Building Strength: Mental, Emotional, and Physical

Strength is strength, right?

Whether it’s hauling a barbell off the ground, crawling out of a shitty breakup, or dragging your sorry ass out of bed when the world’s kicking you in the teeth—it’s all the same grind. You train. You fight. You push. And just when you think you’ve got life by the balls, it slaps another plate on the bar and dares you to lift it.

Physical strength? That’s the easy one to get. You start small—some half-assed pushups, a few bicep curls while you scroll through Instagram, pretending you’re one of those influencers who really gets after it. But then, surprise, the gains stop. That’s when you’ve got a choice: step up or stay mediocre. You add weight, change the game, push your limits—or you stay weak.

And mental strength? Emotional strength? Same goddamn rules. You don’t build resilience with affirmations and yoga retreats. You don’t toughen up by hiding in your comfort zone with your vanilla latte and your curated playlist. No, life doesn’t give a fuck about your vibe. It’ll find your weak spots and hit them with a sledgehammer. Your move.

The Lie We Love to Tell Ourselves

Here’s a little truth bomb for you: there’s no such thing as “maintenance.” Not in the gym, not in life, not in any universe where gravity exists. You’re either getting stronger, or you’re getting weaker. The idea that you can just tread water, stay the same? That’s a comforting little fairy tale we tell ourselves so we don’t have to do the hard shit. But the hard shit is where the magic happens.

Stop pushing yourself, stop adding weight to the bar—mentally, physically, emotionally—and you’ll start sliding back. It’s like trying to stay in shape by doing the same workout every day for a decade. You get complacent. You lose the edge. And life doesn’t give a damn if you’re tired or comfortable; it’ll still hit you like a freight train.

Why Everyone Needs a Coach (Even You)

Look, even the best athletes in the world have coaches. Hell, especially the best athletes. Not because they’re weak or clueless, but because they know the value of having someone call them out on their bullshit, push them harder, and hold them accountable when they want to phone it in.

We’ll stick with trainers for years, won’t we? We let them scream at us to add weight, go deeper, hit another rep. But when it comes to our mental or emotional strength, we think one or two sessions with a coach is enough. Like we’ve suddenly unlocked all the secrets of the universe.

Spoiler alert: you haven’t. The work doesn’t stop. It never fucking stops.

The mind needs training just like the body. You need someone to push you, someone to see the blind spots you’re too stubborn to admit are there. Someone to say, “Hey, dumbass, stop playing small. You can do more. You can be better.”

Why It Hurts (And Why It Should)

Growth hurts. It’s supposed to. The burn in your legs after a brutal squat session? That’s progress. The ache in your chest when someone screws you over? That’s growth too—if you let it be. Pain is the cost of getting better. And if it’s not hurting, guess what? You’re not growing.

But here’s the kicker: the stronger you get, the harder it gets to keep moving forward. You don’t max out and call it a day. The weight keeps getting heavier, and that’s the whole fucking point. That’s why you need a coach in your corner—to push you when you want to quit, to remind you why you started, and to make sure you don’t settle for mediocre when you’re capable of extraordinary.

The Bottom Line

You want to be tough? You want to be the kind of person who can take a hit and keep swinging? Then stop pretending there’s a finish line. There isn’t. Strength isn’t something you have—it’s something you earn. Over and over and over again.

Get a coach. Keep doing the work. And while you’re at it, stop being a coward and add some goddamn weight to the bar.