Your Biceps and Your Mind Grow the Same Way. Wait, What??

Progressive overload.

Ever heard of it? If you’re into strength training, of course you have. But, if you’re a book lover, chances are you haven’t — and, frankly, you couldn’t care less, right?

Wrong.

Wrong because, just like lifting the same weight every time leads to zero muscle growth, reading books that do not stretch your mind leads to zero mind growth. Read this again.

Heavy weights, man. Your mind needs heavy weights.

The principle, explained

To grow, your biceps must feel a mechanical load to which they are not accustomed. To handle that load in the future, they grow. Once they become used to such load, you increase it again. In a nutshell, this is what we call progressive overload.

Your mind is no different. It needs to feel an intellectual load to which it is not used in order to grow. This load can be a new idea or a complex concept, for example. If you only read books that don’t make you stop and think, you’re like that skinny guy who always lifts the same weight and, guess what, hasn’t gained an ounce of muscle in years.

And, hey, you don’t wanna have the same mind you have now in five years, do you?

So, next time you grab a book, for Christ’s sake, inspect it first. Imagine you’re lifting a weight. If it feels light — like those colorful dumbbells you know? — ditch it and go for a heavier one.

Does this mean the book you just discarded is a piece of crap? Not at all. The fact that it feels light for you just means you have little to learn from it. But, for someone else, it may feel ultra-heavy, and it may lead to genuine growth.

So, have you recently read a book that stretched your mind? Let me know in the comments!

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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