy not to do, but they make
a world of difference over time.
(22:31):
So, to wrap things up, lifereally is like a muscle.
If you want to get stronger inany area of your life, whether
it's your skills, your habits oryour mindset, you've got to put
in the work, you've got tochallenge yourself, give
yourself time to recover andstay consistent.
And don't forget some muscleslike discipline are amplifiers
(22:56):
that make it easier to grow inother areas.
To grow in other areas byapplying the slight edge and the
compound effect.
Those small daily actions,those simple daily disciplines
can give you a slight edge andcompound over time, leading to
big, lasting changes in the longrun.
(23:17):
So what's the next muscleyou're going to start building?
Start small and stay consistent.
Every day is an opportunity toget one percent better.
And remember you are enough andyou deserve to fill up your
inner cup with happiness,confidence and self-compassion.
(23:45):
Thank you for listening to theSage Solutions Podcast.
Your time is valuable and I'mso glad you choose to learn and
grow here with me.
We'd love to hear your feedback, so click the link in the
description and let us know whatyou think.
If you haven't already, don'tforget to subscribe so you don't
(24:06):
miss out on more sage advice.
One last thing the legallanguage.
This podcast is for educationaland informational purposes only
.
No coaching client relationshipis formed.
It is not intended as asubstitute for the personalized
(24:30):
advice of a physician,professional coach,
psychotherapist or otherqualified professional.
Welcome to the Sage Solutions Podcast, where we talk
about all things personalgrowth, personal development and
becoming your best self.
My name is David Sage and I'm aself-worth and confidence coach
with Sage Coaching Solutions.
I'm so glad you're here todaytoday, because today we're
(00:25):
talking about something thatmight completely change the way
that you think about personalgrowth, how your brain, your
skills and your traits are a lotlike a muscle.
Now, if you've followed thispodcast for a while, you know
that this is not the first timethat I have said something like
this.
This has been a consistenttheme that has come up again and
(00:49):
again throughout the SageSolutions podcast.
This concept is so important tome that I've actually been
referring to it as the secretsixth core fundamental.
It applies to so many differentareas of life that harnessing
and utilizing this cancompletely change the way that
(01:14):
you live your life.
So, in all seriousness, life islike a muscle, so build it, but
before we get into it, our goalwith this podcast is to share
free, helpful tools with you andanyone you know who is looking
(01:34):
to improve their life.
So take action, subscribe andshare this podcast with them.
This is about how your life,your skills and even your traits
are a lot like muscles.
That's right.
Just like you go to the gym tobuild your physical muscles, you
(01:54):
can apply the same principlesto strengthen your mind, your
habits and even the traits thatshape your life.
Now, I'm not saying life isjust about working out.
In fact, there's way more tolife than that.
Not that it's a bad habit tohave.
But just like building musclestakes consistent effort, so does
(02:16):
building a better version ofyourself.
So in this episode we'll talkabout the science behind muscle
growth, how it mirrors personaldevelopment and why some traits
like discipline are kind of likethe super muscles that make it
easier to develop everythingelse.
Plus, we'll dive into JeffOlson's the Slight Edge and
(02:39):
Darren Hardy's the CompoundEffect and how the concept that
both of these different booksreally are talking about the
same thing, and how that conceptis a huge factor in building
the muscles of your life.
So if you're ready, let's divein.
All right, so let's start withthe basics.
(03:00):
We all know muscles grow whenyou challenge them, right.
You pick up some weights, yourmuscles get tired, they break
down a little bit and then overtime they rebuild themselves
stronger.
This process is called musclehypertrophy and it's essentially
your body adapting to astressor so that it can handle
(03:21):
more next time.
But here's the thing it's notjust about the workout itself,
it's about the recovery.
You tear those muscle fibers,then you give your body time to
rest and repair, and when you dothis consistently, you see
results.
But let's get down into thenitty gritty of muscle building
(03:44):
Now.
I am not an expert on the fullscience of how to build a muscle
, and there is some disagreementas to what is the most optimal
way to build a muscle, and thereis the difference between
strength and hypertrophy, orbasically like building for
(04:06):
strength versus building forsize.
People can build forexplosiveness.
People can build more for, likemuscular endurance.
Some people are 100% on the gohard till failure.
Some people are on the.
It's all about load over time.
Basically, you have to pushyourself, you have to challenge
(04:34):
the muscles in your body.
Now I'm going to just talk aboutthe basics of it, not the most
perfect, optimal way to build amuscle, because I'm not an
expert on that.
