Grit & Resilience – How Mental & Physical Strength Go Hand in Hand

What separates high performers from the men who quit when things get hard? Grit.

In this episode of The Highly Effective Man Podcast, I break down the true meaning of resilience—why mental and physical strength are inseparable, how to train both, and why learning to endure suffering is the key to success in every area of life.

🔥 Inside this episode, you’ll learn:
✅ The SEAL training moment that almost broke me—and what it taught me about mental toughness
✅ How to push past your limits and build unshakable resilience
✅ The “One More” Rule and other daily grit-building habits you can implement today
✅ Why grit isn’t just for athletes—and how one man in our community is battling cancer with a warrior’s mindset
✅ The exact challenges, workouts, and mental conditioning I use to forge elite-level toughness

💥 Want to work with me 1-on-1? I’m opening up only 5 spots in April for high-performance coaching. If you’re a driven man who’s ready to master discipline, energy, and performance, DM me “COACH” on Instagram [@thehighlyeffectiveman] to get the details.

Join The Highly Effective Man Community – Surround yourself with men who push limits and level up daily.

💪 Test Your Grit: Take on the 5-Minute Plank Challenge or 100 Burpees for Time and DM me “GRIT” with your results.

If you’re ready to stop quitting on yourself, build elite mental and physical strength, and dominate every area of life—this episode is for you.

🔥 Listen now, and let’s get after it!

#Grit #MentalToughness #Resilience #HighPerformance #Discipline #MenWhoLead #HighlyEffectiveMan #MindsetMastery #FitnessForMen #ElitePerformance

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to the Highly Effective man podcast hosted by
former Navy SEAL turned lifeand fitness coach.
I'm your host, jp Bolwan.
This podcast is your resourcefor unlocking the healthiest,
most productive and highlyeffective man within you.
Let's go.
What's up, guys?

(00:35):
Welcome back to the HighlyEffective man podcast.
Okay, today we're going to talkabout grit and resilience and
how mental and physical strengthgo hand in hand.
So I'm going to ask you aquestion what do you think
separates the men who pushthrough pain from the ones that
break?
I'm going to tell you, it's nottalent, it's not genetics, it's
grit.
Grit's what allows you to keepgoing when your mind is

(00:58):
screaming for you to quit.
It's the difference between aman who backs down and the one
who finds one more rep, one morestep and one more second of a
fight.
Today, we're going to dive intogrit and resilience and why
mental and physical strength areinseparable and how to train
both, and why learning to enduresuffering is the key to success

(01:20):
in every area of life.
And I promise you this by theend of this episode, you will
walk away with the tools toforge an unshakable mind.
Let's get to work Now.
I want to take you guys back toa time that is probably one of
the hardest moments in my life.
Okay, and that was Hell Week.
All right, this is in 1996 andSEAL training, and back then

(01:46):
Hell Week was the fifth week oftraining and at this particular
time I think it was maybeTuesday or might even been
Wednesday, but I want to say itwas Tuesday.
But we've been moving for hours, miles and miles, with the
boats on our heads and at thispoint we were circling a
freaking parking lot, you know,and we just kept going around

(02:09):
and around and around andthere's all these concrete
blocks you know, like theparking blocks that you know
they put for cars so they don'tlike roll into the car in front
of them.
I can still see them and I canstill picture this like, I can
still picture the concreteblocks, what they look like.
They were yellow, it was dark,I was wet, I was cold, I was

(02:32):
sandy.
I can still hear the sounds of,you know, pants and shirts and
everything just kind of rufflingtogether that you know that's
just been full of seawater andsand.
It's like if you've been inCoronado when there's a hell
week going on, you definitelyknow when the guys are running
by with the boats on their heads, because all you hear is a

(02:52):
shuffle of feet, the shufflingof sand and guys just groaning.
But we were just going aroundand around and around around
this parking lot and we wereprobably about 400 meters away
from the chow hall, which iswhere we were going to eat
midnight rations, and theinstructor was just driving us

(03:19):
around and around in this circleand all we wanted to do was
just sit down.
We just wanted to get the boatsoff our heads, shove some food
in our mouth, and the instructorknew it.
He knew how bad we wanted itand that's why he kept circling.
And at that moment I felt likeI was going to snap.

(03:39):
We had our paddles in the boat.
I was thinking to myself man,if we keep going around this
thing, I'm just going to grab mypaddle and I'm going to charge
the guy.
And luckily I didn't right,because that would have for sure
got me kicked out.
But I was that close.
It's hard for me to imagine howclose I was at snapping, but it

(04:03):
was super close.
But here's the lesson it wasn'tabout the physical suffering.
What they were trying to teachus or what they were trying to
do was break us mentally.
It was about how we respondedwhen you're that close to relief
, but you still got to endure.

