Strengthen your tenacity muscle, carry heavy weight to live longer, and the 80/20 rule.
On some level, we would all like to be considered, or consider ourselves to be more tenacious, to be better at rising to the occasion when challenged, to persist and see through our biggest goals.
My mental toughness is something I probably work harder on developing than my physical toughness, and is an increasing area of focus for me. (Although mental toughness does naturally come with increased physical toughness, as a result of the hard work and discipline that goes into becoming more physically resilient.)
Tenacity, by definition, is the quality or fact of being very determined, even under immense pressure.
At the heart of tenacity is an area of the brain much of the scientific community isn’t even yet all that familiar with called the anterior mid cingulate cortex (aMCC).
The aMCC is uniquely positioned in the brain at the crossroads of multiple neural pathways, creating a seemingly perfect amalgamation for determining your overall tenacity. To read more on the neuroscience of the aMCC, check out a paper titled, “The Tenacious Brain: How the Anterior Mid Cingulate Contributes to Achieving Goals”
Better yet, research has shown that you can train this part of your brain to actually grow almost like a muscle, and thus, improve your overall tenacity.
There will be almost endless instances throughout your life in which you may want, or need to draw on your tenacity in order to succeed at something, or see a tough time through.
Just like training your body to be more physically fit, and thus, capable when needed or called upon, the same goes for your tenacity.
First, let’s get clear on what kind of actions actually build your aMCC, and thus, increase your overall capacity for tenacity.
The Psychology of Tenacity
My focus will be on the psychology of tenacity, which if you understand properly, empowers you to train and positively affect the actual neurobiology that determines your tenacity.
Dr. Andrew Huberman, a leading Stanford neuroscientist and host of the wildly popular “Huberman Lab” podcast, describes habit execution as doing the things that are not tough to do, typically things that are part of our everyday lives like waking up, brushing out teeth, walking the dog, et cetera.
In most cases, these daily habits do not require willpower to perform. Sure, some days you may be underslept and don’t feel like getting up right away, or the weather might not be optimal for walking the dog, so they may require a bit of willpower to do, but ultimately, I’m guessing you wouldn’t describe the execution of these habits as requiring “tenacity” to complete.
To build tenacity, one must do things that require willpower.
Things that require willpower to do, by definition, are the things you don’t want to do.
Therefore, to build tenacity, you must do things you truly do not want to do.
For example, during the colder months, it gets a lot more difficult mentally to jump into a cold lake for a cold plunge, or to take an ice cold shower first thing in the morning.
Or getting a solid workout in, after a long day.
However, I now know that it is in these moments that I have an opportunity to build my tenacity.
Rather than talk myself out of doing these things (which is definitely the easier route), I now talk myself INTO doing them.
I know that the more I don’t want to do something, the more I NEED to do something.
And I do.
And no surprise, I always feel amazing afterwards, both mentally and physically.
I’ve written about how cold water immersion can rewire your brain to improve your mental and emotional health, and the anti-inflammatory and anti-aging benefits of cold water exposure are well documented, however, there is another benefit of a cold plunge/shower, and that is getting past the gut punch that is simply getting in the water, or getting in that cold shower, when it’s the one thing you don’t want to do.
Getting that mental victory trains your brain to become more tenacious over time.
Think of this approach to training and building tenacity from a neurobiology perspective, as an insurance policy when life sends adversity your way.
Adversity is when life throws a wrench at you and hits you right in the face. You can’t control what happens to you, or to someone you love, you can only control how you respond to it, and how you handle it.
The more you train your tenacity ahead of time by consciously doing things you don’t want to do, the more equipped you will be to handle true adversity when it comes your way.
Furthermore, the more you train your tenacity by doing more tough things you don’t want to do (but know you should do), the more that compounds over time. Soon, you’re able to do tougher and tougher things both mentally and physically.
As you continue to increase your ability to do tougher and tougher things, the more your imagination of what you’re capable of will grow, and as that grows, the goals, and subsequent achievements get bigger and bigger.
If you’re reading this and thinking to yourself that you’d like improve your tenacity, here are the two things I’d recommend you start doing:
☑️ Think about the tough things that you are avoiding doing that you know would benefit you; this can be both mentally and physically, and start doing more of them.
☑️ Work on being more conscious of the moments when you are talking yourself out of doing something tough because it is tough. As you develop this behavioral recognition within yourself, you will begin to develop the mindset that you know the more you DO NOT want to do something, the more you NEED to do it.