What I will say is that, ingeneral, the way that muscles
work is that the most importantprinciple is use it or lose it.
(04:57):
If you don't use a muscle atall.
Over time it will start toatrophy at all.
Over time it will start toatrophy, meaning you will lose
muscle mass.
And skills and traits work thesame way.
If you completely stop usingthem, the muscle of a skill or a
trait that you've built up willslowly start to dissipate.
(05:19):
Now, if we take aging out ofthe equation, it's much easier
to rebuild a muscle that youhave built up in the first place
back to where it was than topush yourself beyond where
you've ever been before.
So if you have gotten verystrong in certain muscles and
you've let them atrophy some,you will get back up to where
(05:42):
you were much quicker than youwill pass that threshold.
And then there's another factor,which is muscle memory.
Let's take this when I was awrestler, I was stronger and in
better shape than I am right now, and in addition to building
muscles and building endurance,I also built skills.
(06:03):
I built specific wrestlingmoves.
I've built awareness.
I built many other peripheralthings that came with it, and
those were all built like amuscle as well.
But I also built muscle memory,and that muscle memory stays
with me, which makes it so that,even if the muscles that I have
to do a specific thing, like ahalf Nelson have fatigued, are
(06:29):
not as strong.
I still have the muscle memoryof how to do it, which puts me
way ahead of somebody that isjust first learning it.
And the same goes for any skillor trait.
While not using it may havecaused the muscle of that skill
to atrophy or weaken and fatigue, you can build that muscle back
(06:49):
up quicker and you still havethe muscle memory of how to do
it, putting you at a hugeadvantage.
So don't beat yourself up ifyou've let certain skills or
traits or even mental musclesfatigue because you have so many
things going for you to buildthose things back up way faster
than it took in the first place.
(07:10):
But we're not just talkingabout getting skills and traits
back.
We're also talking about how tobuild them up in the first
place.
From both my personal experienceand the statistical data around
the subject, consistency isking when it comes to building
(07:30):
muscle.
Yes, pushing yourself hardmaybe going to failure can be
really important.
Things get better at it withthe muscle memory and is going
to have consistently betterresults than the person that
(07:59):
once every month goes absolutelyham in the gym, blows their
muscles out and then doesn't usethem again for a month.
Consistency is king.
Are there other ways to buildmuscles?
Sure, it's possible, butstatistically speaking,
consistency is the best way togo.
You can combine differentthings and push yourself really
(08:20):
hard once in a while to helpspeed up your progress, but
consistency is what's going tomake it work.
Consistency is what keepspeople going to the gym,
consistency is what gets it done, and that is what we are going
for here when building ourlife's muscle skills.
And in order to be consistent,it doesn't have to be big,
(08:43):
strong, powerful things.
We are just looking for thedaily disciplines, the small
things.
We're looking to, over time,build habits and routines to
make these things automatic sothat we can continue to improve
on them in the background.
This is the beauty of the slightedge and the compound effect
(09:04):
and how they apply to buildingmuscles, both physically and in
all areas of life.
A quote by Robert Colliersuccess is the sum of our small
efforts, repeated day in and dayout.
Now let's talk about the powerof these small, consistent
(09:27):
efforts and how we can makethose small, simple steps work
for you.
This is where the powerfulideas in Jeff Olson's the Slight
Edge and Darren Hardy's theCompound Effect can be game
changers when it comes to makinglasting progress.
So let's start with the slightedge.
(09:48):
Jeff Olson talks about how smalldaily decisions have a huge
impact on your life.
He says you're only a fewslight edges away from success.
It's those simple little habitsincluding things like getting
1% better every day, likereading for 15 minutes or doing
five more pushups, that add upover time and create massive
(10:12):
change.
And while all it takes is theselittle slight edges, jeff
points out that these things areeasy to do, but also easy not
to do.
Darren Hardy's compound effectis similar.
Hardy talks about how the small, seemingly insignificant
actions that we take every daycompound over time, creating
(10:36):
huge results.
Imagine this If you're saving alittle bit of money each day or
eating just 100 fewer calories,that tiny change doesn't seem
like much in the moment, butover the course of a year those
small actions will have amassive impact.
Here's an example from musclebuilding.
When you lift weights, youdon't start with heavy weights.
(10:58):
You start light and work yourway up gradually, increasing the
load over time.
Those small increases in weightadd up.
The same goes for skills orhabits.
You don't need to tackleeverything all at once.
Just focus on improving alittle bit every day and you'll
see progress.
