🎙️ Podcast Script
Running to Myself
Hard Again Doesn’t Mean Back to the Beginning
Lifting Heavier in Mind and Life
Hi friend.
Welcome back to Running to Myself. I’m your host, Trisha Stanton.
Today I am going to share a story from a recent workout in the gym — a day when everything felt heavier than it should have — and how that experience gave me a fresh perspective on growth.
Recently, I was at the gym following the workout plan my trainer gave me. Nothing on the schedule was new. I’ve been strength training for over a year now. I know what a deficit reverse lunge is. I know how to hold a dumbbell. I know how to breathe through it.
But on that day, Everything felt extra hard.
My body reacted like I had never worked out before. I felt like a fish out of water. My legs were shaking. My breathing felt labored. And my mind started spiraling.
When I left the gym, here was the conversation I had with myself:
“Oh my gosh….Why was that so hard today?”
“It felt like I’ve never worked out before.”
“When will I be able to perform those deficit reverse lunges without feeling like I’m going to die?” I wonder if I could get Joana to take those off my training plan…
“I’ve been showing up four days a week for over a year. When is this going to feel easier?”
Listen, If you’ve ever pursued any type of physical goals, you’ve probably had a similar internal dialogue.
After I exhausted all my internal dialog about how hard this was and why I hated it, a subtle shift happened.
The thoughts started to sound like this…
I’m actually getting exactly what I’m paying for and As long as I’m paying Joana to train me… it’s not going to get easier.
As soon as she sees that I’m not being challenged enough, she increases the weight. Or changes the tempo. Or modifies the movement to something more advanced.
And then this sneaky thought crossed my mind:
“This would be much easier if I just trained on my own.”
And I had to laugh.
Because I could clearly picture myself using the tiny baby weights… for years. Never increasing the load. Never progressing. Just staying comfortable and wondering why I wasn’t getting stronger.
Yep. I am getting exactly what I’m paying for.
An expert eye on my form.
A progressive plan.
A challenge calibrated to my specific growth.
And most importantly, a guide who knows that staying comfortable won’t build strength.
The reality is, some workouts don’t feel great because I’m there to be challenged. It's supposed to be hard.
And some workouts don’t feel great because I didn’t eat enough beforehand. Or I didn’t sleep well. Or I’m carrying stress from other parts of life.
But here’s what’s important:
A hard workout is not wasted time.
An “off” day does not erase previous progress.
In fact, All the workouts I’ve done before have gotten me to the point where I can endure a hard day… and then deconstruct what caused it.
That’s growth. That’s strength. That’s maturity.
And this is exactly what happens in mind management.
I see this pattern with coaching clients all the time.
They begin coaching and experience all those amazing early wins.
They learn to separate facts from stories.
They start noticing their thoughts.
They feel empowered.
They feel lighter.
They get to experience a breakthrough season.
Then something interesting happens.
The tools become routine.
Managing their mind becomes more automatic.
Their emotional baseline steadies.
All of that is awesome. It why we do this work, but in that steadiness, there’s sometimes a quiet, false belief that the hard things are now behind them.
And then life brings the next hard thing.
Not the everyday “I’m annoyed” kind of hard.
But The knock-you-down kind of hard.
The kind that makes you say:
“It feels like I’ve lost everything I’ve worked for.”
“I’ve backtracked.”
“I’m back to square one.” Why is this SO hard?
But, none of those thoughts are true.
They have not been transported back to square one.
They have not been stripped of their tools.
They have hit a speed bump. Maybe even a flat tire.
But they have not lost the entire vehicle.
Mind management is not a guarantee that life won’t be painful.
Life will keep lifing.
There will be any combination of:
Hard relationships.
Unexpected health issues.
Financial stress.
Parenting challenges.
Grief.
Disappointment.
And through that, What mind management does is this:
It gives you the strength to navigate the challenges.
The reason it sometimes feels “hard again” is not because you’ve regressed.
It’s because the weight increased.
Just like at the gym.
The circumstances got heavier.
And heavier weights feel heavier.
That does not mean you are weaker.
It means you are being asked to use your strength at a new level.
Practical Tools for When You Feel Stuck or Like You’ve Lost Ground
Okay, Let’s get practical. Encouragement without tools doesn’t help you when you’re in it.
Here are five things you can do when you feel like you’ve lost ground in your mind management.
1. Separate the Situation from the Story
Ask yourself:
What actually happened?
And what am I making it mean?
“I had a hard conversation.”
Instead of
“This proves I’m terrible at relationships.”
