The Mind Is Built to Win: But Only If You Train It
Most people wait for motivation. The winners build it rep by rep.
The strongest people I know aren’t always the fittest.
They’re the ones who can sit with discomfort.
Not run from it. Not dress it up as productivity. Just sit with it.
And then move anyway.
We all love progress.
The dopamine hit.
The checklist tick.
The before-and-after transformation.
But no one’s really talking about what happens in between.
That weird, blurry middle where your goals feel miles away…
and your habits feel heavier than ever.
That’s where most people stall.
But it’s also where the real training happens.
Let’s call it what it is:
Mental reps.
The stuff you do when your brain says “nah.”
The stuff no one claps for.
No reward. No highlight reel. No applause.
But that’s where the wins stack.
I started calling it the Mental Gym.
It’s not a place.
It’s a decision.
You hit it every time:
You open your laptop when it feels like lead.
You hold your tongue in an argument to protect the long game.
You wake up and do the thing you said you would—even though no one would notice if you didn’t.
That’s a rep.
The rules of the mental gym are simple:
No one’s watching.
No music.
No mirror.
No timer.
Just resistance.
And you.
Face to face.
And here’s the truth:
You don’t need a productivity hack.
You need more reps.
The ones that suck.
The ones that feel awkward.
The ones where you want to walk away but don’t.
That’s where mental muscle is built.
And over time?
That muscle stops negotiating.
Most people think they lack motivation.
What they really lack is tolerance.
Tolerance for boredom.
For repetition.
For slow results.
For showing up when the feelings are off.
They’ve built up physical strength or intellectual knowledge...
But not emotional load capacity.
That’s the skill that holds everything else together.
Think about it:
Want to get in shape? You need tolerance for delayed gratification.
Want to grow a business? You need tolerance for rejection.
Want to write a book? You need tolerance for silence and staring at a screen.
No one talks about that part.
But that’s where the battle is won.
Here’s how I train now:
I don’t chase results.
I chase the next hard thing I don’t want to do.
When that friction shows up in my day—
The admin.
The delayed convo.
The email that needs rewriting.
The workout I want to skip.
I don’t argue.
I call it what it is:
A signal rep.
Then I hit it clean.
No noise.
Just movement.
And do you know what I’ve found?
That rep carries over everywhere.
Here’s what happens when you do it enough:
You don’t wait for motivation.
You stop dreading discomfort.
You start to crave the challenge.
Not because it’s easy.
But because it makes you feel alive.
Capable.
In control.
So what’s the takeaway?
You don’t need more strategies.
You need more reps in the mental gym.
And not just the flashy ones.
The reps where no one sees you.
The reps where it’s 6:30 AM and your brain is still in sleep mode.
The reps where the only person who knows you showed up… is you.
That’s what builds internal proof.
Not self-belief.
Self-evidence.
You look back and go:
“I don’t think I can do this. I know I can.
Because I’ve done it before. And I can do it again.”
Start here:
Don’t pick 10 things.
Pick 1.
The one you’re avoiding.
The one that’s been quietly haunting you for days.
The one that, if done, would change something real.
Now do it.
Clean.
No overthinking.
And then walk away.
Let that one rep sit in your system.
Let it signal: we’re doing this differently now.
Do it again tomorrow.
And the next day.
And the next.
Soon?
That resistance will show up and you’ll smile.
Because you know what it is:
A rep.
And you’ve trained for this.
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