I was diagnosed with costochondritis last year, a condition that resulted from months of poor decisions leading up to that point.
Now this condition isn’t as serious as it sounds. It’s simply an inflammation of the cartilage that connects the ribs to the breastbone. It often presents as sharp or aching chest pain, typically triggered by trauma or overuse.
In my case, it was the consequence of relentless chest and upper-body workouts with hardly any significant rest days. On top of hitting the gym, I would run about 10 miles every week—a 5k on Thursdays and a 10k on Saturdays. My week was jam packed with activities, with Sunday being my sole recovery day.
Around July last year, I started feeling pain in the upper left side of my chest, near my sternum. At first I ignored it and kept pushing through my workouts. My goal was to bench 225 pounds (about 100 kg) by the end of the year, and I was committed to hitting that goal no matter what.
I dismissed the pain as typical muscle soreness, a sign of progress, I told myself.
But it didn’t go away. It only got worse.
For two months, I kept training through it until it became impossible to ignore.
Lying on my back became a painful chore.
Whenever I coughed or sneezed a sharp pain would rattle my chest.
To make things worse, my strength had plateaued, or rather, I had gotten weaker.
At one point, I failed to complete a set with a weight I had previously lifted with ease. It was embarrassing struggling to call for help while the bar pressed down on my chest.
Eventually, I went to the doctor. After running an ECG and ruling out any heart conditions—an enormous relief, given the location of my pain.
“You hit chest flies?”, he asked
“Yeah, I do.”
‘Ah! I know what the problem is.’
The Warrior Archetype
Aggressiveness is a stance toward life that rouses, energizes, and motivates. It pushes us to take the offensive and to move out of a defensive or ‘holding’ position about life’s tasks and problems. The samurai advice was always to ‘leap’ into battle with the full potential of ki or ‘vital’ energy at your disposal. The Japanese warrior tradition claimed that there is only one position in which to face the battle of life: frontally. And it also proclaimed that there was only one direction: forward.
In King, Warrior, Magician and Lover, Gillette and Moore do an in-depth exploration of the four masculine archetypes present across cultures and their influence on how we perceive and interpret the world around us.
Whilst it’s a book aimed at delving into the masculine psyche, its insights are valuable to anyone.
One of these archetypes is the Warrior, who in his fulness, confronts life directly, moving forward with purpose and discipline.
This is the vital ingredient in our world building and plays an important role in extending the benefits of the highest human virtues and cultural achievements in all of humanity.
In essence, when you are making conquests to dominate in whatever field you seek success in, you are channeling the warrior energy. This could be in career, business, creative endeavors, or physical fitness.
It could be the drive to achieve a promotion.
The ambition to grow a business.
The discipline to publish a set number of articles.
It could be to achieve an aesthetic physique.
The battle may take different forms, but the principle remains the same: the dragon has to be slain, and the appropriate tools are needed for battle.
Your tools of war—skills, discipline, mindset—must match the challenges you seek to conquer. Hard work, mental resilience, proper rest, and nutrition are all essential weapons in different arenas of life.
But tools must also be maintained.
A dull blade is a liability in battle.
Ignorance or negligence of this sabotages any attempts at progress that may be sought.
The Warrior’s Shadow
The Warrior energy also shows a transpersonal commitment. His loyalty is to something – a cause, a god, a people, a task, a nation – larger than individuals
In dedicating ourselves to goals or a mission that goes beyond us, we often run the risk of destroying ourselves. Often, we become blind to the toll it takes.
That objective becomes an altar at which we sacrifice ourselves – our health, our wellbeing – without realizing the cost.
We hoard great pain and suffering as we wage war. We ignore warning signs. Our tools become dull, our minds and bodies weary, but we still continue, refusing to rest.
We become vessels serving these objectives, as opposed to using them to shape our lives. And that is unsustainable.
An obsession with rigid, idealistic goals often leads to burnout. But when we start with the self, we gain the ability to recalibrate. We learn to adjust our objectives based on where we are, rather than blindly chasing where we think we should be.
You recognize when to pause, recover, and return stronger.
You won’t burnout working endless hours seeking that promotion.
You won’t stress yourself over missing a publishing quota.
You won’t crush yourself for not hitting your step count for the day.
This is not to encourage complacency. It is to remind you that you won’t achieve things with the perfect finesse or within the time span that you seek, and that is OK.
For me, this lesson came in the form of overtraining. In my pursuit of strength and aesthetics, I neglected proper recovery.
Along with costochondritis, I developed knee pain—a result of excessive running without adequate rest or stretching. My body, no longer able to endure the stress, forced me to stop.
I couldn’t thug it out anymore.
The doctor prescribed painkillers, anti-inflammatory medication, and most importantly, a full month of rest. He also emphasized the need to incorporate recovery days into my training. I followed his advice, and after two months, I was fully back.
Infinite Battles
Life, despite its finitude, is a series of infinite battles.
In the quest to achieve our goals, there will always be war, another obstacle to overcome both within and without. Recognizing this makes rest not just necessary but strategic.
Life is Sisyphean in this way. We push the boulder uphill, only to have it roll back down. But we can choose to rest at the foot of the hill before pushing again.
That is why it is important to adopt an infinite mindset to match this reality.
That is, life is a continuous journey in which you achieve finite objectives.
If your goal is simply to “lose 10 pounds in two months,” failure to meet it may feel like defeat. But if your broader goal is “living a healthy lifestyle,” you can always adjust, knowing every step, however miniscule, contributes to the larger vision.
But with a mindset seeking endless improvement, you embrace adaptability and stay consistent beyond a single fixed accomplishment.
With an infinite mindset, you focus on staying in the game, not just winning a single battle. And part of staying in the game is knowing when to rest.
The battle can wait and it will wait for you.
Sharpen your tools.
Renew your mind.
Surround yourself with those who restore and strengthen you.
Then, when it is time, get back at it and return to war.
For now, rest here a moment.