I’ll close this segment with a sentiment I like to remind others of from time to time…
You are POWERFUL. Act accordingly.
The “carry” is pretty much the easiest, lowest impact weight training exercise one can do, yet, it may actually be the most beneficial for long term health and overall longevity.
And it’s perfect for everyone of all ages.
There are multiple forms of the “carry’, however, there are two specific types I do for distance.
The first is the suitcase carry.
This is the most basic of them all. Simply carry a weighted object, ideally a dumbbell or kettlebell at one of your sides, walk for a distance, and then repeat with the other arm.
The other is an overhead single arm carry where you again take a weighted object, but this time extend it over your head, lock out your arm, and walk. This movement requires a lighter weight than the suitcase carry.
For example, I have a half mile long walking path behind my house, and I’ll do one lap doing a suitcase carry with a 72lb kettlebell, then will do a lap doing a single arm overhead carry with a 35-54lb kettlebell for a total of a mile.
I highly recommend doing single arm carries, here’s why, and here’s why the carry in general is so beneficial.
When you move with a weight on one side, each and every step, your entire body has to respond to the unevenly distributed weight.
Your core has to adjust, the weight on your legs continually redistrutes, all of your core and stabilizing muscles have to react and subsequently respond when your weight on your body is unevenly distributed.
You also build tremendous grip strength over time, and there might be no better form of conditioning.
Marathon runners are now even training by just walking distances with super heavy weights to overtrain the load on their bodies.
And if you do some serious distances, you burn some serious calories. A mile “carrying” weight, will give you a far bigger metabolic boost, than running two-three times that distance probably.
If you think about the kind of strength that matters most as you age and keeps you healthier, it’s the functional stuff.
✔️ Grip strength
✔️ Hip strength
✔️ Core & Stabilizing muscles
If you improve these areas of true strength, you help prevent injury and allow you to do more on your own later in life the more of it you have, and the more you can do and stay active, plain and simple, the longer you live, every study shows.
There is no more functional longevity inducing movement than simply carrying a heavy weight for distance.
And the beauty of it is that “heavy” is entirely relative.
Doing a half mile carrying a 72lb kettlebell is heavy for me and is a heckuva workout, however, a 35lb kettlebell might be heavy for you and provide the exact same benefits.
This is not a super sexy, innovative movement, however, I cannot recommend the “carry” enough, as the ultimate full body strength and conditioning movement.
Furthermore, it’s truly for everybody, as kiddos can use it to develop balance and core strength as they grow into their bodies, guys like me can use it to build and maintain conditioning and functional strength as I age, and older adults can use it to help them stay more functional and active in their everyday lives.
The 80/20 principle, also known as the Pareto principle, states that roughly 80% of results come from 20% of efforts or causes. It's a concept often used to highlight the unequal distribution of outcomes, where a small portion of inputs or actions usually generates the majority of desired outcomes.
When properly applied, it makes you more efficient at pretty much everything in your life.
🕐 How you spend your time.
🕐 Who you spend your time with.
🕐 What you place real value on.
I myself, am trying to consciously and more actively apply the 80/20 principle in all areas of my life.
I found this to be a simple, effective exercise to get started:
On a sheet of paper, list the 5 people you spend the most time with. (Exclude people you may be forced to spend time with for long periods, such as co-workers)
Basically, write down the 5 people you spend the most amount of (discretionary) time with.
Now, on the same or separate sheet of paper, list the 5 people in your life that you want to spend the most (discretionary) time with. These are the 5 people you get the most value and joy out of spending time with. The 5 people who most enrich your life and overall existence.
Now, compare the two lists.
Do they closely align, or are they not so similar?
On the latter of the two lists, you’ve gone and identified the people in your life who fit the 80/20 principle. Spending discretionary time with them yields the most impact on your life, well-being, et cetera, and ideally, you also do on their lives.
These are the people most worthy of your very precious discretionary time, and most likely, if there is reciprocity in the dynamic, you for them.
If they don’t align, maybe it’s worth thinking more deeply about how you can reconnect or spend more time with the people you yourself have just deemed the most impactful, highest value people in your life.
You can keep going and basically apply the 80/20 principle to everything in your life.
For me, being the co-founder and CEO of a young high growth company, I have no shortage of directions I’m constantly being pulled in, things I have to manage, and strategic decisions I have to make that others depend on.
I’m always trying to apply the 80/20 principle to everything in my work as a way of continually yielding the most “bang for my buck” on my time, since it’s limited.
