As a coach I am constantly trying to imprint effective training values on my athletes and their mindset. To build a powerful athlete’s mindset, one of the quickest lessons I like to teach them (other rules apply for the general population) is that they are going to be in pain. Building muscle and freakish strength are not pleasant activities. You don’t get to look like a brick sh!t house by feeling good in the gym every day.
What separates the athletes I see making it long term is an acceptance of this fact. They possess the ability to grit when they need to, and understand when to pull back when necessary. The days of hitting PRs on a weekly basis are short lived and reality hits like a fuxkin truck the first time you tear a muscle or snap a tendon. The most successful athletes learn to suffer better than everyone else, and that first significant injury is a good litmus test for who I see still in the sport after a decade.
Being over 200lbs and pressing your bodyweight overhead, believe it or not, are not things we really need to do (evolutionarily speaking). It takes a tremendous amount of energy and upkeep to spite our own biology for these arbitrary strength goals.
It has always been my impression that the strongest people I look up to have made the behaviors that most people find painful or difficult a habit; and those behaviors HAVE to become habits if you want to be the baddest fuxker in the room.
Nobody wants to go squat after working all day then go home and eat 2 pounds of steak with 4 cups of rice; but you know who does it anyway? The strongest person you know.