Homeostasis is the state of a normal condition where the body settles into the same thing. That could be an aggressive workout program or being a complete couch potato — makes no difference to the body, just that it’s the same, and that's the normal condition. The body tends to adapt to what "normal" is.

That to me is the problem with mediocrity. People settle into it. It becomes the normal, homeostasis condition. It’s comfortable, even if it isn’t.

Pushing to that next level, whether in running, fitness, study, life, or success, requires discomfort and disrupts homeostasis.

Homeostasis is comfortable, it’s supposed to be and it's addictive.

If you want any level of success in anything, you need to break out of this.

How?

Do what’s uncomfortable. Run longer or faster. Push to make it strenuous. Work harder or longer or faster or with more motion to attain the goal. Whatever it takes.

You’ll know when you’re disrupting homeostasis because you’ll feel it. It's uncomfortable.

And this isn't a "hustle culture" mantra. Yes, you may need to dramatically increase the amount of work you're doing or even the time but more time doesn't mean better work. You need to figure out how you can deploy more effort, smarter, faster, and better to break out of normal modes and optimize what you're doing so you can make progress in strides.

The moral here is simply this; if you're pursuing a goal or objective and not quite getting there as fast as you'd like -- it's time to look at your daily normal homeostasis operating basis and break out of it. Change it up. Increase it. Push the comfort level.

The universe often pushes back and the estimation of effort to attain anything is often much more than any of us assume.

Step one is breaking out of any normal state that is hindering progress (yet comfortable) and moving to a level that may feel uncomfortable initially.

There's no hack for this. Anyone who's attained anything great generally has to do this. Eventually, you can be more efficient, work smarter and optimize things so it requires less effort from you but while you're on the path, it generally requires breaking out of normal levels.

Any time I feel that things aren't moving fast enough or I'm not making progress -- this tends to be the reason. ‍

— Robert