Attracting vs Convincing: A Different Way to “Lift”

For years I worked in high-level sport performance, tactical performance, and neurologic rehabilitation helping athletes, executives, military operators, and leaders move, perform, recover, and function at elite levels.

One of the most common things I would see in strength training was this:

People were lifting from strain instead of alignment.

Especially with deadlifts and squats, most people defaulted to what we’d call a quad-dominant strategy — forcing the weight up through tension, compression, and effort.

And honestly?

It often “worked.”

At least temporarily.

The weight moved.

The results looked impressive.

The performance looked powerful.

But internally, the cost was enormous.

Pain.

Compression.

Compensation.

Nervous system overload.

Eventually breakdown.

When I would begin teaching a more posterior-chain dominant approach — grounded, aligned, connected through the whole body — almost everyone initially had to lower the weight.

That’s the hard part for high achievers.

The ego hates lowering the weight.

Especially when your identity has been built around proving, performing, pushing, or carrying more than everyone else.

But once the body learned alignment instead of force?

Everything changed.

The movement became smoother.

The body became safer.

Power increased dramatically.

The nervous system relaxed.

And eventually they could lift far more than before — with less suffering.

At around 160 pounds bodyweight, I was lifting nearly three times my weight and people would say:

“You make it look easy.”

That’s because true power often looks peaceful.

And this morning I realized:

this mirrors how most of us have learned to live.

Especially leaders.

High achievers.

Executives.

Performers.

Helpers.

Those praised for carrying impossible loads.

We’ve been taught to convince, chase, force, strive, and prove.

Convince people.

Convince clients.

Convince audiences.

Convince ourselves.

Push harder.

Do more.

Carry more.

Perform more.

And because the world rewards visible weight moved, we assume the strain must be the right way.

“No pain, no gain.”

What if there’s another way to “lift” life?

A way grounded not in convincing — but attracting.

Not in domination — but divine partnership.

Not in survival — but alignment.

The first “convincer” in Scripture was the voice that convinced Adam and Eve they lacked something in the middle of abundance.

Fear convinces.

Love attracts.

When I encountered God in Heaven, there was no convincing.

No manipulation.

No performance.

No force.

Truth simply was.

Love simply was.

That’s what I’m beginning to see more deeply:

The Kingdom of Heaven doesn’t operate through strain.

It operates through alignment.

The world teaches:

force creates results.

Heaven teaches:

alignment multiplies results.

Many leaders are carrying extraordinary visible success while internally their nervous systems are under constant load:

fear of irrelevance,

fear of failure,

fear of disconnection,

fear of slowing down,

fear that rest will cost them their identity.

Externally strong.

Internally exhausted.

I know because I lived there too.

There is a different way.

A way where your body no longer becomes collateral damage for achievement.

A way where peace actually enhances performance.

A way where creativity flows easier.

A way where relationships deepen.

A way where leadership becomes magnetic instead of forceful.

A way where abundance no longer requires self-sacrifice.

That feels much more like Heaven.

Not passive.

Not lazy.

Not lacking ambition.

Deeply aligned with the infinite love within us.

If this resonates, that’s much of what I explore in:

How to move from survival into embodied peace,

from dominance into divine partnership,

and from performance into presence.

I bless you to discover that perhaps the greatest strength in your life will not come from forcing more weight upward —

but from learning how to move in alignment with love.

Infinite love and blessings,

Nicholas