Transcript: The name of this video is a funny video, the treatise on weight. I’m in CrossFit and every time I achieve some new weight, the coach wants to put more weight on to us. And as people, we’re built for weight, we’re built to bear some load. And it’s so countercultural, it’s so weird that for healthy humans to get stronger, they need to be pressed down upon. They need a weight pressed on them, and that’s the thing that actually makes them stronger. And so it’s so weird sometimes in CrossFit, you think you’ve achieved some back squat or some snatch move, and all you do is you add on more weight. So you never get there. That’s the key. As humans, to be healthy, we’re meant to carry a load, to carry a weight but you never get there. So there’s always some more weight. There’s always some more load. So this resistance is what makes us strong and life is exactly like that too.

And if you run your own firm, run your own business, it is also true that weight is something that makes you stronger. When you go through something hard, you get better from that because you’re going to add more weight on later in life. So the weight is not always about that weight that you’re going through in that moment. It’s about how that weight is going to make you stronger later.

And how do you see that perspective? Well, it’s when you’re in the later that you can look back on all of the weights, and you can see how those weights have made you stronger. But it’s really hard to see in the moment. So this may be is a reminder that if you’re in the middle of a heavy thing, typically that thing is not forever. It’s just a perspective that the resistance of that weight’s going to make you stronger later.

And this perspective is hard to maintain on your own. So it’s helpful if you do it with a group of people that love you and care for you. That’s really important. So resistance with weight makes you stronger, but your perspectives get skewed a little bit if you’re not with people who love you and can remind you, “Hey, this isn’t forever, and this is going to make you stronger later.” So that’s the purpose of weight, and it’s really hard to remember that.

One key way to manage that weight, because we all have to go through the weight of hard things, the weight of hard decisions, is to remember to turn your head in a certain direction. When you’re always looking backwards, that is you’re always looking into the past with a wrong perspective. What we can do as humans is we can make the past be something it actually wasn’t in reality. And so the key to manage the resistance and the weight and to grow from it is to look forward, is to look ahead. Which basically means your best days lie ahead of you. Your best days were not behind you. And when you trick yourself into thinking that that’s true, that everything that was good is behind me, then what you can do as you can flip into despair, and you can lose hope through those heavyweights. And that’s hard stuff.

So a community reminds you, “Look here. Turn your head in a certain direction because the weight is hard, but it’s meant to push you to a new thing.” And what is it meant to do? It’s meant to make you strong. That’s what this CrossFit analogy is. You’re going to put on more weight, so you can be stronger, so you can do another thing and be stronger when you do it.

Our goal is humans is to not be blown around. Being blown around is very hurtful, and hard, and difficult. So in our lives, as we run our businesses, we’re going to hit walls, we’re going to do hard things. But if we’re in a community that can give us the perspective that the past is not the greatest part of our life, the future is. And that we can learn from the resistance of our weights, then we’re going grow together, and we’re going to stop being blown around and stability is going to give us great joy. And that stability is in the future. It’s not in the past.

Our past has only been a weight that’s made us what we are now. It’s made us strong, we hope. Not everybody becomes stronger through the weight of their past, but you can be, especially if you’re in a community that reminds you of that perspective. So turn your eyes away from the past, turn your eyes towards the future. Look ahead. Look that way, because that’s the way that’s going make you stronger through the thing you’re going through now.

And so just wanted to remind you with this treatise on weight, what weight is for, what its purpose is and how it’s so flips up our mind. It’s countercultural, but weight is a really important tool. And the results are that we have joy in our life and in the days ahead, and that our best days are ahead of us, not behind us. So I hope that reminds you and gives you some hope for any hard things you’re going through. Take care. Have a great day.