(04:24):
And that's what life does toyou.
Okay, you'll be grinding,you'll be suffering, thinking
you're almost there, and thenthe pressure keeps coming.
How do you respond?
Because that specific moment,that's the test.
It's not the first few miles ofa marathon, right, it's not the

(04:47):
first few hours.
The test is when everything inyou says I want to quit and you
refuse.
That's grit, that's whatseparates the highly effective
man from the rest.
And this isn't just aboutphysical challenges, right?

(05:08):
I want to tell you about a guythat's in the community.
His name is John, and John isin the community and he's going
through some shit.
He's currently battling cancer.
Right, he has one more round ofchemo.
He's got good days and he's gotbad days.

(05:29):
And guess what?
He still shows up, he stillpushes himself, still shows up,
he still pushes himself, hestill puts in the work, even
when his body is screaming athim, like literally screaming at
him.
I haven't been through chemo,but seeing my mom go through it,
or hearing about my mom gothrough it and seeing John go

(05:51):
through it, it's like I wouldn'twish that on anybody.
But here's the most powerfulpart he's vulnerable about it,
and that's real strength.
Grit isn't about being thetoughest guy in the room.
It's about showing up even whenit's hard.
It's about saying I may not beat my best today, but I'm still

(06:17):
here.
That's the mindset that changeslives.
So every man that's listeningto this right now, what's your
excuse?
Because grit isn't somethingyou're just born with, it's
built.

(06:38):
And here's how you can starttraining it, starting today
right.
You can look at the one morerule right, where every workout
or every challenge, you knowevery moment that you want to
quit.
Just do one more right.
One more rep, one more minute,one more round right.

(06:59):
When you're at jujitsu orwhatever it is that you do and
you're like man, I'm tired, butthen it's like, okay, I just got
to do one more.
Start journaling, right, maybe.
Pick up a resilience journalingpractice and every day, track
where you pushed throughdiscomfort, what you wanted to

(07:23):
quit but you didn't, maybe howyou handled stress differently
than you did before.
And you can do quick ones, likecold exposure challenges, right
.
So, ending your shower with twominutes of just cold water, why
?
Well, because if you can sit indiscomfort and control your
breath.
You can control yourself in anystressful situation, and high

(07:46):
performance men they don't avoiddiscomfort.
We hunt it down, and so one ofthe things I want you guys to do
this week is just give yourselfa little bit of a challenge, a
little grit.
Challenge, right?
Do a five-minute plank, hold.
See how long you can hold itbefore the mind gives up.

(08:07):
Or you can do 100 burpees fortime, for time.
Set a clock, get it done Right,see how long it takes.
Then you can just DM me onInstagram.
Just DM me grit the word gritand tell me how you did.

(08:28):
Now, this is how grit is builtone rep, one decision at a time.
And if today's episode hit homeand if you're done quitting on
yourself and you're ready tobuild elite mental and physical
strength, you have two optionsyou can keep doing what you've
always done and stay where youare, or you can step up and

(08:50):
train like a high performanceman and dominate every area of
life.
Join the highly effective mancommunity, because this is where
we live every single day.
And for those of you that wantto take it to the next level, I
have a major announcement inapril, I'm opening up my
one-on-one coaching again, andthis is for men that are ready

(09:13):
to go all in and work with medirectly.
I'm only taking five newclients because I want to make
sure that each man is gettingthe attention and accountability
that he needs.
And if you've been followingalong in the community and you
want to experience what it'slike to work with me one-on-one,
then this is your shot.
And you want to experience whatit's like to work with me
one-on-one, then this is yourshot.
And if you're serious abouttransformation, dm me the word

(09:40):
coach and I'll send you thedetails.
I don't half-ass things, andneither should you.
So this is JP, reminding youthat grit is earned through
struggle, and struggle is wheremen are made.
Let's go.
Thanks for tuning in to theHighly Effective man podcast.
If you found value today, hitthat subscribe button and stay

(10:02):
connected.
I want to invite you to join myincredible community, the
Highly Effective man.
The link is in the show notesbelow.
It's a powerful space whereyou'll find support,
accountability and camaraderiewith men who are committed to
growth and living purposefully.
And your voice matters.
So leave a review and shareyour thoughts and help us reach
more men just like you.

(10:23):
Together, let's elevate ourlives and become the best
versions of ourselves Stayhighly effective.
See you next time.