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In this email, I want to talk about a concept known as the ‘Goldilocks principle’, and how it can transform your ability to push your limits and achieve more.

First, I’ll give you some context…

(I don’t share this just to talk about myself, but rather because I want you to know that this email—like everything I write—comes from experience and science rather than just cliches and things I’ve heard others say.)

Around 2 years ago, in May 2024, I ran my first half-marathon on a whim. It took me just under 2 hours, and I was in pain for weeks after. It was unequivocally not an easy experience. 

If you’d told me that only 2 years later I’d be running on average a half-marathon each day—whether or not I believed you—I’d have dreaded that thought. 

I would have made a simple mistake we often make when we look at people doing hard things: We assume that our experience of that thing is the same as their experience of it.

In other words, we in some sense assume it’s as hard for them as it would be for us—and that perhaps they have a stronger mentality, insane pain thresholds, or are just genetic freaks.  

Ultra-runners clocking 20 miles a day, fitness influencers taking cold baths every morning, salesmen getting rejected 100 times a day—when we put ourselves in their shoes, we think about how hard it feels to us to run 20 miles, or how much we hate the cold, or how much that rejection would affect us. We question if we’re just made of weaker stuff than they are. 

The truth is actually much more boring, but also encouraging…

Most hard things, done repeatedly, are no longer hard. 

That sounds like a cliche you’d read on some AI-slop Instagram post, so let me try to back it up with some science. 

Homeostasis and the ‘Goldilocks Principle’

You’ve probably heard of ‘homeostasis’. 

But even if you haven’t, you’ve certainly experienced it. 

Homeostasis is basically the body’s ability to keep things at a stable baseline and ‘in balance.’

Our body wants things to be ‘just right’. Like Goldilocks’ porridge, we don’t like it when things are too much one way or the other. When we get too hot, we sweat to cool ourselves down. When we get too cold, we shiver to warm ourselves up. 

Whenever we swing away from the baseline, our body does something in response to bring us back to the baseline. 

Or, it moves the baseline. 

Think of it this way:

If you’re not a runner, and you start running a mile a day, you’re placing your body under strain that is likely well above your baseline. You’re out of balance. 

You can either give your body that balance by stopping running a mile a day (the option many people take), or you can keep running and throw the ball in your body’s proverbial court. 

“Your move,” you’re basically saying. “This isn’t going away. I’m going to keep running a mile a day, and if you want that balance you crave, you better do something about it.”

So your body, once it realises the new challenge is around to stay, realises it needs to adapt. 

You become stronger. More efficient at utilising oxygen. Your cardiovascular system upgrades so that it requires fewer heartbeats to pump blood to your muscles. Your brain starts to change the way it thinks about the distance. 

Before you know it, something magical has happened: You’ve achieved balance again. But this time, rather than achieving balance by removing the challenge, you’ve achieved it by rising to meet the challenge. In fact, it’s no longer even a challenge, really. That’s the whole point. It’s just normal now. 

But you don’t sit on your laurels. 

You start running 2 miles a day. 

“Oh,” your body notices. “A new challenge. Time to adapt again.”

You rinse and repeat the process—slowly increasing the difficulty of the tasks, and allowing your body to adapt in response.

You’re in a constant dance of finding a new challenge, letting your body adapt until this challenge is your new normal, and then pushing again. 

This isn’t just about running, though. Maybe it’s the cold baths, or the 100 rejections a day. Whatever it is, your body and mind have a remarkable ability to adapt to the situation it’s handed and adapt to the point that those things feel normal. 

So when you watch a salesman knock on 100 doors and get rejected 100 times—it’s not necessarily that they know some secret you don’t. They’ve just been doing it for so long that they’ve forced their mind and body to adapt and think of this as normal. They’re leveraging their own physiology and systems against themselves. It just isn’t as hard for them as it would be for you.

What’s the point of talking about all this?

I find the idea of homeostasis to be a comforting thought when taking on new challenges. I know that even if what I’m undertaking feels hard in the beginning, if I stick with it for long enough, it won’t. And when I’m ready, I can move the baseline higher again with a (new) new challenge.

That’s not just me trying to be optimistic and have a good mindset—that’s just the science of adaptation. It’s something we all have access to and can tap into if we give ourselves the right stimulus—not too much (risking injury) not too little (not activating these systems), but somewhere in that sweet spot. I think many people underestimate the power of their own body and mind to adapt and evolve.

This is my mindset as I currently train to run the length of the UK. I trust that my body’s inbuilt desire for balance will cause it to adapt to the load I’m putting it under. So far that seems to be the case. 

If you want to check out how my training is going, I’m using my Instagram account to document the journey. I’m currently putting up a video each week showcasing what a week in the life training for this challenge looks like. Click here to check it out and follow for more.

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Your friends,

Benji and Jacob