Make the Commitment You're Afraid to Make

Hi friends, today’s essay is about how many of us are obsessed with trying new things, optimizing, and looking for ways to improve, and how it’s actually hurting us in the long run. If you’re new here, please subscribe to get my next piece in your inbox. Upgrade to paid I started lifting weights in high school. After a few flirtations with different programs, I landed on Mark Rippetoe’s “Starting Strength,” where you focus on Squats, Deadlifts, Bench Press, Overhead Press, and Power Cleans. I stuck with it for a year and then started looking for other programs. I think at the time I had some vague goal around squatting double my bodyweight and hitting a 225 bench. I wasn’t making progress as fast as I wanted, and I wanted something new to try. So I dabbled with a bunch of different strength routines over the years and now, ten years later, I’m basically no stronger than I was when I stopped. I also never hit the bench goal. I can point to other areas where I’ve seen a similar effect. I

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• Irene Pham