“I felt anxious.”
Instead of
“I’m failing at mind management.”
Your brain will rush to interpretation. It’s your job to slow it down.
2. Look for the Weight Increase
Instead of asking, “Why can’t I handle this?”
Ask:
What got heavier?
Is this a bigger challenge than what I’ve faced before?
Am I under more stress?
Did something significant shift?
Remember, Harder weight requires more effort. That’s not regression. That’s physics.
3. Audit the Basics
At the gym, sometimes it’s not the workout itself. It’s fuel, sleep, hydration, stress.
In mind management, check:
Am I sleeping?
Am I overcommitted?
Am I isolated?
Have I stopped journaling or noticing my thoughts?
When we feel stuck, sometimes we’ve simply drifted from the fundamentals.
Maybe it’s simply time to Return to basics.
4. Normalize Emotional Waves
Strength doesn’t mean we get to have constant calm.
You can feel grief, anger, anxiety, sadness — and still be someone who manages her mind well.
Mind management isn’t the absence of emotion.
It’s the ability to feel emotion without abandoning yourself.
5. Borrow Belief
This is where coaching matters.
There are days at the gym when I don’t trust my own perception of my progress.
But I do trust my coach.
She sees improvement in my form. She sees strength gains I overlook. And most importantly when I’m feeling weak or lazy, She sees the bigger picture. She can see past my momentary struggle and keep my long term overall goals in the picture.
Sometimes, when you feel like you’ve lost ground, you need someone who can say:
“You’re not back at square one. You’re just in a heavier set.”
That perspective can change everything.
A Gentle Invitation
If you are in a season right now where it feels harder than it “should,” I want you to pause and really let this land:
Nothing has gone wrong.
You are not behind.
You are not broken.
You are not uniquely bad at this.
You may be in a growth phase that requires deeper strength.
And deeper strength almost always feels like strain before it feels like power.
Sometimes we assume that if we were “really good” at mind management, we wouldn’t feel shaken. We wouldn’t cry again. We wouldn’t spiral for a few hours. We wouldn’t need to pull the tools back out.
But that’s like saying, “If I were really strong, this weight wouldn’t feel heavy.”
Of course it feels heavy.
It’s heavier.
Growth does not remove the requirement of effort.
It increases capacity.
And if you’re navigating a particularly heavy season, this is exactly what coaching is for.
Not because you’re failing.
Not because you should be further along.
Not because you need to be fixed.
But because you’re lifting heavier.
In coaching, I don’t try to fix you. You don’t need to be fixed. But you may benefit from a guide to walk alongside you.
To help you slow everything down.
To assess the weight:
What actually happened?
What is the real problem?
What is the imagined one?
To evaluate your form:
Where are you tightening up?
Where are you overcompensating?
Where are you abandoning yourself?
To identify the story:
What are you making this mean about you?
About your future?
About your worth?
And then to help you strengthen the skill:
How do you want to think about this?
What emotional posture do you want to practice?
What is the next right step that aligns with who you are becoming?
Sometimes what changes everything is not a new tool.
It’s having someone sit with you long enough to help you see clearly.
If you’ve been quietly telling yourself,
“I should be better at this by now,”
“I shouldn’t need help,”
“I thought I was past this,”
That may be the very moment when support matters most.
And if you’re not ready for one-to-one coaching, that’s completely okay.
This episode is not a pressure point. It’s a permission slip.
Start with the tools.
Return to the basics.
Separate fact from story.
Notice the weight increase.
Audit your sleep, stress, and support.
Borrow belief from someone safe in your life.
Journal it out.
Slow it down.
You don’t need to do everything.
You just need to do the next strengthening rep.
You have not lost ground.
You are building strength.
You are showing up to become someone who can face heavier seasons without collapsing into old patterns.
And I can promise you as evidenced by my time in the gym, that strength building is not always comfortable.
It stretches you.
It exposes you.
It humbles you.
But it also stabilizes you.
It anchors you.
It prepares you.
And if you decide you want someone in your corner while you walk through this next heavier set, I would be honored to support you.
You can schedule a coaching consult with me, and we’ll look at it together. No pressure. No fixing. Just clarity, skill-building, and honest forward movement.
And whether we ever sit across from each other on Zoom or not, I hope you walk away from today knowing this:
Hard again does not mean back to the beginning.
It means you’re strong enough for the next level.
Thank you for being here with me.
If this resonated, please share it with someone who might need this reminder.
Until next time, keep running toward yourself.