(11:19):
A quote by Darren Hardy in theCompound Effect is small, smart
choices plus consistency plustime equals radical difference.
Now let's take the concepts wejust talked about and apply that
to the brain and to personalgrowth.
(11:40):
Just like muscle building,developing new skills or
changing habits requires you topush yourself out of your
comfort zone.
You have to stretch yourself,maybe even fail a little, but
each time that you do it you getstronger.
It's the same idea.
(12:00):
And just like physical muscles,your brain can get stronger
with practice.
This process is calledneuroplasticity your brain's
ability to reorganize itself andcreate new connections in
response to learning andexperience.
Researchers have shown thatwhen you learn something new,
your brain literally grows.
(12:20):
So if you want to improve askill like public speaking or
problem solving, you've got towork at it, and just like
physical muscles, you're goingto need time to recover.
A quote by Dr John Rady thebrain, like the body, responds
(12:42):
to the stresses we place upon it.
In his book Spark, therevolutionary new science of
exercise and the brain.
Now let's talk about buildingtraits and skills.
Just like you wouldn't go tothe gym and expect to get ripped
after one workout.
You won't master any new skillovernight either, but over time,
(13:04):
as you keep working on it,you'll see progress.
What are some examples ofthings that are built like a
muscle?
Discipline, confidence, memory,critical thinking, courage,
self-compassion, grit,mindfulness, focusing on your
(13:25):
locus, building your actualfocus and attention span,
thinking in shades of gray,willpower, taking control of
your conscious perspective andreally building habits with the
habit loop that we talked aboutin our episode about holiday
discipline are also built like amuscle over time.
(13:47):
So just think about that for asecond Building any skill,
whether it's leadership, writingor even emotional regulation,
is like working out your brain.
You have to put in the time andkeep going.
The other important thing is,while some people might
(14:07):
naturally build physical musclesor specific skills more quickly
, we can all build just aboutany muscle in our body if we
take the right approach and wepush ourselves consistently.
Even just using those muscles,even if you're not pushing
yourself, is helping you stopany fatiguing of those muscles
(14:32):
and keeping them active andkeeping the muscle memory fresh.
If you think about your lifeand all of these different areas
as the many different musclesthat make up your body, you want
to be using all of thesemuscles, even if it's in flexing
it for a little bit or in smallways, just so that you don't
have any of them fatiguing.
(14:52):
And I'm both talking about yourphysical muscles and your
skills and traits.
If you've ever thought aboutman, I wish I was more blank.
I want to learn blank.
Any skill or trait that youwould like to develop, you can
do it.
It's just like a muscle.
(15:13):
You just have to work at itconsistently and push yourself
and practice over time.
Personality isn't permanent.
Any skill or trait that youwould like to develop, you can.
This opens up an incredibleworld of possibility.
It makes your life anincredibly different experience.
(15:36):
You can become or be anyone youwant to be.
Now, am I saying you shouldn'tbe you?
Absolutely not.
You are you, you are enough,you are great.
But that doesn't mean that youcan't continue to grow and
improve and become the you thatyou truly want to be, you with
(15:56):
this trait that you've alwayswanted, you.
Who knows this skill thatyou've always wanted to have, or
improve upon what you'vealready got?
Don't focus on the lack of whatyou don't have, but focus on
how you can continue to improve,fall in love with the process.
Here's something interestingthere are some muscles that,
(16:19):
when built, make it easier togrow other muscles.
One example of a muscle thatcan make other muscles grow
faster is strengthening yourcore and your back.
By having extra stability, youare making it easier to do many
(16:39):
other different exercises and bemore stable and less likely to
get injured and, as a result,you will be able to grow those
muscles, those other muscles,faster.
So an example of that, when itcomes to skills and traits,
would be discipline.
Like think about discipline.
It's like a super muscle.
(17:00):
If you work on building themuscle of discipline
consistently, it not only helpsyou stick to your fitness
routine, but it also spills overinto other areas of your life.
You've developed this skill,this trait of discipline, that
you can now apply to manydifferent areas of your life.
You've developed this skill,this trait of discipline, that
you can now apply to manydifferent areas of your life.
Suddenly, it's easier to workon your communication skills,
(17:24):
your financial habits or evenyour emotional intelligence,
because you've developed themuscle of discipline, which
leads to consistency.
To give another example of asuper muscle trait, let's take
resilience.
Resilience is like a mentalmuscle the more you face
(17:48):
challenges, and the more youbounce back, the more you're
strengthening your ability tohandle adversity.
