Pump It Up Principle

How do you build muscle?

If you answered "exercise," then you are partially right. For the most part, exercise is not what builds muscle. Exercise maintains the muscle you have already built, yet it only actually builds muscle when that exercise goes into uncharted territory.

"You need more weight."

If you haven’t reached your goal, staying stagnant, or simply doing same thing you’ve done to get you to where you are today, will ensure you never grow.

In order to really push, you really need a spotter. You see, when lifting weights your muscle is built when it goes beyond its comfort zone or literally stretches beyond what you have done before. Just as you’re about to give up, you hear the voice spotting you blurt out, "One more… come on… it is all you… one more… you got it… push it up." Your spotter will consistently push you to do one more than you would if he wasn't there, and that is why when you work out with someone else your muscles are consistently in the growth zone.

Growing in life is very similar to building muscle in the gym. If you are doing what you are comfortable with or can do easily, you never will grow. You will never expand to reach your full potential. Growth only occurs in life when you are pushing yourself to something new. This could mean learning a foreign language, learning to play an instrument, conquering your fears or pursuing your life-long dream of building a business, writing a play, authoring a book or talking to people that you normally would shy away from.

If you are going to build muscle in the gym you are going to need to do two things: #1 Lift more weight; #2 Have a spotter. The answers for success in life are very similar.

Go for more weight this week and get yourself a spotter!

CAP