Your 12-Week Transformation Program is a Lie

The simple principle that governs all real transformation

I

I’ve tried many workout programs.

I’ve read too many self-help books.

I’ve devoured podcasts and reels that talk about productivity systems.

Fully convinced each one would finally "fix" me.

Still felt broken.

I dove into Pema Chödrön's work on accepting yourself as you are. Read Cheri Huber on ending the war with yourself. Sat on meditation cushions trying to observe my thoughts without judgment.

I still didn't fully get it.

Truth is, it's a regular battle even today. There are bad days when I forget everything I've learned and fall back into that old story—that I'm somehow not enough, that everyone else has it figured out except me.
And man, it is fuckin’ fine to use those long dashes. They serve a purpose. And that’s to be precisely where they are.

Photo by Shiromani Kant on Unsplash

But meditation taught me something crucial: I could observe those thoughts without getting completely sucked in. I could watch the mental storm without drowning in it.

The problem was, all this wisdom lived in my head.

The gym is where I actually feel it. Where the lesson moves from my mind into my body. Where I can work out that restless energy and connect with something deeper than just thoughts about being better.

Because here's what I realise: There is nothing to fix.

I was looking for magical transformation instead of the 10,000 small steps that actually create change. I was studying my flaws like a scientist, comparing my behind-the-scenes to everyone's highlight reel, convinced that somewhere in all that noise was the answer.

The answer wasn't in another program.

It was in understanding one simple principle that governs every real transformation I've ever seen. Whether that’s in the gym, in business, in character, in life.

Progressive overload.

But not the way you think.

II

Here's what progressive overload actually means:

Growth requires incremental challenge. Just enough resistance to force adaptation, but not so much that you break down.
If you’ve not read Flow, highly highly recommend.

It sounds obvious. It is obvious.

But it's the opposite of everything our present culture teaches us about change.

Photo by Ray Harrington on Unsplash

We're conditioned to believe transformation happens in dramatic moments. The breakthrough. The aha moment. The life-changing seminar. The perfect morning routine that finally fixes everything.

Progressive overload says: forget the breakthrough. Focus on the barely noticeable step up.

I went from being the weakest kid in my class to becoming India's first StrongFirst Elite instructor. Not through some revolutionary training method. Through progressive overload applied religiously over years.

Wall push-ups became incline push-ups became floor push-ups became one-arm push-ups became one-arm, one-leg push-ups. Each step was maybe 10% harder than the last. Each step felt almost boring in its simplicity.

Same principle built my business. We didn't jump from 100 students to 500 overnight. We identified the right range for the coach:student ratio and grew it in. Being at the left-end of that range means we have a lot of capacity. As we moved towards the right-end of that range, it signalled a time to hire.

Small increases in complexity that forced us to adapt, strengthen our systems, grow our capacity.

The magic isn't in the principle. The magic is in trusting something so simple when everything around you is screaming that change should be harder, faster, more dramatic.

III

This principle governs everything that actually matters.

Your relationships don't transform through one difficult conversation. They change through showing up 1% more consistently, listening 1% more deeply, choosing vulnerability over being right in a thousand small moments.

Your business doesn't explode overnight. It grows through getting slightly better at the basics. Clearer communication with one more client, improving one system that's 90% functional, hiring when you're at 80% capacity instead of 110%.

Your character isn't forged in dramatic moments of moral choice. It's built in the tiny decisions when no one's watching. Telling the small truth when a small lie would be easier. Picking up the dog poop even though no one else does.

Keeping the commitment you made to yourself when motivation has evaporated.

But we resist this path because it's boring.

There's no story to tell. No dramatic before-and-after photos for your Instagram. No moment when you "arrived."

The self-improvement industrial complex, and the fitness industrial complex, can't sell progressive overload because there's nothing to buy. No 12-week transformation program. No secret technique. No life-changing workshop.

Just the daily choice to increase the load by 1 kilo instead of 25. To have one more difficult conversation this month than last. To ship one more piece of work that scares you.

Photo by Mihály Köles on Unsplash

The compound effect of barely noticeable improvements is invisible until it's undeniable.

I spent years trying to quantum leap my way to strength, to business success, to becoming the person I wanted to be. The breakthrough never came.

The breakthrough was realising there was no breakthrough coming.

That it is not coming.

Just 10,000 small steps disguised as ordinary days.

And that I am approaching it all the time.

As long as I keep showing up. As long as I am progressively overloading.

IV

So here's your quiet rebellion against a culture that profits from your impatience:

Let's write down a few things that bother you.
That you've been wanting to do.
To "fix".
Let's write 10 down, shall we?

Now, let's strike out numbers 3-10.

We will focus on #1 and break it down.
And when we start making progress there, we will start on #2 as well.

So, what is it? Is it your weight or waist size?
1 cm a month over 12 months is how I want you to approach it.
Not 10 cms in 90 days.

Is it your relationship?
A vacation where you re-create old times is not the band-aid you need. It is making time to talk, to converse.
To have the difficult conversations that you know you've been avoiding.
Start by acknowledging them.
Start by making 10 minutes. Again, don't overload yourself.

Remember, you grow along with the process. Not just the body. But every part of you. And that's the real magic.

V

The gym taught me that strength isn't built by loading the bar with weight you can't handle. It's built by consistently choosing the weight that challenges you without crushing you.

Life works the same way.

Every rep matters. Every small increase compounds. Every time you choose the sustainable challenge over the dramatic gesture, you're doing something revolutionary:

You're trusting the process when the process looks boring.

You're building real capacity while everyone else is chasing highlights.

You're excavating the gold that was always there instead of trying to become someone else entirely.

The iron doesn't lie. Neither does progressive overload.

Start with where you are. Add just enough to feel it. Repeat.