It's not that you enjoy thetough moments, not to say there
isn't plenty of power inenjoying overcoming obstacles,
but with each challenge you getbetter at dealing with them.
And guess what?
That resilience will help youin just about every area of your
(18:13):
life.
There's actually a powerfulstudy by Dr K Anders Ericsson
which found that expertise isn'tabout talent, it's about
deliberate practice.
He showed that to reachworld-class performance, you
need roughly 10,000 hours ofconsistent practice.
Yes, 10,000 hours to mastery.
(18:35):
But here's the good news youdon't need to go all in all at
once.
The key is steady, focusedeffort over time.
Grit is a trait of mentaltoughness and passion and
consistency, of discipline andcourage over time.
(18:57):
It includes persistence andperseverance.
It is the number one predictorof success for any individual,
according to a study by AngelaDuckworth, who won the Genius
Award for her research on grit.
I am personally working ongrowing the muscle of grit for
(19:21):
myself, and grit is a compoundmuscle.
It has multiple differentmuscles within it that I am all
trying to build at the same timeto help cultivate more and more
of this trait of grit withinmyself.
So just remember grit makesgreatness, consistency is king,
(19:41):
persistence is power, practiceis the purpose.
The obstacle is the way, actioncures everything, discipline is
destiny, courage is calling andgrowth is the goal.
So how can you actually applythis philosophy to your life?
(20:04):
It's pretty simple, but itrequires consistency and
commitment.
So here is the easiest way tostart.
First, pick one area to improve.
Don't try to change everythingat once, whether it's improving
your communication, buildingdiscipline or learning a new
skill.
Pick one area to start with.
(20:25):
Focus all your energy on that.
Second, commit to consistency.
Set aside just 10 to 15 minutesa day to work on that area.
It doesn't have to be a hugechunk of time, but it does need
to be consistent.
Remember small efforts everyday are the key.
Third, track your progress.
(20:46):
This part is important.
Keeping track of your progress,even if it's just journaling a
bit at the end of each day orreflecting in your mind every
day on how it went, can make amassive difference over the long
term.
You'll be amazed by how muchyou've accomplished when you
look back after a month or two.
(21:07):
Fourth, embrace the journey Likebuilding a muscle.
There will be moments when youfeel like you're just not
progressing, but trust me, everytime you feel challenged or
even frustrated, you're actuallygrowing.
Every time you feel challengedor even frustrated, you're
actually growing.
Don't be afraid to fail.
Failures are just opportunitiesto adjust and learn.
(21:28):
Pivot and try again.
And, lastly, celebrate yourwins.
Even the small wins deserve amoment of celebration, whether
(21:49):
it's doing one more push-up thanyou did last week or sticking
to a new habit for a whole week.
Take a second to acknowledgeyour growth.
It'll help keep you motivated.
So take action.
Start building these muscles.
Remember action is success andoutcomes all outcomes, good and
bad are learning.
How do we get ourselves to dothese things?
Reduce the friction, make themsmall, simple steps.
(22:11):
This isn't about gettingimmediate results.
Throw that out the window.
Practice is the purpose.
Fall in love with practicing.
Small, simple steps, easy to do, easy not to do, but they make
a world of difference over time.
(22:31):
So, to wrap things up, lifereally is like a muscle.
If you want to get stronger inany area of your life, whether
it's your skills, your habits oryour mindset, you've got to put
in the work, you've got tochallenge yourself, give
yourself time to recover andstay consistent.
And don't forget some muscleslike discipline are amplifiers
(22:56):
that make it easier to grow inother areas.
To grow in other areas byapplying the slight edge and the
compound effect.
Those small daily actions,those simple daily disciplines
can give you a slight edge andcompound over time, leading to
big, lasting changes in the longrun.
(23:17):
So what's the next muscleyou're going to start building?
Start small and stay consistent.
Every day is an opportunity toget one percent better.
And remember you are enough andyou deserve to fill up your
inner cup with happiness,confidence and self-compassion.
(23:45):
Thank you for listening to theSage Solutions Podcast.
Your time is valuable and I'mso glad you choose to learn and
grow here with me.
We'd love to hear your feedback, so click the link in the
description and let us know whatyou think.
If you haven't already, don'tforget to subscribe so you don't
(24:06):
miss out on more sage advice.
One last thing the legallanguage.
This podcast is for educationaland informational purposes only
.
No coaching client relationshipis formed.
It is not intended as asubstitute for the personalized
(24:30):
advice of a physician,professional coach,
psychotherapist or otherqualified professional.
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